Imagine grabbing a bag of your favorite potato chips at the grocery store and on the front is a warning label stating that your snack of choice is “ultraprocessed.” And what does that mean?
no doubt you have heard whole-grain foods (think fruits, vegetables, lean meats, whole grains, etc.) are a better option all day, every day. Yet many aisles in grocery stores remain devoted to hundreds, if not thousands, of shiny, pre-packaged, ready-to-eat “foods” (foods are in quotes because many of these products have no nutritional value at all). Other countries, like Chili, Uruguay, Y Israel, have begun implementing nutrient warning labels for products that are high in fat, sugar, saturated fat, and calories. Still, such a notion has yet to materialize in the United States.
Yet that is exactly what a recent comment published in the leading medical journal BMJ He said it needs to happen to protect consumers from foods that may be harmful to their health. The report, titled “Warning: Ultra-Processed: A Call for Warnings on Foods That Aren’t Really Food,” stated that “it’s about time consumers had a chance to see ultra-processed foods for what they are: foods that they are not real foods, containing nutrients but not real nutrition, widely marketed by supranational companies that offer options that are not real options.”
Oh. Tell us how you really feel, why not?
Responding to interview questions, one of the comment’s co-authors, Trish Cotter, Senior Advisor and Global Leader of the Food Policy Program at Vital Strategies, said, “More and more consumers are learning that ultra-processed foods contribute to poorer health. These packaged foods can’t be prepared in your home or kitchen, but marketing can make them very appealing and hard to tell apart from healthier foods.”
Cotter and his team believe that consumers shouldn’t have to take the time to examine every nutrition label and list of ingredients of products they buy in the supermarket. Instead, these potentially harmful food options should carry a bold “ultra-processed” warning label to “empower consumers to make healthier choices in real time.”
What is the problem?
Investigate has linked diets rich in ultra-processed foods with an increased risk of heart diseaseweight gain, cancer, and even death. While you may only occasionally snack on ultra-processed foods in moderation, surveys show that high-income countries get 50% or more of your total calories from ultra-processed foods while children and adolescents consume even more.
Meanwhile, obesity, diabetes, some common cancers, heart disease and more continue to rise year after year, with some experts saying they have reached pandemic levels. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the obesity rate has nearly tripled since 1975while diabetes has nearly doubled since 1980. WHO statistics also reveal that more than 1.9 billion adults (aged 18+) were considered overweight in 2016 and of these, more than 650 million were considered obese.
Additionally, a recent study showed that young adults fed an ultra-processed diet for two weeks typically consumed 500 more calories per day compared to those who ate an unprocessed diet. Those who ate an ultra-processed diet gained an average of two pounds over the two weeks (some gained even more).
So what exactly are ultra-processed foods?
according to a report published by Cambridge University Press in February 2019, ultra-processed foods are not “real food.” They are “formulations of food substances that are often modified by chemical processes and then assembled into ready-to-drink, hyperpalatable food and beverage products using flavors, colorants, emulsifiers and a myriad of other cosmetic additives. Most are manufactured and promoted by transnational corporations and other giant corporations. Their ultra-processing makes them highly profitable, intensely attractive and inherently unhealthy.”
Ultra-processed foods also contain cosmetic additives including flavors, flavor enhancers, colorsemulsifiers, emulsifying salts, sweeteners, thickeners and antifoaming, bulking, carbonated, foaming, gelling and glazing agents. Basically, ultra-processed foods are products that have low-cost ingredients, a long shelf life, and appeal to our senses: sight, taste, smell, and touch. Some experts consider them addictive. According to the comment from BMJultra-processed foods are “foods that cannot be made in your home kitchen because they have been chemically or physically transformed through industrial processes.”
Dietitian Molly Hembree explained it this way: “One way to think about food processing is how many steps should it take from the farm to the way it’s eaten on the plate. Often some degree of simple processing, such as puree pumpkin to get canned pumpkin, quick frozen strawberries to get a bag of frozen strawberries, or strand spaghetti with whole wheat to produce a quality product.”
“But adding numerous ingredients, requiring added sugarssodium and fat, as well as added colors, flavors and preservatives, often take the food further away from its ‘whole’ form and lower its nutritional value,” Hembree concluded.
Multiple sources have ultra-processed foods identified such as carbonated soft drinks, cakes, cookies, chips, ice cream, candy, cake mixes, frozen desserts, prepared pizzas, certain mass-produced breads, instant soups, packaged sandwich meats, hot dogs, and more. Ultra-processed food ingredients include “varieties of sugars (fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, ‘fruit juice concentrates’, maltodextrin, dextrose, lactose), modified oils (hydrogenated or interesterified oils) and protein sources (hydrolyzed protein, soy protein isolate, gluten, casein, whey protein and ‘mechanically separated meat’)”.
For more information, take a look 8 fast food chains with the most toxic food packaging.
What products must have a warning label, STAT?
We asked nutrition experts to name a few examples of products that should have an “ultra-processed” warning label printed on the front of the package. These were the items they identified.
This is an ultra-processed corn tortilla chip loaded with sodium and that it contains unhealthy ingredients such as monosodium glutamate, vegetable oils, palm/soybean oil, artificial colors, and many ingredients that are not naturally or whole-sourced, according to nutritionist Amy Shapiro. And we’d bet it’s not the only commercial tortilla chip out there with such a terrible ingredient list.
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According to Shapiro, refreshments they are a high-sugar product that provides “zero health benefits and has been linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic health conditions.” With artificial colors, multiple forms of sweeteners, and more, she believes soda is not only cheap, but also addictive and unhealthy.
“Marketed as a healthy snack, this bar packs more than six types of sugar into a single bar,” warns Shapiro. “Sure, it has ‘whole grains,’ but it also has guar gum and inflammatory ingredients that makes it less than healthy and certainly ultra-processed.”
“This product starts with refined wheat flour, adds sugar, a processed sausage, artificial flavors and other additives to make it an ultra-processed food,” Hembree said.
“Most products marketed as desserts are ultra-processed, including this item,” Hembree said. “The main ingredient is sugar, followed by more sugar like high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup, then a long list of oils, gums, colors, flavors and preservatives.”
With Fruity Pebbles cereal, sugar is the second ingredient and hydrogenated vegetable oil is the third. “They use five different artificial colors and flavors,” Shapiro said. Additionally, Fruity Pebbles contain the preservative BHA, which has been criticized for being carcinogenic.
Top Ramen definitely ticks the boxes for the ultra-processed category, Hembree said. And, while stories have circulated about starving artists and actors living on Top Ramen while trying to make it big (looking at you Matt Damon and Ben Affleck), this super cheap product is made with a number of questionable ingredients. These include enriched flour, Palm oilfood coloring, silicon dioxide, disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate, hydrolyzed corn protein and more.
In addition to calling for warning labels on ultra-processed foods, Cotter and his co-authors are calling on government agencies and health food advocates to step up and regulate these types of items. In the meantime, there are things you can do to protect yourself.
Shapiro suggested choosing snacks made from whole foods, such as pickles, hummus, nuts, seeds, and trail mix. She said it’s best to plan ahead and pack her own snacks to avoid buying an ultra-processed item.
Hembree said he aims to consume minimally processed foods on a regular basis. He also said that it’s okay to eat ultra-processed foods on special occasions (everything in moderation, right?). Doing this “will help in the battle against obesity, heart disease, diabetes and other chronic conditions,” he said.
Cotter said that until warning labels are in place, “you’ll still be looking for foods with five or fewer ingredients that look like something you could make at home, and that’s the advice we give others.”
