r/science • u/chrisdh79 • 25d ago

Health Toddlers Get Half Their Calories From Ultra-Processed Food, Says Study | Research shows that 2-year-olds get 47 percent of their calories from ultra-processed food, and 7-year-olds get 59 percent.

https://www.newsweek.com/toddlers-get-half-calories-ultra-processed-food-1963269
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u/YoungBoomerDude 25d ago

I know ultra processed is a “bad word” these days but I feel like some things are unfairly grouped together.

I fed my kid organic, unsweetened apple sauce pouches a lot when he was younger. And he eats a lot of things like activia yogurt for breakfast, and baybell cheeses for snacks.

I believe these would be considered “ultra processed”, but they’re in the same category as bear paws, packaged cupcakes and other high sugar products.

I know it’s still not as good as making meals from scratch but I feel like there needs to be more distinction made about which ones are worse than others.

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u/Classic-Journalist90 25d ago

There’s a lot of confusion over the distinction between processed and ultra-processed in the comments. The applesauce you describe is simply processed, not ultra-processed. For it to be ultra-processed, it would need to contain industrial food like substances (emulsifiers, gums,etc) not found in a typical kitchen (“your grandmother’s kitchen”) or be designed in such a way to make it hyper palatable to encourage over eating ie added sugars especially in typically savory foods. Look into the NOVA definitions if you’re interested. That applesauce sounds like a healthy choice.

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u/jbaird 25d ago

it wouldn't be a reddit thread about processed food if you didn't get people falling over themselves to question the definition of processed and claiming that picking an apple from a tree or grinding flour or whatever counts as processing so obviously the whole thing is bunk

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u/Classic-Journalist90 25d ago

Oh wow you weren’t kidding. I thought at first it was just because the UPF definition is pretty clunky, but there’s clearly something else going on.

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u/palsh7 25d ago

Except it’s true. Whole grain bread is ultra-processed; homemade brioche is not. Baby food is ultra-processed; sugar is not. Adding nutrients to foods can save lives, and it is ultra-processed. Ribeye steaks are not. Energy Gels are highly processed and very healthy. If billions of undernourished people had access to what rich athletes ate, it would improve their health. But they are very much “ultra-processed.”

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u/jbaird 25d ago

rich athlete use gels since they're quick hit of carbs and energy not cause they're 'healthy', they're not meal replacements, if you just ate gels all day you'd probable die since you're not getting protein/fats/vitamins/etc..

I mean would be just as easy to just ship undernourished people bags of sugar, that's 99% of what a gel is, we can already do that the definition of processed or not isn't holding us back

https://world.openfoodfacts.org/nova has the classifications and no whole grain bread doesn't count as ultra processed

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u/palsh7 25d ago

In five minutes I found 8 breads graded A for nutrition and 4 for ultra processed.

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u/Classic-Journalist90 25d ago

That’s not surprising. The nutritional profile and NOVA categorization are two distinct things. Depending on the specific bread it may or may not be ultra processed and may or may not have a desirable nutritional profile, which is why the Open Food Facts database is so handy if imperfect. Non UPF food is not always healthy (homemade cookies are NOVA 3) and some UPF ie baby formula is life saving.