Good morning. I tried to eliminate ultraprocessed foods from my family’s diet – more on the science and the challenges from my experiment below, along with news on Toronto Tempo’s opener and new weather technology tests. But first:
Today’s headlines
- Alberta’s elections watchdog alleges nearly 600 people had unauthorized access to the provincial electors list
- Three Canadians are isolating at home after disembarking a cruise ship that was hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak
- Starmer’s Labour Party suffers heavy early losses as Reform gains in British local elections
Kelly Grant’s youngest son Ethan eating his slow cooker meal before a hockey game, April 16.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
Nutrition
Unpacking ultraprocessed foods
Hi, I’m Kelly Grant, a health reporter with The Globe and Mail.
In the last couple of years, I’ve noticed a big spike in studies linking ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) with chronic disease. The bulk of the research blames our modern food environment, with its cornucopia of cheap, convenient and irresistible products, for increases in obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other diet-related ailments.
Less discussed, it seemed to me, was the time and labour it took to make three meals a day from scratch — the only way to eliminate ultraprocessed foods.
So I decided to try feeding my family of five for a week without any of the frozen staples or takeout dinners that make our busy life possible. You can read about what we learned in my feature today where I documented the whole experiment, including a food diary.
Kelly Grant prepares carrot muffins.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
In between cooking marathons, I interviewed food policy experts about how to eat fewer UPFs. Many of them told me governments would have to step in to make fresh, whole foods more accessible and industrial eats less so.
One of my favourite conversations – one that didn’t end up in the story – was with Lindsey Smith Taillie, a nutrition epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We talked about the challenge of defining UPFs, designing useful food labels and, naturally, how she feeds her own daughters, ages 6 and 9. Just for you Morning Update readers, here’s a snippet of that chat.
What are some examples of policies that work to help bring down consumption of ultraprocessed foods?
Actually, we don’t really have any examples yet of policies that reduce ultraprocessed foods. Most of the policies that have been implemented around the world target foods that are high in sugar or high in sodium or high in saturated fat. There’s a lot of overlap there with ultraprocessed foods, but not complete overlap. That’s important, because one of the big controversies around ultraprocessed foods is, what do you do about foods like whole grain breads or some flavoured yogurts that are technically ultraprocessed but wouldn’t qualify for a lot of these policies?
Can we talk about the controversy around how UPFs are defined?
One of the big challenges is that ultraprocessed is just a really expansive definition. Think about whole grain bread, as an example. Sure, a lot of whole grain breads include things like dough conditioners. They’re technically ultraprocessed. However, in this country, and probably in Canada, it would be really hard for most families to make fresh bread or buy fresh bread, because we don’t live in food retail environments where we have access to that on a regular basis. Bread is not really something that we’re concerned about [compared] to some of the other ultraprocessed foods that are engineered for you to overconsume.
What do you think of the front of package warning labels that Canada added at the start of this year? Have you seen them? They’re just very straightforward black and white labels that say high in sugar, high in sodium, high in saturated fats.
Canada’s labels – oh boy. I don’t know of any evidence to suggest that Canada’s labels are going to have a significant impact on consumer behaviour. It’s possible the food industry may reformulate some products because they don’t want to be labeled as “high in,” but from a visual design perspective, we know that the octagonal shape that they use in most of Latin America, or other warning shapes that use icons or triangles, tend to be more impactful.
Kelly Grant shops for non-ultraprocessed foods.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
What are some of the challenges associated with trying to avoid ultraprocessed foods in day-to-day life?
One of my pet peeves is that often the conversation around ultraprocessed foods is one of elimination – just cut them out. But the reality is, that’s very unrealistic living in the society that we live in. Time is really the biggest constraint. The reality is that part of the reason processed foods shifted from being convenience foods into being staples is because they reduced time spent cooking. The first paper I ever published was a paper showing women’s and men’s time spent cooking since 1960 onward. You can really see the sharp decline as women enter the workforce.
Can you tell me about how you feed your own family?
We’re a two-parent working household, so it’s a struggle, like it is for lots of households, especially at the end of the day, when you’re just fried. But we do really prioritize eating minimally processed foods. We don’t have a ton of processed snacks on hand. The kids have a snack drawer, but it has got some dried fruit. When their friends come over, they all complain about it. They have access to fresh fruit and string cheese and yogurt. I don’t want to be dogmatic about food. I want to enjoy food too.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
The Shot
‘The cost of child care is insane’
Vancouver mother Taryn Greig in her daughter's nursery room. She's been on a waitlist for affordable daycare for three years.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Globe and Mail
Five years into Canada’s plan for $10-a-day child care, the program appears to be on the brink of collapse.
The Wrap
What else we’re following
Fire prevention: A Vancouver-based company has been awarded $1-million to test cloud-seeding technology that could reduce lightning which sparks wildfires.
Prime Minister’s residence : Mark Carney says his government will soon have a plan to deal with 24 Sussex Dr., which needs millions in repairs, and has been sitting empty for a decade.
Abroad: Iran has created an agency to vet and tax vessels seeking passage through the crucial Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, fighting has flared up again between the U.S. and Iran.
On the court: Get to know the Toronto Tempo before tonight’s season-opener game for the WNBA expansion team.
On guard: Canadian tech star PointClickCare has a contingency plan to move to the U.S. if the trade war worsens.