I have to admit I think this is really stupid and a massive waste of money.
That is because all that the tool really needs to ask is one question:
Does your diet almost wholly or mainly comprise ultra-processed food?
That is it. If the answer is yes, then the risk of developing type 2 diabetes is very high.
….
The evidence is that excess fructose delivery to the liver results in that organ then transforming that sugar into fat. This then results in the body increasing its intolerance to insulin, which perversely then results in increased insulin production. That then results in increased obesity, inflammatory diseases, kidney disease, and other conditions arising from metabolic illness. And it is also clear that this process is reversible remarkably quickly, which is a message that is being massively suppressed at present, even though it is apparent that many people could end their insulin dependence if only this were to happen in a controlled fashion, including the cutting out of carbohydrates in their diets.I resist the idea of conspiracy theories as often as I can. On this issue, I cannot. There is a conspiracy. It is not even a theory. It’s a fact.
Hmm. The fact that UK diets – even ultraprocessed ones – are not high in fructose is a bit of a blow to this theory. It’s the US that uses HFCS by and large, not us.
“if only this were to happen in a controlled fashion, including the cutting out of carbohydrates in their diets.”
In other words he wants everyone to ignore two generations’ worth of government diet propaganda. Isn’t that an incoherent position from a twerp who on all other occasions urges on us the wisdom of governments?
Hurray; Xmas pud this evening!
Looks like Spud’s got a new straw man for Christmas and now he’s the world leading authority on diet, obesity and related diseases.
Fat cvnt’s definitely an authority on obesity.
Given how disagreeable Spud is, I suspect that he does not have a good time at Christmas.
I’ve been managing my T2 diabetes with diet for a decade now and so I’ll say on my own authority that the man’s a buffoon on this subject.
Certainly cut carbs… spuds and other starchy root veg, bread, pasta, pastry and many fruits … hardly “over-processed”, eh?
Think about the glycaemic index of your food, how full your stomach is at the time of eating, what your energy requirements will be for the next few hours, your current BG level… a food could be good for your BG today and entirely wrong tomorrow.
The answer isn’t as simple as that reductionist idiot supposes and it certainly doesn’t support his anti-business agenda.
The one question is still, “Define ‘ultra-processed’, and how it differs from ‘processed’, or simply ‘cooked’”.
Ultra-processed.
One definition I’ve seen, which works for me, is that the food contains ingredients which you really wouldn’t find in a domestic kitchen (and which would be hard to source at ordinary retail), and/or undergoes cooking or manufacturing techniques that could’t be done without highly specialised equipment. I.e. you’d be hard pressed to make it yourself and your granny certainly wouldn’t have either.
I don’t mind only ingesting this kind of thing infrequently given that it’s so easy to make decent grub from scratch.
Always remember, Spud and his kind aren’t interested in subjects like this so you can be better informed about how to lead your life, they see them as means of power and control and we have been warned:
food contains ingredients which you really wouldn’t find in a domestic kitchen (and which would be hard to source at ordinary retail), and/or undergoes cooking or manufacturing techniques that could’t be done without highly specialised equipment
Isn’t that going to depend on what country you’re in? How many English people keep slaked lime in the pantry or a couscousier?
And I’m reminded of the Scandinavian affection for burying cod for a year or two then digging it up & eating it. Does your larder include a shovel, some turf & several cubic meters of soil?
“It’s the US that uses HFCS by and large, not us.“
HFCS is very much used in Britain, but it goes under another name: glucose-fructose syrup.
Lucozade is stuffed with it.
BiS
Sure enough, but my kitchen includes both Koji (my wife likes messing with ferments) and an air fryer. The missus’s mum’s kitchen in Tokyo contains neither, even though Koji is widely used domestically.
The point is, could anyone reasonably make Quorn at home? I had a tour of the Crunchie factory once. Amazing. You couldn’t possibly come close to that end product at home without kit you’d find in a factory or, at a push, a large commercial kitchen.
Another point about UPF is that it contains additives specifically to prolong shelf life, make the product extremely consistent, make it emulate other things (like fake dairy) and so on. Stuff that is irrelevant to nutrition and that you wouldn’t add at home because you have no need.
One of the best-balanced least-processed foods is beef steak, cooked rare.#
Good for diabetics, as minimum carbohydrates (till you add the chips, etc!)
But isn’t veganism fad of the week and meat-eating bad for the gerbil warbling, or something?
make it emulate other things (like fake dairy)
Like creme anglais?
“It’s the US that uses HFCS by and large, not us”
Table sugar is 50% fructose anyway. Its a glucose molecule loosely attached to a fructose molecule. The first thing the digestive system does is break that bond, and then deal with the resulting 2 molecules the same way as if you’d eaten them in a pure form. So anything high in sugar is de facto high in fructose as well.
Its ironic that Spud is now promoting a ‘conspiracy theory’, namely that the whole direction of the Western world’s health advice for the last 40 years has been wrong, that Ancel Keys was a crank who fiddled the data to fit his pet theory, and diets high in saturated fat and low in carbs are in fact not the cause of coronary heart disease, while diets low in saturated fat and high in carbs are in fact the reason for the Western epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Its a conspiracy theory I happen to agree with, but I doubt Spud would appreciate being cast in the same mould as the likes of JFK Jr etc.
