British toddlers’ diet among worst in world, experts warn
Oh, why’s that then?
British toddlers have one of the worst diets in the world, experts have warned, with the majority of calories coming from foods which have been linked to a host of health problems.
Gosh
Research has already linked ultra-processed children’s foods
So, someone’s decided that ultraprocessed foods are bad. So, diets high in ultraprocessed foods are bad, M’Kay?
And that’s it, there is no more proof. Either of ultraprocessed being bad or of the British diet being bad. Simply by inventing the designation and definition they have now, TraLa! been able to so insist.
Ultra-processed foods, also referred to as ultra-processed food products (UPP), are food and drink products that have undergone specified types of food processing, usually by transnational and other very large ‘Big food’ corporations.[1][2][3] These foods are designed to be “convenient, eaten on the go, hyperpalatable and appealing to consumers, and, most importantly, the most profitable segment of Big food companies’ portfolios because of these foods’ low-cost ingredients”.
It’s the profit, transnational and Big Food that is really being complained about, not the food at all.
The concept of ultra-processed food was initially developed and the term coined by the Brazilian nutrition researcher Carlos Monteiro, with his team at the Center for Epidemiological Research in Nutrition and Health (NUPENS) at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.[4] They argue that “the issue is not food, nor nutrients, so much as processing,” and “from the point of view of human health, at present, the most salient division of food and drinks is in terms of their type, degree, and purpose of processing.
The problem is that at least two of the basic South American starches would/could qualify as being ultraprocessed. Manioc:
The Brazilian farinha, and the related garri of West Africa, is an edible coarse flour obtained by grating cassava roots, pressing moisture off the obtained grated pulp, and finally drying it (and roasting both in the case of farinha and garri).
And if you don’t process maize with lime then there’s that potential problem with pellagra – thus tacos and associated maize flatbreads could well be ultraprocessed.
But of course they’re not so counted, meaning that it’s not actually food processing that is being complained about. It’s that for profit, Big Food, transnational, stuff that is.
Perhaps the kids are eating the stuff they like? Though since the girls are predicted to live longer than the boys (90.2 vs 87.3) perhaps their food is less tasty?
“It’s the profit, transnational and Big Food that is really being complained about, not the food at all.”
No, it’s the food.
The startling levels of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions in the developed world are entirely due to processed ‘food’, with its seed oils, sugar and other refined carbs.
Whilst the medical establishment is corrupt beyond belief, and has for decades championed the diet which led to the current disastrous state of affairs, it is possible to determine what a healthy human diet looks like: and it doesn’t look like anything made by Kraft, Nestle and Pepsico, etc.
“The startling levels of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions in the developed world are entirely due to
processed‘food’”FTFY
If we go back to the good old days of malnutrition and starvation, all the diseases of the modern wealthy world go away! Magic!
When everyone dies of such malnorishment before the age of 45, we’ll have cured cancer too. There is no limit to this medical revolution.
One of the few things keeping parenthood tolerable is the wide availability of toddler food pouches. Try taking it away and they’ll feel the wrath of Mumsnet.
Another cause has been the 6+ decades of demonisation of animal fats and the insistence on a ‘Low Fat Diet’.
Low in Fat, Low in Flavour, Lowded (sic) with Sugar (carbs as Wat D notes above).
Ancel Keys, big food, government ministers, dieticians and other assorted ‘experts’ have a lot to answer for.
There’s an ugly BP filling station advert out at the moment featuring some fat bastard blocking the entrance to the store while filling his face with an ultra processed pasty.
He’s got a lovely wife though.
Classic advertising technique.
Farinha’s portuguese for flour. Wheat, rice, manioca (yuca, cassava) or maize. The toasted variety’s farofa.
“ Low in Fat, Low in Flavour, Lowded (sic) with Sugar (carbs as Wat D notes above).
Ancel Keys, big food, government ministers, dieticians and other assorted ‘experts’ have a lot to answer for.”
I recently carried out a semi controlled experiment on the low fat advice. I had a blood test in early December with a follow up in early Jan and among other things I have high cholesterol. Rather than resort to drugs as a first choice I said I’d have a go at lifestyle change.
