The rise of ultra-processed foods and why they’re really bad for our health
<p>Humans (and our ancestors) have been processing food for at least <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/processed-food-a-two-million-year-history/">1.8 million years</a>. Roasting, drying, grinding and other techniques made food more nutritious, durable and tasty. This helped our ancestors to colonise diverse habitats, and then develop settlements and civilisations.</p>
<p>Many traditional foods used in cooking today are processed in some way, such as grains, cheeses, dried fish and fermented vegetables. Processing itself is not the problem.</p>
<p>Only much more recently has a different type of food processing emerged: one that is more extensive, and uses new chemical and physical techniques. This is called ultra-processing, and the resulting products <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/ca5644en/ca5644en.pdf">ultra-processed foods</a>.</p>
<p>To make these foods, cheap ingredients such as starches, vegetable oils and sugars, are combined with cosmetic additives like colours, flavours and emulsifiers. Think sugary drinks, confectionery, mass-produced breads, snack foods, sweetened dairy products and frozen desserts.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, these foods are terrible for our health. And we’re eating more of them than ever before, partially because of aggressive marketing and lobbying by “Big Food”.</p>
<p><strong>Ultra-processed foods are harming our health</strong></p>
<p>So concludes our <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/7/1955">recent literature review</a>. We found that more ultra-processed foods in the diet associates with higher risks of obesity, heart disease and stroke, type-2 diabetes, cancer, frailty, depression and death.</p>
<p>These harms can be caused by the foods’ poor nutritional profile, as many are high in added sugars, salt and trans-fats. Also, if you tend to eat more ultra-processed foods, it means you probably eat fewer fresh and less-processed foods.</p>
<p>Industrial processing itself can also be harmful. For example, certain food additives <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5872783/">can disrupt our gut bacteria</a> and trigger inflammation, while plasticisers in packaging can <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019317416?via%3Dihub">interfere with our hormonal system</a>.</p>
<p>Certain features of ultra-processed foods also promote over-consumption. Product flavours, aromas and mouthfeel are designed to make these foods ultra-tasty, and perhaps even <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30439381/">addictive</a>.</p>
<p>Ultra-processed foods also harm the environment. For example, food packaging generates much of the plastic waste that enters marine ecosystems.</p>
<p><strong>And yet, we’re eating more and more of them</strong></p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343478299_Ultra-processed_foods_and_the_nutrition_transition_Global_regional_and_national_trends_food_systems_transformations_and_political_economy_drivers">our latest study</a>, published in August, we found ultra-processed food sales are booming nearly everywhere in the world.</p>
<p>Sales are highest in rich countries like Australia, the United States and Canada. They are rising rapidly in middle-income countries like China, South Africa and Brazil, which are highly populated. The scale of dietary change and harms to health are therefore likely immense.</p>
<p><strong>‘Big Food’ is driving consumption</strong></p>
<p>We <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343478299_Ultra-processed_foods_and_the_nutrition_transition_Global_regional_and_national_trends_food_systems_transformations_and_political_economy_drivers">also asked</a>: what explains the global rise in ultra-processed food sales? Growing incomes, more people living in cities, and working families seeking convenience are a few factors that contribute.</p>
<p>However, it’s also clear “Big Food” corporations are driving ultra-processed food consumption globally — think Coca-Cola, Nestlé and McDonald’s. Sales growth <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001235">is lower</a> in countries where such corporations have a limited presence.</p>
<p>Globalisation has allowed these corporations to make huge investments in their overseas operations. The <a href="https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/_1b69e1e69528e5630a2842ce673df6eb/cocacolacompany/db/734/7242/annual_report/coca-cola-business-and-sustainability-report-2019+%281%29.pdf">Coca-Cola System</a>, for example, now includes 900 bottling plants worldwide, distributing 2 billion servings every day.</p>
<p>As Big Food globalises, their advertising and promotion becomes widespread. New digital technologies, such as gaming, are used to target children. By collecting <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09581596.2017.1392483">large amounts of personal data online</a>, companies can even target their advertising at us as individuals.</p>
<p>Supermarkets are now spreading throughout the developing world, provisioning ultra-processed foods at scale, and at low prices. Where supermarkets don’t exist, other distribution strategies are used. For example, Nestlé uses its “door-to-door” salesforce to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/16/health/brazil-obesity-nestle.html">reach thousands</a> of poor households in Brazil’s urban slums.</p>
<p>Rising consumption also reflects <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343478299_Ultra-processed_foods_and_the_nutrition_transition_Global_regional_and_national_trends_food_systems_transformations_and_political_economy_drivers">Big Food’s political power</a> to undermine public health policies. This includes lobbying policymakers, making political donations, funding favourable research, and partnerships with community organisations.</p>
<p><strong>Here’s how things can change</strong></p>
<p>The evidence that ultra-processed foods are harming our health and the planet is clear. We must now consider using a variety of strategies to decrease consumption. This includes adopting new laws and regulations, for example by using taxation, marketing restrictions and removing these products from schools.</p>
<p>We cannot rely on industry-preferred responses such as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14747731.2016.1239806">product reformulation</a> alone. After all, reformulated ultra-processed foods are usually still ultra-processed.</p>
<p>Further, simply telling individuals to “<a href="https://theconversation.com/fat-nation-the-rise-and-fall-of-obesity-on-the-political-agenda-72875">be more responsible</a>” is unlikely to work, when Big Food spends billions every year marketing unhealthy products to undermine that responsibility.</p>
<p>Should dietary guidelines now strongly advise people to avoid ultra-processed foods? Brazil and other Latin American countries <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/ca5644en/ca5644en.pdf">are already doing this</a>.</p>
<p>And for us as individuals the advice is simple — avoid ultra-processed foods altogether.</p>
<p><em>Written by Phillip Baker, Mark Lawrence and Priscilla Machado. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-ultra-processed-foods-and-why-theyre-really-bad-for-our-health-140537">The Conversation.</a> </em></p>
