The human diet in many parts of the world has shifted from whole foods to the antithesis — fare dominated by ultra-processed foods (UPFs). These are foods laden with unnatural ingredients and processing.

UPFs were introduced when saccharin was invented in 1879, and Coca-Cola was introduced in 1886. In the early 1900s, a German chemist named Willhelm Norman, invented artificial trans fatty acids by adding hydrogen to vegetable and fish oils and solidifying them (Sanford, 2025). This discovery provided a way to increase shelf life and resulted in adding trans fats to various foods including hot dogs, mayonnaise, and sandwich cookies.

Chris Van Tulleken, MD, PhD, a molecular virologist, associate professor at University College London, and practicing infectious disease doctor asserts that typical diets in the UK and US are now up to 75 percent UPFs (Van Tulleken, 2023). 

Know the Difference: Defining UPFs

Ultra-processed foods are nonfood substances made of novel molecules that are not made for human consumption and cannot even be called food (Van Tulleken, 2023). 

Nicole Avena, who is an associate professor at Mount Sinai in New York and visiting professor at Princeton and researches food addiction, believes that some UPFs may activate the brain reward system by stimulating changes in human brain circuits ultimately causing addiction. She asserts that most UPFs are reconstructed from whole food reduced to its basic molecular particles, then modified and reconstructed “into food-like shapes and textures and then heavily salted, sweetened, colored, and flavored.” Avena believes that “without additives these base industrial ingredients would probably not be recognizable as food by your tongue and brain” (Van Tulleken, 2023).

Different procedures are used to replace real foods with UPFs, because real foods are more expensive. For example, real foods like milk and eggs are expensive for ice cream companies to produce, store, and distribute without spoiling, so UPFs are substituted for them to help to maintain freezing processes (Van Tulleken, 2023).

Foods fall into four categories, UPFs being the least healthy:

1. Unprocessed foods are sourced directly from plants or animals like fruit, vegetables, milk, or fish, or are minimally processed natural foods that have been cleaned, ground, cut, dried, pasteurized, fermented, cooled, or frozen. These foods have no added sugars, fats, salt, or oils.
2. Processed culinary ingredients are taken from natural foods and processed by grinding, blending, crushing, and refining. They are used to season and cook food and include sugar, salt, butter, and olive oil.
3. Processed foods are foods manufactured by using sugar, salt, oil, or other items added to natural or minimally processed foods (Group 1) to preserve or make them more appetizing. They are basically processed versions of the original foods. Examples are canned fruit, pickles and other pickled foods such as beets or okra, honey-glazed pecans, and jams.
4. Ultra-processed foods are manufactured inventions completely or mostly made from substances extracted from foods (oils, fats, sugar, starch, and proteins), obtained from food components (hydrogenated fats and modified starch), or created in labs from food base material, nutrient sources, or other organic sources such as food additives to make products more visually appealing and flavorful. Examples are food colorings and flavor enhancers. UPF manufacturers use preprocessing via frying, molding, and extrusion. Group 1 foods are a small proportion of, or can even be absent from, ultra-processed products. Examples of ultra-processed foods are cereals, chips, hot dogs, and sliced breads (ECU, n.d.).

Some UPFs used for food substitutions include:

• Modified starches
• Invert sugars
• Hydrolyzed protein isolates from milk and beef (calcium caseinate, whey protein isolate, hydrolyzed beef gelatine)
• Seed oils (refined, bleached, deodorized, hydrogenated, or interesterified)
• Synthetic emulsifiers (such as hydrogenated oils)
• Low-calorie sweeteners
• Stabilizing gums
• Humectants
• Flavor compounds
• Dyes
• Color stabilizers
• Carbonating agents
• Firming agents
• Bulking agents
• Antibulking agents
• Maltitol, an artificial sweetener formulated from modified starch (sucralose, aspartame, saccharin, and high-fructose corn syrup) (JHU, 2025).

Examples of UPFs

UPFs that we consume regularly are the vast majority of the foods located in the center aisles of our grocery stores. White flour, individually packaged oatmeal, chips, canned soups, and sweetened, flavored, low-fat, or “light” yogurts are often classified as UPFs due to the many ingredients they contain (Lambert, 2025). Candies, chocolate, prepackaged cookies, sauces, condiments, fruit juice, soda, processed meat products, and store-bought ice cream almost always contain UPFs.

Consequences of UPF on Human Health

Extra sugar, salt, and fat are often added to foods during processing to increase flavor and preservation. The result of the addition of great amounts of sugar to our foods is toxicity. The health consequences are varied but vast, linking to “ . . . diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer, dementia, lipid problems, headaches, depression, acne, high blood pressure, and strokes.” The biggest offender is sugar-sweetened drinks like soft drinks, sweet teas, lemonade, coffee drinks, energy drinks, protein drinks, and flavored waters (David & Uhrenholdt, 2014).

