Categories: Health

Soft drinks, instant noodles harming human, planetary health

Ultra-processed foods are having a negative impact on the diversity of plant species available for human consumption

Ultra-processed foods are having a negative impact on the diversity of plant species available for human consumption while also damaging human and planetary health, according to a commentary published in the journal BMJ Global Health.

Ultra-processed foods such as sweetened or salty snacks, soft drinks, instant noodles, reconstituted meat products, pre-prepared pizza and pasta dishes, biscuits and confectionery, are made by assembling food substances, mostly commodity ingredients, and &#39;cosmetic&#39; additives (notably flavours, colours and emulsifiers) through a series of industrial processes. 
 
Nutrition experts from Brazil, the US and Australia have investigated the issue and warned that these products are the basis of a &#39;globalised diet&#39; and are becoming dominant in the global food supply, with sales and consumption growing in all regions and almost all countries, particularly in the upper-middle-income and lower-middle income countries. 
 
According to the experts, the global agrobiodiversity – the variety and variability of animals, plants and microorganisms used directly or indirectly for food and agriculture — is declining, especially the genetic diversity of plants used for human consumption. Peoples&#39; diets are becoming less diverse, with ultra-processed foods replacing the variety of wholefoods necessary for a balanced and healthy diet. 
 
As much as 90 per cent of humanity&#39;s energy intake comes from just 15 crop plants, and more than four billion people rely on just three of them – rice, wheat and maize. 
 
Production of ultra-processed foods involved greater use of ingredients extracted from a handful of high-yielding plant species (such as maize, wheat, soy and oil seed crops) which meant that animal-sourced ingredients used in many ultra-processed foods were often derived from confined animals fed on the same crops. 
 
Another issue of concern was that ultra-processed food production used large quantities of land, water, energy, herbicides and fertilisers, causing environmental degradation from greenhouse gas emissions and accumulation of packaging waste. 
 
&quot;The very rapid rise of ultra-processed foods in human diets will continue to place pressure on the diversity of plant species available for human consumption,&quot; said Fernanda Helena Marrocos Leite, from the School of Public Health at University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, and her team. 
 
&quot;Future global food systems fora, biodiversity conventions and climate change conferences need to highlight the destruction of agrobiodiversity caused by ultra-processed foods, and to agree on policies and actions designed to slow and reverse this disaster,&quot; Leite added.

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