ArticlePLoS medicine2024
Ultraprocessed food (UPF), health, and mechanistic uncertainty: What should we be advising the public to do about UPFs?
Article in PLoS medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Associations Between Ultra-Processed Food (UPF) Consumption and Weight Change and Obesity Risk Among Consumers of Plant-Based Diets: A Systematic Review.Journal of the American Nutrition AssociationPooled it
- Ultra-Processed Food Policies and Global Nutrition Equity: The Case for a Feasibility-Grounded, Differentiated Governance Supplement to Nova.Nutrition bulletin · 2026Article
- Ultraprocessed food research and scientific discourse.Nature food · 2026Review
- Contribution of Nova-classified ultraprocessed foods to energy and nutrient intakes in very old people: the Newcastle 85+ Study.BMJ open · 2026Observational
- Are ultra-processed foods too tasty? Toward a metabolic framework for diet and obesity.PLoS medicine · 2026Article
- The Future of Food Processing-A Food Science and Technology Perspective. Proceedings of a Roundtable Event.Nutrition bulletin · 2026Article
- Concerns around evidence that food processing should be included in dietary guidance.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- Ultra-processed food exposure and health outcomes: Current evidence, controversies, and future perspectives.EXCLI journal · 2026Review
- A conflict of visions in nutrition science: polarization, power, and the case of Ultra-Processed Foods.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- The impact of ultra-processed foods on pediatric health.Obesity pillars · 2025Review
- The Association between Ultra-Processed Foods and Depression, Anxiety and Sleep in Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study in Iran.Food science & nutrition · 2025Article
- Reply to Vella and Pai.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2025Article
- Informatics for Food Processing.ArXiv · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In this perspective, we discuss why current mechanistic uncertainty on ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) and health acts as a major challenge to providing informed dietary guidelines and public advice on UPFs. Based on the balance of current evidence, we do not believe it is appropriate to be advising consumers to avoid all UPFs and we await further evidence to inform consumer guidance on the need to limit consumption of specifics foods based on their degree or type of processing.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.