[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Published on September 14, updated on September 15, 2024<\/p>\n
The piece begins by acknowledging that our food has turned into junk<\/b><\/a>, especially in Northern countries \u2013 for example, in the United States<\/b>, where obesity kills more than guns \u2013 and that eating too much packaged food might even cause cancer<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n Added to this is the fact that the eating habits of our youth could be one of the origins of the rising cancer rates among our children.<\/a><\/p>\n Based on these premises, the Foundation will, over the coming months, address topics related to food, pollution, and certain diseases, including cancer. This article blends health protection with food history.<\/b><\/p>\n \u201c<\/b>Ultra-processed foods like cigarettes<\/b><\/a>: we should put warnings on the packaging.\u201d The idea of a Brazilian researcher<\/b><\/p>\n Curated by Michela Becchi<\/p>\n Ultra-processed foods should also be heavily taxed due to their impact on health and mortality, argues Carlos Monteiro<\/b>, a Brazilian epidemiologist, in an interview with The Guardian. The Risks of Ultra-Processed Foods<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cThese campaigns,\u201d Monteiro continues, \u201cshould include all the health risks stemming from the consumption of ultra-processed foods.\u201d And these risks are not few: findings from a study published in the British Medical Journal<\/a> indicate 32 harmful effects on health<\/b><\/a>, including an elevated risk of heart disease, cancers, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and compromised mental health. This issue will be highlighted by the professor during the International Obesity Congress running until June 29 in S\u00e3o Paulo. \u201cUltra-processed foods are displacing healthier, less processed foods worldwide, leading to a deterioration in diet quality. They are driving the obesity pandemic.<\/b>\u201d<\/p>\n We Need to Tax Ultra-Processed Foods<\/b><\/p>\n In particular, in the United Kingdom and the United States, ultra-processed foods are ubiquitous. \u201cMoreover, advertisements for such products should be banned or at least severely restricted, and warnings should be placed on the front of the packaging similar to those on cigarette packs<\/b>.\u201d Not to mention the proliferation of ultra-processed foods in schools, \u201cwhere such foods should not be sold at all, and should be heavily taxed<\/b>, with the revenue used to subsidize fresh and healthy foods.\u201d Ultra-processed foods are sold at low cost \u2013 the industry giants know they must keep prices competitive, \u201cand to maximize profits, production costs must be kept low and distribution widespread.\u201d<\/p>\n Another similarity with the tobacco industry: \u201cIn addition to causing serious diseases, ultra-processed foods \u2013 just like cigarettes \u2013 are produced by multinationals that invest huge sums in aggressive marketing strategies. The money earned from these attractive yet harmful products is then spent on lobbying against regulation,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n The Danger for the Vulnerable<\/b><\/p>\n This system results in a series of issues that, as always, hit hardest those who are marginalized, economically disadvantaged, and vulnerable. For example, a 2023 study conducted by the Indian NGO Popular Human Rights Vigilance Committee called for urgent policy measures to make healthier products available on the market, as well as to introduce clear warnings on packaged foods that harm health. Over 90% of those surveyed who reported habitual consumption of ultra-processed foods had a daily income of 400 rupees or less<\/b> (roughly 4.50 euros)<\/b>, and 40% of them belonged to the marginalized Musahar community, among the poorest of the poor. Most of them were not even schooled. Those born on the \u201cright\u201d side of the world can choose for their own health, but what about those who don\u2019t have that choice?[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_single_image image=”66633″ img_size=”full”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]The Brazilian researcher is widely cited by Chris Van Tulleken in his book on ultra-processed foods, which I recommend reading.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n This is an illuminating document (even if the topic has been partially addressed in the past: \u201cEating too much packaged food increases the risk of cancer\u201d).<\/a><\/p>\n The use of packaged bread on the cover is quite apt; I recall that for that particular bread, <\/b>produced directly by Esselunga<\/b><\/a>, we had a major problem: we didn\u2019t use the preservatives normally employed in similar products (e.g., alcohol), resulting in significant waste.<\/b><\/p>\n It is likely unfeasible in the United States as well.<\/a><\/p>\n The Nutri-Score<\/b> will probably remain an imperfect tool, opposed by major multinationals like Ferrero and Lactalis, and used on a voluntary basis in some EU countries, in some extra-EU Nordic states (e.g., Norway), and in Switzerland<\/a>.<\/p>\n But fortunately in the USA<\/b>, despite strong resistance from the ultra-processed food lobby<\/b><\/a>, there is a growing awareness of the effects of this \u201cnon-food.\u201d<\/p>\n The following article from The Wall Street Journal<\/b>, for instance, is interesting from a historical perspective as it explains how packaged bread has evolved from a two-day shelf life \u2013 as I recall was the case with the version provided by the Americans at Esselunga \u2013 to a product that can remain on supermarket shelves for up to thirty days.<\/p>\n Industrial sliced bread<\/b> emerged between 1928 and 1930 with the advent of the first automatic slicers and the bread produced by the company Wonder.<\/b><\/p>\n The turning point came in 1943, during World War II, when the army required \u201cenriched\u201d bread \u2013 fortified with vitamins and minerals<\/b><\/a> \u2013 to feed American troops. This marked a turning point as chemistry allowed bread to be transformed into an ultra-processed food <\/b>(if an ingredient on a food package is not something you would normally use in home cooking, it is an UPF, an ultra-processed food<\/b><\/a>).<\/b><\/p>\n It is a food best avoided, if possible.<\/b>[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_separator][vc_single_image image=”66630″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_single_image image=”66629″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The piece begins by acknowledging that our food has turned into junk, especially in Northern countries \u2013 for example, in the United States, where obesity kills more than guns \u2013 and that eating too much packaged food might even cause cancer. Added to this is the fact that the eating habits of our youth could be one of the origins of the rising cancer rates among our children. Based on these premises, the Foundation will, over the coming months, address topics related to food, pollution, and certain diseases, including cancer. This article blends health protection with food history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,42,49,4,1],"tags":[45,40,47,48,35],"class_list":["post-66628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-promotion","category-environmental-protection","category-food-and-health","category-health","category-solidarity","tag-cancer","tag-history","tag-nutrition","tag-obesity","tag-youth"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66628"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68067,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66628\/revisions\/68067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cUltra-processed foods are dominating the world. We need public health campaigns, similar to those against tobacco, to curb this danger,\u201d said Carlos Monteiro, a researcher and emeritus professor at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo in Brazil, who has dedicated his entire career to studying this issue. Along with him, we have compiled 10 tips to recognize an ultra-processed food<\/a>, and he now also tells The Guardian<\/a> about the risks these foods pose. They even deserve to be labeled as dangerous, just like cigarettes. \u201cThey cause serious harm to health.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>This is not the case for most current industrial products.<\/b>[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_single_image image=”68037″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]The proposal to label ultra-processed foods is absolutely unfeasible in Europe<\/b>, where, after years of debate, the issue remains contentious \u2013 to the detriment of consumer health.<\/a><\/p>\n