Cook more at home to reduce ultra-processed food intake, say cardiologist groups | Ultra-processed foods

Want to reduce your consumption of ultra-processed foods? If so, cook at home more often, don’t eat late at night, and chew your food more slowly.

These are some of the tips doctors have offered to help people limit the amount of UPF they consume, given the acute and growing danger it poses to human health around the world.

Their recommendations also include eating plain yogurt rather than flavored or sweetened, replacing sugary drinks with water, and reading the nutrition label and ingredient list on any box, packet, or packet of food before purchasing anything.

These are some of the things that specialist cardiologists are advised to advise patients to do if they already have heart disease or are at risk of developing it. It is estimated that around 8 million people in the UK have been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, which kills around 170,000 people each year and is one of the country’s deadliest diseases. This means they are at risk of having or have already suffered a heart attack or stroke or have a condition such as atrial fibrillation.

This advice is outlined in a new ‘clinical consensus statement’ on how to tackle UPF, developed by the European Society of Cardiology and the European Association of Preventive Cardiology. They outlined steps cardiologists should take when talking to patients about their health.

For example, they should “encourage patients to cook at home more frequently,” “discuss with patients the potential benefits of avoiding late eating” and “advise patients to prefer high-fiber, minimally processed foods and to practice slower, more mindful eating to improve satiety and reduce overeating of FPUs,” according to the article published Thursday in the European Heart Journal.

Cardiologists should begin to raise the issue of UPF when talking to patients. They should routinely ask how much UPF they consume, and then “apply UPF guidance in outpatient clinics and during routine lifestyle assessment, especially in preventive cardiology.”

It is better to show patients pictures of UPF foods on sale in stores to remind them what products they are rather than relying on merely verbal explanations of such foods, which have little or no nutritional value, the statement added.

“Doctors should be having much more practical conversations with heart patients about the food they eat every day. Put simply, this means encouraging people to cook more at home where they can, although it can often be difficult, choose more fresh or minimally processed foods and reduce their consumption of products such as sugary drinks, packaged snacks, processed meats, convenience foods and takeaway meals which are often high in salt, sugar and unhealthy fats,” said Dr. Kawther Hashem, Senior Lecturer in Public Health Nutrition at Queen Mary University of London and Head of Research and Impact at Action on Salt and Sugar.

Doctors should advise people with heart problems to eat less salt, in particular, because it increases blood pressure, a leading cause of heart disease, stroke and kidney disease, she added.

“For people with heart conditions, reducing salt is especially important because it helps lower blood pressure, a leading risk factor for heart disease, stroke and kidney disease. Reducing sugary foods and drinks can also help reduce excess calorie intake and the risk of weight gain and type 2 diabetes.”

Professor Luigina Guasti, co-author of the paper, said: “Evidence shows that people who prepare more meals at home tend to have better overall diet quality and eat fewer ultra-processed foods. Even a small, incremental increase in meals prepared at home can improve health over time.”

Consuming fewer sugary drinks, packaged snacks and processed meats — which are common types of UPF — would be “a good first step toward healthier eating in general,” she added.

The paper is based on a review of existing evidence on the health risks of UPF. This confirmed the known danger that eating such foods too frequently increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease and death from cardiovascular disease.

Tracy Parker, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, said there was only so much individuals could do on their own in a bid to consume less UPF and the government should do more to create a healthier eating environment.