One of my indulgences is full fat milk for breakfast so I swapped that for semi skimmed milk. Nothing else changed and by 11:30 or 12 I would find myself hunting for the biscuit tin. Fruit would have been better but it wasn’t satisfying and anyway I have fruit with breakfast and lunch, so it’s not like I go without. One consequence was that my weight, which has been stable for years, started increasing quite rapidly.
So it’s back to to full fat milk and if I’ve got age related high cholesterol and need drugs then so be it.
I should say that I also feel more satisfied after using full fat milk and I n hindsight I also think I was pouring more bran flakes and muesli in to my bowl as I didn’t have the same feeling of satisfied when I finished.
Cheese.
Ah, Ltw.. Cheese doesn’t count, since it’s a natural product.
Unless, of course it’s from an evil factory that does the same process at scale…
The fun bit is that the byproduct of cheese-making, whey, is both hailed as a Superfood and Demonic Evil Poison by the retards that do “dietary advise”.
Just goes to show they can’t make their minds up on anything for very long..
But if ultraprocessed stuff is so bad for you….
Where does that leave the Vegans who have to take Supplements to keep barely functioning?
If that stuff isn’t ultraprocessed, I don’t know what is…
Is anything produced by Big Food more ultraprocessed than tofu?
BinD, I avoid the quacks as much as possible because I know from the experience of others that they will find something that requires ‘treatment’.
Health professionals seem addicted to providing ‘treatment’ and carrying out’procedures’* and love prescribing ‘medication’ because they can then prescribe something else to counteract the side effects of the first product.
Sorry if it appears as though I have little faith in the medical profession. It is because I don’t anymore.
* Check out the use of ventilators and medazolam during covid………
@ BiND
Reminds me of the time I tried to go vegetarian. My body wasn’t getting enough protein to match its needs (or, at least, what my metabolism thought it needed) so I started putting on weight fast enough to notice. [This was several years before I first ran a marathon – marathon runners can presumably get away with a vegetarian diet because they burn off the extra calories you get from eating enough nuts/veggies to get your minimum quantum of protein.]
Grikath, I see we’re on at least the same page. And from a single word comment 🙂
It’s always amused me that food processing techniques from centuries ago – salting, curing, pickling, cheese and the like have survived as delicacies, when they used to be about pure survival, keeping food edible to the next harvest.
I have never tried lutefisk though. Part of me wants to, but the stomach part is saying “that ain’t staying down, it’s been soaked in bleach ffs” 🙂
‘… one of the worst diets in the world…’
In rural Africa mothers prepare stone stew for their children. Stones are placed in a water-filled cooking pot over an open fire in sight of famished children settles down to sleep for the night. Mum tells them to watch the pot closely and to see if the fire needs more kindling to keep the pot boiling, and in the morning when they wake up they will have a lovely meal. It takes their minds off their hunger so they can fall asleep with the promise of a morning meal.
If British children have one of the worst diets, where do African kids rank?
And wasn’t it experts who warned us off healthy meat and two veg and dairy in favour of fatty lard-arse making processed carbohydrates and unhealthy seed oils?
“The startling levels of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions in the developed world are entirely due to processed ‘food’”. Do give over.
One reason for the level of diabetes is simply changes in the definition – instead of using blood sugar use HbA1c as your test, and then reduce the threshold a bit too.
As for obesity: the mortality stats show the Grade I obese (BMI 35) outliving the underweight. In other words, the vocabulary is disconnected from the facts i.e. the vocabulary is essentially mendacious.
(This is only observational data so the associations may not be causative but faute de mieux …)
For cardiovascular disease the thing to note is the plummeting age-corrected rates of death by heart attack starting in the 60s and 70s. Instead of killing lots of middle ages males heart attacks now mainly kill codgers of both sexes. Cardiologists have done an excellent job of not publicising this great change, I must say. Except when they mention it and claim the credit without, as far as I can see, having any good grounds to do so.)
@BiND
I recommend walnuts for a mid-morning snack, they easily fill me up until lunch and various studies suggest they may naturally improve one’s cholesterol status, so a win-win.
Oops, cock-up. Instead of “As for obesity: the mortality stats show the Grade I obese (BMI 35) outliving the underweight” I had typed and accidentally mangled:-
the mortality stats show the Grade I obese (BMI 35) outliving the “underweight”.
