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9 ways to identify ultra-processed foods - The Washington Post

To improve your eating habits this year, you don’t need to count calories or carbs. Instead, focus on how much your food has been processed before it gets to your dinner table.

If you’re like most people, you eat a lot of ultra-processed foods and don’t even realize it. Many of these foods — protein and granola bars, low-fat yogurts and breakfast cereals — sound like healthful choices.

But ultra-processed foods are formulations of industrial ingredients that are designed by manufacturers to achieve a certain “bliss point,” which causes us to crave and overeat them. Ultra-processed foods make up a majority of the calories most people consume, and scientists say they are a driving force behind the multiple diet-related illnesses that are shortening our life spans.

“Empowering yourself with the knowledge of what you’re about to eat or what you’re about to feed your family is critical,” said Nicole Avena, a visiting professor of health psychology at Princeton University.

So how can you free yourself from the grip of ultra-processed foods? Start by reading the labels on the foods in your fridge, pantry and the grocery aisle. We’ve created a simple guide to help you spot nine red flags that signal a food probably is ultra-processed.

More than three ingredients

Many ultra-processed foods have long lists of ingredients that can sound like a high school chemistry experiment. If you like bread, for instance, choose a brand that contains only simple ingredients, such as wheat flour, barley flour, sourdough starter, salt, nuts or raisins. Many ultra-processed breads contain sugar, vegetable oil, artificial sweeteners, and multiple preservatives, emulsifiers and shelf-life extenders such as sorbic acid, calcium propionate, datem, and monoglycerides.

“You can still buy the foods you want,” said Stephen Devries, an adjunct associate professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the executive director of the educational nonprofit Gaples Institute. “But you should find the least-altered version of those foods with the fewest ingredients possible.”

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