<
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2026/apr/20/ultra-processed-foods-diet-healthy-eating>
"Grocery shopping looks different these days. On Saturday mornings, instead of
the local supermarket, I’m at our local San Diego farmers’ market, loading up
on fish, meat, apples, cheese and berries – enough for a family of four.
But it’s not a cheap excursion; our weekly grocery spend is now higher than it
was when we decided to try to cut ultra-processed foods (UPFs) from our diet
five years ago.
In 2021, I learned about how UPFs are formulated, engineered and marketed. I
dived into books such as
Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss, which revealed the
processes and strategies behind these highly palatable products. I discovered
how companies sculpt flavors that please our taste buds, and how such highly
engineered foods can have potentially adverse consequences on long-term health.
The most profound thing I learned wasn’t technical. In
Salt Sugar Fat, Moss
writes that a former Frito-Lay food scientist “overhauled his own diet to avoid
the very foods he once worked so hard to perfect”.
There is a growing body of research about the impacts of UPFs on health.
The
Lancet, a leading medical journal, published a series of papers on this topic
in 2025; these meta-analyses revealed that diets with a high proportion of
caloric intake from UPFs were associated with chronic-disease risk and
increased energy intake.
Additionally, their production and consumption is linked to the displacement of
traditional food cultures and practices, environmental degradation, and the
concentration of commercial and political power by large food corporations.
It all started to feel like a great big con."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
