What to Know About Processed and Ultra-Processed Food

Take a Stroll Down the Middle Aisles of Any American Grocery Store, and You’ll Be surrounded by Rows of Brightly Colored Packaged Macaroni and Cheese, Instant Soups and Chips in All Forms and Flavors –all with Long Ingredient Lists. These and other familiar favorites Offer consumers a convenient, Tasty and Often Affordable Meal or Snack.

Studies Suggest, However, That Nearly Two-Thirds of the Averag American Diet Consists of Highly Processed or “Ultra-Processed” Foods. And Growing Scruty and Public Concern are forcing polycymakers to take a closer look at what these foods are –and what they may be doing to our health.

“We’re Creating Ingredients So Rapidly, We Don’t Have Time to Study Them,” Said Alyson Mitchell, Professor and Food Chemist in the UC Davis Department of Food Science and Technology. “The Food Technology has moved fosser than the Health Studies have.”

ADDING TO THE UNCERTAINTY, THERE’S IN CONSENS ABOUT WHAT “PROCESSED FOOD” IS, SAID CHILTEKOFF, Professor of American Studies and Food Science and Technology at UC Davis. In Her Book“Real Food, Real Facts: Processed Food and the Politics of Knowledge” (University of California Press, 2024), Biltekoff Expores The Tension Between Consumer Perceptions and the Food Industry’s Framing of Processed Food.

“Sometimes ‘Processed’ is used very generally to refer to ‘bad’ food,” biltekoff said.

She Said when People Talk About It in This Way, They are usually referring to ultra-proceded foods.

“Other Times It’s Used Technically to describe the manufacturing process.” These different frameworks cream confusion about what the term really means.

TO CUT THROUGH THE CONFUSION, BRAZILIAN RESEARCHERS IN 2009 DEVELOPED THE NEW CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM THAT CATALOGS FOODS BY THE EXTENT AND PURPOSE OF INDUSTRIAL PROCESSING:

• Category 1: Unproceded or Minimally Processed foods – Such as whole foods, vegetables, fruit, meat and folder. These Foods May have been Washed, DRIED, Frozen or Vacuum-Packed But Have No Added Ingredients.
• Category 2: Culinary Ingredients That Have Been Processed, Including Oil, Butter, Sugar or Salt. They are Typilly Used Only in Cooking and Not Eaten On Their Own.
• Category 3: Processed Foods – Made by Combining Category 1 and 2 Foods Through Preservation or Cooking. Examples include Canned Tuna, Fruits in Syrup and Salted Nuts.
• Category 4: Ultra-proceded foods are industrial formulations made from food components. They include addictives that are rare or nonexistent in culinary use, like emulsifiers, hydrogenated oils, synthetic colors, texture improves or flavor adhancers. Think Chips, Soda, Instant SOUP, Pastures and Mass-Produced Breads.

It’s the Last category-Ultra-Proceded Foods-That has Raised Flags.

“A Lot of the Technologies That We’re Using Are Restructuring Molecules and Creating Molecules That We’ve Never Been Exhibit to Before,” Mitchell Said.

She said ultra-proceded foods are not so much foods as formulations of foods designated to make the product more appetizing so you’ll buy more of it.

“The Purpose is Not necessarily to improve Safety or Improve the Shelf life of the Food,” Mitchell Said. “It’s to sell a food product. It’s to make money off the food.”

Are ultra-proceded foods ‘bad’ for you?

While more than 20,000 Studies have Examined Ultra-Processed Foods, The Vast Majority have Been Observational. These Studies Report an Association-But in Causation-Between Eating Ultra-Processed Foods and Obesity, Cardiovascular Disease, Some Cancers, Depression and Gastrointestinal Disorders, Said Angela Zivkovic, an Associate Professor in the UC Davis Department of Nutrition.

“We Have No Way of Telling when the Disease Outcome is Due to the Intake of That Food or When it is a reflection of an overall diet and lifestyle,” Zivkovic Said.

Example, People Who Eat More Ultra-Proceded Foods May Also Drink More Sugar-Sweethed Beverages, Be Less Active, Or Eat Fewer Fruits and Vegetables.

