Cutting back on sugar can have many health benefits. Many people think of that sugar packet in coffee because those white sugar grains are visible and obvious. The problem is another: the sugar that is added during the manufacturing of ultra-processed foods is often not obvious to consumers because it is not in its traditional form. For example, did you know that a quarter of a bottle of ketchup is sugar?
To complicate matters, sugar doesn’t always appear as such on the label, but is instead identified as corn syrup, sucrose, glucose, maltose, grape juice concentrate, and other compounds that are actually sugar. But sugar isn’t the only food that gets overlooked. The same thing happens with fat.
Why Fat Is Necessary to Sell More Ultra-Processed Foods
Ultra-processed foods are made up of three main components: salt, fat and sugar. These ingredients are combined in just the right amount to achieve what food technologists call the no happiness or pleasure point, a combination of flavor, texture and subsequent stimulation of the brain’s reward centers.
If one component is missing, the others must compensate. Bagged potatoes are mostly fat and salty, although the starch in the potato, when broken down in the mouth, also produces a sweet sensation. Skim yogurt needs sugar or sweeteners, because otherwise its flavor is much less appealing. The same goes for “no added sugar” cookies. If you look at the label, the fat content is very high.
Any cook knows that fat is essential in the kitchen. Fats primarily affect the texture of foods and contribute to the creaminess, moistness, and fattiness of products, which creates a pleasant mouthfeel. Do you love Danish butter cookies? Fat is what makes them crunchy at room temperature and what contributes to that burst of flavor (due to the sugar and salt in them) when it melts in your mouth.
Additionally, fats have the ability to carry and amplify the flavors of other ingredients, as many flavor compounds are fat-soluble. This means that foods high in fat tend to have stronger and more complex flavors. On the one hand, fats influence the controlled release of flavors: being denser and less volatile than water, they allow flavors to be released more slowly, thus prolonging the enjoyment of food. On the other hand, fats stimulate specific receptors on the tongue called CD36, which are thought to detect fatty acids and contribute to feelings of satiety and satisfaction.
Where is the fat hidden?
If we are concerned about the sugar that is hidden in ultra-processed foods where we do not expect it, we must be aware that the same thing happens with fats. We may think that bagged chips or corn snacks are just potatoes or corn. In reality, these fried foods contain one third fat by weight. In a 100 gram bag, we will have 30 grams of fat, or about two and a half tablespoons of oil.
The math changes when we calculate calories. The potatoes in that bag alone contain 56 kcal, which is very little in fact. But in 30 grams of oil there are 265 kcal, which is almost five times more. Let’s look at these sugar-free cookies. More than half of that by weight is flour and other grains, but about 25% is fat. In four 10-gram cookies, we’ll be consuming 10 grams of fat, which is equivalent to 90 kcal of fat.
You might not expect to find this much fat in ultra-processed foods. Breakfast cereal? Depending on the type, up to 5 grams of fat per 100 grams. Whole-wheat bread? 5 to 10 grams of fat per 100 grams. Granola bars? About 7 grams per bar, or 30 grams of fat per 100 grams. Mayonnaise light It is not fat free, instead of being three quarters fat it is one quarter fat, which is still a significant amount of calories.
These fats are usually not the best quality. If you read the label, you will rarely find olive oil or avocado oil. Instead, the most common fats in solid foods, such as cookies, are hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats (trans fats). These fats are made through an industrial process that adds hydrogen to vegetable oils to make them solid at room temperature and replace fats like lard or butter. They are very economical and extend the shelf life of foods, but are known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Refined vegetable oils, such as soybean, sunflower, corn or palm oil, are a common ingredient. They are cheap and versatile, but are often refined at high temperatures, which can change their composition, cause them to lose nutrients and oxidize easily. This has led to the fact that, while they are considered healthy, they are beginning to be considered a risk factor for diseases, especially when their consumption is combined with a deficiency of omega-3 in the diet.
Finally, saturated fats are sometimes demonized, thinking of bacon or lard (which are also rich in oleic acid, the same one that makes olive oil healthy). However, in ultra-processed foods, it is common to find a saturated fat that is also hydrogenated: palm oil. This oil is used for its stability at high temperatures, which is practical for making cookies, but it contains 50% saturated fat. In the case of coconut oil, also used in ultra-processed foods, the percentage rises to 87%.
The fat in a cookie or cake may seem small, but the problem with hidden fats, like sugar, is their ubiquity. They are found in many foods that we eat thinking they are unimportant, but when added together they add up to a significant increase in daily calories, and with them the risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease and high cholesterol. If we eat fresh, home-cooked foods instead, we have the advantage of being able to make fats visible in our diet.
