Today we bring a very interesting post and that can help you a lot to value if the basket of your purchase is composed of natural or processed foods.

Since the food industry has introduced great technology in its factories, every day we see new products in the market, and the reality is that many of them have normalized them in our diet.

But what is really a difference between a natural product, a processing and an ultra process?

First, know that WHO (World Health Organization) define as natural food Everything that has not been added sugar, fat, salt, or that have not passed any industrial treatment. For example: meat, fish, eggs, legumes, vegetables, vegetables ...

On the other hand, we have processed foods that have been treated by the industry through processes such as fermentation, pasteurization, conservation, cleaning or freezing. That these processes have passed does not mean that they are processed of poor quality. In fact, in this group we can find highly recommended products today to use in our diet. For example: legume flour (100%), yogurts (without added sugars), frozen natural fruits, cheeses with nothing added ...

Regarding the Ultra processing definition, it is all that product obtained using processed foods through quite improvable cooking techniques (frying, added ingredients such as glutamate, salt, vegetable fats, butter ...). In this way, the nutritional quality of the product worsens considerably. An example is: very processed hamburgers with low meat percentage, french fry potatoes, sauces, industrial pastries, desserts, sweetened jelly ...

As we have commented at the beginning of the post, the industry has played a lot with all the products we see on the shelves of the supermarkets, filling them with attractive labels so that you end up buying a product without really knowing if it is a good choice.

You always have to look at the list of ingredients and know if an ingredient has been added that worsen its nutritional quality. Remember that the ingredients are ordered from highest to less amount according to their content. It also serves to analyze the nutritional value table to compare the macronutrients that it gives us. In the case of yogurt, a yogurt is not the same with ingredients such as lactic ferments, powdered milk in front of an ingredients such as preservatives, jams, sweeteners and added sugars. Both have passed the same factory treatment, but they do not have the same nutritional quality, so they are not the same type of processing. This is what we are most interested in knowing when going to the purchase and preventing them from deceiving us.

That in your diet there is 15-20% of ultra processed foods is not worrying. As long as you prioritize natural foods, next to an active life, you can afford to eat Ultraprocess. If you want to avoid your decision at all costs, but it is not good to demonize food, or think that for eating it we will spoil everything achieved so far. We must understand the context in which we consume it and be aware of our choices at all times.

Regarding the nutritional density of natural foods against the defendants, it should be noted that there are some cases where their nutritional value is modified. For example, it is not the same to add to our Porridge 5-6 Natural anacardes than a troop of Anacardo cream. In the case of the tablespoon, we find more kcal since it has needed more anacardos to be able to get a cream, so its nutritional density is greater, but the quality is the same.

In periods of fat loss, or where we control the calories ingested for a reason for health, we must pay great attention to the snacks and soft -volume sodas, since they are ingesting very quickly and does not provide us with satiety. This normally happens with products Ultraprocess as previously cited.

 As a summary, we always recommend that the quality of the food in front of the Kcal that brings us is taken into account. And prioritize real food of good quality to have a food as complete and varied as possible, in addition to avoiding in the long term the appearance of certain digestive or metabolic pathologies, such as obesity or diabetes mellitus type II.