Can ultra-processed foods fit into a healthy diet?

BBC health reporter Ruth Clegg asked dietitian Maeve Hanan to look at her weekly shopping list. Hanan, a member of the British Dietetic Association, said the selection covered the food groups despite containing ultra-processed foods. She emphasised balance over time rather than judging a diet by any one item. [1]

There are still reasons to pay attention to how much ultra-processed food people eat. A 2024 review found consistent links between higher consumption and adverse outcomes, including early death and cardiometabolic and mental-health problems. The studies it reviewed were observational, so they could not establish what caused those outcomes. The UK’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition has said it remains unclear how much of the association is due to processing itself and how much to the high levels of calories, saturated fat, salt or free sugars in many of these foods. [2] [6]

Trials add a more direct, if shorter-term, picture. In a 2019 study of 20 adults, participants ate an average of 508 more calories a day on an ultra-processed diet than on an unprocessed one. They gained an average of 0.9kg during two weeks on the ultra-processed diet and lost 0.9kg during two weeks on the other diet. [3]

A 2025 trial found that participants lost weight on both diets provided under UK healthy-eating guidelines, but lost more on the minimally processed diet: 2.06% of their starting weight, compared with 1.05% on the ultra-processed diet, over eight weeks on each. [4]