Ultra-processed foods are industrial products made using additives, preservatives and ingredients rarely used in home cooking. The category includes things like soft drinks, packaged snacks, instant noodles, mass-produced bread, breakfast cereals and many ready meals.
gofatwya on
Man, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy, it’s a good thing y’all were near the bottom of this list, or I was gonna have to come over there and smack you up! /s
Is ultra-processed food synonymous with junk food?
Big-Today6819 on
Is there a number for Denmark? It’s quite sad to see us eating hugely amounts of ultra processed food in Europa.
IWillDevourYourToes on
English people are smart people. Ultra processed food is carefully designed and made for human consumption. Organic is just something found on the ground
magonba on
Finally something Portugal excels at!
SnyggTjej69 on
Why is so much data missing?
nitsotov on
Imagine how extreme the numbers in the US are.
Kurenai-Kalana on
UK is not surprising. Now I wonder how ‚Murica would fare.
Winslow_99 on
I can confirm, people give nuggets to the kindergarten kids in Ireland 😭
CipherWeaver on
This rings very true in my experience in France. Yes, they’re blessed with incredible geography, but the rules around their boulangeries means they have access to abundant and amazing fresh baked goods, and their produce was all far better quality than anything I find in the grocery store in Canada. It just makes me realize that the food supply where I’m from is focused on size and ability to ship, not flavour or quality. Don’t even get me started on how awful Canadian butter has become.
Pizzafriedchickenn on
Great it had to be the UK
Fe_jk on
Ultra processed isnt necessarily bad. Some of it is, but far from everything. A lot is still healthier than takeout.
It feels like the anti ultra-processed agenda is mostly to shame poor people, rather than solving any real issues.
Mysticsurgeonsteam on
Just include all European countries Jesus.
Significant_Stop723 on
Do a map now with colon cancer
Latter_Hat on
I try my best to increase the french figure
Upset_Guarantee_9943 on
Are there any people living in France who could elaborate on its percentage? When I go to any French supermarket, it seems to have the same percentage of processed foods as a Belgian supermarket, possibly even displaying more deserts, sugared yogurts and other sweet dairy products, potato chips in a variety of (im)possible flavors and dozens of soft drinks?
No-Emu-4359 on
it’s shocking how certain events get overlooked, thanks for bringing attention to this
Valeand on
Why not color the countries themselves? And use a proper sequential color scale instead if these giant bins.
DrrSwagg on
Turkey?
TheSchmeeble1 on
I’m not convinced this is a useful graphic
Edit: It was made c8 years ago for a Guardian article, which notes:
„the figures are not directly comparable, extracted from national surveys carried out differently and from different years, [however] the trend is clear.“
So getting on for 10 years on since this was produced we would expect to see an impact on public health via obseity numbers scaling with the amount of UPFs, which is not the case
For instance Croatia, Greece, Slovakia and Hungary have a higher proportion of obese people than the UK does despite have less than half the amount of UPFs?
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ireland also have a greater proportion of obesity than the UK despite having lower UPFs?
This suggests to me that the devil is in the detail of the wording of the definition of UPFs
maciejush on
What food are ultraprocessed?
Remarkable-Camp-997 on
i noticed this on my last euro trip too
ArugulaMinimum6536 on
The UK one makes sense but finland?
reasonable-99percent on
Source?
some_puIp on
that 27.6% at malta is directly influenced by the british as well.
BrumaQuieta on
Serbia just ate up Montenegro while nobody was looking huh
cousinofthedog on
There’s surely a geography angle here. Big difference from North to South.
mfnalex on
What is „ultra processed“?
Pure-Rose-Rainbow on
I wa sin Italy a few months ago and they literally have preecooked vegetables like pumpkin and artichokes avaible in Lidl, no wonder they have such a low rate of buying ultra processed food, if something more healthy and less time consuming is available. Wish my country would have it too, that way less people would buy the ultra processed pre made food
ATXFC_Bro on
Anyone know where the US is at on this? Would love to see a by state breakdown.
vainerlures on
more interesting is which country is growing their processed food consumption fastest.
MontEcola on
This does a lot to explain the Mediterranean diet. Food is not ultra processed, with one exception. Another factor, IMO, is that people in the south of Europe also walk to the markets regularly and talk to people along the way. The little bit of exercise and move movement, along with the social aspect of seeing your people ever day is also beneficial to a long and healthy life.
Flying-lemondrop-476 on
so winter is the problem
who_be_who on
Romanians are gonna be so angry…
Bytewave on
Huh, TIL. I knew this about the UK but I thought the Belgians ate like the French, that Germans were only slightly worse, and that the Poles would be in the eastern European median.
Clearly, I needed an update on my food-cultural stereotypes.
placebo_joe on
Now do USA
TheDJFC on
I like how UK and Germany are basically the same but colored differently.
