Sixty seconds on . . . ultra-processed food

How do you define ultra-processed?It varies, but the term usually refers to food with ingredients we wouldn’t use at home, such as colourings, flavours, emulsifiers, sweeteners, and preservatives. Things like industrially manufactured bread, processed meat, fast foods, pies, cakes, and soft drinks, which are often higher in fat, salt, and sugar and have an altered food structure that makes them more digestible.Are they causing a problem?Children in the UK have the highest ultra-processed food (UPF) intake in Europe, and a new analysis1 of the UK’s 2008-2017 National Diet and Nutrition Survey has found that 64% of the calories in meals provided by schools came from UPFs. UPF intake was higher in secondary than in primary school children, and higher in children from lower income backgrounds than children from higher income backgrounds. But the study was unable to determine whether UPF intake was because of food choices or the food being…
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