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Ultra-processed food increases risk of early death, international study finds
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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Scientists only use terms like ultra processed food after defining them in their scientific papers. The problem here is that the media find it difficult to write a short article for the general audience if they have to define things scientifically.
What specifically is bad about UPF foods is still being researched. A few leading ideas are:
Low fibre, emulsifiers and preservatives, while lacking variety of phytochemicals found in fresh food is known to change your gut health. People on UPF diets tend to eat more and have higher blood glucose spikes leading to heart disease and diabetes.
Altogether this is a recipe for a shorter, less healthy life
Is UPF food with ultra high fibre bad? Is UPF with ultra high vitamin A bad?
I don't know.
My thoughts are that your total daily intake is more important than considering any single food item. As such, having some UPF in your diet is ok. The problem becomes epidemiologically measurable when, like the UK and US, 60% of calories consumed by some demographics are from UPF food.
And there are almost certainly multiple different things 'wrong' with UPF and so if you fix one problem, you may still be at risk from another. For example in your question, there are a lot of studies showing the importance of fibre in the diet, including those that add bran to whatever the person normally eats. So UPF with lots of fibre, all things equal, is likely less bad than UPF without.
Fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) are interesting in that they don't show benefits above RDA, and in high doses cause a long list of nasty symptoms. In particular, vitamin A in excess is correlated with increased risk of multiple major diseases and even death.
Those are shit definitions that come from pop-science not real science. They're so broad as to be functionally useless.
The NOVA classification system is "real" science, but in my opinion the arbitrary and vague definitions make it so that it's not very good or very robust science.
"Very little fiber", "Frequently have a lot of oil", and "Relatively high in salt and sugar" aren't a classification, they're vibes.
"Use of Emulsifiers" is worthless. Eggs, garlic, and butter are emulsifiers.
NOVA is not about finding stuff out, it's about creating a science-y sounding framework to replace the food pyramid.
What you've listed aren't classification criteria. These are generally common characteristics within the category, and a basis for investigating what causes ultra processed foods to generally be bad.
I'm in this thread arguing that the scientists have the data to be able to just analyze correlations and trends of those characteristics directly, rather than taking the dubious step of classifying them into the NOVA category to begin with.
It's not pseudoscience or not science though. The models are the models, and I think they're bad models, but I don't think they're outright unscientific.
Oh no, not my mayo!
...is aioli ok or do saponins count as emulsifier, here?