What 'ultraprocessed' actually means (and why it matters)

Processed food.

Junk food.

Fast food.

Unhealthy food.

Ultraprocessed food.

Does a bag of cookies by any other name smell as sweet?

In other words- are all of these things the same?

The answer, like many things in nutrition, is yes…. and also no.

These terms all describe a type of food that we intuitively understand to be unhealthy: foods that tend to be packaged or handed to us out of a drive-through window, cheap, and often high in salt, sugar, and fat. In other words, foods that make you do this:

From GIPHY

But the term “ultraprocessed” is relatively new, coined in 2009 by Brazilian scientist Carlos Monteiro, and since used in hundreds of scientific studies. Rather describing a single nutritional aspect of foods (like low-fat or low-sugar), “ultraprocessed” is a more holistic way of characterizing foods that:

- Contain few or no whole- food ingredients

- Have gone through intense physical and chemical processing to make them have longer shelf lives, more convenience (i.e. ready-to-eat), and look, smell, and taste better

- Are often cheap, convenient, and highly marketed

The thing that is unique about the concept of “ultraprocessed” is how it focuses not just on the physical properties of foods but their role in the food system.

Typically, ultraprocessed foods (UPFs for short), are made by for-profit companies—in many cases large, publicly traded transnational corporations, who are structurally incentivized to maximize shareholder returns quarter over quarter, year over year.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it begs the question:

How do these companies continue to grow? Even after we’re already buying all the burgers, the fries, and the snacks?

There are 3 main strategies:

The “If you pop, you just can’t stop” phenomenon.

Companies use colors, flavors, other additives, sugar, salt and fat to make foods look, smell, and taste better than less processed food. These foods are engineered to make you crave them, delivering the flavor, salt, and sweetness our bodies are evolutionarily hardwired to desire.

That’s why it’s hard to stop eating them, even if we want to.

(See: me, on a road trip, with a bag of Salt ‘n’ Vinegars).

Creating a “Hungry, why wait?” mentality.

Companies create brand relationships that start as early as toddlerhood.

It’s why we get warm and fuzzy feelings when we see those foods in the store or why our children have a tantrum begging for the Frozen-branded fruit snacks.

(And it’s why my husband and I can both still sing the “Pizza on a bagel” jingle 30 years later).

Marketing also perpetuates the message that we need more food at more times— which is a main reason why portion size, snacking, and fast food consumption all increased rapidly at the end of the 20th century and have remained high. Ads convince us that we have needs (to quench our thirst, for a fourth meal, to be ‘satisfied’) that only junk food can answer.

The “everywhere, anytime” culture.

These foods are everywhere. Seventy percent of packaged foods in the US are ultraprocessed. Even 2/3 of infant and toddler foods are ultraprocessed! These foods are also shelf-stable and easily portable, meaning we can keep in them in our pantry and in our cars for constant snacking.

On top of all of this— these foods tend to be cheaper than the non-ultraprocessed equivalents.

All of this—the price, marketing, ubiquity, and engineering—create a ‘perfect storm’ that keeps us buying more.

So why is it so hard to define them?

There are already hundreds of scientific studies using the definition above. Yet, the federal government is making headlines for its attempts to formally define ultraprocessed food—and the food industry is fighting back.

Why is this even a question?

There are 2 reasons:

1- Ultraprocessed foods are complex! Identifying them requires knowing something about how they are made, which isn’t usually information available on a food package.

2- The scientific definition includes includes a lot of foods that people traditionally considered “healthy,” but also are made using the same kinds of processes and ingredients as ultraprocessed foods

And as a result, nutrition nerds like me are losing their minds over the details.

Are sliced whole grain breads ultraprocessed?

Fruity low-fat yogurt?

Grapefruit-flavored sparkling water?

(That last one’s not at all highly personal *cough cough*).

It’s basically like the “is a hot dog a sandwich” debate on steroids.

The hottest of takes

However, unlike the hot dog debate, the stakes here are high. How we define ultraprocessed foods matters for questions like:

What meals gets served in school lunches?

What foods do dietitians recommend to patients?

What types of foods are allowed in the food stamp program?

In other words, this definition will inform food policy for millions of US consumers, with enormous implications for health.

Some good news

Last week, the research non-profit Healthy Eating Research released a report in which a national panel of experts recommended a definition of ultraprocessed foods for policy (in full disclosure, I was a co-chair and have spent most of the last year eating, sleeping, and breathing this topic).

The TLDR is that ultraprocessed foods can be identified by their ingredients:

• Cosmetic additives (things like natural or artificial colors and flavors, sweeteners, emulsifiers, and other ingredients that make foods taste, smell, and look better)

• Non-culinary ingredients- a fancy way to say things you wouldn’t typically find in a home kitchen, like high fructose corn syrup or protein isolates

However, we also recommended to exempt from policy foods that meet the FDA’s definition for “healthy” (i.e., those containing adequate whole food with low amounts of sugar, sodium, or saturated fat).

This approach addresses the 2 original problems, making it easy to quickly identify ultraprocessed foods with information on food packages and avoiding including foods that may have nutritional benefits.

Of course, the big question still is: what will the government decide? This could shape up to be one of the biggest landmarks in food policy this century.

I head to DC in a couple of weeks to promote our report and other new science about UPFs. Here’s hoping the folks in charge listen.

🍩🍩 If you like, drop us a comment below and tell us how you identify ultraprocessed foods!