worth a quick read.
https://www.prevention.com/food-nutrition/a65677759/worst-best-ultra-processed-foods-american-heart-association/
That's a good quick summary. Thanks.
>Tortillas
Oof!
>> Tortillas
There's an example of something that drives me nuts in this discussion. There are literally three ingredients in a classic corn tortilla and these ingredients have not changed in hundreds of years: masa harina (which could be counted as two, since it is corn with a touch of lime), water and salt. Yes, wheat flour tortillas are typically made with refined flour, so that's a different beast
This is literally two items down from "Gummy fruit snacks" and on the same list as liquid cheese products and chicken nuggets
Meanwhile, the "good" list has Unsweetened high-fiber cereal which is a much more highly processed and "modern" food than a classic corn tortilla.
>> Tortillas
My guess is that the tortillas you buy in the major grocery chains is nothing like the 3 ingredient tortillas you describe.
I'm fortunate to have fresh tortillas available every day at HEB. Many local restaurants cook them fresh. Heck, even our local burrito place cooks them in front of you. https://youtube.com/shorts/FfcN8Meid9o
>> tortillas you buy in the major grocery chains
Actually, this will vary from shelf to shelf in the same store, which is part of where my frustration with this topic comes from.
The ingredients from the Mi Rancho corn tortillas on the shelf at my local chain grocery store: Water, Organic Whole White Corn, Organic Yellow Corn Masa Flour. Contains Less than 2% of Each of the Following: Organic Guar Gum, Trace of Lime.
Meanwhile, the ingredients of the Mission corn tortillas at the same store: Yellow Corn Masa Flour, Water, Contains 2% or Less of: Cellulose Gum, Guar Gum, and Propionic Acid, Benzoic Acid and Phosphoric (to Maintain Freshness).
Guar gum in very large quantities can swell in the GI tract and cause serious problems, but in normal dietary amounts it has been shown to improve blood cholesterol and blood sugar.
Meanwhile, the big pile lightly processed hippy "health food" cookie loaded with honey and butter are shown to cause obesity and diabetes.
One of the things we're seeing is people like RFK Jr and Paul Saladino convincing people that seed oils are ultra-processed foods (true) that are utterly toxic (not true) and getting them to convert to lightly processed foods (true) like butter and beef tallow, which are healthy, whole foods (false)
The best and latest evidence is that eating a lot of lightly-processed butter is associated with worse outcomes than eating a lot of ultra-processed seed oils.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40048719/
And the popular media coverage of the same study: https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/06/health/butter-seed-oils-reduced-death-wellness
Don't get me wrong. I have tried to avoid foods with lots of preservatives, colorings, artificial flavors, gums, conditioners and so forth for over 40 years. I haven't sat down to a handful of Doritos in decades.
But I think
1. It's super confusing when you have things like tortillas or yogurt* on the list
2. I suspect that the effects of the ultra-processed ingredients are downstream of things like high sugar, weight gain associated with those foods and so forth.
Or to put a fine point on it, consider three people.
Person 1 eats 2500 calories per day of which 1500 calories is UP junk food. That person is sedentary and *needs* 2000 calories per day, so is gaining 1 pound per week, has messed up blood sugar and is headed toward obesity.
Person 2 is a Tour de France rider and eats 6000 calories per day, 1500 calories of which is UP junk food and the other 4500 calories are the finest foods money can buy provided by the team dietitian.
Person 3 is a Tour de France rider who gets all 6000 calories per day from the amazing food set out by the team dietitian.
Person 3 doesn't exist, of course, because all TdF riders are taking in at least a couple thousand calories per day of UP foods (you can't compete in the TdF without it).
Anyway, my point is that I think Person 2 and Person 3 probably have nearly identical health outcomes, even though Person 2 eats just as much UP food as Person 1.
*RE yogurt... The 17yo staying with us for the summer likes strawberry Yoplait. I told her "That's milk-flavored jello, not actual yogurt." So when I would go to the store and ask what she wanted me to get, she would request "milk-flavored jello". Anyway, I would call Yoplait a UP food, but then there's Straus farms yogurt with 2 ingredients (milk and cultures) from grass-fed organic cattle.
PS - this Derek Thompson interview with UC Berkeley nutritionist Kevin Klatt was a good overview.
Why Are Americans So Unhealthy? Part I: Is Ultra-Processed Food Killing Us?
https://www.theringer.com/podcasts/plain-english-with-derek-thompson/2025/06/11/why-are-americans-so-unhealthy-part-i-is-ultra-processed-food-killing-us
> That's milk-flavored jello, not actual yogurt.
Again, that's what people are buying along with Mission tortillas. So I contend that the article listing them was the correct thing to do given the popularity with the general public.