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PASTA - Family, Fun & Health @ St Thomas the Martyr Upholland 

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PASTA - Family, Fun & Health @ St Thomas the Martyr Upholland 

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PASTA - Family, Fun & Health
Tuesday 6th June  3.15 pm-4.30 pm for 6 weeks
SHARES Lancashire contact 01695 729897
Emma.hart@shareslancashire.co.uk

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PASTA - Family, Fun & Health @ St Francis of Assisi

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PASTA - Family, Fun & Health @ St Francis of Assisi

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PASTA - Family, Fun & Health
Wednesday 7th June  3.15 pm-4.30 pm for 6 weeks
SHARES Lancashire contact 01695 729897
Emma.hart@shareslancashire.co.uk

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PASTA - Family, Fun & Health.                       SHARES Lancashire office @ Hillside Community Primary School

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PASTA - Family, Fun & Health.                       SHARES Lancashire office @ Hillside Community Primary School

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PASTA - Family, Fun & Health
Thursday 8th June  3.30 pm-4.45 pm for 6 weeks
SHARES Lancashire contact 01695 729897
Emma.hart@shareslancashire.co.uk

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Comparing sugar content https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/food-facts/healthier-snacks-for-kids/lower-sugar-drinks-for-kids-stop-tooth-decay

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Lower sugar drinks for kids - Change4Life

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Change4Life can help you cut down on the sugar in your kid's drinks which we know can cause tooth decay. Try our low sugar alternatives plus tips on how to improve your child's diet.

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Your first step to cooking healthier meals

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Your first step to cooking healthier meals

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Sign up to Cook Together and you'll have taken the first step to cooking healthier meals for yourself and your family or friends.

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Sign up to Cook Together and you'll have taken the first step to cooking healthier meals for yourself and your family or friends.
Every week for 4 weeks, we'll send you 2 tasty, healthy recipes with easy to follow instructions, and a shopping list of all the ingredients you'll need to cook a healthy meal. We'll also send you some handy tips about healthier eating and how to be food smart when you're out shopping.

After 4 weeks you'll know how to cook up to 8 different meals from scratch. How great is that!

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Sign up to Cook Together and you'll have taken the first step to cooking healthier meals for yourself and your family or friends. Every week for 4 weeks, we'll send you 2 tasty, healthy recipes with easy to follow instructions, and a shopping list of all the ingredients you'll need to cook a healthy meal.

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Recipe- Tortilla Pizza https://www.healthylittlefoodies.com/tortilla-pizza/

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Need a quick and easy lunch idea that the whole family will love? These Tortilla Pizzas fit the bill. Set up a topping bar (with loads of veggie options) so your children can get creative and make their very own Pizza.

How to Make a Tortilla Pizza

A tortilla pizza simply involves you switching out a regular pizza base with a tortilla wrap. Top a tortilla wrap with sauce, cheese and toppings and bake until golden and bubbly.

1. Place your tortilla on a pizza tray. (If you don't have a pizza tray you can use a baking sheet or a large skillet pan. You want to prepare your pizza on the tray because this eliminates you having to transfer the pizza once topped (the thin tortilla base makes this difficult to do).

2. Spread pizza sauce (or sauce of choice) evenly across the pizza, leaving 1cm at the edge.

3. Sprinkle with cheese

4. Add Toppings

5. Bake until the cheese is bubbly and golden and the base is crisp (around 10 mins)

Toppings are great, but tortilla pizzas are very thin and so can't hold an abundance. Too many toppings can result in an unevenly cooked pizza, with an overcooked or burnt crust and undercooked toppings.

For this reason, I recommend pre-cooking (most) toppings and making sure you thinly slice. Some suggestions include

Tomatoes (sliced),

Roasted vegetables (peppers/capsicum, asparagus, onion, snow peas, sweet potato),

Olives (sliced),

Mushrooms (sliced & sauteed),

Spinach (wilted),

Zucchini (ribboned),

Pineapple (small chunks),

Cooked meat (shredded chicken etc)

In this recipe, I used Pizza Sauce but if you don't have any to hand, or want to experiment with different flavours, why not try

I used mozzarella but you can use a cheese of choice or a mixture of cheese varieties.

