Ultra-processed food is super harmful to health and should come with a tobacco-style warning!
Professor of Nutrition and Public Health at the University of São Paulo, Carlos Monteiro said,
UPFs [Ultra-processed foods] are increasing their share in and domination of global diets, despite the risk they represent to health in terms of increasing the risk of multiple chronic diseases,
He added,
[They] are displacing healthier, less processed foods all over the world, and also causing a deterioration in diet quality due to their several harmful attributes,
Together, these foods are driving the pandemic of obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases, such as diabetes.
Speaking at the International Congress on Obesity 2024, Monteiro warned that ultra-processed foods are very common and impact human health drastically. He also added that they should be restricted with “front-of-pack warnings […] similar to those used for cigarette packs.”
Ultra-processed foods are the diet of more than half the population. Moreover, they increase the caloric intake of people who eat them, which is more harmful compared to unprocessed food with more salt, fat, or sugar content. In addition, it has multiple harmful effects on the body, which include diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and mental health problems.
Monterio further added,
Both tobacco and UPFs cause numerous serious illnesses and premature mortality; both are produced by transnational corporations that invest the enormous profits they obtain with their attractive/addictive products in aggressive marketing strategies, and in lobbying against regulation; and both are pathogenic (dangerous) by design,
Reformulation is not a solution.
Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Food Policy, City, University of London, Paul Coleman added,
We already know that consumption of ultra-processed foods and snacks high sugar are associated with rising rates of obesity. We also know that there are socioeconomic disparities in health and diet,
Such parents disregard labeling, Coleman said,
they know [UPFs] are bad for their child’s health, – little option but to buy these unhealthy options […] The low-cost and long-shelf of unhealthy snacks make them the most logical option, despite parents wanting to make healthy purchases.
Hilda Mulrooney, reader in nutrition and health, London Metroplolitan University said,
There is no such thing as a safe cigarette, even second-hand, so banning them is relatively straightforward in that the health case is very clear,
She further explained,
However, we need a range of nutrients including fat, sugar and salt, and they have multiple functions in foods – structural, shelf-life – not just taste and flavor and hedonic properties,
It is not as easy to reformulate some classes of foods to reduce them and they are not the same as tobacco because we need food – just not in the quantities most of us are consuming.”
