Melted, pounded, extruded: Why many ultra-processed foods are unhealthy

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Would you eat food that’s been predigested? Experts say that’s what we’re doing when we consume many popular packaged foods — those breads, cereals and chips that have been refined, pounded, heated, melted, shaped, extruded and packed with additives.

Next the corn is pulverized into a dough. Then it’s fed into an extrusion machine and molded into sheets.The chips are baked in an oven and then deep fried.Salt is added to the water and corn, and then it is canned.food matrix

In the United States, where ultra-processed foods make up 58 percent of the calories Americans consume, government experts arebetween ultra-processed foods and obesity, and their findings could influence the government’s influential Dietary Guidelines for Americans. These refined starches are often used to thicken and improve the “mouthfeel” of processed foods like puddings, sauces, salad dressings, canned soups, stews and baked goods. But they’re also used to make a variety of other ultra-processed foods through a manufacturing technique called extrusion cooking.

While the process can vary, the machine typically twists and heats the mixture, generating intense pressures, sheer forces and temperatures that melt the mixture. This process disrupts the food matrix of the starch: It breaks open the rigid cell walls inside the starch and destroys its microscopic granules, which contain long chains of glucose, a type of sugar.

 

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