Oat milk. Cereal. Hummus. Plant-based burgers… Hands up whose weekly groceries list goes something like this? Yup, ours too. But did you know these wholesome-sounding staples are often ultra-processed foods (UPFs), linked to weight gain, diabetes and heart disease? According to latest figures, even if you avoid eating junk food such as sugary drinks and snacks, your diet is likely to be shockingly high in UPFs – including cleverly-marketed ‘health’ foods many of us eat daily.
‘In the UK, we’re now consuming more than 50 per cent of our energy from UPFs,’ says Dr Sarah Berry, associate professor in the department of nutritional sciences at King’s College, London, and chief nutritional scientist on the ZOE PREDICT programme. ‘While their convenience and palatability is tempting, research shows this is having a potentially devastating impact on our health. UPFs tend to produce peaks and dips in blood sugar which are bad for cardiovascular health and conditions such as type-2 diabetes.’
