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Ultra-processed foods should be treated more like cigarettes than food – study
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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When I was an italian kid, I have never had problems eating salads with no ultra-processed dressing.
No Italian buys salad dressing. Salt pepper herbs olive oil and vinegar.
che processing
I'm sure that's because of choices that your parents made and nothing to do with living in an area with high population density and easy access to fresh food.
I don't understand. I'm pretty sure raising a child depends on the choices of the parents. What do you mean, that in areas with higher population density it is easier to get fresh food? And that thus the parent's choices are not influential or only possible because of the environment? In my experience fresh food is more accessible in low population density areas, thus I don't really follow.
Mmm olive oil
it is not ultra-processed, it is just processed.
The real stuff is just pressed adn expensive, but most olive oil is counterfeit shit.
Eh. That's the thing with UPF, it doesn't really have a definition. There's a whole lot of transformation that's happened to make olive oil - quite possibly more than whatever American-style dressing.
Umh, it quite depends on what you classify as olive oil. In Italy etra vergin olive oil is the same recipe as it was centuries ago, just automatized. That by definition can't be classified as ultra-processed since you could recreate that kind of olive oil by hand in your own kitchen.
Ah, but what's in my kitchen?
I don't think I have any MSG right now, but it's super common in the homes of some ethic groups, and I do have some interesting microbial-derived ingredients. I could make potato chips/crisps the same way as they do industrially, and I wouldn't need any of that.
A really simple cream-based dressing could be bits of plants and raw milk that has settled out and been skimmed. Vinegar is often involved, though, and it looks like for a proper American-style ranch dressing there's still oil that goes into the mayo.
But, it's not the only example. You also like espresso in Italy, yes? How many steps does that take, and have you ever seen a raw coffee bean in person? As much as we love making fun of Americans, the only people who can really do it on these grounds are like, tribes in the rainforest. And if it becomes the old thing where we all assume our own culture is "correct", than that's not good.
Whatever man, I think Usa-made dressing you buy bottled is not genuily made unlike olive oil. If you still want to discuss I am not interested. Besides I live both in europe and asia and have no problem finding whole foods to eat. To me the basic definition of UPF makes sense. Hope you will understand too amd push goverment to regulate food industries more.