Consuming large amounts of ultra-processed food (UPF) increases the risk of an early death, according to a international study that has reignited calls for a crackdown on UPF.
Each 10% extra intake of UPF, such as bread, cakes and ready meals, increases someone’s risk of dying before they reach 75 by 3%, according to research in countries including the US and England.
UPF is so damaging to health that it is implicated in as many as one in seven of all premature deaths that occur in some countries, according to a paper in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
They are associated with 124,107 early deaths in the US a year and 17,781 deaths every year in England, the review of dietary and mortality data from eight countries found.
For comparison, an American store brand toast:
That’s what happens if you’re a) allowed to do it and b) want to erase “time” from the ingredient list. All those dough conditioners are unnecessary even if you don’t use sourdough if you only give the dough enough time to autolyse: Actually have the water seep in, not just wet the particles, where enzymes then change the chemical structure, e.g. turning starch into maltose. Those enzymes come with the flour, they’re how the seeds themselves turn storage into ready energy.
German industrial bakeries have long lines of essentially bioreactors taking the dough through various processes over a day or so, which is the same pace that traditional bakeries use, just scaled up and highly controlled. Also for pre sliced bread they’re baking like 2m long loaves, in a conveyor oven. That American label is the bread equivalent of a beer brewed in a day, which is about at least four weeks too fast.