Tortilla pizzas are great for getting children of all ages involved in the kitchen. Easy tasks (spreading, sprinkling, topping) are perfect for younger children and older children can be given more responsibility (by helping to make pizza sauce, grate cheese, prep vegetables etc)

Homemade pizzas are a great way to encourage children to experiment with flavours. Set up a bar with a range of topping ideas (suggestions given above) and allow your children to get creative.

They could split their pizza into four sections and try a different vegetable/flavour combo on each quarter.

Every family member could make their own pizza and share a slice with each other. They can then vote to which pizza was best (voting on appearance, taste, etc).

You May Also Like

Sign up for my free recipe newsletter to get new family friendly recipes in your inbox each week! Find me sharing more kind-friendly inspiration on Pinterest and Instagram.

Tortilla Pizza

A quick and easy lunch option the whole family can enjoy. Tortilla Wraps topped with sauce, cheese and toppings of choice then baked until bubbly and crispy.

Hover over "serves" value to reveal recipe scaler

Place the tortilla wrap in a pizza tray, baking sheet or large cast-iron skillet.

Spread the sauce evenly across the tortilla, leaving 1cm around the edges. Sprinkle with the cheese and add toppings.

Bake until the cheese is bubbly and golden and the base is crisp, around 10 mins. Cut into triangle and allow to cool slightly before serving

TORTILLA WRAP - You can use a wrap of choice, the smaller wraps are ideal for young kids.

SAUCE - I used Pizza Sauce but you can use a sauce of choice. Some suggestions include tomato paste, pesto, white pizza sauce, hummus, olive oil & garlic

CHEESE - I used mozzarella but you can use cheese of choice

TOPPINGS - Some suggestions include cherry tomatoes (halved or sliced), Roasted vegetables (pepper/capsicum, asparagus, onion, snow peas, sweet potato), Olives (sliced), Mushrooms (sauteed), Spinach (wilted), Zucchini (ribboned), Pineapple (chunks), Cooked and sliced meat (chicken etc)

Nutritional information is a rough guide only, calculated using an online nutrition calculator. Results will vary depending on what wrap, sauce, cheese and topping you use.

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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Need a quick and easy lunch idea that the whole family will love? These Tortilla Pizzas fit the bill. Set up a topping bar (with loads of veggie options) so your children can get creative and make their very own Pizza. A tortilla pizza simply involves you switching out a regular pizza base with a tortilla wrap.

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A free, fun, and friendly weekly 5k community event. Walk, jog, run, volunteer.

Every Saturday at 9.00am

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Please follow the latest UK Government guidance when planning your visit.

Our café and toilet facilities have now reopened. Please ensure that you adhere to the governments current social distancing guidance when visiting the park. You can find this by visiting the government website (external link).

We have created some self-guided activities for families to enjoy during their visit to the park. You can download the information sheets by clicking the links below.
Beacon Bingo (pdf, 343kb) Beacon Minibeast Trail (pdf, 692kb)
Beacon Country Park is our flagship countryside site, consisting of over 300 acres of rolling countryside spread across the slopes of Ashurst Beacon between Upholland, Dalton and Skelmersdale.

The site boasts flowing wildflower meadows, grassland, natural ponds and areas of semi-natural woodland. It commands majestic panoramic views across most of Lancashire with viewpoints overlooking the Lancashire Plain to the west and the West Pennine Moors to the east.

An extensive path network means that everyone can explore the park and there is plenty of space to walk, run, ride horses or bicycles, fly kites, or just get away from it all and relax.

The Ranger Service

Beacon Country Park is the base for the Borough's Parks and Countryside Ranger Service. The Ranger Service often run events and activities to enhance your visit. They can also provide help and information about the park from their cabin situated alongside the Visitor Centre.

