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Mouthing Off | Why demonising ultra-processed foods like Bernie Sanders is doing is not always helpful

Bernie Sanders wants everyone to understand the dangers of eating ultra-processed foods, but the truth is, for many, eating well is a luxury

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Ultra-processed foods are not just things like pizza and potato chips, but include many breakfast cereals, store-bought breads, packaged meals and sandwich meats. US senator Bernie Sanders wants people to understand the dangers of them all. Photo: Shutterstock

Bernie Sanders, the curmudgeonly American politician, is always on a crusade. The Vermont senator’s latest campaign is to warn us all about ultra-processed foods (UPFs).

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This is now the generally accepted term for mass-produced foods. They typically include ingredients with long chemical names, sometimes with a number enclosed in brackets.

These ingredients – preservatives, emulsifiers, sweeteners, and artificial colours and flavours – are rarely found on their own in common kitchens but they give food a longer shelf life while enhancing flavours. They also tend to be high in either sugar, fats, sodium, saturated fat, trans fat or other less-than-desirable elements.

Sanders wants to initiate new labelling to more prominently identify UPFs, as well as ban advertising of such foods directed at kids – essentially, doing to the food industry what was done to tobacco.

US senator Bernie Sanders wants much stricter rules governing how the food and beverage industry markets ultra-processed foods. Photo: TNS
US senator Bernie Sanders wants much stricter rules governing how the food and beverage industry markets ultra-processed foods. Photo: TNS

His efforts are backed by media outlets from CBS to BBC airing extended stories about the harm of UPFs.

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