{"id":36667,"date":"2025-11-18T22:30:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T23:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=36667"},"modified":"2025-11-20T11:22:59","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T11:22:59","slug":"scientists-call-for-global-shift-away-from-ultraprocessed-foods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=36667","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Call for Global Shift Away From Ultraprocessed Foods"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a sweeping series of papers, scientists have proposed policy reforms, such as taxes on sugary drinks, to improve the food supply.<\/p>\n

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Today, in a series of three review papers published in The Lancet<\/a>, 43 public health experts from around the world issued a call for government policies aimed at reducing the consumption of ultraprocessed foods<\/a> which, they write, are driving global increases in obesity and chronic diseases.<\/p>\n

The papers compile years of evidence on the foods\u2019 links to poor health and growing reach around the world \u2014 and the policies that could turn the tide, the experts say. Without greater regulation of the companies that manufacture and market the foods, they add, people\u2019s health will only worsen.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig food is taking over,\u201d said Barry Popkin, a lead author of one of the papers and a professor of nutrition at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina.<\/p>\n

Ultraprocessed foods make up more than half of the calories consumed daily in the United States<\/a> and in Britain. The foods are less widespread in lower and middle income countries, but studies suggest that they are increasing. Globally, ultraprocessed food sales grew to $1.9 trillion in 2023, from $1.5 trillion in 2009, and just eight companies control an estimated 42 percent of the market, according to The Lancet authors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The rise of ultraprocessed foods<\/a> has had serious health consequences, said Carlos Monteiro, a nutritional epidemiologist and emeritus professor at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo in Brazil. Research on the foods, generally described as those made with ingredients you wouldn\u2019t find in a home kitchen, has exploded since Dr. Monteiro and his colleagues published a definition for the category in 2009, proposing at the time that they were an overlooked cause of chronic disease.<\/p>\n

The new series was funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization of Michael R. Bloomberg, a former New York City mayor, that promotes policies to improve global public health. The organization did not play a role in the research or writing of the papers, according to the journal.<\/p>\n

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In a sweeping series of papers, scientists have proposed policy reforms, such as taxes on sugary drinks, to improve the food supply.Today, in a series of three review papers published in The Lancet, 43 public health experts from around the world issued a call for government policies aimed at reducing the consumption of ultraprocessed foods which, they write, are driving global increases in obesity and chronic diseases.The papers compile years of evidence on the foods\u2019 links to poor health and growing reach around the world \u2014 and the policies that could turn the tide, the experts say. Without greater regulation of the companies that manufacture and market the foods, they add, people\u2019s health will only worsen.\u201cBig food is taking over,\u201d said Barry Popkin, a lead author of one of the papers and a professor of nutrition at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina.Ultraprocessed foods make up more than half of the calories consumed daily in the United States and in Britain. The foods are less widespread in lower and middle income countries, but studies suggest that they are increasing. Globally, ultraprocessed food sales grew to $1.9 trillion in 2023, from $1.5 trillion in 2009, and just eight companies control an estimated 42 percent of the market, according to The Lancet authors.The rise of ultraprocessed foods has had serious health consequences, said Carlos Monteiro, a nutritional epidemiologist and emeritus professor at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo in Brazil. Research on the foods, generally described as those made with ingredients you wouldn\u2019t find in a home kitchen, has exploded since Dr. Monteiro and his colleagues published a definition for the category in 2009, proposing at the time that they were an overlooked cause of chronic disease.The new series was funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization of Michael R. Bloomberg, a former New York City mayor, that promotes policies to improve global public health. The organization did not play a role in the research or writing of the papers, according to the journal.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36669,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36667"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36670,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36667\/revisions\/36670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}