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So the definition is useless then

Some ultra-processed foods increase the risk of developing cancer, heart disease and diabetes – but others are good for you, new research into the demonised foodstuffs suggests.

A major new international study has found that regular consumption of meat products – such as sausages – and sugary drinks make it more likely that someone will get those diseases.

But bread and cereals actually reduce someone’s risk of them – because they contain fibre – despite also being ultra-processed foods (UPF), the same researchers also concluded, in findings published in The Lancet.

If some UPFs are good and some UPFs are bad then hte designation of UPF doesn’t mean much, does it?

Sure, we’ve all known it was toss all along but noice to have The Lancet proving it.

11 thoughts on “So the definition is useless then”

  1. In my browser is a links folder called Lancet Liars.

    It proved particularly useful during the Covid debacle.

  2. Bloke in the Fourth Reich

    The “fibre cures cancer” thing was one of the first pieces of epidemiological scientism garbage. Burkitt’s, pace his other achievements, observation that rural Africans had less bowel cancer than urban whites.

    This observation is, of course, not confounded by 1000 other variables.

    I am not amazed there are people who still believe this. There are good reasons, with near-instantaneous reward, to ensure adequate fibre intake (I actually take a pack of bran when going to the far east, where getting enough can be challenging, especially when eating “well”).

  3. In my browser is a links folder called “Lancet Liars”.

    It proved particularly useful during the Covid debacle.

    I’ve just checked: I also have a folder “Ultra-processed food and other propaganda”.

  4. “ Some ultra-processed foods increase the risk of developing cancer, heart disease and diabetes…”

    Add to the growing list over the years: tomatoes, lettuce, potato, coffee, alcohol, red meats, dairy…

    It’s a long list.

  5. @BitFR

    High Fibre diet is what I’ve needed since birth. One of my earliest memories (2 or 3 yo) is being on kitchen shelf and parents holding me to shove something (suppository) up my arse

    Later mum made All-Bran scones, cakes for me

  6. You’d think one service that newspapers could usefully provide would be to apply some level of scrutiny to the torrent of bullshit “studies” spewed out every year. But no.

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