In the US, Donald Trump\u2019s Health Secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has revamped the nation\u2019s official healthy eating advice<\/a>, and for the first time it explicitly tells people to avoid highly processed food and instead eat \u201creal food\u201d.<\/p>\n The UK has brought in a new ban on<\/a> adverts for junk food<\/a> being shown on TV before 9pm and at any time online, suggesting a similar direction of travel.<\/p>\n But those trying to cut UPF from their diet may find it is harder than they think. It has been estimated about half of the British diet consists of UPF. It is present in a surprising number of everyday staples \u2013 many of which would often be seen as healthy foods<\/a>.<\/p>\n What is UPF?<\/p>\n According to Brazilian scientists who developed the UPF concept, food can be divided into three main types. The first category is unprocessed foods, in other words, the natural forms of meat or fruit and vegetables.<\/p>\n Next comes processed foods and ingredients, substances derived from meat or plants using simple age-old processing methods, such as drying, grinding, refining or heating.<\/p>\n This includes things like traditionally made bread, cheese, yogurt, butter and some oils, like olive oil.<\/p>\n Last comes the dreaded UPF \u2013 foods made from the first two groups using modern manufacturing methods, to make things like modified vegetable oil, pre-digested proteins, often found in soya-based \u201cfake meats\u201d and high-fructose (or fruit sugar) corn syrup. It typically usually contains artificial chemicals, such as emulsifiers \u2013 which help fat mix with water \u2013 and preservatives.<\/p>\n \nCommon UPFs <\/strong><\/p>\n People like doctor and TV personality, Chris van Tulleken, who has spearheaded the anti-UPF movement in the UK, has said a quick way to tell if something is processed or UPF is that the latter usually comes wrapped in plastic. <\/p>\n You can also check by looking at the packet to see if it contains ingredients you wouldn\u2019t find in a home kitchen.<\/p>\n What\u2019s new about this take on food?<\/p>\n Before the UPF idea took hold, most doctors would have said a food\u2019s healthiness or otherwise depends on its nutrients, namely, its levels of fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar.<\/p>\n Some of the time these rival frameworks for judging food \u2013 nutrient-based or UPF-based \u2013 agree with each other about which stuff is good or bad.<\/p>\n Many UPFs are indeed high in fat, sugar and so on. For instance, cakes and biscuits bought in shops are full of sugar. A typical takeaway, ready meal, or supermarket pizza is high in fat and salt.<\/p>\n Why some \u2018healthy\u2019 foods can also be an UPF<\/p>\n But there are some foods that would be judged good by the old system, yet are UPF. Most types of bread, even brown or wholemeal loaves, contain ingredients like emulsifiers and preservatives, and so fit the UPF definition.<\/p>\n The only way to have bread on a non-UPF diet is to either buy it from pricey artisan bakeries or make your own bread every day at home.<\/p>\n Another example is frozen chicken nuggets or fish fingers, which usually have artificial ingredients in the breadcrumbs. Most dietitians would say these are a nutritious and economical way of getting low-fat meat into the diet of fussy children. But they are a no-no to UPF crusaders.<\/p>\n \u201cI think school food programmes would love to be able to offer real chicken instead of chicken nuggets, but the reality is, you\u2019re not giving them any more money to support that kind of change,\u201d said Danielle Battram, head of Brescia School of Food and Nutritional Sciences at Western University in Canada.<\/p>\n Other UPFs that catch people out include wholegrain breakfast cereals, flavoured yogurts and some pasta sauces \u2013 anything that has added preservatives or flavourings. \u201cThings like a can of tomatoes or passata is technically processed food. So they\u2019re demonising all processed foods under one umbrella term,\u201d said Kirsten Jackson, a spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association.<\/p>\n Whole foods that can be unhealthy<\/p>\n There\u2019s another potential downside of switching to the new UPF classification system. Some foods that pass the no-UPF test are seen as decidedly unhealthy by most dietitians.<\/p>\n These would include biscuits, ice cream and cake that have been home-made. You could eat steak with butter sauce every day and still be eating healthily, according to some UPF campaigners.<\/p>\n But most doctors would say a diet so heavy in red meat is bad because it raises your cholesterol. \u201cHigher amounts of dairy, especially full fat, and red meat are linked to high rates of heart disease,\u201d said Jackson.<\/p>\n Scientists still don\u2019t know<\/p>\n \t\tYour next read<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SEI_280403734.jpg\")
Bread may or may not be UPF (Photo: Tang Ming Tung\/Getty)<\/p>\n\n
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Some UPF is obvious (Photo: Peter Dazeley\/Getty)<\/p>\n
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