Nutrition
How unhealthy are highly processed foods?
Slices of bread covered with various vegan sausages lie on a wooden board (symbolic image). photo
© Sebastian Kahnert/dpa
They are ready to eat, attractively packaged – and often contain a lot of sugar, salt, fat and additives. Heavily processed foods often end up in shopping carts. Experts see risks with high consumption.
The instant soup contains 22 ingredients, while the ready-to-eat noodle dish even has 24 ingredients on the packaging. Whether frozen pizza or poultry nuggets, sausages, biscuits, protein power bars, cereals or salty snacks – highly processed ones Foods that often contain a lot of added additives often end up in shopping baskets in Germany.
The group of foods also known as Ultra-Processed Foods (UPF) is diverse; there is an enormous range of different quality. According to experts, high consumption can pose health risks.
What are highly processed foods or UPFs?
Typically, the products contain a lot of sugar, salt, unfavorable fats and additives such as colorings, flavor enhancers and preservatives. In addition, plasticizers from plastic packaging can pass into the food. On the other hand, the important minerals, fiber and vitamins are often poor.
According to the German Nutrition Society (DGE), these are foods and beverages in whose production the raw materials used were subjected to an extensive industrial processing process. The most recent DGE nutrition report from December 2023 sees a connection between high consumption of such UPFs in adults and diseases such as high blood pressure, overweight and obesity or even type 2 diabetes.
However, differentiation must be made, emphasizes co-author Bettina Hieronimus from the Max Rubner Institute, Federal Research Institute for Nutrition and Food. There is a huge range: the UPF group includes not only unhealthy canned foods, cookies, confectionery or junk food with little nutritional value but high in calories. “A salad mix can also slip into the highest processing level in the usual Nova scale just because the dressing contains a binding agent,” says Hieronimus, describing an example. The Nova scale classifies foods according to the degree of processing, ranging from “unprocessed” to “highly processed” in four levels.
A vegan schnitzel can be classified as highly processed, but the data currently does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about health effects, says Hieronimus. Many providers rely on natural ingredients, especially here. “We are still at the beginning of the UPFs, have to rely on some outdated data and need a lot more research.” Among other things, it is not yet clear why certain factors can have a negative impact on health.
“The shorter the ingredients list, the better”
According to the DGE, highly processed foods are becoming increasingly dominant, especially in high-income countries. They increasingly replaced a diet with natural foods and freshly prepared dishes. In Germany, according to the last national consumption study in the early 2000s, they accounted for around half of the total energy intake. There are no more recent figures; an increasing trend is assumed.
When reaching for the grocery shelf, you should look carefully at the list of ingredients for the products, advises Christiane Seidel from the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations. The rule of thumb is: “The shorter the list of ingredients, the better.” Even highly processed foods that are advertised with benefits such as “high in protein” or “low in sugar” are not automatically healthy. “It depends on what’s in the overall picture.” It is unclear which pollutants from the packaging could possibly pass into the food.
Above all, Seidel is critical of the widespread use of additives. We don’t know all of the possible negative consequences here; there is a need for research. Nutritionist Hieronimus says similarly that only approved substances are used. But how their mixture affects health – keyword “cocktail effect” – is still uncertain.
What makes UPFs so attractive?
UPF products are available practically everywhere, are usually affordable, have a long shelf life and are ready to eat or just warm up, as Harald Seitz from the Federal Center for Nutrition (BZfE) in Bonn explains. The UPFs are tasty, convenient and time-saving. The downside is that the food loses some of its nutrients and health-promoting ingredients with every processing step. “The less processed and fresher a food is, the better,” emphasizes Seitz.
From the manufacturer’s perspective, UPFs are profitable because, according to the DGE, cheap ingredients are often – although not always – used. Demand and sales are high. Nutritional information from the Nutri-Score on the packaging could provide consumers with helpful information, says Bettina Hieronimus. Unprocessed or minimally processed foods are preferable. And: “Cooking yourself is best.”