Is a Label for Ultra-processed Foods Useful?
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Experts engaged in a contentious debate on the usefulness of the NOVA system, which divides foods into different categories based on how much they have been processed, during a session at a virtual conference sponsored by the American Society for Nutrition. The NOVA system divides foods into "fresh or minimally processed," such as strawberries or steel-cut oats; "processed culinary ingredients," such as olive oil; "processed foods," such as cheeses; and "ultra-processed foods." UPFs are defined as "industrial formulations made by deconstructing natural food into its chemical constituents, modifying them and recombining them with additives into products liable to displace all other NOVA food groups."
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@rukmini-nair According to doctors who presented during the meeting, ultra-processed foods are drawing increased attention, because researchers have been examining them in National Institutes of Health-funded studies and journalists have been writing about them.