What are ultra-processed foods? Are they bad for you?

US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has begun targetting ultra-processed foods.

Kennedy Jr has begun the process of eliminating a US Food and Drug Administration program called GRAS or “generally recognised as safe” which critics say has been abused by the food industry for decades.

Chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes and autoimmune disorders, on the rise in the United States for some time now, have been mainly due to ‘highly chemically processed foods’, RFK Jr has claimed.

Such foods are “poisoning” people, particularly children, Kennedy Jr said during Senate confirmation hearings. He has vowed to work to remove such foods from federal programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. “I will do everything in my power to put the health of Americans back on track,” he told lawmakers.

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This has set off alarms as ultra-processed foods have several negative effects on the body including heart disease, dementia and diabetes among others.

According to a recent study, ultra-processed foods can also increase the risk of early death .

Food manufacturers claim processing improves safety, supply and affordability.

However, with ultra-processed foods making up over 70 per cent of the US food supply, practical dietary advice is difficult even if science were definitive.

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Here is what nutrition experts had to say about processed food.

What do we know about ultra-processed foods?

Acknowledging that the majority of foods are subject to processing, be it through freezing, grinding, fermentation, pasteurisation or other techniques, Brazilian epidemiologist Carlos Monteiro and his research team introduced a novel food classification system in 2009.

This system categorises foods according to the level of processing they undergo, departing from traditional classifications based on nutrient content.

Foods with additives, colours and preservatives that cannot be duplicated in a home kitchen, created through industrial processes, are at the top of the four-tier scale, says National Institutes of Health (NIH) researcher Kevin Hall.

“These are most, but not all, of the packaged foods you see,” Hall said.

Such foods are often made to be both cheap and irresistibly delicious, said Dr Neena Prasad, director of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Food Policy Program. “They have just the right combination of sugar, salt and fat and you just can’t stop eating them,” Prasad said

However, the level of processing alone doesn’t determine whether a food is unhealthy or not, Hall noted. Whole-grain bread, yoghurt, tofu and infant formula are all highly processed, for instance, but they’re also nutritious.

Are ultra-processed foods harmful?

While numerous studies indicate a correlation between diets rich in these foods and adverse health outcomes, they cannot definitively establish a causal relationship, leaving open the possibility that other factors associated with the consumers are responsible.

Ultra-processed foods often have more sodium, fat and sugar and less fibre and protein. It’s unclear if these nutrients alone cause the negative effects. Hall’s team conducted a study comparing ultra-processed and unprocessed diets.

Published in 2019, the research included 20 adults who went to live at an NIH centre for a month. They received diets of ultra-processed and unprocessed foods matched for calories, sugar, fat, fibre and macronutrients for two weeks each and were told to eat as much as they liked.

When participants ate a diet of ultra-processed foods, they consumed about 500 calories per day more than when they were unprocessed foods, researchers found — and they gained an average of about 2 pounds (1 kilogram) during the study period. When they ate only unprocessed foods for the same amount of time, they lost about 2 pounds (1 kilogram).

Hall is conducting a more detailed study now, but the process is slow and costly and results aren’t expected until late next year. He and others argue that such definitive research is needed to determine exactly how ultra-processed foods affect consumption.

“It’s better to understand the mechanisms by which they drive the deleterious health consequences if they’re driving them,” he said.

Is there a need to regulate ultra-processed foods?

Some advocates, like Prasad, argue that the large body of research linking ultra-processed foods to poor health should be more than enough to spur government and industry to change policies. She calls for actions such as increased taxes on sugary drinks, stricter sodium restrictions for manufacturers and cracking down on marketing such foods to children.

“Do we want to risk our kids getting sicker while we wait for this perfect evidence to emerge?” Prasad said.

Last year, former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf broached the subject, telling a conference of food policy experts that ultra-processed foods are “one of the most complex things I’ve ever dealt with.” But, he concluded, “We’ve got to have the scientific basis and then we’ve got to follow through.”

How to manage ultra-processed food at home

The difficulty of avoiding highly processed foods in countries like the US, coupled with the lack of clear guidance on which ones to target, is a challenge, according to Aviva Musicus of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

“The range of ultra-processed foods is just so wide,” she said. Instead, it’s better to be mindful of the ingredients in foods. Check the labels and make choices that align with the current dietary guidelines, she suggested.

“We have really good evidence that added sugar is not great for us. We have evidence that high-sodium foods are not great for us,” she said. “We have great evidence that fruits and vegetables which are minimally processed are really good for us.”

It’s important not to vilify certain foods, she added. Many consumers don’t have the time or money to cook most meals from scratch. “Foods should be joyous and delicious and shouldn’t involve moral judgment,” Musicus said.

With inputs from AP