Why It’s Time to Stop Talking About ‘Ultra Processed’ Food

Speaker: Beverley O'Hara

Could stigmatising ultra-processed foods (UPFs) be doing more harm than good? Public health nutritionist Beverley O'Hara argues framing foods as inherently ‘dangerous’ risks distorting the science and adding to public confusion about nutrition.

She will reveal how stoking fear around UPFs often provokes psychological resistance, leading people to ignore health messages altogether or, paradoxically, to double down on the behaviour being criticised. The ‘processed equals bad’ narrative can also fuel guilt, anxiety and disordered eating, and vilifies foods that are widely eaten, particularly by people on lower incomes.

We have long understood that certain foods high in salt, sugar and saturated fat – traditionally called ‘junk food’ – are not good for health. Beverley explains why rebranding these as UPFs adds little to that knowledge and risks distracting attention from the real structural issues that determine what people eat: the affordability of healthy foods, aggressive marketing of unhealthy ones and inequalities in time, income and access to cooking facilities.

Join Beverley and find out why it may be time to move beyond the term ‘ultra-processed food’ if we want to build a healthier and fairer food system.

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Host or Publisher York Festival of Ideas