New research from The Lancet links ultra-processed foods to harm in nearly every major organ of the human body, resulting in a higher risk of serious health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney disease, obesity, and premature death.

Other respected medical journals, including the American Journal of Medicine, have also found associations between high UPF intake and mental health disorders such as depression.

Despite this growing body of evidence, governments continue to allow Big Food companies to profit from the widespread consumption of these products – often at the expense of public health.

Global food manufacturers have shaped a food environment where UPFs dominate our shelves, our advertising, and too often, our diets. 

We get sicker while they continue to grow richer. 

More than 50% of the $2.9 trillion paid to shareholders by food corporations between 1962 and 2021 “was distributed by UPF manufacturers alone,” according to The Lancet.

But this isn’t just about personal choice. It’s about a food system designed in ways that make healthy choices harder and unhealthy ones unavoidable.

Big Food’s tactics for maintaining the status quo:

• Spending millions to resist public-health regulation on UPFs
• Engineering hyperpalatable products using strategies similar to those once adopted by the tobacco industry
• Hiring dietician influencers to downplay health concerns and frame regulation as government overreach
• Using social media to blame overeating and obesity on consumer willpower and lifestyle
• Framing UPF critics as elitist or misinformed to undermine legitimate public-health concerns
• Funding research that is far more likely to show no association between UPFs and obesity

Scientists are calling for much-needed change; let’s show the government that we, the people, demand change too – for our health and the health of future generations. We want a system that prioritises human wellbeing, not corporate profit.

Let’s fight fake food - ultra-processed products designed to be cheap, addictive and everywhere - so we can break free from the physical and psychological trappings of diets high in sugar, salt, saturated fat and artificial ingredients.

Let’s start living again, in a future where real food is accessible to all.