JacKellar on
Europe is indeed divided between nations with good cuisine and nations with high HDI
Exotic_Impression_19 on
Why not include the most important country in the world? The Netherlands
Formal_Plum_2285 on
We need to get back to 10% tops. It’s getting out of hand and soon we are as fat as Americans.
councilmantate on
Wheres this data set from?
onethumbtimmy on
And which of the 115 competing definitions was used?
Vevangui on
Way too high in Spain.
Interesting-Track-77 on
Source?
_Toy-Soldier_ on
Now do United States 😭
m-meh on
Maps without romania
Leave A Reply
Du musst angemeldet sein, um einen Kommentar abzugeben.
49 Kommentare
Ultra-processed foods are industrial products made using additives, preservatives and ingredients rarely used in home cooking. The category includes things like soft drinks, packaged snacks, instant noodles, mass-produced bread, breakfast cereals and many ready meals.
Man, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy, it’s a good thing y’all were near the bottom of this list, or I was gonna have to come over there and smack you up! /s
Repost of repost of repost from 2023 atleast
https://barbaraczarnecka.com/international-differences-in-ultra-processed-food-consumption/

Is ultra-processed food synonymous with junk food?
Is there a number for Denmark? It’s quite sad to see us eating hugely amounts of ultra processed food in Europa.
English people are smart people. Ultra processed food is carefully designed and made for human consumption. Organic is just something found on the ground
Finally something Portugal excels at!
Why is so much data missing?
Imagine how extreme the numbers in the US are.
UK is not surprising. Now I wonder how ‚Murica would fare.
I can confirm, people give nuggets to the kindergarten kids in Ireland 😭
This rings very true in my experience in France. Yes, they’re blessed with incredible geography, but the rules around their boulangeries means they have access to abundant and amazing fresh baked goods, and their produce was all far better quality than anything I find in the grocery store in Canada. It just makes me realize that the food supply where I’m from is focused on size and ability to ship, not flavour or quality. Don’t even get me started on how awful Canadian butter has become.
Great it had to be the UK
Ultra processed isnt necessarily bad. Some of it is, but far from everything. A lot is still healthier than takeout.
It feels like the anti ultra-processed agenda is mostly to shame poor people, rather than solving any real issues.
Just include all European countries Jesus.
Do a map now with colon cancer
I try my best to increase the french figure
Are there any people living in France who could elaborate on its percentage? When I go to any French supermarket, it seems to have the same percentage of processed foods as a Belgian supermarket, possibly even displaying more deserts, sugared yogurts and other sweet dairy products, potato chips in a variety of (im)possible flavors and dozens of soft drinks?
it’s shocking how certain events get overlooked, thanks for bringing attention to this
Why not color the countries themselves? And use a proper sequential color scale instead if these giant bins.
Turkey?
I’m not convinced this is a useful graphic
Edit: It was made c8 years ago for a Guardian article, which notes:
„the figures are not directly comparable, extracted from national surveys carried out differently and from different years, [however] the trend is clear.“
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/02/ultra-processed-products-now-half-of-all-uk-family-food-purchases
So getting on for 10 years on since this was produced we would expect to see an impact on public health via obseity numbers scaling with the amount of UPFs, which is not the case
For instance Croatia, Greece, Slovakia and Hungary have a higher proportion of obese people than the UK does despite have less than half the amount of UPFs?
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ireland also have a greater proportion of obesity than the UK despite having lower UPFs?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_obesity_rate
This suggests to me that the devil is in the detail of the wording of the definition of UPFs
What food are ultraprocessed?
i noticed this on my last euro trip too
The UK one makes sense but finland?
Source?
that 27.6% at malta is directly influenced by the british as well.
Serbia just ate up Montenegro while nobody was looking huh
There’s surely a geography angle here. Big difference from North to South.
What is „ultra processed“?
I wa sin Italy a few months ago and they literally have preecooked vegetables like pumpkin and artichokes avaible in Lidl, no wonder they have such a low rate of buying ultra processed food, if something more healthy and less time consuming is available. Wish my country would have it too, that way less people would buy the ultra processed pre made food
Anyone know where the US is at on this? Would love to see a by state breakdown.
more interesting is which country is growing their processed food consumption fastest.
This does a lot to explain the Mediterranean diet. Food is not ultra processed, with one exception. Another factor, IMO, is that people in the south of Europe also walk to the markets regularly and talk to people along the way. The little bit of exercise and move movement, along with the social aspect of seeing your people ever day is also beneficial to a long and healthy life.
so winter is the problem
Romanians are gonna be so angry…
Huh, TIL. I knew this about the UK but I thought the Belgians ate like the French, that Germans were only slightly worse, and that the Poles would be in the eastern European median.
Clearly, I needed an update on my food-cultural stereotypes.
Now do USA
I like how UK and Germany are basically the same but colored differently.
Europe is indeed divided between nations with good cuisine and nations with high HDI
Why not include the most important country in the world? The Netherlands
We need to get back to 10% tops. It’s getting out of hand and soon we are as fat as Americans.
Wheres this data set from?
And which of the 115 competing definitions was used?
Way too high in Spain.
Source?
Now do United States 😭
Maps without romania