UPFs should also be heavily taxed due to impact on health and mortality, says scientist who coined term
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are displacing healthy diets “all over the world” despite growing evidence of the risks they pose and should be sold with tobacco-style warnings, according to the nutritional scientist who first coined the term.
Prof Carlos Monteiro of the University of São Paulo will highlight the increasing danger UPFs present to children and adults at the International Congress on Obesity this week.
“UPFs are increasing their share in and domination of global diets, despite the risk they represent to health in terms of increasing the risk of multiple chronic diseases,” Monteiro told the Guardian ahead of the conference in São Paulo.
The whole UFP thing is so wishy washy. It’s such a broad category it is essentially meaningless, one of the earlier guardian articles talked about sliced bread being a UPF as it has added vitamins and minerals due to law.
If you closer at the whole topic it just comes across as saying if you are poor and eat food that you can afford you will die earlier. Writing a reminder of this on the food will not help anyone but it will make poor people feel a bit more like shit.
I’m sick of being told what I should and shouldn’t be eating tbh.
Seen plenty of scares over the years about fats, saturated fats, eggs, sugars, carbs, glutens, red meat, meat… Now Ultra Processed Food.
At this point, it’s just food. If you’re too fat eat less of it. If it’s actually dangerous don’t sell it.
Because no one actually knows. Studies or trends are done by crusaders for or against a certain food because they noticed for themselves it has some neg impact.
There are not enough actual studies on food or even healthcare. There was like 1 decent study for example on keto diet for athletes. Results weren’t valid for most people as they only looked at athletic results and how the athletes felt. Not the health impact for gen pop.
Healthcare is the same. I’ve lived my entire life following various medical advice due to medical issue. Recently that advice has changed. And I’m fkin pissed cuz after 40 fkin years I am finally pain free.
And I haven’t even touched the topic of both food and healthcare for women, poc, differing body-/lifestyle types.
Only thing I can agree on: consume less sugar and sauces. Sure my opinion is anecdotal, but everyone I know that has cut those 2 has seen great results.
The point of these kinds of efforts is to shift the blame. “It’s easy to know which foods are good and bad with this handy system, so if someone is only eating bad foods, that’s their choice, and the rest of us can blame them for their poor health.”
We already have a traffic light system on foods and it is largely ignored, partly because few people have the time and energy but also because you have to look at your diet as a whole and not judge it by individual items. I also think these UPF studies have a bit of a conservative agenda.
Why do people eat more processed food? Because there isn’t a homemaker spending hours a day preparing meals as a full time job. Proceesed and convenience foods are massively egalitarian and I think let more people join the workforce.
So many public health problems would be solved if we publicly funded cafeterias to provide subsidised breakfast, lunch and dinner to any member of the public. Economies of scale on providing those meals would make them incredibly cost effective and the improved health among working class people would lead to increased tax receipts which are would (at least partially) mitigate the cost of such a policy.
