Earlier this month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed the "Real Food, Healthy Kids Act" into law, directing the state's Department of Public Health to identify "ultra-processed foods" (UPFs) and ban them from schools by 2035. In doing so, the law proposed a new framework for a food category whose definition has been elusive up until now. [MEDPAGE TODAY]

The law is a mixed bag, with helpful and unhelpful aspects. It targets foods high in saturated fat, sodium, or added sugar that also contain certain additives: flavors, colors, non-nutritive sweeteners, emulsifiers, or thickeners. Exempt from the ban are pasteurized milk, raw agricultural products, eggs, and reduced-fat cheese or part-skim mozzarella cheese.

To physicians, broad UPF bans may raise potential red flags.

In reference to the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) campaign targeting UPFs, David Ludwig, MD, PhD, a professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, wrote in the Washington Post, "Ultra-processed food has replaced fat as the new dietary villain...The rush to enact these measures could cause more harm than good." The MAHA report on childhood health released in May is a precursor to the nutritional guidelines update expected this fall.

Meanwhile, American Medical Association President Bobby Mukkamala, MD, pointed out that, while some UPFs have little nutritional value, others are beneficial, such as folic acid-enriched cereal. This also applies to grain products that are part of the highly successful FDA-mandated effort to prevent neural tube defects, and vitamin B12 fortification, which is intended to prevent pernicious anemia. UPF bans may target breads, breakfast cereals, and other products that pose no demonstrable health threat, while exempting fat- and cholesterol-laden dairy products and meat, which are, not coincidentally, among California's leading agricultural products.

More>