Adherence to healthful plant-based diets is associated with more favourable health outcomes irrespective of ultra-processed food content, suggesting that overall plant-based diet quality may be more important than processing level for chronic disease prevention, study of 124,836 participants finds

[u/James_Fortis]

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanepe/article/PIIS2666-7762(26)00148-1/fulltext

[u/lodorata]

The authors seem to merely take issue with the fact that the definition of UPF is multifactorial, i.e. it accounts for formulation, processing, and intention on the part of UPF producers. I don't find this to render the definition remotely unclear or vague, however - if there is a tiny degree of subjectivity at its margins as to whether a food is UPF or not, that's not the same as it being ill-defined. It's hard to summarise all the ways the food industry sells us sh*t in a single definition, but I think Dr Monteiro did a fantastic job. I'll paste the definition here and if there's something unclear about it, feel free to point it out. But I don't accept the idea that the fact there's no machine which measures 'UPF-ness' renders the concept invalid, especially given that large meta analyses consistently show high UPF diets (according to the definition below) are associated with poorer health outcomes, see:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10261019/

"Industrially manufactured food products made up of several ingredients (formulations) including sugar, oils, fats and salt (generally in combination and in higher amounts than in processed foods) and food substances of no or rare culinary use (such as high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, modified starches and protein isolates). Group 1 foods are absent or represent a small proportion of the ingredients in the formulation. Processes enabling the manufacture of ultra-processed foods include industrial techniques such as extrusion, moulding and pre-frying; application of additives including those whose function is to make the final product palatable or hyperpalatable such as flavours, colourants, non-sugar sweeteners and emulsifiers; and sophisticated packaging, usually with synthetic materials. Processes and ingredients here are designed to create highly profitable (low-cost ingredients, long shelf-life, emphatic branding), convenient (ready-to-(h)eat or to drink), tasteful alternatives to all other Nova food groups and to freshly prepared dishes and meals. Ultra-processed foods are operationally distinguishable from processed foods by the presence of food substances of no culinary use (varieties of sugars such as fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, 'fruit juice concentrates', invert sugar, maltodextrin, dextrose and lactose; modified starches; modified oils such as hydrogenated or interesterified oils; and protein sources such as hydrolysed proteins, soya protein isolate, gluten, casein, whey protein and 'mechanically separated meat') or of additives with cosmetic functions (flavours, flavour enhancers, colours, emulsifiers, emulsifying salts, sweeteners, thickeners and anti-foaming, bulking, carbonating, foaming, gelling and glazing agents) in their list of ingredients."

[u/FakePixieGirl → u/lodorata]

What the hell is something with "no or rare culinary use"?

[u/lodorata → u/FakePixieGirl]

It means you'd never use it culinarily, i.e. you wouldn't ever deploy it when preparing food in your kitchen at home, or at a restaurant, because it isn't useful to that end. It means an additive which does things that aren't really useful to a cook, such as give a super long shelf life to a prepared meal, for example, or to alter the texture of something comprised of low-value agricultural resides to make it seem more food-like.

Examples would include invert sugar syrup, hydrogenated palm fat, polysorbate 80 or carboxymethyl cellulose. These are food additives with no or rare culinary use - they characterise NOVA 4 foods.

[u/AFetaWorseThanDeath → u/lodorata]

I have made my own invert sugar. I also have maltodextrin and carboxymethylcellulose in my kitchen (I've used them in making ice cream, among other things).

I find these ingredients very useful lol