What is ultra-processed food?
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Norman, what is your favourite ultra-processed food?
Oh, God. Confessional. Confessional. I can't resist a good sausage.
I shouldn't laugh as much. Okay, cool.
Do you want to unpack that anymore? Okay. Since it's just you and me and nobody's listening.
Yeah, this is a safe space.
As a good Jewish boy, I have to admit, I love a British pork sausage.
You really are going to get cancelled.
I am. I'm done. Next time I go to synagogue, I'm screwed.
Mine isn't quite as controversial as that. My favourite ultra-processed food is nerds. Do you know what I'm talking about?
No.
Those little, come on, you've got children. You've got grandchildren. Nerds are like they're little candies. They're like brightly coloured. They're sort of sour. They're amazing.
Oh, I've always hated those. Used to call them boilings in Glasgow. Boilings.
What examples introduce the topic of ultra-processed foods?
Boilings? What? Now I'm looking this up. Google is failing me here. I'll just have to believe you. No, nerds, I guess, in a sense, you truly are what you eat. But yes, that would be my go-to.
I rely on the What's That Rash audience internationally to come to my rescue on boilings.
Well, we are going to be talking today about ultra-processed foods here on What's That Rash.
That's the show where we answer the health questions that everybody is asking.
Well, today we have questions from Carmen and from Renee, both asking about ultra processed foods. Carmen starts with a nice opening salvo, which is basically just buttering us up. Carmen says, my partner and I love your podcast and frequently discuss the topics that come up each week. Often in debate, but Dr. Norman Swan said X is an argument that neither of us will have any rebuttal to. Anyway, Carmen continues, after watching a recent TV program about ultra processed foods, we couldn't quite agree on whether we thought that ultra processed foods should inherently be labeled as bad for you. Is there any real evidence specifically regarding the additives or manufacturing processes leading to health implications?
Or is it unfair to label these foods as bad when it could just be tied back to an overall unhealthy diet? That is, the ultra-processed label doesn't add anything to what we already know about which foods are unhealthy for us. I'm interested to hear your take on this and hopefully my partner and I will be able to settle our debate in my favor, of course.
But you haven't bribed us, Carmen. How are we possibly going to adjudicate in your favor?
But anyway. And Renee says, after watching a program on television recently, I'm interested in hearing your review of the evidence about the consumption of ultra-processed foods and health outcomes. So both Carmen and Renee are referencing a television program. I know there's a lot out there about ultra-processed foods, but I'm choosing to believe that they've been watching the recent ABC coverage from Four Corners. Don't correct us if we're wrong, Carmen and Renee.
Yeah. I mean, when these questions came through, you and I thought we'd already done this on What's That Like?
I was honestly shooketh to discover that we hadn't done a dedicated episode on ultra-processed foods because I have so many memories of talking about these foods with you, Norman, both on the health report when we worked together on that a couple of years ago and obviously on What's That Rash. We have kind of talked about it a bit. We did the episode on seed oils. We did one on if there's any point in having a gluten-free diet if you're not celiac. But we haven't done a dedicated episode on ultra-processed foods before and today we remedy this.
Thank you for your questions, forcing us to confront the reality that we need to confront it.
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