Now, given that most deaths are among the old I wonder whether the lesson is that “overweight” is a jolly good thing to be when you are old. What weight to aim for if you’re younger, God knows. I don’t suppose there’s a cat’s chance any doctor knows. Anyway, is aiming for a long life the only thing that matters? Why not aim for a weight that you are simply comfortable with? Or why not refrain for aiming for anything in particular?
Anyway I’m a sceptic about BMI-based advice: I don’t see much reference to BMI in terms of the usual demographic variables i.e. age, race, and sex. Wild guess: probably the most important question about weight involves women of child-bearing age. Are there any data at all available that could be useful to them? Dunno.
Grikath:
“Where does that leave the Vegans who have to take Supplements to keep barely functioning?
If that stuff isn’t ultraprocessed, I don’t know what is…”
I’ve been vegan for most of my life, since 1984. I don’t take supplements. I used to take vitamin B12, but it’s now in so many foods that I don’t bother any more.
Loads of what I eat is “ultra-processed” – I was the first one on here to point out that tofu falls into that category, although I eat very little of it as I don’t like it all that much. I also eat lots of fresh veg, so maybe it all balances out.
As for barely functioning, I seem to have done a lot better in life than many carnivores, and when I compare health notes with my carnivorous friends and brothers, there’s not a lot of difference…
Bugger me, it’s wrong again. Am I having an off day or is something wrong with the site? Anyway, third go:
the mortality stats show the Grade I obese (BMI 35) outliving the “underweight”.
Let us pray.
Nah, it’s not me – or if it is it’s too subtle blunder for me to correct.
I did sixth form work experience at Newcastle University. I was in the genetics department. My lab was working on a GM form of cassava which would make the stuff edible without the extremely convoluted processing otherwise needed. Great! But that’s GM so Bad! Can’t win can we?
@ Sam Vara
Do you mean “in” as in “naturally contained by” or “in” as “added into” – i.e. a supplement like the the calcium, and Vitamins B1 and B3, added to white bread flour?
From your comment I gather that you are younger than I and my health shows no signs of diet-related deterioration (my latest race result was disappointing but I put that down to a near-total lack of training during the bad weather, from which I have not yet caught up).
Is anything produced by Big Food more ultraprocessed than tofu?
There’s a high proportion of food faddists in the expat community on the island where I live. I had to giggle when I discovered that one of the major by-products of the flue scrubbers of the local power station was used in the manufacture of tofu.
Isn’t ‘expert’ a term with a definite meaning?
These ‘experts’ don’t seem to be expert; perhaps there’s ground for civil action against the Telegraph for lying/misrepresentation/etc?
“ Now, given that most deaths are among the old I wonder whether the lesson is that “overweight” is a jolly good thing to be when you are old.”
Last that I heard (more than a decade ago) being overweight was beneficial for the middle age and indeterminate for the old. The example given for middle age was Jim Henson, The Muppets creator. He had a nasty virus and died because he was too skinny — not enough fat for his body to live while it fought off the virus.
I had a blood test in early December with a follow up in early Jan and among other things I have high cholesterol. Rather than resort to drugs as a first choice I said I’d have a go at lifestyle change. One of my indulgences is full fat milk for breakfast so I swapped that for semi skimmed milk.
Assuming that ‘high’ cholesterol is bad (I think it’s now only the LDL form, not HDL, that we’re supposed to worry about, or is that the other way round?), I’ve never understood how eating foods relatively high in cholesterol can be the cause. Surely egg yolks, butter, cream and animal fat, get broken into their constituent parts by stomach acids and enzymes – they don’t pass unadulterated into the blood stream.
PS Channel Island milk FTW 🙂
john77
I suppose both. I imagine I get enough calcium from green veg, almonds, and tahini. (Tahini and Marmite most days for breakfast!) The main issue is B12, and as well as Marmite, they seem to add that to everything.
I’m 66. I’ve got the same health issues as my older brother, so they are probably genetic. I was extremely fit when younger (martial arts third Dan, practising three nights per week) until the back started to play up. Three healthy children, wife 26 years younger, everyone thinks I’m younger than I am.
Adolff,
BinD, I avoid the quacks as much as possible because I know from the experience of others that they will find something that requires ‘treatment’.
