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Ultra-processed foods are products with five or many more ingredients. They include substances not commonly used when cooking. Common attributes of ultra-processed products are hyper-palatability, attractive packaging, and they can even have health claims when they don’t always.
Harvard Health notes that ultra-processed foods are made primarily from substances extracted from food, such as fats, starches, added sugars, and hydrogenated fats. Also may contain additives such as artificial colors and flavors or stabilizers.
Some popular ultra-processed products are carbonated drinks, energy drinks, packaged snacks, packaged breads and cookies, cereal bar mixes, powdered meal replacements, instant soups, fast food, ready-to-heat pasta and pizza, as well as hamburgers and sausages.
6 ultra-processed foods that are sold “healthy” but are not
1. Fruit juice
The fact that the drink is fruit does not necessarily mean that it is healthy. The juices even being 100% of fruits are high in sugar and nutrition experts recommend limit them.
The Harvard School of Public Health notes that while they often contain healthy nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals, juices contain the same amount of sugar (albeit natural fruit sugars) and calories as soft drinks . Juices are lacking in fiber and can quickly raise your blood sugar levels
two. Protein or granola bars
Not all protein bars are healthy, some of them may have a high content of calories, fats and added sugars , which far from supporting weight loss, favors an increase.
As with protein bars, store-bought granola bars are often disguised as healthy and packed with added sugars. If a bar has 11 grams of sugar, that’s almost 3 teaspoons of sugar. To control the amount of sugar you can prepare your own granola bars at home.
3. Vegetable chips
Vegetable chips and veggie sticks can be high in sodium. Cleveland Clinic describes them as a wolf in sheep’s clothing . “People think these highly processed snacks are healthy because they are made from vegetables.” Even though they have no sodium and their fat content is lower than potato chips, they lack the fiber, nutrients and other beneficial components of vegetables.
4. Gluten-free junk food
That a food is gluten-free does not make it healthier. Food manufacturers often add sugar or fat to compensate for changes in texture when gluten is removed.
Harvard advises not to rely on food processed gluten-free that can be high in calories, sugar, saturated fat and sodium and low in nutrients , such as cookies , French fries and other gluten-free snacks.
5. Low-fat yogurt
Yogurts found in the supermarket with a lot of added ingredients they are ultra-processed foods. May be low in fat but loaded with sugar for offset the flavor that fat provides.
Do not blindly trust products that signal be free of refined sugar . That does not mean that it is really free of added sugar. Added sugars can include natural sugars like honey, as well as other caloric sweeteners that are manufactured chemically.
6. Rice Crackers
Rice crackers are low in calories and fat, are a carbohydrate with little or no nutrition that the body digests and quickly converts to sugar . In addition, many of these products are often doused with flavors and additives. Cleveland Clinic notes that half a cup of brown rice is much more nutritious and satisfying, and ultimately has far fewer calories than rice cakes.
Always check product labels for added sugar, sodium, and saturated fat content. The ingredients are ordered according to the abundance in the product, from highest to lowest. Sometimes sugar can be hidden under other names.
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