STILL PROCESSING

Not all ultra-processed foods are the same. Or, some argue, even unhealthy

- Jamie Ducharme

Not just because they're tasty, but also because they've helped the Californiabased registered dietitian fight back against the mounting war on ultraprocessed foods.

It all started in the summer of 2023, when author and infectious-disease physician Dr. Chris van Tulleken was promoting his book, Ultra-Processed People. While writing it, van Tulleken spent a month eating mostly foods like chips, soda, bagged bread, frozen food, and cereal. "What happened to me is exactly what the research says would happen to everyone," van Tulleken says: he felt worse, he gained weight, his hormone levels went crazy, and beforeand-after MRI scans showed signs of changes in his brain. As van Tulleken saw it, the experiment highlighted the "terrible emergency" of society's love affair with ultra-processed foods.

Wilson, who specializes in working with clients from marginalized groups, was irked. She felt that van Tulleken's experiment was oversensationalized and that the news coverage of it shamed people who regularly eat processed foods-in other words, the vast majority of Americans, particularly the millions who are food insecure or have limited access to fresh food; they also tend to be lower income and people of color. Wilson felt the buzz ignored this "food apartheid," as well as the massive diversity of foods that can be considered ultra-processed: a category that includes everything from vegan meat replacements and nondairy milks to potato chips and candy. "How can this entire category of foods be something we're supposed to avoid?" Wilson wondered.