Green Flag status

Beacon Country Park has held and maintained Green Flag status since 2007. The accolade recognises the natural beauty of the park for its welcoming, safe and maintained environment and for its community involvement and is assessed and awarded annually.

Facilities

Picnic areas

'Inclusive' children's play areas

Community orchard

Orienteering course

Nature trails

Car parking

Public toilets (currently closed)

Public bar/café (currently closed)

Ranger service

Junior Rangers Club (currently closed)

Golf course

Volunteering Opportunities (currently closed)

Download our Beacon Country Park site map (PDF 165kb) for more information about facilities.

We have created two self-guided activities for families to enjoy during their visit to the park. You can download the information sheets by clicking the links below.
Beacon Bingo (pdf, 343kb) Beacon Minibeast Trail (pdf, 692kb)
The Parks and Countryside Service work hard to manage and maintain all of our sites to ensure that they are accessible and safe for all their visitors. However, while using the trails, you may encounter uneven surfaces, debris, or other obstacles. If you have any concerns or suggestions about how we can improve access to the site or you require further information, please contact us using the details on this page

How to find us

Beacon Country Park is located on the border between Skelmersdale and Up Holland, and can be accessed by car via Beacon Lane or the A557 on Stannanought Road.

Visit the Arriva (external link) or Up Holland Train Station (external link) website for up to date information regarding your nearest bus and train links to the from the site.

Accessibility

Public toilets are situated next to the Ranger Centre and provide male/female and disabled toilet facilities. Please note that the visitor centre and toilet facilities are currently closed due to lockdown restrictions.

Disabled car parking facilities are available at the Visitor Centre car park and at Carr Lane car park.

Our 'Tramper' - off road mobility scooter - is available to hire, free of charge. For bookings and conditions of hire, please contact the Rangers.

If you download the Tramper trail map (PDF 165kb) the index highlights wheelchair-friendly paths.

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Please follow the latest UK Government guidance when planning your visit. Our café and toilet facilities have now reopened. Please ensure that you adhere to the governments current social distancing guidance when visiting the park. You can find this by visiting the government website (external link).

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Easy ways to eat well and move more.

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Make a change today! Discover healthy recipes, food swaps, nutritional advice, and top tips and activities to help the whole family stay healthy.

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Healthy eating | Overview | PHE School Zone

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Resources designed to encourage children to eat a healthy and balanced diet

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Isolation Station is a pilot project to support the population of Lancashire, when isolating with Covid-19. We are keen to ensure that you can access all the information that you need, whilst self-isolating easily in the comfort of your own home

Isolation Station – Supporting You Through Covid Isolation

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The West Lancs Family Learning Festival, working in collaboration with West Lancs College and Shares Lancashire to provide FREE workshops and courses for families living in the West Lancs Borough.

https://twitter.com/WestLancsFLF

West Lancs FLF | Facebook

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Encourage your children to stop vegetables from taking over the world by eating them! Join the revolution!

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Monday 28th February 2022 sees the return of Veg Power's Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign in a bid to get more children eating veggies!

In 2021, the award-winning Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign reached 467,518 children in 1,828 primary schools. 84% of schools reported that their children ate more vegetables, 66% noticed a reduction in waste and 93% asked to return again for 2022.

Each week, a different vegetable will be the focus. The schedule is as follows:

W/C 28th February - Carrots

W/C 7th March - Peppers

W/C 14th March - Broccoli

W/C 21st March - Tomatoes

W/C 28th March - Peas

The aim of the campaign is to encourage children to eat their vegetables by "defeating them" with the aim that they want to continue eating them both at school and at home.

We have contacted all of our schools to ask for their support in this campaign. There is a whole bunch of free resources available online at Veg Power.

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Monday 28th February 2022 sees the return of Veg Power's Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign in a bid to get more children eating veggies! In 2021, the award-winning Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign reached 467,518 children in 1,828 primary schools.

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Can your children defeat the vegetables by eating them?

