Hall doesn’t think we should flatly demonize all ultra-processed foods or assume that everything natural is safe, non-toxic, and good for us.
“Look, it’s not an oxymoron to say that you can have a healthy ultra-processed food,” Hall told Business Insider.
Still, we should be putting up guardrails, especially when it comes to kids, he said.
In fact, US consumers subsidize the commercials for sugary cereals that kids see in between their cartoons. “A lot of people don’t realize that in America, food companies can write off their expenses for research, development, and marketing, which is often predatory marketing to children of unhealthy products,” Hall said.
“You could stop that relatively straightforwardly with a new law,” he continued, “but allow that for products that met the FDA definition of ‘healthy’ and weren’t ultra-processed, hyper-palatable, high energy-dense products.”