Three fundamental aspects affect the relationship between our diet and overall health (human and planetary): the degree of food processing (“Vrai/Real” as opposed to “false”, ultra-processed food), the proportion of animal/plant products (“Vegetable”) and dietary diversity (“Varied “). In terms of upstream production, whenever possible it is preferable to choose food that is “bio”/organic (B), local (L) and/or seasonal (S), especially fruit and vegetables. This is the 3V-BLS rule.
Simply put, this scientific and qualitative rule ensures that we eat well every day, and tells us to reduce ultra-processed foods, include more plant-based foods and vary our diet more. You don’t need to look any further. The Vrai/Real aspect is the most important, because until you can distinguish between real and ”false” foods, you run the risk of finding Vegetable and Variety in a range of ultra-processed foods – for example by eating ultra-processed animal product substitutes (vegetarian steaks, vegetarian cheeses, numerous industrial plant-based milks), which are more like edible chemistry than real food (e.g. whole fruit, vegetable patties, wholemeal bread or boiled lentils), and good for neither your health nor the planet. Vegetable and Varied are easy to grasp; Vrai/Real less so.
So let’s focus on the Vrai/Real. Ultra-processed foods, when consumed in excess (over 15% of daily calories), are primarily linked with greatly increased risks of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression and early death. In a nutshell, these are foods that have been artificialised by the addition of cosmetic substances to modify the taste, colour, flavour and/or texture of the food – hence the idea of artificialisation, because real foods don’t need this: they are sufficient in themselves. There are four types of cosmetic agents that you don’t use in the kitchen: 1) cosmetic additives (texturisers, colourings and taste modifiers like sweeteners, acidity regulators, etc.), 2) flavouring (natural, synthetic, extracts), 3) ultra-processed proteins, fats, fibres and sugars (glucose syrup, dextrose, invert sugar, interesterified fats, fibre and protein isolates, etc. ), and 4) drastic technological processes such as extrusion cooking (sweet and savoury snacks, children’s breakfast cereals, etc.) or puffing (puffed white rice cakes, industrial popcorn, etc.).
The burning issue is how to recognise them. Here are a few tips:
- If it has more than 5 ingredients, there is an 80% chance that a food is ultra-processed;
- Colourful, attractive packaging, often featuring figures from the world of children;
- Misleading nutritional claims: “enriched with…”, “source of…”, “low in…”, “wholegrain…”;
- Individual portions;
- Special offers;
- If they are displayed at the supermarket entrance.
However, it is perfectly possible to eat one or two ultra-processed foods a day without harming your health, but they should be the exception, not the rule. In France’s shops, around 30% of the industrial offer is not ultra-processed, leaving a wide range of choice.
As regards the Vegetable aspect, the idea is to consume fewer but better quality animal products (coming from extensive livestock farming that protects their well-being) and replace the shortfall with wholegrain cereals (at least once a day: brown rice, wholemeal bread, oat flakes, muesli, etc.), pulses (at least twice a week: lentils, white or kidney beans, chickpeas, soya, etc.) and nuts (one handful a day of almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, etc. as a snack), which are very good for your health and the planet and are under-consumed in France. With fruit and vegetables, it’s best to choose whole (solid) forms rather than viscous forms (compotes) and liquids (juices, soups), to help with chewing and satiety. This is also good for regulating food intake throughout the day. For example, prefer whole apples to apple compote, and apple compote to apple juice.
The good news is that a 3V shopping trolley costs 5% less than a trolley full of animal and ultra-processed products, if you go for highly affordable Vrai/Real, plant-based products like whole wheat pasta, tinned and frozen vegetables, fresh fruit, legumes and nuts in bulk or in packets/tins, etc.; foods that keep for a long time without being ultra-processed. In fact, there are plenty of high-quality industrial products available in supermarkets and hypermarkets: you just need to choose them according to their list of ingredients, which should be familiar to you! So, if you don’t have much time and don’t want to spend more, you can easily find 3V food in supermarkets. However, if you want to eat organic, avoid non-French, ultra-processed organic produce (around 50% of the industrial supply in France) and any that is not in season.
There are plenty of solutions, then. It’s hard to change your eating habits, certainly, but not impossible if you follow the right guidelines and enjoy taking an active role in what you eat. However, no matter how healthy and sustainable a food is, if it doesn’t taste good, we won’t buy it. There are ways of making food tasty and savoury, like adding culinary ingredients in moderation (spices, salt, pepper, quality fats and unrefined sugars like rapadura, galabé and muscovado). For instance, if you want to buy biscuits, apart from looking at the sugar content, choose the sort that are not ultra-processed and thus do not contain industrial cosmetic agents.
The 3Vs are thus easy to remember in everyday life, even if a little more difficult to live by. If you’re in a hurry, don’t want to cook and don’t want to spend more on food, you can achieve them by reducing animal and ultra-processed foods in favour of real, plant-based products – and there you go!
This article is excerpted from one of the files of the PRO BTP Health Observatory: Nutrition. You can find other resources related to this study file here.
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