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Pity the poor students heading off to university, armed with little more than instant noodles and breakfast cereal to tide them over until the holidays.

But now, the first doctor to sound the alarm on ultra-processed foods thinks it’s high time to slap a tax on those noodles—and he’s not stopping there. Even ice cream isn’t safe from the crosshairs.

Prof Carlos Augusto Monteiro says via The Guardian that the strength of the evidence of the problems such food causes for “most body systems” leaves “no doubt” that governments need to act now.

“Strong policies, as soon as possible” on ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are needed to reduce chronic diseases in countries across the globe, says Monteiro. If we wait another 10 years to act, “this will be a tragedy, because this has a cost”.

Monteiro and his team at São Paulo University in Brazil developed the Nova classification system, first introduced in 2009 and now widely embraced. This system categorises foods by their level of processing, starting with category one—unprocessed or minimally processed foods like whole fruits and vegetables—and stretching all the way to category four: ultra-processed foods.

UPF contain higher levels of salt, sugar, fat and additives that are linked to obesity, cancer, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. These food products have been industrially manufactured, often using artificial flavours, emulsifiers and colouring, including soft drinks and packaged snacks that all tend to be extremely palatable and high in calories but relatively low in nutrients.

You can’t say you already had all the calories you need for the day by drinking the equivalent of fruit and veg in three cans of Coke – it’s just not the same.

The problem, as Monteiro notes, is that some foods sit between “ultra-processed” and “processed”, posing a problem for regulators.

“A whole bread that has emulsifiers, that has added fibre – it is ultra-processed, technically, by the definition, but clearly it is not the worst product,” he says.

“I think the solution is: forget about the technical definition of ultra-processed foods and target all the food groups that are very likely ultra-processed,” says Monteiro.

According to him, clear examples of ultra-processed foods (UPF) include reconstituted meat products, instant noodles, and soft drinks.

He adds: “If you take, for instance, ice-cream. Probably 99% of ice-cream in the UK market is ultra-processed. And maybe you have 1% which is not, which is probably very expensive. So then, if you tax all ice-creams? Beautiful.”

Campaigners warn that the aggressive marketing of ultra-processed foods in developing countries, especially within poorer communities, is fueling a crisis of non-communicable diseases.

Earlier this year, Monteiro spoke at the International Congress on Obesity in São Paulo, where research revealed Brazil’s alarming rise in obesity rates. The country is on track for 68% of adults to be overweight or obese by 2030, a sharp increase from the current 62%.

South Africans, too, are struggling with massive weight issues. The World Health Organisation declared obesity as a global epidemic claiming at least 2.8 million lives annually and ranked South Africa among the nations with the highest levels of this prevalent and easily-avoidable disease. It’s so bad that the Health Department is even enlisting the help of traditional healers and sangomas to aid in the detection of chronic illnesses.

Thus Monteiro has called for multinational food companies that manufacture UPF to be treated like tobacco companies, required to display warnings on the front of their packaging and subject to taxes and public health campaigns.

The professor admits that he has been taken aback by the sheer volume and consistency of evidence gathered over the past five years that UPFs are vile for our health. He recently tallied 70 cohort studies that tracked large groups of people over extended periods to examine the effects of diet on health, and of these, 62 studies found a clear link between ultra-processed foods and various health issues.

“It is really strong, and not just with obesity or diabetes, but cardiovascular diseases, mental diseases, kidney, liver, gastrointestinal diseases. So we are talking about an exposure [to UPF] which is harming most body systems.”

It is probably high time, as Monteiro believes, for a global convention on ultra-processed foods, comparable to that imposed on the tobacco industry: an international treaty aimed at curbing demand and supply that prevents tobacco firms from lobbying the UN and WHO and sponsoring scientific conferences.

Before national dietary guidelines are out to tell people to avoid UPFs as far as possible, it is probably a brilliant idea to go ahead and trash the noodles and soda you have stored right now.

[source:theguardian]