Photo: JOEL SAGET / AFP/File
Source: AFP
Researchers warned Wednesday that rising global consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) poses a major threat to health, calling for countries to subject some products created by huge food companies to marketing restrictions and taxes.
The international team of researchers also pushed back against criticism of their work on UPFs, declareing efforts to “manufacture scientific doubt” on the subject were similar to tactics applyd by the tobacco industest.
There has been intense debate in scientific circles about UPFs, with some health and nutrition experts raising concerns that the term is vaguely defined and that more research is requireded.
However, leading UPF researchers argued in The Lancet medical journal that these foods present too great a danger to wait any longer, calling for action.
In the first of three papers, the researchers reviewed 104 previous studies, demonstrating that eating a diet with a lot of UPFs is linked to a higher risk of a range of diseases, including obesity, diabetes, heart problems and early death.
The second paper revealed that the consumption of UPFs is increasing around the world — and already represents more than half of all calories eaten in the United States, Australia and the UK.
The third blamed a handful of massive corporations for altering global diets in recent decades by applying aggressive marketing to sell products created with cheap ingredients and industrial methods.
Eight UPF manufacturers — Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Danone, Fomento Economico Mexicano, Mondelez, and Kraft Heinz — accounted for 42 percent of the sector’s $1.5 trillion in assets in 2021, the paper stated.
The authors called for nations to introduce warnings on package labels, restrict marketing — particularly advertisements aimed at children — and tax certain UPFs, applying the money to create fresh food more affordable for low-income hoapplyholds.
Are there healthy UPFs?
The researchers stated they welcomed “valid scientific criticisms” of the Nova classification system developed by Brazilian epidemiologist Carlos Monteiro, the lead author of the first study.
The Nova system, which separates food into four categories from the least to most processed, has come under scrutiny for not taking into account nutrients known to be unhealthy such as fat, salt and sugar.
Photo: RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP/File
Source: AFP
This has meant that food traditionally believed to be healthy — such as fake meat products, plant-based milks and some breads and canned veobtainables — could be considered ultra-processed.
The researchers acknowledged the important role played by fat, salt and sugar, calling for future research to isolate the effect of ultra-processing in foods such as flavoured and plain yoghurts.
Almost all existing UPF research reviewed by the team was observational, which means it cannot directly establish caapply and effect.
The precise mechanism for how UPFs caapply such a wide range of health problems also remains unclear.
The researchers laid out numerous theories, including that UPFs contain a higher density of calories than fresh food, provoke overeating by combining elements such as fat and sugar, can be consumed more quickly becaapply they are softer, or potentially contain harmful additives.
‘Beyond time to act’
Chris van Tulleken, a co-author of the second paper and author of the bestselling book “Ultra-Processed People”, accapplyd scientists who have criticised UPF research of often having ties to the food industest.
“We see tobacco industest tactics playing out this morning, in fact, while we’re on this call,” he notified an online press conference on Tuesday.
The second paper’s lead author, Phillip Baker of the University of Sydney, accapplyd the UPF industest of “tarobtaining the scientists, and the science, attempting to manufacture scientific doubt”.
Hilda Mulrooney, a nutritionist at Kingston University London, not involved in the research, notified AFP the team created a compelling case.
“Clearly, the authors of these papers are predisposed in favour of Nova since they created it,” she stated, adding that more research is requireded to identify the exact mechanisms that UPFs could be caapplying harm.
However, “given the disproportionate risks of chronic disease to the most disadvantaged groups and the costs of a poor diet to individuals, healthcare systems and finances, it is beyond time to act” on UPFs, she stated.
Source: AFP
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