One definition I’ve seen, which works for me, is that the food contains ingredients which you really wouldn’t find in a domestic kitchen (and which would be hard to source at ordinary retail), and/or undergoes cooking or manufacturing techniques that could’t be done without highly specialised equipment. I.e. you’d be hard pressed to make it yourself and your granny certainly wouldn’t have either.
When I cook something for myself, it usually gets eaten within a few minutes, it doesn’t need to sit on a shelf (possibly refrigerated, possibly not) for a week or two, which requires (to keep it safe) the use of carefully controlled food additives, some of which are unlikely to be found in a domestic kitchen.
I enjoy cooking our food from scratch, but I’ve neither the time nor inclination to do so seven days a week.
There’s no consistent, agreed definition of what makes UPF ‘Ultra’, and I’ve never seen one which wouldn’t equally apply to bread or beer.
You absolutely can make a Crunchie at home with basic home ingredients: while it’s not going to be as beautifully uniform as one that’s made by robots in a factory, and it’s not going to taste absolutely identical unless you steal their secret recipe, all a crunchie is is honeycomb (“foam toffee” in the USA) covered with chocolate, and all honeycomb is is toffee with baking soda stirred through it so it foams up like chemistry class volcano lava then sets hard and foamy like real lava. It’s understandable to look at the inside of a crunchie and think it’s so weird that there’s no way to make it with home equipment, but the recipe is centuries old and was originally made by hand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIaToZrrBuU
To anyone interested in processed food, I’d recommend the (now ancient) documentary series “Jimmy’s Food Factory”, where the host attempts to make instant coffee, wotsits, mechanically-recovered chicken nuggets and such like, using only equipment you’d find in a kitchen or on a building site.
Does Murphy imagine that a diet of sucrose and starch in excess of the amount burned up by exercise has nil impact on the amount of fat created by the liver?
Does he have an IQ measurable in more than one digit?
Those of us who eat fresh fruit as a significant component of our diet are less liable to become obese and diabetic. Frustose is not a problem.
For those in danger of contracting type 2 diabetes, physical idleness is a major risk factor …
“And it is also clear that this process is reversible remarkably quickly, which is a message that is being massively suppressed at present, even though it is apparent that many people could end their insulin dependence if only this were to happen in a controlled fashion, including the cutting out of carbohydrates in their diets.”
Actually diabetics have their own forum where the subject of achieving remission is one of the many subjects that is discussed by very well informed people who have first hand experience. Remission can be achieved, I did it myself, but it basically involves spending the rest of your life about ten kilos under weight. This is very difficult if not impossible to sustain long term. It’s not often he’s right but he’s wrong again.
https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/?_gl=1*gfl38u*_gcl_au*MTgyNTk2NjI5OC4xNzM0NDQ5Njc4*_ga*NDgwNzkyNDkzLjE3MzQ0NDk2Nzk.*_ga_J1HFNSGEX6*MTczNTE2MjUxNi40MC4wLjE3MzUxNjI1MTYuNjAuMC4w
I’ve never understood why how processed your food is has any relation to how healthy or unhealthy it is. I get that food could be made from low quality ingredients that need a lot of processing to make them palatable but that does not necessarily have to be the case.
“I’ve never understood why how processed your food is has any relation to how healthy or unhealthy it is.”
I don’t think you’re meant to understand it. You’re meant to accept it uncritically.
It does read as if he is trying to find an excuse for his own weight-induced medical problems.
the food contains ingredients which you really wouldn’t find in a domestic kitchen
That’s neither a process, nor a quantity. That’s a list, and you can’t base definitions on a list, as that’s not a definition, it’s a list.
Posts by the (soon) ex-Professor Extraordinaire on this subject give me a glimpse of the sheer headdesking he must cause in people who actually understand the Economics he likes to waffle about, and of which I have no more “expertise” than the basic “don’t spend more than that’s what in your wallet and what you might need tomorrow”.
Ye gods, what an idiot. Every word literally loudly advertises the fact that he has absolutely no idea what he’s taking about. Excruciatingly so.
I missed the part when he mentioned ending insulin dependence, on that part he is completely wrong. Needing insulin is mainly a component of type 1 diabetes. If you have type 1 diabetes, firstly it strikes at random with no connection to diet, exercise levels or weight and secondly no amount of diet and exercise can eliminate your insulin dependence. Without insulin type 1 diabetics die. Insulin is sometimes used by type 2 diabetics as a last resort as the condition becomes too advanced to control using oral treatments and it is possible, though not easy, to reduce or eliminate insulin use in these cases.
@ Stonyground
Murphy is talking about Type 2 diabetes.
It is not clear whether or not he knows what Type 1 diabetes is, but he does actually say he’s talking about Type 2; his error is saying that it makes the body intolerant to insulin – not true, the cells fail to take up insulin which could be described as increasing the body’ *tolerance* to insulin.
White table sugar. The kind Americans use in their coffee and the British use in their tea. 50% fructose.
High fructose corn syrup that is used in drinks like American Coca-Cola or American pepsi, or American Gatorade. 52% fructose
(that Mexican Coke that uses white table sugar as the sweetening agent that all the foodies have paroxysms over is 50% for fructose)
High fructose corn syrup that is used in baked goods, (and other solid foods), 42% fructose.
I’m thinkin’ people wouldn’t be so scared of fructose if they took a minute to Google it.
“Murphy is talking about Type 2 diabetes.”
The vast majority of type twos don’t inject insulin, it’s sort of a last resort when stuff like Metaformin is no longer effective, so He’s still talking bollox.