超加工食品如何霸占你的購物車

英文原文：https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/feb/13/how-ultra-processed-food-took-over-your-shopping-basket-brazil-carlos-monteiro

英文音頻：https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2023/may/17/from-the-archive-how-ultra-processed-food-took-over-your-shopping-basket-podcast

中文小結：

當人們發現他們無法控制自己吃下許多麵包、蛋糕或其他高糖食物時，這並不代表他們的自控力很弱。他們吃下的這些超加工食品就是以讓人們上癮為目的來製作的。超加工食品通常被定義爲營養含量很低，含糖、鹽、脂肪量很高，且讓人上癮的食物。

超加工食品如今遍及世界。在一個火車站的咖啡店裏，作者比.威爾遜（Bee Wilson）發現店裏提供的非超加工食品就只有香蕉和一袋堅果。據統計，英國和美國國民的總熱量攝入中有超過一半卡路里都來自超加工食品。超加工食品通常由高度精煉原料製成，例如植物油、麵粉、乳清蛋白和糖。無論去到哪裏，你總能在超市貨架發現它們的身影。超加工食品在人類食譜中的占比從未像今天這樣高。它們可以是你在休閑時吃的零食，也可以是你的速食早餐或者宵夜。人們埋怨自己過度飲食，但是有證據顯示正是超加工食品的特性造成了過度飲食的問題。

2014年，巴西政府采取一種很激進的政策，讓國民徹底拒絕超加工食品。據統計，巴西體重過重的人數在2002年至2013年間從人口占比的7.5%暴漲到17.5%。大範圍的研究表明人們日常食譜中高占比的超加工食品正是罪魁禍首。這些食品能使食用者患上哮喘、心髒病、胃腸道疾病的幾率比其他人群更高。

巴西的一位營養學研究員蒙泰魯（Monteiro）帶領了他的同事對此問題展開課題研究，他將所有食物根據加工程度分爲四種類型，他將其稱爲NOVA食物分類系統：第一個類別是完全沒有經過一點加工程序的自然食品（unprocessed or minimally processed foods），像新鮮的蔬果、肉類或者其他經過粗製的食物。第二個類別是自然添加物（processed culinary ingredients），如奶油、澱粉，是為了調理第一組別未加工食物而添加的食品。第三個類別是加工食品（processed foods），如腌製物、發酵物、或用其他方式令保存保質期延長的食物。 剩下的經過過度加工的則被成爲超加工食品（ultra-processed foods）。

凱文.霍爾（Kevin Hall）是一位在馬里蘭州，貝塞斯達的營養學家，他的工作是研究人們爲什麽會變胖。他認爲超加工食品的危害是謠傳，蒙泰魯的研究只是發現攝入超加工食品可能與病人患各種疾病的概率更高有聯係，並不代表超加工食品就是疾病的源頭，他決心消除這個誤會。他和他的同事作了一個實驗，研究食用超加工食品是否會導致過度飲食和體重增長。實驗在2018年展開，分別有10個成年男性和女性被選爲實驗對象，他們將在實驗室裏待4個星期，食物由實驗團隊嚴格控制，前兩個星期只吃超加工食品，后兩個星期吃非加工食品，他們可以想吃多少吃多少。實驗結果顯示前兩個星期内，實驗對象平均增長了1KG的體重。

家庭煮食在英國已經是一個被遺忘的概念，而在巴西，無論貧富人家都還保有家庭烹飪的習慣。 在英美等發達國家，人們和超加工食品的聯係已經持續數代。如果你要和一個出生在70年代的英國人搭訕，只要和TA分享你對某個流行的零食牌子的美好回憶就能打開話匣子了。

與他人分享你喜愛的工業加工食物是一種向別人展現你很好相處的方式。

蒙泰魯和他的同事今年年初撰寫了一份指南，幫助辨別超加工食品。閲讀食物標簽時，如果遇到以下明顯不屬於家庭厨房的原料中的一種，例如轉化糖漿（invert sugar）、麥芽糊精（maltodextrin）、葡萄糖（dextrose）、乳糖（lactose）、水溶或非水溶性纖維（soluble or insoluble fibre）、氫化脂肪（hydrogenated oil）或交酯化油脂（interesterified oil）。還有添加劑，例如增味劑（flavor enhancers）、色素（colors）、乳化劑（emulsifiers）、乳化鹽（emulsifying salts）、甜味劑（sweeteners）、增稠劑（thickeners）、消泡劑（anti-foaming）、膨脹劑（bulking）、碳酸化劑（carbonating）、起泡劑（foaming）、膠凝劑（gelling）、包覆劑（glazing agents），就能判斷該商品屬於超加工食品。

一個由法國志願者運營的網站Open Food Facts，搜集了來自世界各地的加工食品並將它們按照NOVA食物分類系統一一歸類。安東尼.華納（Anthony Warner）, 一位前食品加工行業的厨師，在網路上抗議NOVA使人們對進食產生恐懼和負罪感。他認爲這使許多人的生活變得更加焦慮。

