The topic of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) can be polarizing, but the focus in a Monday afternoon IFT FIRST special session sponsored by IFT scientific journals was on the need for a better understanding of the mechanisms by which UPFs affect health and the importance of a collaborative approach to reaching that understanding.

Presenters in the session reviewed the status of current scientific understanding of UPFs and their correlation with overweight, obesity, and diet-related diseases. They also underscored the limitations of existing research, which has been primarily epidemiological, and the importance of next-level studies.

National Institutes of Health researcher Kevin Hall, whose randomized controlled diet trial in 2018 demonstrated that a diet composed of UPFs caused trial participants to consume more calories and gain more weight than when they ate a diet made up of minimally processed foods, said he and his team are now working to focus their research on understanding the causal factors behind the impact UPFs have on obesity and metabolic health.  

There’s little value in debating the pros and cons of UPF consumption without having research that identifies the mechanisms by which they affect health, Hall emphasized. “It’s amazing to me that more research isn’t being conducted to try to figure out is there a causal pathway? … Is there a mechanism by which things are related? … We need to not just argue about mechanisms but design studies that actually get to the bottom of it.”

Among Hall’s goals at IFT FIRST, he said, is to initiate conversations with members of the science of food community about collaborative research initiatives. There’s value in having experts from industry, government, and academia join forces to explore the topic, he observed.

“What we really need to do is meet with food scientists who can engineer foods along different hypothetical pathways,” Hall said. “We need multidisciplinary teams of researchers.”

Also in the session, Julie Hess, research nutritionist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, shared findings from studies she conducted demonstrating that it is possible to build a healthy diet composed of UPFs and, conversely, that a diet composed primarily of minimally processed foods can be unhealthy.

Session moderator Anna Rosales, IFT senior director of government affairs and nutrition, posed a final question to the session’s panelists: What would the world look like if we didn’t have ultra-processed food?

Both Hall and Hess agreed that processed foods play an important role, as did panelists Youling Xiong, a professor in the Department of Animal and Food Science at the University of Kentucky, and Mario Estevez Garcia, professor of food science and biochemistry at the University of Extremadura, Spain, who is editing an IFT Journal of Food Science special issue on UPFs.

“I think that processing is here to stay,” Estevez Garcia reflected. He acknowledges the reality of concerns about UPFs, but noted that “still, food processing provides many benefits in terms of food safety, shelf life, diversity.” It’s reasonable to consider that certain processed foods are contributing to diet-related diseases, he said, but it’s necessary to understand more about the impact of specific foods and forms of processing in order find ways to make them healthier.

Xiong agreed with that perspective, noting that processing makes food more accessible and affordable, as well as enjoyable. “It’s a part of civilization. We cannot go back to 100 years ago to when everything was unprocessed.”ft

About the Author

Mary Ellen Kuhn
Mary Ellen Kuhn is executive editor of Food Technology magazine ([email protected]).