FEB 28

12. FEB 28

Assigned Work

• Van Tulleken, Chris, Ultra-Processed People, C1 "Why is there bacterial slime in my ice cream? The invention of UPF" (15-30; 15)
• Van Tulleken, Chris, C11, "UPF is pre-chewed" (171-180; 9)
• Van Tulleken, Chris, C15, "Dysregulatory bodies" (225-236; 11)

In-Class

• Assign SW2, "Assessing Industrial Foods"

Van Tulleken, Chris, Ultra-Processed People, C1 "Why is there bacterial slime in my ice cream? The invention of UPF" (15-30; 15)

• Food Social justice issue (connects with our discussion last class) p. 17-18. Do the cheap calories of UPF support the idea that they have a role to play in human nutrition? Or does it support the idea that UPF is a source of food injustice?

• why does UPF ice cream not melt: Ice cream as a paradigm for UPF.

• Emulsifiers

• Starches - some potato gastronomy (21), modified starches can replace fats and dairy, hold water during freezing and bulk out any sauce. (Do you think you are fooling your brain?)

• Gums - bacterial exudates; used with starches for thickening, like sugar substitutes, may promote overweight.

• Fats - aromatic molecules (of retronasal fame) all fat soluble. Fat is vehicle for flavor, also adds structure to foods. Butter an “inverted emulsion”.

• Butter history! Napoleon era contest for subsitute: oleomargarine (still from animal fats). Hydrogenation. Cottonseed. Crisco is born - first mass produced fake lard.

Van Tulleken, Chris, C11, "UPF is pre-chewed"

• How does UPF affect the structure of food (palatability) and what are the behavioral implications of UPF?

• Example of structure mattering - Apple study. Juice is pretty close to sugar soda.

• Coco Puffs, McD hamburgers, UPF bread. Speed of eating higher, no time to signal satiety to brain.

• Social justice issue - food deserts often have no UPF bread, real bread expensive.

• UPF may be changing our jaws.

• UPF consumed at higher rates. (Barbara Rolls is important. We’ll read her theory of “volumetrics”.). Some evidence of genetic disposition toward fast eating also.

• Unprocessed to processed to UPF (Nova scale) - calories per minute: 36, 54, 69.

Van Tulleken, Chris, C15, "Dysregulatory bodies"

• Different approaches to drugs v foods.

• Corn oil isn’t just made from squeezing corn. Read at 226. Could be “corn oil” on the label and have lots of additives from processing.

• Three approaches a food company can take with FDA. Full review, register additive as a GRAS (generally recognized as safe), “self-determination” that additive is a GRAS. Backlog of GRAS applications led to interpretation allowing self-determination.

• Experts cited in the chapter reviewed additive applications. Critical of Corn Oil ONE’s application. Wrong molecule!

• Concern about hormonal changes from additive connected to low fertility rates. [1]

• No complete list of approved additives. Maybe 10,0000, of which 1,000 self-determined. (Elsewhere in the book we learn the EU list is about 2,000.).

• Example of trans fats. If they had been self-approved, we wouldn’t know about them.

• Flavor ingredient regulation 232ff. Self-determined approval of 2,600 ingredients. Example of isoeugenol.

• Effects of additives fall disporportionately on the poor and low SES.

• EU regulation is better, but also problems. Ethical issues of the regulatory process: $2 billion and 100 million experiemental animals.

SW2: Assessing Industrial Foods

• Stage 1: Please write an 800 hundred word maximum answer to the following question by Monday, March 4, 2024, 11:59pm.

• Topic: We have been assessing industrial food primarily from the writings of Moss, Schatzker, and van Tulleken. In the first 500-600 words of your essay, draw upon these authors to answer these two questions: What are the primary concerns about processed and ultra-processed foods? What evidence supports these concerns? Then, in remainder of your essay, consider the social justice dimensions of industrial foods. Do they solve a problem of food insecurity or do you see them as an unjust way of limiting the health and life prospects of relatively poor eaters who can only afford industrial food?

• Advice about collaboration: Collaboration is part of the academic process and the intellectual world that college courses are based on, so it is important to me that you have the possibility to collaborate. I encourage you to collaborate with other students, but only up to the point of sharing ideas, references to class notes, and your own notes, verbally. Collaboration is also a great way to make sure that a high average level of learning and development occurs in the class. The best way to avoid plagiarism is to NOT share text of draft answers or outlines of your answer. Keep it verbal. Generate your own examples.

• Prepare your answer and submit it in the following way. You will lose points if you do not follow these instructions:

1. To assure anonymity, you must remove your name from the the "author name" that you may have provided when you set up your word processing application. For instructions on removing your name from an Word or Google document, [click here].
2. Format your answer in double spaced text, in a typical 12 point font, and using normal margins. Do not add spaces between paragraphs and indent the first line of each paragraph.
3. Do not put your name in the file or filename. You may put your student ID number in the file, but not in the filename. Save your file for this assignment with the name: "IndustrialFoods".
4. To turn in your assignment, log into courses.alfino.org, click on the "#0 - SW2 - Assessing Industrial Foods" dropbox.
5. If you cannot meet a deadline, you must email me about your circumstances (unless you are having an emergency) before the deadline or you will lose points.

• To accomodate the timing of Spring Break, we will skip peer review for this assignment.

• Stage 2: I will grade and briefly comment on your writing.