“Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food” – Hippocrates, around 400 BC.
Once upon a time, not so long ago, people ate most of their meals at home. Then ultra-processed foods (UPFs) appeared. Think of UPFs as foods made in factories, using ingredients that you won’t find in your kitchen. Our grandparents’ meals – ground provisions, fresh fish and homemade juices – are being replaced by packaged convenience foods that harm our health. UPFs have also become public enemy number one in nutrition debates.
Ultra-processed foods are factory-made products filled with ingredients you wouldn’t use at home, like artificial flavours and colours, and preservatives. They’re designed to taste good and last long, but they often lack the nutrients our bodies need. Most UPFs are nutritionally poor, and overconsumption of UPFs has been linked to a growing body of observational evidence to serious health issues like type 2 diabetes, obesity, depression, heart disease and some cancers. Some experts argue that UPFs are “specifically formulated and aggressively marketed to maximise consumption and corporate profits”, to make us eat beyond our nutritional needs. The bottom line for UPFs is to make a profit, not to improve your health.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness (MoHW), as part of its disease prevention mandate, should initiate public education efforts to advise the general public on “healthy eating”. People eat for many reasons beyond hunger: for comfort, connection and pleasure. Efforts to boost food literacy would help people understand what makes food satisfying, what drives cravings, and how to recognise their personal cues for overeating. People should also be offered advice on what is and what is not healthy eating, especially in a population whose poor health is dominated by nutrition-related disorders. Warning labels alone might steer people away from foods that are actually beneficial, like whole grain cereals, or create confusion about what’s genuinely unhealthy.
The message that all UPFs are bad perhaps oversimplifies the issue. People don’t eat based on food labels alone anyway. They eat based on how a food tastes, how it makes them feel, how accessible it is, and how it fits with their budgets. While it would therefore be easy to dismiss all UPFs as junk food and ban the lot of them, the practical picture is more complex. Some UPFs, like whole-grain breads or unsweetened plant-based dairy alternatives, may have more favourable nutrient profiles or serve vulnerable subpopulations by providing affordable, shelf-stable nutrition – a key consideration for food security.
People eat foods they like often and calorie-dense foods are more likely to lead to overeating. How we think about food affects how we eat it, and how much we eat, just as much as what’s actually in it. Perceiving a food as sweet, salty or tasty increases the likelihood of overeating, regardless of its actual nutritional content.
Policymakers have proposed bold interventions to tackle UPFs: warning labels, marketing restrictions, taxes, and even outright bans near schools. The UPF label is a blunt instrument: some UPFs are harmless, and many are harmful. Many are high in calories, low in fibre and easy to overconsume. It lumps together sugary soft drinks with fortified cereals, protein bars with vegan meat alternatives. People don’t eat based on food labels alone.
Some of these products may be less healthy. Still, others can be helpful, especially for older adults with low appetites, people on restricted diets or budgets, or those with specific nutritional requirements. The message that all UPFs are bad oversimplifies the issue.
Ultimately, the nutritional and sensory characteristics of food, and how we perceive them, matter more than whether something came out of a packet, can or box. If we want to encourage better eating habits, it’s time to stop demonising food groups and start focusing on educating the public about healthy eating.
There is a list of specific foods that are more likely to put your health at risk. Foods with “nuff” sugar, salt, fat or alcohol top this list. Processed meats like bacon, chicken nuggets, sausages and hot dogs, and sugar-sweetened beverages are high on this list. It is not that you can never enjoy processed meat: it is saying that processed meat(s) should not be part of your regular eating pattern. Processed foods that contain additives and chemicals often have other not-so-great ingredients, including unhealthy fats and added sugars and salt, that put you at risk of disease. And if processed food takes up more than 70 per cent of what’s available at your local grocery store, it can be harder than you’d expect to avoid them.
Instead, focus your diet on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, healthy oils and lean proteins. You don’t need to overhaul your diet overnight. Start by swapping one packaged snack for a fresh fruit each day.
It was Hippocrates (400 BC, Greek physician and philosopher and considered the Father of Medicine) who first said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”. This advice is still applicable today. Healthy, nutritious foods can prevent, manage and treat diseases. Choose your foods wisely.
Dr Colin V Alert is a family physician and former researcher with the Chronic Disease Research Centre.
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