People worldwide are eating more and more ultra-processed foods, leading to a rise in chronic diseases that pose an urgent public health threat and require an immediate response by global policymakers.
Those are the conclusions of a much-anticipated trio of studies published Tuesday in The Lancet, the prestigious, peer-reviewed medical journal that blames powerful food corporations for reshaping global diets, leading to poorer overall well-being and deepening health inequities. The 43 authors — among the world’s top experts in public health, nutritional epidemiology, and food policy — call on governments to implement policies such as front-of-package nutritional labels, bans on marketing of ultra-processed foods to children, and bans on their use in schools and hospitals to curb their proliferation. They compare it to the fight against the tobacco industry decades ago.
The three studies, conducted over two years, present one of the most comprehensive-ever examinations of how the food system is increasingly controlled by transnational corporations that prioritize their own profits above human health. The authors define ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, according to the widely used NOVA classification system: UPFs are snacks, drinks, and ready meals made from cheap ingredients and combined with additives, and mostly contain little to no whole foods.