How to Tell If Your Carbs Are Ultra-Processed (Just Add Water)

The Water Test: If you’ve been paying any attention to wellness content lately, you’ve gotten the message that ultra-processed foods (UPFs) aren’t great for us. But when staring at grocery store shelves, it’s genuinely hard to tell which products count as UPFs. However, there’s an easy enough way to figure it out, at least once you get home, according to Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian from Tufts University’s Food is Medicine Institute.

How to Do It: Mozaffarian developed a simple test for starchy foods that shows exactly what they do inside your body. Take something like bread or crackers and drop a bit in a glass of water. Wait three to four hours, then take a look. Does the food hold its shape? Or has it dissolved into mush floating in cloudy, starchy water?

What the Results Tell Us: If the food stays intact, that means the plant’s cell wall is still protecting the carbohydrates inside. So the food will digest more slowly, preventing blood sugar spikes. However, if it dissolves like a sponge, it indicates the manufacturing process has stripped away that barrier, and your body will rapidly convert that food into sugar. The test basically previews what happens in your stomach.