Eating ultra-processed meat is linked to an increased risk of early death, a Harvard study over 30 years has found.
Scientists tracked more than 114,000 adults in one of the most extensive studies into the long-term consequences of modern diets.
So, ban UPF and all that. Except, the bit that surprises:
“The study showed a modest association with high UPF consumption on the outcome category ‘All deaths’ which were 4 per cent higher in the high UPF group.”
However, Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, Emeritus Professor of Statistics, University of Cambridge, said such an association was “weak”.
He said it was “surprising” that researchers’ conclusions focussed on the risks from processing given their acknowledgement that overall dietary quality had the greatest impact.
It’s not a strong association and further:
Dr Mellor said: “It is also noticeable that those who consumed most ultra-processed foods tended to eat few vegetables, fruit, legumes and wholegrain. This appeared to suggest that it might not be as simple as that those who ate more ultra-processed foods were more likely to die earlier – it is quite possible that these foods might displace healthier foods from the diet.”
It’s not even obvious that it’s the consumption of UPF that does it. Rather, the non-cosumption of the other stuff.
The surprise being that the journos actually bothered to do all of this.
What could be more “ultra processed” than plant matter tortured into looking vaguely like bacon?
I’ve not tried this shite, is it like chewing cardboard?
No Mark, cardboard is tastier.
It’s junk science. Also puffed in the Times this morning, along with some bullshit from Hugh Fearnley-Cockend about how he eats 30 different types of veg a week (linked to a book obviously). Surely one tin of Heinz 57 on toast will do that?
The health sections of both rags are full of utter dogshit, driven entirely by PR. Although some credit is due to the Terriblegraph for challenging the nonsense. The closest it comes to journalism is those articles where the headline and intro are debunked in the second half of the story.
those who ate more ultra-processed foods were more likely to die earlier
Don’t threaten me with a good time.
@ Steve
Well, if you think eating soya and chickpea imitations of a sausage roll is having a good time ….
john77 – not all my jokes land. 🙁
“It’s not even obvious that it’s the consumption of UPF that does it. Rather, the non-cosumption of the other stuff.”
Make sure you eat the bun and the bit of lettuce, and you’ll be fine.
And it might be that people who eat UPF eat more calories in total, thus bcoming obese.
Is there a definition of UPF? A Big Mac certainly couldn’t be because the bun’s just bread & the minced beef no different from the main ingredient of a bolognese. A home prepared bouillon, basis of so many recipes would have to be under the “mechanically recovered meat” clause.
Re: dying.
Obvs, you do want to be healthy, but come on, you apes, do you want to live forever?
Being 105 years old and unable to remember what day it is or wipe my own arse doesn’t sound like something I want to do.
Steak and chips, please.
It’s a “medical” study from Harvard fergodsake! They’ve been notorious for bad science and tortured statistics for donkeys’ years. Prof John Brignell (of “Numberwatch” fame) was on their case many years ago.
Sadly, the best Rule of Thumb to apply is that if it’s from a Harvard medical study it’s almost certainly bollocks.
Define “processed”.
Define “ultra” processed.
I prefer my meat to be processed. I call it “cooking”. Are they really really demanding people eat raw meat? Did none of these morons get taught as a kid that you shouldn’t be eating raw meat, or even just become aware of it through normal developmental osmosis? Cooking is *THE* fundamental invention that allowed humans to develop into what we are today.
These are presumably members of the same class of shitbags who told you to avoid butter and lard and eat heaps of margarine and vegetable fats.
The definition of UPF may be unclear to me but it obvs must include marg and veg oils and exclude butter and lard.
As for Harvard, the Baron is right. Harvard medical school is US HQ for misbehaviour.
When we eventually start the Dissolution of the Universities we should start with Harvard.
When we eventually start the Dissolution of the Universities we should start with Harvard.
Oxford’s still first on my list. (Or was it the one in Paris started the rot?) Whatever. Carpet bomb. Bulldoze the rubble. Sow the ground with radioactive waste. The academics who survive to stoop labour in the fields. Pyramids of skulls of those who demur.
@jgh
Cooking is *THE* fundamental invention that allowed humans to develop into what we are today.
