Marion NestlePhD, MPH · Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, New York University
Yes, limit them
What it rests onThe observational literature linking ultra-processed food intake to poor health outcomes, plus the Healthy Eating Research panel definition she endorses, plus her longstanding argument that formulation for profit rather than nourishment is the thing the category is picking up.
Source: foodpolitics.com ↗
Giles YeoPhD, MBE, FMedSci · Professor of Molecular Neuroendocrinology, MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit, University of Cambridge
No, judge the nutrients instead
What it rests onHe accepts the outcome evidence, citing the BMJ umbrella review of 45 studies covering nearly 10 million people and 32 health outcomes, and disputes the category: it spans reconstructed nuggets and natural yoghurt with a spoonful of jam alike, and the mechanistic claim that processing is inherently harmful is 'equivocal at best, and at worst entirely absent'. He adds that a large share of UPF calories come from supermarket bread, that artisanal sourdough is a luxury, and that 15 per cent of UK households were food insecure in January 2024.
Source: theguardian.com ↗
The disagreement is partly about income and neither side hides it. Nestle is arguing about what a food system should produce; Yeo is arguing about what a person on a tight budget should be told at the bread shelf. Both would accept that framing.
More than you would expect. Both accept the observational evidence linking high UPF intake to worse outcomes. Both hold that the fix is making the healthy option cheaper and easier to find rather than better-informed shoppers. Both reject the idea that willpower is the lever. Neither has any commercial interest in the answer.
For Yeo, causal evidence that processing harms independently of nutrient content: he names this as the specific thing he finds absent. For Nestle, a demonstration that a nutrient-based rule performs as well as the UPF category in predicting outcomes. Both are answerable and neither has been answered.
You do, and your call is dated, kept, and yours to change. Follow the people you already trust and what they publish turns into a short daily practice.
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