{"id":488611,"date":"2026-02-20T22:43:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/488611\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T22:43:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:43:20","slug":"making-sense-of-ultra-processed-foods-at-the-grocery-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/488611\/","title":{"rendered":"Making sense of ultra-processed foods at the grocery store"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"has-block-animation has-fly-in-animation\">Consumers have been warned about the health risks of consuming <a href=\"https:\/\/nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu\/processed-foods\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ultra-processed foods<\/a>, but avoiding these products can be easier said than done. To understand what ingredients to look out for and how to pick the healthiest options, Boston Globe writer Tal Kopan recently brought Harvard Chan School\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/hsph.harvard.edu\/profile\/jerold-r-mande\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jerold Mande<\/a> along on a trip to the grocery store.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-block-animation has-fly-in-animation\">In Kopan\u2019s Feb. 17 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2026\/02\/17\/magazine\/ultraprocessed-foods-health-advice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">article<\/a>, Mande, adjunct professor of nutrition, said that the main concern with ultra-processed foods is that they are formulated to be calorically dense and highly palatable, making overeating easy. He suggested avoiding foods with a sweetener as the second or third ingredient and looking for foods that are low in sodium and saturated fats, and high in dietary fiber.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-block-animation has-fly-in-animation\">Mande said that in the current food environment, consumers shouldn\u2019t strive to eat a perfect diet but rather make improvements that feel manageable. He said that small swaps\u2014such as choosing whole grain instead of flour tortillas or adding peas to boxed macaroni and cheese\u2014make a difference. He added that people shouldn\u2019t feel like failures if they have trouble figuring out how to make healthy choices. \u201cThe answer is we have to fix the system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-block-animation has-fly-in-animation\">Read the Boston Globe article: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2026\/02\/17\/magazine\/ultraprocessed-foods-health-advice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Ultraprocessing. Dyes. Sugars. An expert helped me navigate the grocery store.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-block-animation has-fly-in-animation\">Learn more<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-block-animation has-fly-in-animation\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hsph.harvard.edu\/news\/the-worst-ultra-processed-foods-for-metabolic-health\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The worst ultra-processed foods for metabolic health<\/a> (Harvard Chan School news)<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-block-animation has-fly-in-animation\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hsph.harvard.edu\/news\/healthy-eating-advice-from-nutrition-expert-walter-willett\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Healthy eating advice from nutrition expert Walter Willett<\/a> (Harvard Chan School news)<\/p>\n<p>\nLast Updated<\/p>\n<p>Get the latest public health news<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-block-animation has-fly-in-animation\">Stay connected with Harvard Chan School<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Consumers have been warned about the health risks of consuming ultra-processed foods, but avoiding these products can be&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[49,48,84,395],"class_list":["post-488611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}