![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Supermarket-shelves-sized-Pixabay-2025_6224396ef1925c09354a4c7cdd5a43f8.jpg\")
\n New report links UPFs to causing harm to every major human organ. Image source: Pixabay <\/p>\n
\n New report links UPFs to causing harm to every major human organ. Image source: Pixabay <\/p>\n
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have been linked to causing harm to every major human organ, The Independent wrote citing a new report by global experts.<\/p>\n
UPFs \u2013 such as ready meals, crisps, sugary snacks and breakfast cereals \u2013 have been linked to poor health, including an increased risk of obesity, heart disease, cancer and early death, the 19 November report said.<\/p>\n
Globally, UPFs are rapidly replacing fresh food in the diet of children and adults \u2013 with large food corporations using a range of marketing tactics to drive consumption, skewer scientific debate and prevent regulation, a review published in The Lancet medical journal on 18 November says.<\/p>\n
However, food industry sources challenged some of the claims made in the report, Euractiv wrote. <\/p>\n
Industry groups, including European Union (EU) lobby FoodDrinkEurope \u2013 which represents major food and beverage giants such as Nestl\u00e9, Ferrero, and Coca Cola \u2013 dismissed the findings as \u201csensationalism,\u201d rejecting the UPF label as lacking scientific consensus and being \u201cimprecise and confusing,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
In The Lancet study, 43 scientists and researchers stated that food firms prioritise profit, leading UPFs to replace fresh options, reduce diet quality and contribute to multiple chronic diseases.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key driver of the global rise in UPFs is the growing economic and political power of the UPF industry, and its restructuring of food systems for profitability above all else,\u201d the study authors were quoted as saying.<\/p>\n
A review of 104 long-term studies on UPFs conducted for the review found 92 reported greater associated risks of one or more chronic diseases, and early death from all causes.<\/p>\n
UPFs often contain high levels of saturated fat, salt, sugar and additives, which leaves less room in people\u2019s diets for more nutritious foods and encourages over-eating, experts say.<\/p>\n
In addition, those foods also tended to include additives and ingredients \u2013 such as preservatives, emulsifiers and artificial colours and flavours \u2013 that were not included when people cooked using fresh food, the report said.<\/p>\n
The dietary share of UPFs remained below 25% in countries such as Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and across Asia, but it was 50% in the USA and the UK, the research said. <\/p>\n
For some people, particularly those who are younger, less well off or from disadvantaged areas, a diet comprising as much as 80% UPF is typical, according to the report.<\/p>\n
Writing in The Lancet, the global team said that although some countries had brought in rules to reformulate foods and control UPFs, \u201cthe global public health response is still nascent, akin to where the tobacco control movement was decades ago\u201d.<\/p>\n
Government policy, including in high income countries like the UK, had done little to change the \u201ccommercial and structural determinants of the problem\u201d, instead focusing on consumer responsibility, industry partnerships and voluntary self-regulation in industry, such as when companies replaced sugar in some foods with sweeteners, or reduced fat, the researchers added.<\/p>\n
The research team claimed that the main barrier to policies to protect health was \u201cindustry\u2019s corporate political activities, coordinated trans-nationally through a global network of front groups, multi-stakeholder initiatives, and research partners to counter opposition and block regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Activities included direct lobbying, \u201cinfiltrating government agencies\u201d and filing lawsuits, they added.<\/p>\n
According to experts, the \u201ccontinuing rise of UPFs in human diets is not inevitable\u201d and, while research into their effects continues, this should not delay policies aimed at promoting diets based on whole foods.<\/p>\n
One of the study authors, Prof Chris Van Tulleken, from University College London, told a press briefing there had been a \u201cthree-decade history of reformulation by the food industry\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took the fat out first, then we took the sugar out. We replaced the sugar with the sweeteners, the fats with gums. These products have been extensively re-formulated and we have seen obesity, particularly obesity in childhood and other rates of diet-related disease persistently go up in line with reformulation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a product level discussion. The entire diet is being ultra-processed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commenting on the Lancet
\npapers, some experts had called for more, higher quality research into the impact of UPFs, adding that current studies had shown a link with poor health but not a direct cause, The Independent wrote.<\/p>\n
Prof Jules Griffin, from the University of Aberdeen, was quoted as saying the authors had shown \u201ca wide range of chronic diseases are associated with increased consumption of ultra-processed foods\u201d but \u201cassociation may not be causation, as the authors freely admit\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kate Halliwell, chief scientific officer at the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), which represents industry, said: \u201cFood and drink manufacturers make a wide range of products, all of which can form part of a balanced diet \u2013 from everyday food and drink like frozen peas, wholemeal bread and breakfast cereals, to treats like puddings and confectionary.<\/p>\n
\u201cCompanies have been making a series of changes over many years to make the food and drink we all buy healthier, in line with government guidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a result, FDF-member products contained a third less salt and sugar and a quarter fewer calories than they did in 2015, she added.<\/p>\n
The UK\u2019s current dietary advice to eat more fruits, vegetables and fibre and less sugars and salt, was \u201cbased on decades of scientific evidence\u201d, she said, and the FDF agreed there was a need for \u201cbetter quality research to be able to understand if there\u2019s an additional link between food processing and health\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New report links UPFs to causing harm to every major human organ. Image source: Pixabay Ultra-processed foods (UPFs)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60,13804,13803],"class_list":["post-164268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-oil-and-fats","tag-oils-and-fats-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}