Which is why they hate it.
The first question you have to ask is “Who paid for the study?”
The second question you have to ask is “Whose money with the researchers be picking up next?”
This isn’t science, it’s Big Business.
The terms have to be ill-defined, otherwise they can’t mean whatever the hell the prodnoses want them to mean at any given moment.
bloke in spain,
There is some tortured definition out there somewhere, but let’s be honest about what this is really referring to: the food the scumbags eat. It’s why McDonalds is always talked about as terrible food, when a curry, sweet and sour chicken or a Duchy Originals pasty is less healthy than a Big Mac.
And this article is just being read by the sort of people who look down on McDonalds and then spends double the price at the sort of place that bangs on about sustainability, local farms and all the community projects they do.
Ah… UPF’s again….
Was at a medieval event in Germany last week for a whole week, so peeps made a proper early medieval stew, right from the start.
Took three days starting with the bone broth, then the meat ( boar, deer and swan ( yes, you read that right..)) , the proper ancient “forgotten” breeds of veggies and roots, filled out with barley and millet.
Ultra-processed? Can’t be anything else after three days… Best fvcking power food I’ve had in years, especially since the weather was …Scottish… to be polite.
Kept you warm, kept you going, and kept the random DooGooder Vegans screaming and wailing.
@BiS – surely a Tzompantli would be more aesthetically pleasing?
@Steve – always nice to read a line from Starship Troopers
A reminder; tofu is an ultra processed food. If you don’t believe me, there are plenty of videos of how it is made.
Also, the study doesn’t say *who* eats the most UPF. Like, I don’t know, *poor people*. Who might not have the greatest healthcare access to start out with?
So many confounding variables that the conclusion is useless.
Do they consider tofu, veggie burgers, soy sauce, etc, to be UPF?
What about bread?
Wheat that is ground and bleached, emulsifiers, yeast, etc, all steps in the processing.
According to the UPF guys – bread made by the Chorleywood Process is UPF. It’s made by capitalists, in factories, d’ye see?
One of the common lines trotted out by these (soi-disant) experts, when asked to define UPF is : “It contains stuff you won’t find in your kitchen” (e.g. emulsifiers, preservatives etc.) Well, I don’t know about you, but when I cook something in my kitchen (venison casserole today, with a nice Navarre Reserva) I tend to eat it within minutes of finishing cooking. If I expected it to sit on a shelf for a week or two, like supermarket food does, it would definitely need some additives.
@ Chris Miller
Yes so do I, albeit the food that I buy from my local butcher or fishmonger will usually keep for a day or two in my refrigerator (proper, non-Tesco, fish is only available on market days in the next towns west or south which fits in with my wife’s target of averaging 10,000 steps per day.) I tend to use Rioja with venison – I’ll ask my wine merchant about Navarra next time I order.
@ bis
Your inferiority complex distorts your judgement. Worldwide you should start with Moscow; in UK, the “City University” (which is in Islington, formerly Islington Technical College), followed by Sussex
If you bothered to do any decent research you would find that Oxford graduates make massive positive contributions to human welfare (e.g. my faher did more to reduce air pollution on Tees-side than all the Green Party has done in all its history).
The Chorleywood Process allows the use of local lower-protein grains. Pre-Chorleywood breadmaking requires importing high-protein grains to ensure the same output quality. Surely they cannot be demanding both local sourcing *and* removal of the process that allows local sourcing.
john77,
Navarra is fundamentally the same thing, It’s mostly tempranillo produced at roughly 42 degrees north. You’re going to get the same wine, if you have the same quality of wine makers. The only reason it can’t be called Rioja is that there’s a geographic boundary.
There is Navarra produced a stone’s throw from the boundary, and unless you’re fully signed up to Magical Bullshit Church of Terroir that just ain’t going to make a difference. The benefit of Navarra is that you don’t pay for the word “Rioja” on the bottle.
@WB
+1 🙂
I learned to love tempranillo when working in Madrid in the late 80s, just when the reservas and gran reservas from some great vintages (81 and 82) were being released, and could be paid for in pesetas.