Understanding Ultra-Processed Foods: Why Your 'Farmacy' Matters for Physical and Mental Health
- AimeeH
- Aug 1
- 10 min read
When I first started studying nutrition, one phrase kept appearing over and over again: ultra-processed foods.
At first, I assumed it simply meant chocolate, crisps and takeaway meals. The reality however, is far more surprising. Not all, but some foods marketed as "healthy" can also be highly processed and understanding the difference completely changed the way I look at food. That doesn't mean they're automatically unhealthy, but it does mean it's worth looking beyond the marketing and understanding what's actually inside.
One of the easiest ways to spot them isn't by looking at the front of the packet - it's turning it over and reading the ingredients list.
Before you put food in your trolley, ask yourself three questions:
Could I make this in my own kitchen?
Do I recognise most of these ingredients as food ingredients?
Will this nourish my body or am I choosing it for convenience?
My hope is that you'll come away from this blog feeling curious and better informed about the choices available to you. More importantly, I hope you'll understand why I believe our first pharmacy should often be our 'Farmacy' - the fresh, whole foods that nourish our bodies every day.
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have become a significant part of the modern diet, particularly in countries like the UK. Despite their convenience and palatability, research has linked diets high in UPFs with a range of health concerns. In this blog, we'll explore what UPFs are, how they're made, the effects they can have on our bodies and some practical ways to reduce our reliance on them.
What Are Ultra-Processed Foods?
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are products that have been through multiple stages of industrial processing. Unlike minimally processed foods (for example, chopping a carrot), they often contain ingredients you wouldn't typically find in a home kitchen, such as hydrogenated or highly refined oils, flavour enhancers, emulsifiers, preservatives and colourings. These ingredients are used to improve taste, texture, appearance and shelf life.
Examples of ultra-processed foods include:
Sugary drinks such as fizzy drinks, energy drinks and cordials
Sweet snacks including cakes, biscuits, chocolates and sweets
Pre-packaged ready meals both chilled and frozen
Instant noodle pots
Some protein bars
Processed meats such as sausages, nuggets and some deli meats
Some plant-based meat alternatives
Breakfast cereals with added sugars and flavourings
Sweetened dairy products including flavoured yoghurts and milk drinks
Many staple foods including bread
How Are Ultra-Processed Foods Made?
Ultra-processed foods are created through a series of industrial processes designed to improve shelf life, texture, flavour and convenience. By the time the finished product reaches our supermarket shelves, it often bears very little resemblance to the original ingredients it was made from.
1. Breaking Ingredients Down
The process begins by separating foods into their basic building blocks. For example, starches may be extracted from grains or potatoes, oils from seeds and plants and proteins from sources such as soy or whey. These ingredients are then purified and concentrated so they can be altered and combined in different ways.
2. Modifying the Ingredients
Once extracted, these ingredients are modified to achieve the desired texture, stability and flavour. This may involve processes such as hydrogenation, hydrolysis or emulsification, all of which help create foods that are consistent, convenient and have a longer shelf life.
3. Rebuilding the Food
The modified ingredients are then combined with additives such as emulsifiers, preservatives, flavourings, colourings, stabilisers and sweeteners. Each ingredient serves a specific purpose, whether it's to improve taste, prevent separation, extend shelf life or create the texture consumers expect.
4. Packaging
Finally, the product is packaged using techniques designed to keep it fresh for as long as possible. Plastic and metal packaging, vacuum sealing and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) all help protect the food from moisture, air and bacteria until it reaches the consumer.
This doesn't mean every processed food is one to avoid. Freezing vegetables, milling flour and pasteurising milk are all forms of processing. It's the extent and purpose of the processing, together with the ingredients added along the way that make ultra-processed foods different.
Effects on the Body
The effects of ultra-processed foods aren't just something we notice years down the line. They can influence how we feel today, while also affecting our long-term health. Let's take a closer look.
Short-Term Effects
While the long-term impact of our diet is important, the foods we eat can also affect how we feel on a day-to-day basis. Diets high in ultra-processed foods don't just influence our weight - they can affect our appetite, digestion and energy levels too.
1. Overeating
Hyper-palatability: UPFs are often engineered to be incredibly appealing by combining sugar, fat and salt in ways that stimulate the brain's reward system. This can make them difficult to stop eating once we've started, increasing the likelihood of overeating and over time, weight gain.
Reduced satiety: Many UPFs are lower in fibre and protein than whole foods, two nutrients that help us feel full and satisfied. As a result, it's often easier to consume more calories before our bodies recognise that we've had enough.
