That's the thing. It's not as simple as that. Same amount of calories is going to hit differently between UPF and low or unprocessed. And what in some places is called bread is in other places legally defined as cake or rubber squeaky toy.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It's a huge issue to a very select demographic known as "People who are aren't you."

[+] MareOfNights@discuss.tchncs.de -16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

The calories hit basically the same. The carbs might be closer to sugar and combined with the missing fiber you'll get a big insulin spike. Gotta watch out for those to not build resistance.

But there is this obsession with the "chemicals" like the Red dye 40 scare recently. Those are like 0.5% of the problem, but distract from the real problem of too many calories.

The point at which you should care about Red40 is when you're a professional athlete or bodybuilder on contest prep. No normal human has health issues from these "chemicals" (allergies notwithstanding) anywhere comparable to the issues of too many calories.

Edit: As a German I do agree that American "Bread" should be classified and sold as dishwashing sponges.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Nobody is talking about food dye.

Ultra-processed food, particularly carbohydrates, is digested differently and causes objectively sharper glucose spikes which do harm to your organs and body over time, even if you're not diabetic. But if you have any chance of developing diabetes, this effect will get much worse.

If eating two pizzas every night helps compensate for your ADHD, that's fine, but you need to talk to your doctor about what long-term consequences that will have on your body or consider different methods of managing your ADHD if your doctor predictably says that's a bad idea. You are not trapped in your way of living, you are comfortable in your way of living. And you most definitely should not speak for everyone.