Processed foods in a healthy diet? Read the fine print in this report first

Pretty much any doctor or nutritionist you talk to about eating these days agrees on one thing — the fewer processed foods you eat, the healthier your diet will be. So I was surprised to see this headline: Scientists Build a Healthy Dietary Pattern Using Ultra-Processed Foods.

The press release comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wow. It contains this: “The study is a proof-of-concept that shows a more balanced view of healthy eating patterns, where using ultra-processed foods can be an option,” said ARS Research Nutritionist Julie Hess at the Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center.” ARS is the Agricultural Research Service at the USDA (full disclosure, early in my career I wrote about the USDA for several small, rural newspapers, starting my days at the press office in the massive USDA headquarters in Washington).

Could all the bad press processed foods get be wrong? Well, not exactly. You need to read down a bit in the release to come across this caveat:  “The menu we developed scored 86 of 100 points on the Healthy Eating Index-2015, meeting most of the thresholds, except for sodium content [exceeded recommendations] and whole grains [below recommendations].” That’s Hess speaking again.

So too much salt and not enough grains? Sounds like the way Americans eat, unfortunately, and it’s not healthy.

I’m thinking this study was either started under the last presidential administration or by appointees in USDA from that admin who feel the government should be friendlier to the processed food business. Sadly, it’s another example of the politicization of food policy.