Ultra-Processed People

The classification system is now called the NOVA system, and it divides food into four groups. The first is ‘unprocessed or minimally processed foods’ –foods found in nature like meat, fruit and vegetables, but also things like flour and pasta. Group 2 is ‘processed culinary ingredients’, including oils,*3 lard, butter, sugar, salt, vinegar, honey, starches–traditional foods that might well be prepared using industrial technologies. […] Group 3 is ‘processed food’, ready-made mixtures of groups 1 and 2 […].

And then we come to Group 4, ‘ultra-processed foods’.

The involvement of UPF companies in challenging the association between UPF and poor health is unsurprising. But there is a wealth of data about the pharmaceutical industry, as well as other industries, showing that, when an industry funds science, it biases the results in favour of that industry.

Of course, not every single paper critical of NOVA has identifiable conflicts of interest. But all the papers that are critical cite evidence from those written by authors with conflicts of interest, and none of them presents an explanation that begins to undermine the strong evidence that UPF is associated with poor health.

But the biggest problem with considering food an addictive substance is that, logically, it leads to a strategy of abstinence when, of course, you can’t be abstinent from food. And addicts can’t be moderate with addictive substances. Food just can’t be addictive.