The term “ultra-processed” has become one of the more popular buzzwords in our online lexicon and it has ushered in with it one of my least favorite tropes for clicks: the one-size-fits-all “advice” coming from everywhere — from the newly branded wellness sections of legacy media to upstart podcasts. To be clear, I’m all for using fact-based information to better oneself and it’s important to focus on new goals, but from the perspective of a chronically ill person working in food policy, the proposed solutions passed off as “health and wellness” don’t pass my fact check.

Let’s break some of the more persistent themes I’ve seen online recently:

“How much ultra-processed food are you really eating?”

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it continues to be important to underscore that there is no agreed upon scientific definition of the term “ultra-processed.” It’s yet another product that gained traction online and stuck. Attempts to arbitrarily declare one brand “more ultra-processed” than another – when comparing the same product – does little to educate consumers because the process by which foods are classified as ultra-processed is inherently arbitrary.

The other issue with this type of assessment is that it attempts to name and shame what people put in their grocery carts, without taking into consideration the myriad of dietary needs and preferences that guide consumer choice. Giving consumers the tools to transparently understand what they’re purchasing can be helpful through a digital platform like SmartLabel, which shows information beyond the label by scanning a QR code, like nutrient and allergen information. But undermining consumer choice amounts to little more than telling Americans they can’t be trusted to make the “right” choices for themselves and their families couched as ‘advice.’

We also know that misinformation can impact overall health outcomes — if, for example, someone gluten-free like me is told gluten-free options are too ultra-processed and therefore “unhealthy” for me, that could lead to choosing a product that I can’t digest or exacerbates my underlying health concerns.

“How to identify ultra-processed foods.”

At Consumer Brands, our focus is on ensuring food and beverage manufacturers can continue to innovate to meet evolving consumer demand and make products that align with what consumers want. That means ensuring consumers continue to have choice. In fact, the industry has prioritized transparency into their products for years – the Facts up Front program and SmartLabel platform connect consumers with nutrition information beyond the standard label and encourages consumers to seek out more information about what they are buying.

And zooming out, even consumers without food sensitivity concerns like me are susceptible to being misled by misinformation around what they’re choosing to eat. By these sweeping metrics, “ultra-processed” would lump in everything from wheat bread to nut butters.

As consumers, some of the onus also falls on us – consumers are ultimately the ones in control of not just the food and beverage they purchase, but their overall wellness. This is what blanket media narratives leave out: we’re not passively allowing our relationship to food, fitness and our emotional wellbeing to happen to us or be dictated to us by a company or an app. We’re beholden to the choices we make, and part of why I value choice as a consumer is because I feel personally responsible for the foods I purchase that are just a part of making sure I am nourishing my body and mind.

Personally, I’m always going to prefer being able to do my grocery shopping knowing I don’t have to avoid entire aisles because there will always be an option that fits my dietary needs.

I’ll close with suggesting two articles that I found particularly helpful to cut through the noise online. It’s more important than ever that we think critically about how our media diet can impact our relationship to what we consume, and I’ll continue to raise the red flag when I fear consumers are being misled.

The Media Is Obsessed with Ultra-Processed Foods in 2025 — but Coverage Is Missing the Forest for the (Broccoli) Trees

Are Processed Foods Bad – Health & Risks of Food Processing