The backlash on ultra processed foods (UPF)
I knew the backlash from the focus on ultra-processed foods (UPF) being bad for you, would be coming soon. It was no surprise therefore to read The New York Times article today [1] stating that not all ultra processed foods are bad for you and claiming that the category of ultra-processed foods is “so broad, that it borders on useless.”
The arguments Dr Nicola Guess has put forward in defence of breakfast cereals and yoghurts are valid, given the research findings of the EPIC study published in the Lancet last month, which showed that cereals as a UPF were less associated with type 2 diabetes than other types of UPF [2].
Whilst Dr Guess readily admitted on 19 May 2024 that she’s “an industry-conflicted nutritional professional,”[3] I wondered if her comments might be more to do with the fact that the dietician has also received funding from Nestlé Health Sciences, which is a division of Nestlé. Back on 31 May 2021 the FT [4] claimed that Nestlé had acknowledged that “more than 60% of its mainstream foods do not meet a recognised definition of health.”
The dietician has however disclosed that she has consulted for Beyond Meat so I thought I’d therefore have a closer look at what’s in a Beyond Meat Burger as follows:
Water, Pea Protein* (15%), Rapeseed Oil, Flavouring, Rice Protein, Coconut Oil, Dried Yeast, Preservative (Potassium Lactate), Vinegar, Stabilisers (Methyl Cellulose, Calcium Chloride), Potato Starch, Salt, Apple Extract, Colour (Beetroot Red), Concentrated Pomegranate Juice, Potassium Salt, *Peas Are Legumes
For £4.50 you can buy something that contains more sodium (390mg vs 60mg) and almost the same amount of saturated fat (5g vs 6g) than a grass-fed burger, according to a 2023 Housekeeping article [5]. You could bake or fry two portabello mushrooms for much cheaper, add some mozzarella cheese or an egg, and you’d have a sustainable and delicious meal, without the chemicals.
The Economist article[6] I highlighted last week on Linkedin shows that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has not been regulating the chemicals that are put into UPF. Food companies have been using the “generally recognised as safe” (GRAS) loophole for years, so even the FDA does not know all the chemicals in UPF. It’s time that there’s more transparency as to what food companies are putting in UPF, which forms 57% of our UK calories and more than 58% in the US.[7] – adolescents consume much more.
Dr Nicola Guess and Chris van Tulleken (author of Ultra-Processed People who presented a recent BBC documentary called “Irresistible – why we can’t stop eating”) [8] might not see eye to eye when it comes to UPF, but at least we’re finally having some informed debate and discussion as to what we should do about them.
We need to minimise the negative impacts UPF are having on our health and our shockingly high obesity levels. Actions speak louder than words, so I look forward to hearing what our new government are going to do about UPF.
For those who’d like to know much more about UPF, my book “Food and How to Survive it” by Kathryn Bullock will be available to pre-order on Amazon on 27 December and on sale from 6 January 2025.
The articles mentioned above are listed below for those who want to read and judge for themselves:
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/16/opinion/ultraprocessed-food-nutrition.html
[2] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanepe/article/PIIS2666-7762(24)00210-2/fulltext
[3] https://drguess.substack.com/p/conflicts-of-interest
[4] https://www.ft.com/content/4c98d410-38b1-4be8-95b2-d029e054f492
[5] https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/diet-nutrition/a29074114/beyond-burger-nutrition-ingredients/
[6] https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/12/05/the-fda-does-not-know-what-chemicals-are-added-to-foods
[7] https://www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/GFRP_FactSheet_UltraProcessedFoods_2023_11.pdf
[8] https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0025gqs/irresistible-why-we-cant-stop-eating
Image: Thanks to Thanos Pal on Unsplash