Watch What You’re Eating

Many of our everyday foods – processed and convenient – are dangerous to our health

Sure, processed foods are convenient – but what are we really putting in our bodies?

Today, 39% of adults in the world aged 18 or over are overweight, with 13% obese. Carrying excess kilos can cause a host of life-threatening health problems from diabetes to heart disease to cancer. One of the reasons why people are overweight is that they are eating ever more ultra- processed or convenience foods – foods that contain additives and other unlikely ingredients.

Despite most countries requiring food manufacturers to list all ingredients contained in packaged food to help consumers make healthy food choices, studies show that consumers are increasingly choosing manufactured foods with unhealthy ingredients.

In Australia, 42 per cent of people’s diets consist of ultra-processed foods such as ready meals, industrially made bread, desserts, sugary cereals and sweetened drinks. A 2019 New Zealand study of packaged food on supermarket shelves found that more than two-thirds was classified as ultra-processed.

A fast- paced li festyle and the accessibility of processed food and drinks is contributing to the rising global incidence of diabetes and obesity. A 2016 Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition report found that people living in Southeast Asia are shifting away from traditional starch-based diets and towards food rich in fat, protein, dairy and sugar, much of it packaged and processed.

The report blames these trends on changing food environments.