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Food Giants Hit With Consumer Lawsuit Calling Ultraprocessed Ingredients Addictive
Recent government and consumer lawsuits aim to compare the processed food sector to the tobacco industry, where litigation has led to billions of dollars in settlements and restrictions on marketing. One of the biggest challenges so faris that it’s been difficult to prove the connection between health issues and processed foods. Last fall, a judge threw out the first consumer lawsuit against packaged food giants.
The court determined the complaint was “woefully deficient” because the plaintiff failed to prove ultraprocessed foods caused his injuries and instead focused on the addictive nature of these products. In the most recent complaint, attorneys tried to address those concerns by detailing the connection between processed food consumption and health problems.
Plaintiff Olivia Kreie, a woman in her early 20s, said she was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in 2016. The “disease did not exist in children prior to the tortious and unlawful conduct” of processed food companies, she said.
The lawsuit also lists packaged foods Kreie frequently consumed prior to her diagnosis, ranging from drinking Kraft Heinz’s Capri Sun four times a year to eating General Mill’s Reese’s Puffs five times a week. The complaint names 12 major food companies, including Kraft Heinz, Mondelēz International, Post Holdings, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills, Nestle, Kellanova, Kellogg, Mars Incorporated, Conagra Brands and Unilever.
Science on the Harms of Ultraprocessed Foods Is ‘Strong Enough to Act,’ Researcher Says
Each daily serving of ultraprocessed foods raises the risk of a stroke, heart attack or cardiac arrest by 5%. That was the stark finding of a study published last month in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and it’s the latest research showing an association between industrially-made foods and health problems including diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
From breakfast cereals to chicken nuggets to candy bars, ultraprocessed foods are mass-produced products that contain ingredients such as preservatives, emulsifiers and other additives that you wouldn’t find in a home kitchen. Though some countries have policies aimed at reducing consumption of ultraprocessed foods, there is still a scientific debate about the root causes of the global epidemic of diet-related disease.
The food industry and some independent academics have argued that the category of ultraprocessed foods is too broad to be meaningful because it encompasses everything from soda and processed meats, which have well-known health risks, to more nutritious foods like whole-grain breads.
Some experts say it’s misguided to focus on foods’ processing levels when other factors, such as density of calories or amount of sugar, salt or fat, are the true culprits. These arguments have often stalled or blocked policies meant to crack down on highly processed foods or promote whole foods.
Even a Single Daily Serving of Ultraprocessed Food May Raise Dementia Risk
Adding ultraprocessed foods to an otherwise healthy meal may still contribute to dementia. Increasing your daily consumption of ultraprocessed foods by 10% — basically the equivalent of a small bag of potato chips — may raise your risk of dementia even if you normally eat a healthy plant-rich diet, according to a new study.
Ultraprocessed foods, or UPFs, make up about 53% of all calories consumed by adults in the United States, according to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children in the United States obtain nearly 62% of their energy from UPFs, the CDC found.
“Our study showed that UPF consumption was associated with worse attention and higher dementia risk in middle-aged and older adults,” said lead author Barbara Cardoso, a senior lecturer of nutrition dietetics and food at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
MAHA Wellness Culture Is Coming for Teens. Grown-Ups Aren’t Ready.
For years, the “Make America Healthy Again” movement was driven by moms.
Concerned about the safety of childhood vaccines and about chemicals in the food their kids were eating, they helped propel Donald Trump to the White House — and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the role of the nation’s top health influencer — with a message centered on fear for the next generation. Now, that next generation is here.
The latest MAHA advocates to gain public attention are women in their teens or early 20s. Lexi Vrachalus, 20, posts videos of her seed-oil-free, sugar-free meals, snacks, and shopping trips. In a post around Easter, she made her own Peeps with maple syrup and beef gelatin. Her message: “You can take back health into your own hands,” she told me. “You have the power to heal your body.”
She and other influencers, like the young filmmaker Grace Price and clean-living maven Ava Noe, are creating videos with a younger sensibility than their forebears — think baking sourdough for siblings rather than talking about kids’ vaccines.
RFK Jr.’s Healthy Food Agenda Puts Hospitals on Notice About Patients’ Meals
Complaints about hospital food are certainly not new, and Jell-O and fruit juice are often the butt of related jokes. But the Trump administration has recently upped the ante.
It is urging the public to report hospitals and nursing homes that serve sugary drinks, nutrition shakes or meals that it says don’t meet dietary guidelines established last year by the Department of Agriculture, with officials vowing to withhold millions of dollars in federal funding if violations occur.
The initiative from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is spurring backlash from some doctors and medical providers who say it fails to account for patients’ unique dietary needs and is anathema to Republicans who have long embraced an anti-regulatory stance.
It’s also not clear that HHS has the regulatory authority to enforce its threat without going through a formal rulemaking process, lawyers and dietitians say.
Exclusive: Democrats Ask USDA to Drop ‘Risky’ Meatpacking Proposal
Congressional Democrats are asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to reverse course on a proposed rule that would permanently increase line speeds at meatpacking facilities. In February, the USDA proposed rules to increase production line speeds at poultry and pork processing facilities. Already, the Trump administration had extended waivers that allowed select producers to increase line speeds at the new proposed limits.
In response to this proposal, Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) led a letter to the agency opposing the higher line speeds and asking the agency to halt further rulemaking, arguing it will lead to more worker injuries and less safe food.
“It is unacceptable to create a work environment that will increase the harm to workers and to subject them to more life-changing injury and the public to more foodborne illness,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter, shared exclusively with Civil Eats.
