Diet plays a critical role in shaping the health and well-being of both individuals and populations. Healthy, safe, sustainable diets help to protect against malnutrition in all its forms, as well as non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer. The level of processing of foods as a modulator of health is currently a topic of great interest.
Processing of food is chemical or mechanical manipulation often carried out to make foods edible, increase their storage potential, or enhance safety, and basic forms such as milling (of grains, rice or corn), brining and curing has been practiced by humans for millennia. Methods and applications have evolved greatly with the development of new technologies however, such that many foods found on supermarket shelves today have undergone substantial transformations that substantially modify the food matrix and may contain food additives or other industrial substances. Consumption of such highly processed or “ultra-processed” foods has been associated with a myriad of negative health effects.
To review currently available evidence and provide much-needed, evidence-based global guidance on this important topic, WHO has brought together experts from all over the globe, with a wide range of relevant expertise to develop a guideline on the consumption of ultra-processed foods.
Contact
Email: healthy_diet@who.int
List of members
Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Sydney Horizon Fellow, School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Australia
Nutritional epidemiologist and Senior Researcher, Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, IRCCS Neuromed, Italy
Scientist & Head, Nutrition Information, Communication & Health Education Division, ICMR- National Institute of Nutrition, and Professor, Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, India
Programme officer, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Nigeria
Associate Research Fellow, Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Republic of Korea
Executive Director, Kula Vyema Centre of Food Economics, Kenya
National Chairperson of the Youth for Mental Health Coalition, and Lead Convenor Healthy Philippines Alliance, Philippines
Assistant professor, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran
Professor of Nutrition, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Professor of Population Health, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, UK
Professor, Department of Dietetics and Nutrition, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Senior Clinical Lecturer, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, UK
Head of Programs, Global Consumer Center (CONSENT) and National Coordinator for the Food Safety Coalition of Uganda
Professor, Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology and Director, Center for Research in Food Environments and Nutrition-Related Chronic Diseases (CIAPEC), University of Chile
Independent consultant, and Former Senior Investigator and Integrative Physiology Section Chief at the National Institutes of Health, USA
Distinguished Professor and Section Head for NCDs and Mental Health, The Aga Khan University, Pakistan
Assistant Professor, Division of Human Nutrition and Health, Wageningen University, Netherlands
Professor of Public Health Nutrition, and Chair, Department of Population, Family & Reproductive Health, School of Public Health, University of Ghana
Professor Emeritus of Nutrition and Public Health, University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil
Associate professor of Public Health and Global Nutrition, Department of Nutrition, University of Montréal, Canada
Associate Professor, Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, Thailand
Associate Professor, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, USA
Senior Research Director, National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), France
Professor, National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, China
Publications
What are healthy diets? Joint statement by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations...
Healthy diets promote health, growth and development, support active lifestyles, prevent nutrient deficiencies and excesses, communicable and noncommunicable...
In current food environments, energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods are readily available, heavily marketed and relatively cheap. Consumers are challenged...
Saturated fatty acid and trans-fatty acid intake for adults and children: WHO guideline
This guideline provides updated, evidence-informed guidance on the intake of saturated fatty acids and trans-fatty acids to reduce the risk of diet-related...
Red and processed meat in the context of health and the environment: many shades of red and green: information...
There is growing international consensus that food systems transformation is important to address the challenges of malnutrition in all its forms, the...
Children continue to be exposed to powerful food marketing, which predominantly promotes foods high in saturated fatty acids, trans-fatty acids, free sugars...
Use of non-sugar sweeteners: WHO guideline
This guideline provides evidence-informed guidance on the use of non-sugar sweeteners to reduce the risk of unhealthy weight gain and diet-related...
Guideline: sugars intake for adults and children
This guideline provides updated global, evidence-informed recommendations on the intake of free sugars to reduce the risk of NCDs in adults and children,...
Guideline: sodium intake for adults and children
This guideline provides updated global, evidence-informed recommendations on the consumption of sodium to reduce NCDs in most adults and children. The...