A few weeks ago, a student stopped me after a lecture and asked whether she should throw out her breakfast cereal. She had read that anything ultra-processed was “basically poison.” The cereal in question was wholegrain, fortified with iron and B vitamins, and low in sugar. I told her there was no reason to throw it away.
The conversation stayed with me because it shows how easily a scientific term can become a frightening label. “Ultra-processed” is now widely used in discussions about healthy eating, but the term is not always well understood. And when it comes to food, simple labels rarely tell the whole story.
Let’s start with what the term actually means. It comes from a classification system called NOVA, which groups foods according to the nature, purpose and extent of their processing. It ranges from fresh or minimally processed foods, such as fruit, eggs and plain milk, to culinary ingredients such as oil, sugar and salt, then processed foods such as cheese and some breads, and finally ultra-processed foods.
Ultra-processed foods are typically industrial formulations made using multiple ingredients and processes, often including substances not commonly used in home cooking, such as certain emulsifiers, flavourings and modified starches.
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An important point is that NOVA classifies foods primarily according to processing and formulation rather than their nutrient profile. This means foods within the ultra-processed category can differ considerably in their nutritional composition. Sugary soft drinks, confectionery and many snack foods may fall into this category, but so can some wholegrain breads, fortified breakfast cereals, plant-based drinks and flavoured yogurts
This raises an important question: should all foods within such a diverse category be viewed in
exactly the same way?
It also helps to remember why we process food in the first place. Humans have been processing food for thousands of years through drying, fermenting, salting and cooking. Modern food processing has brought additional benefits. Pasteurisation, heat treatment, refrigeration and appropriate packaging can make foods safer, extend shelf life and reduce food waste.
Processing can also improve nutritional value. Fortification of foods with nutrients such as iron, folic acid, iodine and vitamin D has played an important role in public health. Frozen foods can provide another useful example: vegetables frozen soon after harvest can retain much of their nutritional value during storage.
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Convenience is important too. Not everyone has the time, resources or opportunity to prepare every meal from basic ingredients. Processed foods can therefore have a practical place in modern diets.
But does that mean concerns about ultra-processed foods are unfounded? Certainly not.
A growing body of research has associated diets high in ultra-processed foods with obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and several other adverse health outcomes. These findings deserve serious attention and should not be dismissed.
At the same time, interpreting this evidence requires some care. Much of the available research is observational. Such studies are extremely valuable for identifying patterns in large populations, but by themselves they cannot always establish cause and effect. Researchers adjust for many lifestyle, dietary and socioeconomic factors, but residual confounding cannot be completely excluded.
Controlled studies are more limited. One frequently cited short-term trial found that participants offered an ultra-processed diet consumed more calories and gained weight compared with those offered a minimally processed diet, despite the diets being designed to match several nutritional characteristics. This is an important finding, but more research is needed to understand the mechanisms involved and the longer-term effects.
Another question is whether all types of ultra-processed foods contribute equally to the observed health associations. A sugary soft drink and a high-fibre fortified breakfast cereal, for example, may both meet criteria for ultra-processing, yet their nutritional profiles are clearly different.
It also remains an active area of research how much of the observed health risk is explained by nutritional composition, such as high levels of sugar, sodium, saturated fat or energy density and low levels of fibre, and how much may relate to other characteristics of ultra-processed foods, including food structure, eating rate, palatability, additives or processing itself.
The same principle applies to the fats and oils used in processed foods. Their nutritional implications depend on the amount consumed and their fatty-acid composition, rather than simply on the fact that an oil is used as an ingredient. Palm oil, for example, contains both saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, although it is higher in saturated fat than many commonly used liquid vegetable oils. Its presence in a product therefore does not, by itself, determine the nutritional quality of that food; the total saturated fat content, portion size, frequency of consumption and overall dietary pattern remain important considerations.
So what should consumers do?
The answer does not need to be complicated. Build most meals around vegetables, fruits, pulses, wholegrains and other nutrient-rich foods. Read nutrition labels. Compare products for added sugars, sodium, saturated fat and fibre. Within similar foods, choose the option with the better nutritional profile. Portion size and frequency of consumption are worth keeping in mind too.
Most importantly, avoid judging a food by a single label. The fact that something is “ultra-processed” can provide useful information, but it should be considered alongside its nutritional composition, how much and how often it is consumed, and the overall quality of the diet.
Food processing is a tool. It can improve safety, extend shelf life, increase convenience and support nutritional quality. It can also be used to produce foods high in sugar, salt, saturated fat and calories that are best consumed less frequently.
So perhaps the better question is not only “How processed is this food?” but also “What is in it, how often am I eating it, and how does it fit into my overall diet?”