This is one reason why a bowl of porridge may keep you feeling satisfied for much longer than sugary breakfast cereal, despite containing a similar number of calories.
2. Digestive Health
Lower fibre intake: Many ultra-processed foods contain far less fibre than their whole-food equivalents. Fibre plays an essential role in healthy digestion by supporting regular bowel movements and helping to nourish the beneficial bacteria that live in our gut.
Gut microbiome: Some research suggests that certain additives and preservatives commonly found in UPFs may alter the balance of beneficial gut bacteria. As our gut microbiome plays an important role in digestion, immunity and overall health, looking after it is another reason to prioritise whole foods where possible.
Long-Term Effects
What we eat day after day has a far greater impact on our health than simply the number we see on the scales or how our clothes fit. Our everyday food choices influence everything from our heart and brain to our digestive system and overall wellbeing.
Let's take a look at some of the ways a diet high in ultra-processed foods may affect our health over time.
1. Chronic Diseases
Research has linked diets high in UPFs with an increased risk of a number of chronic health conditions. While no single food causes disease on its own, our overall dietary pattern plays an important role in our long-term health.
Obesity: UPFs are often high in calories, sugar and unhealthy fats, while being lower in fibre and protein. This combination can make them easy to overconsume, contributing to weight gain over time. Obesity itself is a major risk factor for conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
Type 2 Diabetes: Regularly consuming diets high in refined carbohydrates and added sugars, particularly alongside excess calorie intake, may contribute to insulin resistance - a precursor to type 2 diabetes. Their lower fibre content also means blood sugar levels can rise more quickly after eating.
Heart Disease: Some ultra-processed foods contain high levels of saturated fat, sodium and in some cases, trans fats. Over time, diets high in these may contribute to raised cholesterol levels, high blood pressure and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Certain Cancers: Growing research suggests that diets high in UPFs may be associated with an increased risk of certain cancers. While more research is needed to fully understand why, poor overall nutritional quality and some food additives are among the factors being investigated.
2. Chronic Inflammation
Inflammation is the body's natural response to injury or infection but when it becomes chronic, it can contribute to a range of long-term health conditions.
Trans fats: Although their use has reduced significantly in recent years, industrial trans fats have been shown to promote inflammation and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Diets high in added sugar: Diets high in added sugars have also been linked with increased inflammatory markers. Over time, chronic inflammation may contribute to damage throughout the body. This can look like persistent fatigue, aching joints and muscles, brain fog, poor recovery from exercise, poor sleep and generally feeling run down.
While these symptoms can have many causes, our diet is one of the lifestyle factors that could influence inflammation over time.
3. Nutritional Deficiencies
One of the biggest concerns with diets high in ultra-processed foods isn't just what they contain - it's often what they lack.
Micronutrients: Many UPFs contain fewer naturally occurring vitamins and minerals than whole foods. If they regularly replace more nutritious options, they may contribute to deficiencies in nutrients such as iron, magnesium and calcium.
Empty calories: They are often high in calories while providing relatively little nutritional value. This means it's possible to consume plenty of energy without giving your body the nutrients it needs to function at its best, meaning over time, even if we believe we are consuming enough energy, we feel physical decline in ourselves and our abilities. These foods have been designed to manipulate our food cravings and choices and part of the journey to changing habits is recognising this is the cycle we are stuck in.
It's important to remember that these effects develop over time as part of our overall eating pattern - not because of the occasional takeaway or slice of birthday cake. It's what we do most of the time that matters.
Emerging research also suggests a relationship between diets high in ultra-processed foods and poorer sleep quality, although more research is needed to fully understand this link.
Ultra-Processed Foods and Mental Wellbeing
Our food choices don't just influence our physical health - they can also affect how we think, feel and function day to day.
These foods are designed to be highly rewarding, stimulating the brain's pleasure centres through combinations of sugar, fat and salt. This creates a temporary feeling of enjoyment, but it's often short-lived, leaving us wanting more. Over time, regularly relying on these foods may reinforce cravings and make whole or minimally processed foods seem less appealing by comparison.
While food isn't the only factor affecting mental health, the close connection between our gut and our brain - often referred to as the gut-brain axis, is an exciting area of ongoing research. Looking after one often means supporting the other too.
What Does the Research Show?
To put this into perspective, even relatively small increases in ultra-processed food intake have been associated with measurable differences in long-term health outcomes.
Did you know?
Obesity: Research published in the British Medical Journal in 2024 found highly suggestive evidence that a greater consumption of UPFs is associated with a 55% higher odds of obesity compared with lower consumption. The review combined findings from almost 10 million participants across multiple meta-analyses.