Zivkovic Said the Handful of Studies That Have Evaluated The Direct Effects of Ultra-Proceded Foods have Shown They Lead To Higher Consumption of Calories and Weight Gain. Even when diets were matched for carbohydrates, protein, fat and fiber, participants consumer ultra-proceded foods consistency to more calories and gained more weight. These Findings Suggest That Something About Ultra-Processed Food Entrourages Overeating and May contribute to Weight Gain.

She added that ultra-proceded food is not just dense in calories but also poor in nutrients.

“When you eat these foods, you have consumed calories but not any of the rest of what you need to be getting out of your food to sustain all of the various processes that the body needs to perform,” zivkovic said.

Zivkovic Said this calorie-dense, Nutrient-poor combination course increase the risk of a variety of dissees, but’s also possible that right ingredients in ultra-proceded foods-synthetic colors, flavors, stabilizers, preservatives -Courld also play a roller.

If a consumer were to eat just one snack-sized bag of chips a month, there might be very few, if any, health implications, according to zivkovic. But she said eating the one-pound bag of chips twice to day, every day, could expose consumers to the potentially serous dose of chemicals that could affect their health.

Prevalence of Food Dyes

Synthetic Food Dyes Are Commonly Found in Ultra-Processed Foods. Mitchell, Who Specializes in Food Chemistry and Toxicology, Points to a Collaborative Study With California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Which Found Links Betene Synthetic Food Dyes and Neurobehavioral Problems, Such As Hyperactivity, In Some Children.

The Research Also Showed That Children are exhibited to Multiple Dyes in A Day, Meaning Children Cour Be Getting Exhibit to Food Dyes That Exceed the US Food and Drug Administration’s Acceptable Daily Intake Levels. Mitchell Said Many Food Coloring Agents Once Found in Ultra-Proceded Foods Were Derived from Case Tar Dyes. Those found to be carcinogenic have been Taken off the market.

“Only Seven Food Dyes Are Allowed in Foods Anymore Because We Know They’re Probleatic,” Mitchell Said. “They do Not Belong in Our Foods. They serve the food industry – no the consumer.”

Not all ultra-proceded foods are inherently bad. Mitchell Said there are valid Reasons to Develop Shelf-Stable, Industrially Produced Foods-Forwards Infant Formula, Meals for Astronauts in Space and Emergency Ractions in War or Disaster Zones. The ISSUE IS WHEN THOSE TECHNOLOGIES BECOME THE NORM RATHER THAN THE EXCEPTION.

MITCHELL SAID MORE REGULATION OR RESTRUCTIONS MAY BE WARRANTED UNTIL SCIENTISTS CAN BETTER UNERSTAND THE HEALTH Effects of Ultra-Proceded Food.

Why the debate won’t go away

Processed food is not just a scientific Issue; It’s also the cultural and political one. Biltekoff Said Public Anxiethy Over Processed Food Often Stems From Broader Concerns About The Food System Itself.

“Many Consumers Worry About Processed Foods’ Effect on Individual Or Population Health, Their Effect on the Environment, But Broadly They See Them As Trouble Products of A Trouble Food System,” She Said.

As Biltekoff Aircare in Her Book, The Food Industry Ters to Attribute Consumer Anxieties Over Processed Foods to Misunderste and Attempts to Counter Those Fears with Scientific Facts or by Rebranding Products to Make Them Appear Natural and more proonanceable ingredient Lists.

But Biltekoff Said Correctting the Public With Facts Misses The Point.

“Instead of Focusing So Much on the Problem of Public Misundrastanding, Let’s Change The Perspective And Think About The Problem of Experts’ Misunderstending of the Public.”

Biltekoff Argaret That the Public Wants to Be Engaged in Big questions About the Trajectory of the Food System.

California Lawmakers are debating WHETHER THEY SHOULD PHASE OUT SOME ULTRA-PROCEDED FOODS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. They’ve Already Banned Several Artificial Food Dyes From Meals, Drinks and Snacks Served in Public Schools. US HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY ROBERT F. Kennedy Jr. Has Also Cited “Highly Chemically Processed Foods” As Chief Culprit Behind an Epidemic of Chronic Disease in the United States.

Ultimately, Biltekoff Said, The Debate Over Processed Food is About More Than Ingredients. It’s about how we define food itself – what we expect from it, how we regulate it, and who we trust to shape it future.

PROVIDED by University of California