What’s in a Name? ‘Highly Processed’ in Food Guidelines Stirs Up Confusion

The admonishment is clear in the opening of the government’s dietary guidelines published earlier this year: “Eat real food.”

That is, Americans should consume more whole, nutrient-dense foods — protein, dairy, healthy fats, vegetables, fruits and whole grains — along with “dramatically” reducing highly processed foods.

The guidelines, issued every five years by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS), are nutritional recommendations used to drive federal food programs such as the USDA’s National School Lunch and Breakfast programs.

Many of the elements in the guidelines are consistent with past dietary guidelines such as, for example, the emphasis on fruits, vegetables and whole grains, said Marlene Schwartz, Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health, a UConn nonprofit.

But there are also some new elements in them that are confusing, including a major focus on limiting highly processed foods, said Schwartz, who is also a UConn professor of Human Development and Family Sciences. The guidelines do not define the term, which HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. refers to as ultra-processed food (UPF), and there is no official definition, she said.

Schwartz is part of a panel of experts convened last year by Duke University’s Healthy Eating Research (HER) program to work on changing that. The panel recently issued a report of evidence-based recommendations on UPF, including a definition, for U.S. policymakers.

Separately, the Food and Drug Administration, HHS and USDA are jointly working to develop a government-wide definition of UPF to support future research and potential policy development, an HHS spokesperson told The Goshen News in a statement.

The HER panel hopes to work with the agencies on that effort.

“Our group has met with both FDA and White House Domestic Policy Council officials to share our definition with them,” said Megan Lott, a registered dietitian and HER deputy director. “They seemed really interested, and they have come out saying they really want to have a strong, evidence-based, science-based definition of ultra processing to use in policy. But we have yet to see it.”

For its research, the panel used the NOVA food classification system, which was developed in Brazil and is widely used in scientific literature as the main UPF operational definition, Schwartz said. The system is based on the degree of food processing and ingredient list — such as additives, emulsifiers and flavors — not just nutrients like sugar, sodium and fat.

UPFs are foods that have gone through significant processing, resulting in them no longer reflecting the raw ingredients that were used to make them, Lott said.

As an example, she referred to an ear of corn destined for a bag of Doritos corn chips. “The corn itself has gone through such extensive processing — grinding and extrusion and all kinds of processes that essentially have changed the chemical architecture of the original ingredients and the original makeup,” Lott said.

In the process, they have also been ultra-formulated with additives and other ingredients used to maximize factors such as convenience, shelf stability and consumer appeal, she said. The extensive processing can wind up reducing the food’s beneficial nutrients, she said.

But sometimes UPFs are not so obvious.

In another example, Lott refers to analysis showing that 85% of all packaged breads sold in the U.S. is considered ultra-processed by NOVA standards because they contain unnecessary ingredients such as dough thickeners and emulsifiers.

“If you walk into a grocery store’s bakery section, those freshly baked loaves made in the grocery store bakery that day or the day before are not going to be ultra processed because they have common ingredients,” she said. But a 100% whole grain bread on the shelf from a major brand is likely a UPF.

Defining the term is important for U.S. policymakers to avoid a patchwork of legislative action from state to state that may be too narrowly focused in the absence of a federal standard, Schwartz said.

To some extent that scenario is already in play. Some states including Arizona and California have passed laws targeting UPFs in schools. Others including Connecticut and West Virginia have introduced similar legislation.

Another Concern

Another area of concern with the new guidelines is that they are inconsistent when it comes to protein and saturated fat recommendations, Schwartz said.

Like their predecessors, they recommend limiting saturated fat to less than 10% of total daily calories and restricting sugar and sodium as well.

“The thing that’s pretty strange here compared to previous guidelines is that, while they didn’t change the recommendation for saturated fat, they’re really pushing animal protein and full-fat dairy too,” she said. “It’s a little bit of an impossible message for the public because they’re saying, don’t eat too much saturated fat, but go ahead and eat red meat and whole-fat milk and products that have a lot of saturated fat.”

Previous guidelines encouraged consumption of plant-based proteins such as legumes, nuts and seeds, Schwartz said.

The guidelines are represented by an image of an inverted pyramid with protein, dairy, healthy fat foods as well as fruits and vegetables at the top. Whole grains are at the bottom, meaning consume less of them.

The image replaces the previous guidelines, dubbed “MyPlate,” represented by an image of a plate half full of fruits and vegetables, a quarter full of whole grains and another quarter of protein. Beside the plate was a smaller circle of low-fat dairy.

On a practical level, Schwartz said she still considers MyPlate as “solid advice” for anyone looking at healthy eating. She also recommends leaning toward plant instead of animal proteins for those trying to limit saturated fat. When possible, also prepare meals at home to help avoid UPF, she said.

She added that dairy remains an unanswered question as far as the degree in which its fat is or is not driving problems with saturated fat.

“I’d say that we may get more research on [dairy], but I think the research on red meat and especially processed red meat like salami and bologna is pretty clear that these are not the best choices.”