Ultra-processed foods are a key driver of chronic diseases worldwide, and governments must act now, according to new papers published by an international team of health researchers.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Go to any grocery store and the shelves are full of ultra-processed foods. You know, the sugary sodas, the salty snacks, the prepackaged meals. They are really hard to avoid. Well, an international team of researchers says governments need to act urgently. They claim that there is clear evidence that this food causes chronic diseases around the world. And NPR’s Maria Godoy is here with more. Hi.
MARIA GODOY, BYLINE: Hi, Juana.
SUMMERS: Maria, what’s new in this research?
GODOY: Well, it brings together a huge amount of data. There are three articles, published in The Lancet, and they looked at years of evidence, over a hundred studies that have linked ultra-processed foods to poor health outcomes, including increased risk of type 2 diabetes, obesity, chronic kidney and heart disease, even depression. Dozens of scientists have reviewed this research and say there is now enough evidence to say that ultra-processed foods are a major problem. Here’s one of the paper’s authors, Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolina.
BARRY POPKIN: We can now say that truly ultra-processed foods represent a clear global threat to our health – not only to our physical health but also to our mental health in terms of their impacts on depression.
GODOY: Popkin and his co-authors called on governments to do something to reduce ultra-processed foods in the food supply.
SUMMERS: What kinds of policies are they calling for?
GODOY: Yes, they’re saying it’s time to use a strategy similar to that used against Big Tobacco, like taxes on soda, warning labels on packaged foods, a ban on marketing these foods to children and removing ultra-processed foods from large institutions like schools and hospitals. Marion Nestle, a nutrition researcher at NYU, is another author of the study. She says countries like Chile have adopted some of these policies and they work. She says some have been offered in the United States without success.
MARION NESTLE: They get nowhere because the industry fights back. It’s time to take on the industry. They have to stop.
SUMMERS: Maria, do we expect the Trump administration to do this?
GODOY: Well, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said ultra-processed foods are “poisoning Americans,” and he took credit for getting the industry to voluntarily get rid of some food dyes from its products. But again, this is voluntary. Federal dietary guidelines are expected to be released soon, and many expect them to tackle ultra-processed foods for the first time. These guidelines influence things like what is served in school meals, but they are not regulations. And some nutrition experts, like Harvard’s Dr. David Ludwig, point out that much of the food is considered ultra-processed and not all of it is unhealthy. So some yogurts, packaged whole-wheat breads, and jarred pasta sauces fall into the same ultra-processed category as a big bag of chips.
DAVID LUDWIG: By focusing on a target as imprecise as ultra-processed foods, we risk demonizing perfectly healthy foods, giving a health halo to obviously unhealthy foods and opening the door to industry manipulation.
GODOY: In a statement to NPR, the International Food & Beverage Alliance said overly broad policies targeting ultra-processed foods would “reduce, quote, ‘the availability of safe, affordable, shelf-stable options globally.’
SUMMERS: Interesting. Are they right?
GODOY: Well, ultra-processed foods dominate the American diet. One reason is that they are cheap and convenient. Research suggests they make up more than 70% of what you find in grocery stores. So if you want to limit them, the authors of the articles say you also need government policies that make minimally processed or whole foods like fruits and vegetables and lean meats more affordable and accessible, especially for low-income people.
SUMMERS: NPR’s Maria Godoy, thank you.
GODOY: With pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF BADBADNOTGOOD AND GHOSTFACE KILLAH SONG, “FOOD”)
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