Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs)

 

Webinar on What you need to know about Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs)? 
The science, policy responses and politics in global context: 20 July, 2020

Organised by NAPi and BPNI in collaboration with Deakin University and NUPENS / UPS Supported by UNICEF

 

Background
The Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI) and Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi) organise this Webinar believing that guidance for consumption of UPFs becomes even more important as we continue to face the Covid-19 pandemic.

The World Health Organisation recommends “healthy diet” for all infants, young children and adults. The WHO also advises about salt, sugar and fats one should consume. Concerns have been expressed globally about the negative impact on human health of the replacement of real foods by products so industrially processed that they are hardly recognisable from their raw ingredients.  Industrialised Nations have witnessed substantial replacement and developing countries are fast catching up. Increased intake of UPFs often high in fat, sugar, salt, chemical additives, low in fibre and food-based nutrients, is a matter of great concern. Recent reviews have thrown light on health outcomes as a result of exposure to UPFs.

Professor Carlos Monteiro from University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and his team while studying dietary patterns in Brazil, found that obesity in adults went up from 7.5% in 2002 to 17.5% in 2013. This finding was surprising because of the fact that people were buying less sugar and oil. This team observed that consumption of highly processed or ultra-processed foods (UPFs), ready to eat, sugary and packaged food products had gone up during this time. They felt the need to classify foods according to the extent and purpose of food processing rather than in terms of nutrients. This led to “NOVA Food Classification”. Their team also developed a guide to identify to which group the food belongs.

Objectives: The Webinar will provide updated information on UPFs, scientific evidence of consuming UPFs on health outcomes, global and regional dietary patterns, NOVA classification of foods with examples and to make policy recommendations and how marketing tactics influence consumption of UPFs.

 

SPEAKERS

Prof. Harshpal Singh Sachdev, MD, FIAP, FAMS, FRCPCH
Senior Consultant, Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research

Harshpal Singh Sachdev, who is a Senior Consultant in Pediatrics and Clinical Epidemiology at Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research, New Delhi; Honorary Senior Research Fellow, UCL Institute for Global Health, University College London; Adjunct Professor, St. John’s Research Institute, Bangalore; and a practicing paediatrician. Professor Sachdev is credited with 313 indexed publications, editing 16 books and contributing to 39 reports. He has published several systematic reviews including Cochrane reviews on nutrition and child health and has been an editor for the Cochrane Developmental, Psychosocial and Learning Problems Group since 2008. Email Id- hpssachdev@gmail.com

 

Dr. Maria Laura Louzada,PhD
Assistant Professor, Dept of Nutrition, USP, Brazil

Dr. Maria Laura Louzada is a PhD in Public Health Nutrition and is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Nutrition at the School of Public Health at the University of São Paulo and a researcher at the Center for Epidemiological Research in Nutrition and Health (NUPENS/UPS). Her research interests broadly focus on the association between food consumption, particularly of ultra-processed foods, and    chronic disease risk in nationally representative surveys. She is also a co-investigator of Nutrinet Brasil study, a web-based cohort study that will investigate risk factors for chronic diseases in 200 thousand Brazilian adults during 10 years. Email Id-maria.laura.louzada@usp.br

 

Dr. Arun Gupta (MD Ped)
Convener-NAPi,Central Coordinator BPNI

Dr. Arun Gupta is a pediatrician, a Fellow of Indian Academy of Pediatrics who chose to give up his lucrative private practice and founded the ‘Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India’ (BPNI) in 1991. He focuses on policy analysis regarding support to breastfeeding women, child nutrition and conflicts of interest. He writes nationally and internationally. He is the creator of IBFAN’s World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi). He is the convener of the “Alliance Against Conflict of Interest” (AACI) and “Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest” (NAPI) in India for policy level inputs. Email Id-arun.ibfan@gmail.com

 

Dr. JP Dadhich MD (Paediatrics); FNNF
Member NAPi, Technical Director, BPNI

Dr. JP Dadhich is Director Technical, BPNI, India. He is MD Pediatrics, a fellow at National Neonatology Forum, He has been an integral part of BPNI since more than one and a half decade. He is a co-chair of the global council of International Baby Food Action Network. He has several publications in peer reviewed journals and has contributed to several guidelines and chapters on breastfeeding and infant and young child feeding. Email Id-jpdadhich@bpni.org

 

Dr. Phillip Baker
Research Fellow, Deakin University, Australia

Dr. Baker is a Research Fellow at Deakin University, and member of the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition. He holds a PhD from the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University. His research focuses on understanding the links between food systems change, the nutrition transition, public health and sustainability, and on informing policy and programming actions to prevent undernutrition, obesity, and non-communicable diseases in Australia and internationally. Much of his recent work has focused on the political economy of food systems and nutrition, ultra-processed foods, infant and child nutrition, and on global nutrition politics and governance. Dr Baker is a member of the Independent Expert Group of the Global Nutrition Report. He was recently a fellow of the Lancet Commission on Obesity. Email Id-phil.baker@deakin.edu.au

 

Download PowerPoint Presentation

Dietary patterns in Brazil and globally, evidence of increased consumption of UPFs on health outcomes and it’s mechanisms-Dr Maria Laura Louzada, Assistant Professor, Dept of Nutrition, USP

Identifying foods according to NOVA Classification and how to make a food choice to reduce consumption of ultra-processed foods?-Dr Arun Gupta, Convener-NAPi,Central Coordinator BPNI

Politics, marketing, and conflicts of interest in science of ultra-processed foods-Dr. JP Dadhich, Member NAPi, Technical Director, BPNI

Policy responses to ultra-processed foods in global context -Dr. Phillip Baker, Research Fellow, Deakin University

Webinar's Video-recording 

Language: English