One substack food writer asks a good question.
= = = = = START QUOTE:
Is wine an ultra-processed food?
Ultra-processed food is generally defined as:
Having five or more ingredients
Using additives that are not typically used in home cooking
Designed for a long shelf life
= = = = = END QUOTE.
Well, that certainly describes wine and other traditional aged or fermented foods, but we wouldn’t treat them as ‘ultra-processed’.
I’d rather use the Ellen Richards definition of sophisticated foods, based on offshoring the work that our digestive system is designed to do. The gut and stomach and gut bacteria are MEANT to spend time and effort in processing our food. When we turn it into pills or juices that take away the work, we also take away most of the nutrition. The nutrition is analyzed and synthesized by the enzymes and bacteria while they’re chewing up the fibers.
Wine is sophisticated even though it isn’t ‘ultra-processed’ in the modern sense. Sauerkraut and cheese are not sophisticated.
Polistra's Mill 