超加工食品讓人增重的理由尚不清楚，但蒙泰魯發現超加工食品比其他食物更柔軟、風味更佳的特點會使人進食的速度變快。同時，在未加工食品中存在的一種叫PYY的荷爾蒙，會讓人的飽腹感更持久。他們正在籌劃另一個研究，探索超加工食品對人體健康的影響。隨著人們普遍提高對食物安全的意識，工業界也在與時俱進，根據新的飲食觀念研發新的加工食品。一旦你認爲超加工食品的問題根源在食物加工，食品工業的這些小把戲只是欲蓋彌彰罷了。超加工食品缺乏的營養不能通過更精細的加工和包裝來彌補。

English Summary:

People who found themselves binge eating bread, cake or other high-sugar food were not weak in self-control. It is the ultraprocessed food that is designed to make people hard to stop eating. Ultra-processed food is usually defined as food that is low in essential nutrients, high in sugar, salt and fat; last and not least, hard to resist.

Ultra-processed food can be found anywhere nowadays. In a coffee shop at a train station, Wilson was surprised to find that the only food that was not ultra-processed was a banana and a packet of nuts. More than half of the calories consumed in the US and UK come from ultra-processed food. They were made from highly refined ingredients, like cheap vegetable oil, flour, whey protein and sugar. No matter where you go, you can always find them on the shelves of a local supermarket. The percentage of ultra-processed food in people's daily diet has never been as high as it is today. It can be any snacks you consumed during your freetime, your quick breakfast or your midnight indulgent food. People often blame themselves for overeating, but evidence suggests that it is in the nature of these kinds of food to be overeaten.

In 2014, Brazilian government took a radical step of urging its citizens to avoid ultra-processed food completely. The number of overweight people in Brazil more than double from 7.5% of the population to 17.5% over the period of 2002 to 2013. A large-scale research proved that a high degree of UPF in our diet lead to higher rate of athma, heart disease, gastrointestinal disorder.

Monteiro has transformed the public field of nutrition by classifying all food into four kinds by the degree to which they are processed: he called it the nova system. The first category is the least processed, including fresh vegetables, fruits, meat and any other food that is roughly processed. The second group is called processed culinary ingredients, like butter, flower and foods that are cooked with group1 foods to make the meal more delicious. The category three is called processed food. It contains foods that are preserved, fermented, pickled, salted.

Kevin Hall, a nutritionist who studied how people gain weight at Bethesda, Maryland, resolved to clear up the misconception that ultra-processed food is the cause of diseases. As the saying goes, "correlation is not causation." The fact that people who tend to eat more UPF and are prone to obesity and cancers, does not mean these factors are directly correlated. He and his colleagues did an experiment about UPF on whether concumption of it caused overeating and weight gain. A carefully controlled trial was conducted in 2018, in which ten men and ten women were given a certain amount of food in a laboratory for consecutive four weeks. Participants ate ultra-processed food for the first two weeks, and unprocessed food for the rest of the experiment. They are told to eat as much or as little as they like. The result turned out that the participants gained an average of 1kg over just two weeks.

The notion of homecooking has been a long forgotten idea in the UK, while in Brazil, people still cook their everyday meal at home regardless of economic conditions. The relationship with ultraprocessed food in the UK and US has been extensive for generations. To bond with others born in the 70s in the UK, just mention your memoriable time of enjoying snacks of some popular brands from that period.

A taste for industiralized processed food is a way to insure others that you are OK.

Monteiro and his colleagues worked on a paper that will help people identity ultra-processed foods eariler this year. Tell-tale ingredients are invert sugar, maltodextrin, dextrose, lactose, soluble or insoluble fibre, hydrogenated or interesterified oil. Additives like flavor enhancers, colors, emulsifiers, emulsifying salts, sweeteners, thickeners, anti-foaming, bulking, carbonating, foaming, gelling, glazing agents are also in the list.

A website called Open Food Facts maintained by French volunteers, has collected the data of packaged foods around the world and fitted them into the Nova system. Anthony Warner, a former food industry development chef, protested against Nova for stoking fear and guilt about food. He thought that it adds to the stress of already difficult lives.

The reason for ultra-processed food making us gain weight is still unknown, but Monteiro discovered that people on the ultra-processed diet tend to eat faster, maybe because the foods are softer and more appetizing. A hormone called PYY, prevalent in the unprocessed diet, was found to be keeping us fuller for longer. Another research was under preparation for probing into the effect of ultra-processed foods on people's physical health. Industrial world reformulated the processed food aligning with the theory of the day. But once you accept that processing is itself part of the problem, all of this tweaking becomes meaningless window-dressing. The lack of nutrition in ultra-processed food cannot be fulfilled by more sophisticated processing.