Obesity

UPF ingredients and processes frequently cause hyperpalatability, which can make them addictive. Ingredients combined such as salt, sugar, and fat, “stimulate the brain’s reward system, making it hard to stop eating them,” says Julia Wolfson, Johns Hopkins University professor of International Health (Coulson, 2025).

Industrial processing changes the composition of UPFs, reducing satiety, causing us to eat faster and overrule our body’s fullness cue, making us overeat. We can also maintain that fullness because UPFs have less fiber and water and more additives, and they are more calorie-dense due to the high saturated fat, sugar, and sodium.

“Many of these ultra-processed foods are intentionally designed by the food industry to be irresistible to consumers, and they’re heavily marketed with the goal of maximizing profits,” says Wolfson (Coulson, 2025).

Cancer

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (ARC) has classified processed meats (i.e., deli meats) as “Class 1 carcinogens,” causing an increased risk of colorectal cancer. Meanwhile, their research has classified red meat as a “Class 2A carcinogen,” with a 2020 study of half a million UK adults over seven years linking red meat to a greater risk of bowel cancer. However, this risk is caused by frequent overconsumption. Consuming processed meat and red meat as part of a balanced diet is not typically a significant health risk (Lambert, 2025).

Heart Disease

Health data from over 1.2 million people proved that excess consumption of UPFs is linked to a higher risk of heart disease and stroke in adults in the United States.

JoAnn Manson, MD, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, discovered that high consumption of UPFs like sugar-sweetened beverages, processed deli meats, and hot dogs provoke the greatest risk of heart disease (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, 2025).

The Answer: Choose Clean Foods

As more consumer awareness has increased, replacement of these unhealthy pantry staples and ultra-processed ingredients has begun.

Replacing UPFs means eliminating highly refined sugars, unhealthy fats, and additives and choosing nutrient-dense options and natural whole foods instead. Removing high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been an important first step. Made from cornstarch and then chemically altered, causing its glucose to convert to fructose, researchers have discovered that HFCS provokes the liver to create more fat, which can cause weight gain. HFCS can also trigger inflammation. (Cleveland Clinic, 2025).

Swap your pantry staples successfully with natural, unprocessed foods by beginning gradually with some of these staples:

Clean eating has the overt health benefit of consuming nutrient-dense foods without being overly processed. This equips the body with quality protein, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals, which rewards us with a stronger immune system, heart and brain, and better weight control (Mayo Clinic, 2025). 

References

Cervoni, B. (2025, September 22). 6 swaps for your favorite processed meats, according to dieticians. EatingWell. eatingwell.com/swaps-for-your-favorite-processed-meats-11811446

Cleveland Clinic. (2025, April 1). What is high fructose corn syrup? And why it’s bad for you. health.clevelandclinic.org/what-is-high-fructose-corn-syrup

Coulson, M. (2025, November 10). Most of the foods we eat are ultra-processed. Are they all unhealthy? Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/what-are-ultra-processed-foods

Corliss, J. (2024, April 1). Putting processed foods into perspective. Harvard Health Publishing. health.harvard.edu/heart-health/putting-processed-foods-into-perspective

David, L. & Uhrenholdt, K. (2014). The family cooks: 100+ recipes to get your family craving food that’s simple, tasty, and incredibly good for you. New York, NY: Rodale Press, Inc.

De Simone Swiss. (2025, July 24). 10 healthy pantry swaps that make eating well easier. She Takes Five. shetakesfive.com/clean-pantry-swaps/

ECU. (n.d.). The NOVA Food Classification System — ECU Physicians. ecuphysicians.ecu.edu/wp-content/pv-uploads/sites/78/2021/07/NOVA-Classification-Reference-Sheet.pdf

Lambert, R. (2025). The unprocessed plate: Simple, Flavorful UPF-free recipes to transform your life. London, England: DK Red by Penguin Random House.

Mayo Clinic Health System. (2025, October 15). Clean eating: What does that mean? mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/clean-eating-what-does-that-mean

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (2025, March 5). Spotlight on UPFs: NIH explores link between ultra-processed foods and heart disease. nhlbi.nih.gov/news/2025/spotlight-upfs-nih-explores-link-between-ultra-processed-foods-and-heart-disease

Sanford, J. (2025, July 15). Ultra-processed food: Five things to know. Stanford Medicine. med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2025/07/ultra-processed-food--five-things-to-know.html

Scherer, L. (2014). Organic food and farming. New York, NY: Greenhaven Publishing.

Van Tulleken, C. (2023). Ultra-processed people: The science behind food that isn’t food. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.

Woita, M. (2025, May 10). 10 easy pantry swaps for a cleaner kitchen. Boots and Hooves Homestead. bootsandhooveshomestead.com/easy-pantry-swaps-for-a-cleaner-kitchen/

Kimberly Whiteside Truitt, CFM, is a former food service manager at Camp Gilmont and Camp Zephyr and is the director of food services at First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls, Texas. Kimberly has served on Camping Magazine’s Editorial Advisory Committee and was a presenter at the 2018, 2020, and 2023 North American Food Service and Maintenance Conferences.