Posts Tagged ‘ultra-processed food’

Forget Cake – Let Them Eat Whole Foods

February 1, 2025 — The sincerity and passion of Dariush Mozaffarian is easy to recognize and admire. His deep belief in the opportunity for good food to make us healthier is familiar. It echoes the impassioned pitch of a politician before Senate hearings this week. Too many Americans have too many “diet-related” diseases. Time’s a wastin’! Let them all […]

“Healthy Snacks You Actually Crave!” This Is Healthy Eating?

January 11, 2025 — Yes. This is a relief. We are in the midst of what used to be called “diet season.” Yet we are not getting an onslaught of advice about Atkins, paleo, vegan, or an assortment of obscure dietary approaches for fast weight loss. Instead, we are getting tips for healthy eating – such as this advice […]

Five Predictions for 2025 in Obesity, Nutrition, and Health

January 1, 2025 — Thankfully, 2024 is behind us now and we have a blank slate for a whole new year ahead of us. But what can we expect? Well, proverbial (probably Danish) wisdom tells us “prediction is difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” Nonetheless, here are our top five predictions about what we will see in 2025 […]

Five Stories That Defined 2024 in Obesity and Health

December 16, 2024 — The closing days of 2024 give us a moment to reflect on the stories that defined this year in obesity and health. It’s been a big year, with no shortage of news on this subject. But the major themes stand out very clearly. Health Outcomes Beyond Weight Loss This was the year that objective evidence […]

Dreaming of Less Industrial Farming and Ultra-Processed Food

December 15, 2024 — “Industrial farming is destroying the earth” and “ultra-processed food is poisoning us.” These narratives are hard to miss in popular culture. Their presence in scientific literature is more subtle, but equally pervasive. So the public is taking note. Ultra-processed foods have become the top food concern of U.S. consumers at the same time the public […]

A Modest Proposal from the Dietary Guidelines Committee

December 11, 2024 — The 2025 Dietary Guidelines Committee released its report yesterday and the reaction to this seems to be a bit of a yawn. “More beans and less red meat” was the headline from the Associated Press. “Highly conservative (not in a good sense)” is the bottom line from Marion Nestle, Emerita Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, […]

The Irresistible Impulse to Blame the Food for Obesity

December 2, 2024 — The drumbeat is growing louder. “Public health policies to reduce ultra-processed food intake cannot wait.” These words from Mathilde Touvier summed up her presentation of evidence on these foods from epidemiologic and public health studies at Imperial College London last week. She opened six hours of scholars, politicians, and advocates presenting a compelling case. Clearly, […]

Looking for Magic in GLP-1 to Defeat Ultra-Processed Foods

November 20, 2024 — With detailed reporting in New York Times Magazine, Tomas Weber suggests that GLP-1 medicines “turn consumers off ultra-processed foods” and threaten to “crush the junk-food business.” He has woven a great collection of anecdotes into an appealing narrative. For instance, Kathleen Kenney has lost more than 100 pounds on these advanced medicines. She tells a […]

Will 2025 Dietary Guidelines “Punt” on Ultra-Processed Foods?

October 23, 2024 — God bless the people who put their time into the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. It fits the textbook definition of a thankless task. Years of work go into producing a scientifically sound set of recommendations for a new edition of dietary guidelines to emerge sometime next year. But no matter what those recommendations are, people […]

FNCE: Skeptical About Dire Risks from Ultra-Processed Foods?

October 7, 2024 — Public discourse about nutrition and health seems to go through waves of fear. There was the fear of fat that began in the 1980s. In the early 2000s, that wave subsided and the fear of sugar and carbs swept us all up with a fever to count carbs and especially, grams of added sugars. Though […]