Labelling foods ‘ultra-processed’ is not going to make people eat healthier diets

Hello and welcome to the MHD Newsletter. Your short educational read to enjoy with your Friday morning coffee. 

The aim of the newsletter is to provide you with new knowledge, share research and debunk misinformation. We’ll also get reflective with a journal prompt, give you relevant reading suggestions with a new book each month and tell you about what we have going on over at team MHD.

Weekly Check-In:

As promised, today we’re diving into the topic of ultra-processed foods (UPF) this week.

If you’ve been following me on social media, you’ve probably seen me discuss this already. For those who haven’t, here’s the latest video where I break down the history of the term “ultra-processed” and why this isn’t the solution to healthier diets.

Watch the video here:

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Nutrition in the News: Ultra-Processed Foods and Public Health

The BBC recently published an article titled “Why we might never know the truth about ultra-processed foods”.

I normally have to debunk nutrition presented in the press, as it is often exaggerated and clickbait-heavy, but I think this article does a great job of presenting how complicated nutrition science is and how we lack certainty.

It importantly highlights that the processing of a food has no direct correlation to the nutritional quality of the food, and that there's no definitive proof that UPFs cause health problems.

Experts quoted in the article point out that demonising UPFs oversimplifies the issue, and risks triggering disordered eating. The BBC importantly mentions how this is a discussion where we cannot ignore the role of socioeconomic factors, as those who eat the most ‘UPF’ are also the poorest in our society. Read the full article.

My Thoughts on UPF:

To put it bluntly, the term ‘ultra-processed’ is pointless and unhelpful. The current obsession with ‘ultra processed’ foods is more about diet culture than cutting-edge nutrition research.

The label is so broad that of course it encompasses a large proportion of our dietary intake. When we do research looking at specific foods there are so many foods that are considered UPF that are beneficial and functional in our diet. The research that finds that some UPF foods can be harmful in large quantities is already common knowledge- we don’t need a new food label to know that eating a diet made up of mostly monster munch isn’t going to leave us feeling our healthiest selves.

It’s another way of prescribing eating patterns that often alienate the most vulnerable in our society. If we really want better diets across the country we should be making nutritious food accessible to everyone, rather than creating pointless labels that demonise certain foods.

Podcast Recommendation:

Being Well Pod, Learning from Nature

After a long week of debating the nuances of UPF with strangers online, there’s nothing I love more than reconnecting with nature to destress.

This podcast does a beautiful job of explaining why nature is so essential to our well-being and how we can bring more of it into our lives. Nature meditations have also been used in eating disorder recovery—let me know if this has been part of your journey too!

Journal Prompts:

After all this UPF talk, let’s take a moment this weekend to reflect on how diet culture affects us, and how we can protect ourselves from getting swept up in the latest diet trends:

• What are the common diet culture messages you encounter daily?

• How do these messages influence your relationship with food and your body?

• What strategies can you use to stay grounded and focused on your wellbeing instead of the ‘diet of the moment’?

• Is there anything you can do to reduce your exposure to diet culture messages?

August Book of the month:

We finish up this book this week, a great educational read. It’s so refreshing to access nutrition books without diet culture and written by dietitians.

Next week we are going to start reading: Sugar Rush by Karen Throsby

Clinic Update:

As a team we are putting out our first workshop on the 10th of September.

It is an online workshop for dietitians and students who want to get started in freelance/ independent practice. The truth is we put this together after seeing an explosion in highly expensive business coaching for dietitians. Plus the promotion of icky sales techniques that feel totally inappropriate for caring health professionals. We are going to show how you can work in freelance practice in a way that is values-aligned and supports a great work-life balance.

If you subscribe to this newsletter because you are a dietitian or a student then you are invited. Here’s the link to our early bird tickets.

That’s all from us this week, back again same time next week.

Look after yourself <3

Sophie and the team at Mental Health Dietitians.

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