" Is It Okay to Eat Some Processed Foods? "

The latest evidence suggests that while certain processed foods are harmful to your health, others might not be.

We’ve heard a lot in the past few years about how unhealthy ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) are. These industrially manufactured foods, such as chips and packaged cookies, are typically high in sugar, salt, and fat and often contain a long list of chemical ingredients. A 2024 review of 45 studies in The BMJ linked eating a high UPF diet to 32 health conditions, including obesity, cancer, heart disease, and depression. UPFs make up about 60 percent of the average American’s diet. No wonder nutrition experts say to cut back on them.

That’s not easy, though. Nearly three-quarters of the foods in supermarkets fall into the UPF category, including healthy-sounding products like flavored yogurt and packaged whole-wheat bread. Are they really all the same?

Probably not. It’s such a large umbrella, and there’s been a lot of controversy over what UPFs are and whether all of them are equally unhealthy, says Josiemer Mattei, PhD, an associate professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

READ more information at:

https://www.consumerreports.org/health/packaged-processed-foods/is-it-okay-to-eat-some-processed-foods-a8560741913/

Answers to this question: