Ultraprocessed food (UPF), health, and mechanistic uncertainty: What should we be advising the public to do about UPFs?
expert_opinion · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39405438.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004439 and PMC identifier 11479387.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
In this perspective, we discuss why current mechanistic uncertainty on ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) and health acts as a major challenge to providing informed dietary guidelines and public advice on UPFs. Based on the balance of current evidence, we do not believe it is appropriate to be advising consumers to avoid all UPFs and we await further evidence to inform consumer guidance on the need to limit consumption of specifics foods based on their degree or type of processing.
Medical subject headings
- Food Handling