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Healthy eating is not straightforward for consumers, who need to weigh up mixed messaging from health warnings in the media and from persuasive food marketing campaigns. Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have found themselves at the center of a growing storm, with the mainstream media regularly highlighting increased health risks of consuming UPFs. In this Editorial on behalf of the PLOS Medicine Editors, Alexandra Tosun discusses why UPFs are now a topic of increasing attention, from the attention-grabbing headlines to the underlying nutritional debates. The piece explores the complexities of nutrition research, the influence of the media, and the need for stakeholders across sectors to be held to more rigorous standards.
Image Credit: Images by cottonbro studio, Pexels; Daniel Albany, Sofia Terzoni, Pixabay
Citation: (2024) PLoS Medicine Issue Image | Vol. 21(10) November 2024. PLoS Med 21(10): ev21.i10. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pmed.v21.i10
Published: November 5, 2024
Copyright: © 2024 . This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Healthy eating is not straightforward for consumers, who need to weigh up mixed messaging from health warnings in the media and from persuasive food marketing campaigns. Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have found themselves at the center of a growing storm, with the mainstream media regularly highlighting increased health risks of consuming UPFs. In this Editorial on behalf of the PLOS Medicine Editors, Alexandra Tosun discusses why UPFs are now a topic of increasing attention, from the attention-grabbing headlines to the underlying nutritional debates. The piece explores the complexities of nutrition research, the influence of the media, and the need for stakeholders across sectors to be held to more rigorous standards.
Image Credit: Images by cottonbro studio, Pexels; Daniel Albany, Sofia Terzoni, Pixabay