Let's make minimally processed food famous
Our diets are dominated by ultra-processed food
Ultra-processed foods, made by industrial processes and using additives you wouldn’t find in a household kitchen, make up well over 50% of the average diet in the UK. A staggering 67% of the daily energy intake of children under 14 is made up of these foods. Citizens in the UK consume more ultra-processed food, or UPF, than in any other European country.
Ultra-processed foods are cheap, convenient and ubiquitous. But an ever-increasing body of science has linked excess consumption of these foods with ill health, including serious diseases such as heart, kidney and liver disease, diabetes, cancer, depression and even early death.
What should we be eating? The case for minimally processed food
Most of us would benefit from increasing our consumption of nutrient-rich, unprocessed, whole and minimally processed foods, with a diet based on these foods associated with health promotion and disease prevention.
Minimally processed and “natural” foods, as defined by the NOVA classification include whole fruits and vegetables, whole grains, meat and animal products that have been processed only using techniques common in household kitchens, such as drying, crushing, grinding, steaming, boiling, roasting, chilling, and freezing.
What are the barriers to eating a diet dominated by minimally processed food?
Everyone should have equal access to a healthy diet. Sadly, that is not the case.
Ultra-processed foods are often less expensive and more readily available than minimally processed foods. A 2024 published study from Canada found that individuals living in food insecure households in particular tended to consume more ultra-processed food than minimally processed food due to their cost, availability and the fact they may require fewer resources (such as heat and electricity) to prepare.
A 2020 published study from Belgium found that diets with a large share of calories from ultra-processed food were significantly cheaper than those with a lower share of UPF. It found the opposite for minimally processed food.
In a Food Foundation podcast from December 2024, food ambassador Kathleen Kerridge describes how it’s possible to feed a family on sausage and chips for a total of £2, while a salmon salad, with fresh tomato and herbs, costs £5 per person. This creates a situation in which many people have no choice over what food to consume.
Whole and minimally processed foods are rich in beneficial biochemicals
These foods, consumed largely as they are found in nature, are often nutrient-dense and brilliantly complicated, comprised of thousands of biochemical components. When we eat these foods, we’re not only eating macronutrients such as fat and protein, but a dense matrix of polyphenols (plant compounds which are powerful antioxidants), minerals, vitamins and phytonutrients (natural chemicals produced by plants for defence against insects and disease), which can act in synergy when consumed.
Studies have shown that this biochemical package can enhance the nourishment provided by the food we eat, including by increasing the absorption into the body of good nutrients, influencing chewing speeds and digestion and promoting feelings of satiety (fullness).
Furthermore, consuming these foods helps keep ill health and disease at bay. The nutritional properties and characteristics retained for consumption in whole and minimally processed foods (and not ‘processed out’ as we find with ultra-processed foods) work together to decrease oxidative stress (an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants in the body, which can lead to cell and tissue damage), temper the inflammatory response (which can cause chronic disease if triggered too regularly in response to unhealthy food consumption), enhance the break-down of fats and decrease your risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease (conditions affecting the heart and blood vessels).
They are also far less likely than ultra-processed foods to make us overeat. A 2023 published study by psychology academics found that ultra-processed foods have a greater addictive potential than both minimally processed and processed foods.
What should governments be recommending we eat?
The UK government recommends use of its Eatwell Guide to help people get a balance of healthy and sustainable food in their diets. This includes eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day, basing meals on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, choosing wholegrain versions where possible; having some dairy or dairy alternatives; eating some beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins, eating oils and spreads in small amounts and drinking 6-8 cups/glasses of fluid a day. Foods high in fat, salt and sugar sit outside of the guide as surplus to a balanced diet which should be eaten less often and only in small amounts.
While the Eatwell Guide already encourages eating lots of fruit, veg, pulses, and wholegrains, there is now a rationale for making it explicit that good diets rely on unprocessed and minimally processed foods. The World Health Organisation’s ‘Healthy Diet’ factsheet also recommends a dominance of plant-based foods in the diet to include fruit, vegetables, legumes such as lentils and beans, nuts and whole grains such as oats, wheat and brown rice. Many other countries with dietary guidelines give prioritisation to minimally processed foods consumed from each food group in recommended amounts.
What foods are the most beneficial to health?
In his book Food for Life, Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, advocates for consumption of an optimal 30 different plants a week for maintaining gut health. He outlines how each plant, including fruits and vegetables, but also seeds, nuts, herbs and spices, has a specific role in “nourishing our bodies via our microbes (the bacteria and fungi living in our intestines that help your body improve immune function, synthesize nutrients, control appetite and improve your mental wellbeing).
In just one example of their superior nutritional quality, Professor Spector explains how complex plant foods such as apples contain polyphenols or “protective chemicals” which are only released in the large intestine and “help the body fight cancer, depression, diabetes or heart disease”.
Most ultra-processed food has already been digested before it reaches the large intestine and thus cannot contribute to this vital part of the gut microbiome.
What can governments do to champion whole and minimally processed food?
In calling for government to publish a comprehensive and integrated food strategy led at the highest level, setting targets for a healthy food system and plans to achieve them, the House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee called for reduced sales of less healthy foods but to make healthier, often unprocessed and minimally processed foods affordable and accessible for all. The announcement by Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, of a new food strategy that “guarantees access to affordable, healthy and nutritious food for everybody” provides hope for such action.
Public health experts have published compelling evidence in favour of taxing ultra-processed food to release funds to subsidize minimally processed food with financial (and subsequent health) benefits for low income households. Similar approaches were recommended by Henry Dimbleby in his National Food Strategy. But the first thing to do is to champion the food we should be eating and to make whole and minimally processed food famous – MPF as the buzzword for 2025, where UPF was the buzzword for 2024.
The time for action is now
Prior to the modern day, dietary patterns were determined by the availability of minimally processed foods, with requirements for nutrients and energy determined by human physiological evolution. The widespread introduction of ultra-processed foods into our daily consumption habits, the makeup of which human physiology has not sufficiently adapted to, has resulted in diet being a leading cause of disease around the world.
The science of ultra-processed foods must be translated into policy, namely into policies aimed at re-balancing the national diet away from ultra-processed foods and towards more diverse, fresh and natural foods, most notably wholegrains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. This re-balancing should be seen in a positive light, as a move towards more enjoyable and complex flavours and textures, as a way of reconnecting people with how food is produced, and the complex relationship between personal and planetary health
