Ultra-Processed Foods: A Brain-Fart Label We Need To Let Go Of
Non-medium members can read the full text here.
Here is a little illustration of how confused we consumers are:
- 60% recognize raw eggs as unprocessed food, BUT 40% don’t
- 60% recognize energy drinks as ultra-processed, BUT 40% don’t
That means a large proportion of people think that what happens inside a hen is food processing, but what happens inside a cola factory isn’t.
No wonder there are still so many flat-earthers around.
Sarcasm aside, the numbers I quoted are from a report that the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) has just released. What it says on 72 pages could be summarized in 21 words:
Most everybody fears UPFs, hardly anybody knows what they are, and even if they did, almost nobody would stop eating them.
In the following sections, you will learn (1) that with their ignorance, those ordinary EU citizens are in really good company (scientists), (2) that equating UPFs with ill health is (mostly) unsubstantiated by research, and (3) what I, as a public health scientist, do to eradicate the term UPF from my daily menu.
