Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have more in common with cigarettes than with fruit or vegetables, and require far tighter regulation, according to a new report.
UPFs and cigarettes are engineered to encourage addiction and consumption, researchers from three US universities said, pointing to the parallels in widespread health harms that link both.
UPFs, which are widely available worldwide, are food products that have been industrially manufactured, often using emulsifiers or artificial colouring and flavours. The category includes soft drinks and packaged snacks such as crisps and biscuits.
There are similarities in the production processes of UPFs and cigarettes, and in manufacturers’ efforts to optimise the “doses” of products and how quickly they act on reward pathways in the body, according to the paper from researchers at Harvard, the University of Michigan and Duke University.
One of the authors, Prof Ashley Gearhardt of the University of Michigan, a clinical psychologist specialising in addiction, said her patients made the same links: “They would say, ‘I feel addicted to this stuff, I crave it – I used to smoke cigarettes [and] now I have the same habit but it’s with soda and doughnuts. I know it’s killing me; I want to quit, but I can’t.’”
You don’t remember much from what you read about Spam did you.
Spam was developed for the US Army during WW2 as a CHEAP way to get a lot of calories to soldiers at the front lines. It’s never been considered fancier than ham because Spam gets made from off cuts , scraps, and cheap cuts of the pig. It’s merely a cured unsmoked fatty pork paste with some spices added and then poured into a sealed can and pressure cooked.
The preservative you are so worried about is simply nitrated salt, commonly called Pink salt because it’s dyed pink to give you a fast visual warning that this ain’t table salt and should NOT be used for that EVER. Your local butcher shop will probably sell you some, (they might even just give you the couple of tablespoons you would need to cure the 5lbs of pork you just bought from them). Or you can just as easily order a pound of Pink salt from amazon like I do. Warning: a pound of it is a lot of curing salt, but I make 20lbs or more of bacon every year at home.
After you have the meat, all you need do is make you brine, (water, spices of your choice, and a table spoon or two of the Pink salt - how much depends on the size of your batch), and the patience to wait 4 or 5 days it takes for the magic happen. Then if you don’t want to pressure cook it while canning, you can slow cook your pork in the oven, then grind it into a fine paste adding whatever seasonings and spices you choose for more flavor, put it in freezer bags, (I use vacuum sealed bags), and freeze. You now have your own home made Spam…It’s not hard to do, just a bit time consuming while you wait.
Is it better than commercially made Spam? Most probably because you can make it taste the way YOU like it. And not how Hormel thinks it should taste. Recipes are just a goggle away and simple as all get out.
lips and assholes.
I’m going to just stop you right there.
I don’t understand how someone can go on a fucking tirade so ignorantly wrong these days when SEARCH ENGINES AND WIKIPEDIA EXIST. It takes less than a giving damn minute to fucking check yourself damn it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(food)
Spam literally existed before WW2.
PS: what you make is still not spam, nor will have the consistency of spam, although it will be similarish. I’ve cured my own meats too, except without the phosphates or nitrates, because I had dialysis.
uh, 24 months before WWII, and Hormel likely would have gone broke without WWII contracts.
I like how you say months instead of years to make it seem shorter, and ignore the actual date of entry into the war for the USA.
Just admit you’re wrong, geez. Spam wasn’t developed for WW2, since it existed years before the war even started in Europe.