Why Stigmatising Ultra-Processed Food Could Be Doing More Harm Than Good

Is Nori an ultra processed food? Given the lack of formal definition here, this may reinforce the point I’m about to make - but all the low fat non fat stuff rom the eighties seems silly now, I think partially because of the way it was marketed, but I wonder if the whole ultra processed food thing will be similarly looked back on poorly.

I agree with a number of points in here, however I think much of these issues translate into other areas of nutritional misinformation like fats are bad, quitting sugar etc. A lot of these are the result of poor nutritional education on the basics and are spouted online to create followers.

> For many households, processed foods provide convenience, affordability and stability.

This is a good point, just like many of us grew up eating cereal that might've had high amounts of sugar, its not necessarily a bad thing on the face of it if you're an active person. But if you read the label many cereals are low fiber high carb, which isn't inherently bad, unless you're spending all day on the couch.

However, we are moving into a world where a lot of our foods and their nutritional labels focus on macro nutrients (Carbohydrates, proteins and fats) and only tell half of the story. With many foods containing ingredients that are not nutritionally beneficial for the body, with many suggesting that these chemicals used as part of processing being quite harmful for the body over time. That doesn't mean we should shame or flat out stop people from eating them, but we should be educating people on what these are.