Heart Disease: Research from the French NutriNet-Santé study, published in The BMJ (2019), found that every 10% increase in the proportion of ultra-processed foods in the diet was associated with a 12% higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
Overall mortality: In the same 2019 study, it was found that every 10% increase in ultra-processed foods within the diet was associated with a 14% increase in the risk of all-cause mortality.
It's important to remember that these studies show associations rather than proving cause and effect. Even so, the findings have been remarkably consistent across large populations. What is also becoming evident in more recent research is that the overall quality of diet may matter more than whether a food is classified as ultra-processed.
Finding Balance
Now, I'm not going to tell you that the only way to stay healthy and live well for longer is to switch to a 100% organic, whole-food diet while removing all sugar, starches and processed foods. Not only would that be incredibly restrictive, but for many people it would also be unrealistic and expensive.
One of the biggest changes I made wasn't banning foods - it was becoming more curious about what I was buying. I still enjoy treats, but I understand them differently now.
Ultimately, it's up to each of us to make the choices that best suit our own lives. My aim is simply to give you the most up-to-date information available at the time of writing, so you can make informed decisions about your own health.
As a general guide, aim for the majority of your diet to come from whole or minimally processed foods – think from the ground, the ocean or an animal. See it as your own local Farmacy: using food to nourish your body and support your long-term health.
If you enjoy a glass of wine at the weekend, an ice cream on holiday or a pastry on a Sunday morning, that's unlikely to have the same impact as relying on highly processed ready meals, frozen pizzas, chips, shop-bought cakes and puddings every day. It's our overall food choices that matter most.
Start small. You don't need to overhaul your entire kitchen overnight. Pick one meal or snack this week and see if you can make a simple swap using whole or minimally processed ingredients.
· Pizza night: Try a wholemeal wrap or pitta topped with tomato purée, mozzarella, vegetables, herbs and a lean protein of your choice (meat/fish/alternative). It takes minutes to make and lets you control exactly what goes into it.
· Snack attack: Instead of reaching for crisps, try air-popped popcorn, a handful of nuts, or apple slices with peanut butter.
· Breakfast: Swap a sugary cereal for porridge topped with berries and seeds to help keep you fuller for longer.
One clue that a food may be ultra-processed is a long ingredients list containing additives, flavourings, emulsifiers and ingredients you wouldn't normally use in your own kitchen.
Take bread, for example. A traditional loaf is usually made from just a few simple ingredients: flour, water, salt and in some cases, yeast. Compare that with some supermarket loaves that contain a much longer list of ingredients designed to improve texture, extend shelf life or enhance flavour. They may both be called bread, but they're very different products.
There is an app available called 'The Food App' that allows you to scan food items as you shop and it will tell you whether items are ultra-processed or not. Once you learn your new shopping list, it won't feel any different to how you're already shopping now.
Three things to do after reading this blog
Read the ingredients on one product you buy every week – can you identify the ingredients list as foods?. (Download the app to help)
Swap one ultra-processed snack for a whole-food alternative.
Cook one meal from scratch this week.
Conclusion
As a nutritional therapist, one of the biggest misconceptions I come across is that people judge their health purely by the scales. In reality, our food choices influence so much more than our weight.
Ultra-processed foods have become a normal part of modern life, offering convenience but often at the expense of good nutrition. By understanding what they are, recognising them more easily and choosing whole or minimally processed foods more often, we can support both our physical and mental wellbeing.
That doesn't mean striving for perfection. Food is about more than nutrition alone - it brings enjoyment, celebration and connection. The occasional treat isn't something to fear or feel guilty about. What matters most is the overall pattern of what we eat day after day.
Small, consistent changes are far more powerful than chasing perfection. Every meal is another opportunity to nourish your body, support your health and invest in your future. Your body works incredibly hard for you every single day; the least we can do is give it the fuel it deserves.
So, what’s one small change could you make this week?
It doesn't have to be perfect and it certainly doesn't have to happen overnight. Lasting habits are built one choice at a time and every healthier decision is an investment in your future self.
Download The Food App:
Further Reading:
If you'd like to explore this topic in more depth, I'd highly recommend “Ultra-Processed People” by Dr Chris van Tulleken. It's an engaging and thought-provoking look at how ultra-processed foods have become such a significant part of modern diets, combining scientific research with real-world examples in a way that's accessible without being overwhelming. Whether you agree with every conclusion or not, it's an excellent starting point for understanding the growing conversation around ultra-processed foods.
Scientific References:
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