Tuesday tip: Processed food fear

Tuesday tip: Processed food fear 🍟

There’s a lot of fear-mongering about processed foods going on at the moment and I’ve noticed it causing undue health anxiety with lots of people trying to cut them out etc.

There is no standardized definition of “processed” or “ultra-processed” food, so public perception is heavily influenced by media attention. You may have read about a recent study that linked ultra-processed food consumption to negative health outcomes. What it didn’t say was that there was no causal relationship and it missed some critical details.

Everything we eat is processed, even fresh produce has been processed – cleaned, prepared, preserved etc. And no single food is inherently “bad” or dangerous, especially when consumed in moderation. I’m not saying you should only eat crisps, pizza and ice cream etc. Many processed foods are nutritious (e.g. frozen fruits, cereals, porridge oats etc ) and often are more accessible options for many people.

In most studies that associate processed foods with negative health outcomes most studies fail to account for all the other variables – ‘processed food is bad’ is a much snappier headline isn’t it? It’s not the processed food itself but rather the fact that the majority of food calories are coming from foods with lower nutrient density or lower in fibre. These studies also fail to note the amount of the diet that is composed of lower nutrient dense foods, other lifestyle habits such as exercise levels, and socioeconomic factors.

Ultra-processed foods are not causing these health outcomes. They may contribute to them but it’s a very complex, multifactorial issue. If you have a healthy lifestyle and a broadly diverse diet, indulging in ultra-processed foods in moderation isn’t going to be harmful. Avoiding them also isn’t going to “prevent” disease, and we need to stop demonizing people and individual foods. That sort of message is causing more far more harm than the occasional pizza or cookie.

Happy Tuesday 🤗xx