Ultra-Processed Foods

Before consumption all food is processed in some manner, and simply because it is processed does not make it unhealthy when chronically consumed. However, prevalence of chronic diseases and of obesity is straining Canadas’ public health system; one-in-four Canadians (>20years) are hypertensive, one-in-ten have ischemic heart disease, nearly 10% of the population >1 year is diabetic, while heart and stroke is the leading cause of death responsible for 25% of the Canadian mortality rate. Meanwhile, obesity rates have steadily increased from 10% to 15% to 23% starting in 1970 and ending in 2004 and in 2015 27% of adults and 12% of children are considered obese. In 2004, for all socio-economic groups in Canada, half of all calories consumed was ultra-processed, as defined by the NOVA classification.

NOVA Classification of Processed Foods

The NOVA classification differentiates foods based on the nature, purpose and extent food processing to include Group 1) unprocessed or minimally processed foods; Group 2) processed culinary or food industry ingredients; Group 3) processed foods, and; Group 4) ultra-processed foods (UPFs) (Monteiro, Cannon, et al., 2018; Monteiro, Levy, Claro, Castro, & Cannon, 2010).  NOVA classifies foods not based on its nutrients, but instead on the physical, biological, and chemical processes applied to the foods after harvest but before they are prepared for cooking and consumption. Group 1 is whole foods (e.g., meat, milk, grains, legumes, nuts, fruits, and vegetables), while the other extreme is UPFs, which are not modified foods but formulations made mostly or entirely from substances derived from foods and additives (Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, 2016). The differentiating factor, the’ intact’ nature of food, was exceptionally insightful, preluding to the importance of physical structure on the dietary quality of foods (Fardet & Rock, 2022). This change in dietary guidelines presents significant hurdles to achieving food security since most agricultural raw materials must be processed to ensure safe and palatable foods are not lost to derivative reactions along the supply chain (Jones, 2019); while avoiding these foods would pose a considerable challenge, given globally that almost two-thirds of all energy comes from UPFs (Gibney & Forde, 2022).

Categorizing Canadian consumption of UPFs found, the lowest quintile consumed ~20% of calories from UPFs, the 2^nd consumed ~40%, the 3^rd was ~50%, the 4^th was ~60%, and remarkably the 5^th quintile consumed ~80% of their calories from UPFs! The greater dietary share of UPFs coincides with increased energy density, free sugars, sodium and saturated; while protein, fibre, minerals, and vitamins decreased substantially. Comparing the lowest to highest quintiles for UFP consumption, those who ate more whole foods (group 1) consume more potassium than sodium, while those in the highest quintile consume more sodium than potassium.