[seanhandley]

A good way to think of UPF is that it's "pre-chewed" food, due to the highly refined nature of it. The food matrix (structure) is destroyed, which fundamentally changes how your body metabolises it, bearing in mind this is a system evolved over millions of years to break down a mixture of whole foods in stages.

It's not even about the macronutrients - it's completely mismatched to our physiology. The nutrients are quickly absorbed due to the lack of structure so you get big blood sugar spikes and dips, making it hard to manage appetite (invariably leading to over-eating).

UPF is generally low fibre, so the microbiome is starved. It often contains emulsifiers which have the effect of a detergent in the gut lining, further damaging the microbiome.

It shouldn't be called "food". It's industrially produced pseudo-food with increasingly convincing evidence that it's contributing significantly to heart disease, diabetes, mental health issues, etc.

[kevinrpope]

Genuine question: do you have any links you could share regarding the "emulsifiers as detergent" claim? I assume this mainly refers to chemical emulsifiers and not those that are naturally-occuring (like in eggs or garlic).