UnEarth Magazine.

Ultra-Processed Foods: A Triple Threat to Health, Environment, and Equality.

Words by Amy Manvell, Art by Lucy Brown.

UnEarth Magazine
4–6 minutes

Words by Amy Manvell, Art by Lucy Brown.

Growing up, I would look in the kitchen cupboards, see nothing immediately grabbable, and claim there was no food. Sound familiar? Well, now I ask: what was I viewing as ‘food’? What I actually craved (and still eat) is called ‘ultra-processed food’, or UPF, and it constitutes far more of the world’s diet than you might think. 

What is ultra-processed food? 

My interest in UPF was recently sparked by the book Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken. He defines it quite simply: ultra-processed foods can be broadly described as any food that contains at least one ingredient that you would not find in a typical domestic kitchen. 

Anything ‘modified’ or ‘refined’ (especially starches, oils, and fats), additives and emulsifiers, agents and gums are instant indicators that a food is ultra-processed. So, my Tesco Meal Deal? UPF. My frozen vegan nuggets? UPF. My cinnamon and raisin bagels? UPF. 

According to the UN FAO, UPF are designed to be: 

  1. Highly convenient (ready-to-consume, almost imperishable) 
  1. Highly attractive (hyperpalatable) 
  1. Highly profitable (low cost ingredients, long shelf-life) for manufacturers. 

From these three factors, I want to discuss how UPF significantly impacts our health, furthers economic and social inequalities, and negatively affects the environment. 

Health 

The industrially altered ingredients I mentioned have been designed to replace more expensive traditional foods, and to enhance UPF’s flavour, making them highly attractive. However, ultra-processed foods are strongly associated with an increased risk of harm to our bodies, including strokes, heart attacks, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and dementia. 

It has been suggested that because we receive chemically modified substances instead of the nutrients that our bodies are looking for when we eat certain UPF, we don’t feel full and satisfied. As a result, we overeat – research suggests some UPF is addictive, including for children. 

I have definitely felt this – that unstoppable reach for another handful of Pringles. But learning about UPF is helping me make sense of my eating habits, and think about what my body consumes through a more traditional cooking lens. 

Economic and social inequalities 

Our ability to choose to cook fresh, minimally processed meals often boils down to two key issues: money and time. Therefore, the highly convenient nature of ultra-processed foods (ready-to-eat) makes lower-income households the primary target market. 

Wage constraints and long working hours, including childcare and unpaid domestic labour, mean many people don’t have the time or energy to cook from scratch. Deciding on an appropriate recipe, selecting, buying, and then preparing the ingredients takes far more time and effort than purchasing a ready-to-heat complete meal. Consequently, lower income economies are disproportionately impacted health-wise. In many countries, there are increasingly minimal alternatives available as UPF takes over the market. 

Part of UPF’s definition is that it is aggressively marketed to consumers, particularly within low-income countries. I think its advertising impacts have been so ubiquitous that we don’t realise that our perception of what we eat is affected. We are distracted from thinking too deeply about the industrially constructed ingredients on the label, and what they mean for our bodies and minds. 

Therefore, UPF is not just a health issue, but a systemic social and economic one, which deliberately targets certain social groups more heavily, in the name of higher profits and more power over our consumption. 

Environment 

Finally, UPF is designed to be eaten anywhere and everywhere. Therefore, most things we eat come wrapped in single-use plastic, created through the extraction of fossil fuels. Despite this, food corporations tell us UPF is a ‘sustainable’ (and healthy!) option on said packaging. This is so universal, sometimes I have to remind myself that encasing foods in plastic to be immediately discarded isn’t natural, and is far from sustainable. 

Worldwide, packaging is the largest source of plastic production, and approximately 79% ends up in landfills or polluting natural environments, devastating marine life. Globally, waste management suffers inadequate infrastructure, and over 90% of solid waste is either burned or unsafely buried in the Global South. Therefore, once again, economic inequalities impact low-income communities at a much higher rate. 

UPF in St Andrews 

So what can we do? Can we avoid UPF in St Andrews? In order to consider this, it’s first vital to acknowledge the vast social disparity amongst students at the top university in the country. As a student from a low-income household , I would like to completely avoid UPF, yet it feels impossible. From the atrocious supermarket prices, to being holed up in the library half the time, to the fact that I can’t just make a Snickers bar at home – the intentional palatability, convenience, and addictiveness of ultra-processed food means sometimes I just crave UPF. 

But next time you’re food shopping, with this article in mind, you could ask yourself: 

  • How much does the product I want to buy cost? 
  • Does this contain an ultra-processed ingredient, and can I find a straightforward UPF-free solution if so? 
  • How much plastic will I discard from this purchase, and is there an affordable, plastic-free alternative available? 
  • How do my food consumption choices impact upon my own health, and the health of the planet’? 

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