Health professionals seem addicted to providing ‘treatment’ and carrying out’procedures’* and love prescribing ‘medication’ because they can then prescribe something else to counteract the side effects of the first product.
A lot of its down to Blair’s reforms that incentivised them. I’ve told the tale a few times here about how a very good frien managed a large GPs surgery in North London and in one year (c2005)the head of practice made £600k bonus for meeting so many of Blair’s targets.
Anyway, I’m really happy with or GP and NHS round here and I have never felt any pressure to take any drug. If anything I’d say they’ve been quite pleased when’ve talked about lifestyle changes. My guess is far too many people want the medication rather than the hard work of lifestyle change.
Chris Miller,
Its the one we’re supposed to worry about although from what I’ve read its low down that list and as I’ve just self diagnosed very high BP, which kicked this off, I’m not losing a lot of sleep over it. I’ve never had CI milk, I had to abort my sailing trip there, but our local shop gets local milk. I’ll look out for it when I’m next in Cornwall.
I used to get Channel Island milk indirectly via my milkman’s Jersey herd. Proper Green Top as well. But he had to stop supplying it when the seperate hygeiene requirements became too onerous, and now just supplies bland homogenised silvertop.
That high cholesterol is bad is another complete myth. Nobody should be trying to reduce their natural cholesterol levels, neither through diet (which doesn’t work, since the body just makes more for itself) nor through taking statins.
To significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, eliminate seed oils and sugar (in other words, modern ‘processed food’.) It’s like stopping smoking.
BlokeInTejas said:
“These ‘experts’ don’t seem to be expert; perhaps there’s ground for civil action against the Telegraph for lying/misrepresentation/etc?”
They’re a newspaper; what would they do if they couldn’t print spurious claims from ‘experts’?
Anyway, isn’t there a defence from a misrepresentation charge, that no-one would seriously believe you were telling the truth? I assume that covers newspapers generally.
When everyone dies of such malnorishment before the age of 45, we’ll have cured cancer too. There is no limit to this medical revolution.
Solves the pension/social security crisis as well.
Double Bonus!
I weigh in around 133lbs. Mrs G. runs some 30lbs lighter. Between us we consume 16pts semi-skimmed/week – find full fat milk far too sweet, although this past week the good lady has got through a gallon of buttermilk while perfecting her pancakes and hot cross buns in advance of the upcoming festivities (am obliged to eat all of the experimental stuff). I consume significant quantity of cheese. As with siblings, my cholesterol comes in at around 11.0. Statins lower the figure to circa 6.5. I can manage similar reading via diet alone, but life is too short and my appetite too expansive. While not exactly exercised about statins, (a) when still working I was refused private health insurance if I didn’t take the tablets, and (b) since retired it keeps my GP happy as his income is in part dependant on my taking them. Not going to lose any sleep either way.
dearieme said:
“Wild guess: probably the most important question about weight involves women of child-bearing age”
Do you mean they’ve more chance of a shag, and therefore of getting pregnant, if they aren’t land whales?
@ Sam Vara
So you *are* taking supplements – just that you don’t realise it because the B12 is added to foods in the “vegetarian” section rather than being sold to you in pills.
Yes, vegetarians (and, with more difficulty, vegans) who take enough exercise can get enough protein and of most vitamins, as you demonstrate. I shouldn’t have queried you – it is just that I get irritated by some vocal vegetarians who tell me that I have an unhealthy diet while taking loads of pills so I have a conditioned reflex.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Cholesterol-Dr-Malcolm-Kendrick/dp/1844546101
His other book is even better:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctoring-Data-medical-advice-nonsense-ebook/dp/B00TCG3X4S
@dearieme
Appreciate the heads up.
@john77:
I do realise that the food I eat is supplemented, but it’s not vegetarian food. B12, for example, is added to lots of bread, margarine, etc. Everyone gets it!
And yes, preachy vegetarians are a pain.
So are plant-based meat and burgers ultra-processed? If so shouldn’t they have warning on them?
@BiND
By CI milk, I only meant milk from Jersey or Guernsey cows, not from the islands themselves. Ours is Guernsey delivered by our local milkman. There’s a farm the other side of Aylesbury that has a vending machine selling their green top, which takes me back to childhood, though it does taste a bit ‘cowy’ if you’re not accustomed to it.