Really interesting we don't seem to have a category for health and diet on here. One for us to think about?
Anyway. This was published yesterday. And, honestly? I'm frustrated.
Why am I frustrated?
Things like this:
"Ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) are engineered to heighten reward and accelerate delivery of reinforcing ingredients, driving compulsive consumption and disrupting appetite regulation. This is a growing challenge for health policy."
"Both the tobacco and food industries have long employed a strategy known as “health washing,” in which products are reformulated and marketed in ways that create the illusion of reduced harm while preserving their core addictive properties."
There is WAY more. Try reading it without steam coming out of your ears at some point.
But my frustration is this. I do not argue that the food industry has not supported health in consumers (hence my post on HACCP and health) BUT I do not for one second believe there has ever been intent. I am yet to stumble across the lab of malevolent food scientists rubbing their hands with glee at the fact they've made people ill. I actually see a lot of food scientists reducing sugar, salt, fat, calories etc to follow legislation. If the legislation doesn't go far enough then isn't that the fault of legislators? Then governments change legislation (like the sugar tax in the UK) which has driven increases in non nutritive sweeteners. Manufacturers follow suit, then criticism for it in this paper.
And I'm so tired about reading on UPFs. I'm yet to read any causal relationship that goes beyond known science, e.g. high fat foods, high in sugars, simple carbs and salt. They're going to be bad for you. Haven't we been saying that for decades? Hasn't the only change to consumers' diets been through stealth?
As I said on my other post, if we got rid of a lot of processed food, in general, obviously we'd be the healthier for it. But we are also not set up for that as a society anymore. Few people want to spend the time to cook from scratch or actually don't have that time to spend. I'd lose no sleep if Pop Tarts were no longer available but I'm surprised at the institutions which published the above when people like us are mostly spending our lives busting a gut to get formulation changes through. God it would have been an easier life if I'd not had to do the 1-2 changes a year on every product I've ever worked on to make it a tweak healthier with every change in process, packaging etc which went along with it.
So these are the authors:
Seems long on hyperbole and short on any blame for anyone else but manufacturers.
