The ultra-processed foods that are actually good for you

make up a huge 57 per cent of our diets.

UPFs for short, these are foods that “have been processed using industrial methods that change their original ingredients”, says Sam Rice, a nutritionist. “There is a huge range of foods that sit somewhere on the UPF spectrum”.

Even those of us who like to think we eat healthily are often consuming UPFs on a daily basis: many yogurts, cereals and “healthy” snack packs, all tend to contain chemicals added to make them taste better or last for longer on the shelf.

In recent years these foods have been exposed as gut-wrecking health criminals and for good reason: major studies have tied them to everything from cancer incidence to heart disease, and UPFs are now believed to be a major cause of obesity, given their addictive qualities.

from Harvard University published this week has found that not all UPFs are equally bad for our health, at least when it comes to your cardiovascular system.

– though consuming any type of UPF in large amounts was still seen to be linked to cardiovascular disease.

Things such as fizzy drinks and cheap sausages “have never been our friends for any health outcome,” says Dr Federica Amati, the chief nutritionist at health company Zoe.

“But there are some foods that are considered ultra-processed that can make up a part of your daily diet” without necessarily upping your risk of a heart attack or stroke.

Here are eight of the UPFs you can eat without immediately fearing for your heart – and how good they are for you on the whole.

Baked beans

Beans, beans, good for your heart – or so the saying goes. While that’s certainly true, says Dr Amati, cans of the baked stuff that you find on supermarket shelves tend to be laden with modified starches and or fructose syrups, both of which make them ultra-processed.

”.

As a nation that struggles to consume enough fibre and lean protein, which beans have in heaps, baked beans on toast can fairly be called a guilt-free easy meal.

Just be sure to “choose those with the fewest additives,” says Rice. “You might be tempted to choose the low-sugar versions, but often they contain artificial sweeteners instead.”

Tomato-based pasta sauces

As an entity, tomato-based sauces for a home-made bolognese or lasagne “are intrinsically healthy, containing a good range of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals,” says Rice.

Yet they can also be stuffed with sweeteners, stabilisers and preservatives. When it comes to sauces, it’s all a matter of degree, Dr Amati explains.

“A lot of sauces can be high in added sugar and salt,” Dr Amati continues, so it’s vital to seek out brands that have less added to them in terms of sugar, fat and oil.

“Even better, you could buy tinned tomatoes yourself and blend them, and then cook with whatever you want to add.”

Peanut butter

In many studies of UPFs, spreads and condiments have often been some of the worst offenders for their impact on our overall health.

Peanut butter is a notable exception, so long as it’s chosen carefully. As Dr Amati says, “it’s high in protein and there are some good healthy fats in there”.

that have been added because they’re cheaper than peanuts”. Palm oil tends to be a red flag.

Thankfully, there are “actually some incredible peanut butters available now that are simply peanuts and a little added salt,” Rice says and so if you have the budget it might be possible to escape chemicals here entirely.

Wholegrain cereals

Look on the back of a box of Weetabix and you might be alarmed by the presence of “riboflavin” or “malted barley extract” in your oh-so-healthy breakfast.

, says Dr Amati – though she personally prefers Shreddies as a star example of an ultra-processed food that’s still good for you.

“They’re higher in fibre than other cereals,” she says, and while they “shouldn’t be the only thing you have for breakfast, it’s still much better than reaching for a croissant”.

Rice agrees. “Shop-bought wholegrain cereals can be healthy, containing lots of gut-friendly fibre and added vitamins and minerals. Just watch the sugar content, which should ideally be below 5g per 100g.”

Fruit yogurt

In this latest study, yogurts were found to have an inverse relationship to cardiovascular disease, suggesting that including them in your diet could protect you against heart attacks and strokes.

But “it’s the ones that are fermented that have these better effects,” such as Greek yogurts, natural yogurts and kefirs, “in keeping with a lot of other research”, Dr Amati says.

should therefore be very healthy. Yet still some Greek-style yogurts are ultra-processed, especially where they’re artificially flavoured or sweetened.

“The main concern around fruit yogurt is not so much that they are UPFs, but that they often contain a lot of added sugar,” Rice says. “Yogurt and fruit are healthy foods, it’s just what else is added that you need to look out for.”

Wholemeal bread

, and for good reason, given that a white supermarket loaf like Hovis might contain a preservative, an oil, a flour treatment agent like ascorbic acid and three separate emulsifiers.

But in reality most of us don’t have the time to bake our bread from scratch, and “often artisan bread is hard to find and inaccessible in terms of cost,” Dr Amati says.

There is no cause for worry when a wholemeal supermarket loaf, replete with seeds and grains – even if there are a few additives – is full of fibre and vitamins.

Then again, “even your regular sliced loaf is going to contain 2.5g of fibre and 4g of protein”, explains Rice. There are worse things we could add to our carts.

Popcorn

Packaged savoury snacks can be some of the most chemical-laden foods in our cupboards – probably no surprise, given the unnatural orange of Doritos and Quavers.

Yet the study suggested that savoury snacks are actually associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. For that there can only be one reason, says Dr Amati: “Fat-free popcorn”.

“It’s no secret that popcorn is good for you,” she adds, given that it’s both low in calories and often highly satiating, the exact opposite of many UPFs.

This is despite the fact that ready-made popcorn often has a long shelf life, a telltale sign of its UPF status. “As a high-fibre, low-fat snack, this one is obviously not going to be problematic,” Dr Amati concludes.

Soups

They seem hearty and veggie-packed, but soups can be some of the most deceptive foods in the supermarket when it comes to how they’re processed.

Many tinned soups have a sky-high sugar content and some require handfuls of regulators and modulators to hold themselves together, even when their primary ingredients are vegetables and water.

The quality of many tinned and even fresh soups varies widely, “from quality fresh soups made with vegetables and pulses to more highly processed soups, such as tinned soups containing thickeners and low-quality meat,” Rice explains.

The researchers behind the Harvard study have found that ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat foods were the third most consumed type of UPF, behind breads and cereals as one group as well as sweet snacks and desserts.

It is just as well then that an abundance of vegetables can outweigh the harms of additives, as part of a balanced diet.

“Most fresh soups do have vegetables in them, but also a lot of added salt,” Dr Amati notes. “If that’s a good way for you to get extra veggies then you probably still shouldn’t have them every day, but it could be an occasional option.”

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