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Find out more, sign up for newsletters or get in touch on our contact page to learn more about all things Eat Them To Defeat Them!

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Feeding and Clothing the underprivileged in West Lancashire

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Get the kids moving and having great fun jumping about with Joe Wicks

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Say hello to a real game changer, The Body Coach App.

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Yoga for children. Get your children focused on stretching in a fun and creative way with this collection of video's they can join in at home.

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Struggling to get your children to eat vegetables and try new foods. This has some great advice and recipes that are cost effective and will encourage more vegetables in our lives.

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A great point of call to assist with mental health and wellbeing, eating well, increasing your exercise an improving your sleep.

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NHS advice about healthy living, including eating a balanced diet, healthy weight, exercise, quitting smoking and drinking less alcohol.

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Have you seen these meal options from Jamie Oliver, the newest edition to Jamie's many meal options. Meals that have been carefully worked out with today's cost of living in mind and that are wholesome for the family.

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Jamie's £1 Wonders Recipe Collection | Jamie Oliver

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Delicious, everyday recipes at £1 a portion or under, from Jamie Oliver's £1 Wonders TV show on Channel 4 in the UK.

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Sarah Beth Yoga is a great simple follow at home yoga for mindfulness and stretching. A great way to start your day. Nothing too complicated and great for beginners and with a short sessions from 10- 20 mins makes it a go to keep activity with no need for any specialist equipment.

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https://www.uphollanddalton.org.uk/foodbank

Upholland Community Hub food bank is based at St Thomas the Martyr Primary School. It is open from 8.45pm- 11.45pm Monday to Friday. No vouchers required and available to all. Donations are also welcome.

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Up Holland Community Food Bank@the Hub, is based at St Thomas the Martyr Primary School.

Our Food Bank is now open every weekday morning during term time at St Thomas the Martyr Primary School, within the entrance area. (There will be no direct access to the main part of the school.)

This is a small Food Bank to supplement other provision.

Please take whatever you need for personal / family use.

There is no charge for any item.

Vouchers or referrals are not needed.

If you wish to make a donation, please place this in the cash box at the Food Bank.

All money donated will be used to buy more goods for the Food Bank.

If you are in need of assistance from the Food Bank, please email Rob Foster.

1. By spreading the word about the service we offer

If you know of people who would benefit from support with food and household goods, please tell them about us and tell us about them. If getting to the Food Bank is a problem, we offer weekly box and bag deliveries

2. By donating items that we need

Donations of items such as tea, coffee, long life milk, tinned and packet foods, household cleaning and personal hygiene products are always welcome.

You can leave donations at the following locations:

Cash donations are also welcome - a donation box is held at the Food Bank.

3. By shopping at the Co-op

We are delighted that, from October 2021 until October 2022, we have been designated as a supported Local Cause under the Co-op Local Community Fund scheme. This means that, if you are a member of the Co-op and swipe or scan your membership card each time you shop, the Co-op will make a donation to the Food Bank. If you don't have a card, please consider registering for one, which can eb done on t he Co-op website. Here's how it works when you have a card:

1. Go to www.coop.co.uk and log-in, then select 'Choose a local cause' from the menu and select Up Holland Community Hub Food Bank (see image below)

2. Swipe your card (or app) at the till with each purchase whichever store you shop at.

3. You will also gain 2p for every £1 you spend, from which you can either spend or donate.

Please help our local community in this simple way if you are able.

4. By volunteering at the Food Bank

If you have time to help our small team of helpers, whether that is collecting food from stores or helping at the Food Bank, please contact info@uphollandcommunityhub.org.uk . Thank you.

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Foodbank @ The Hub | UpHolland and Dalton

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Up Holland Community Food Bank@the Hub, is based at St Thomas the Martyr Primary School. Our Food Bank is now open every weekday morning during term time at St Thomas the Martyr Primary School, within the entrance area. (There will be no direct access to the main part of the school.)

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Emma Hart
For information on Our PASTA (Play and skills at Teatime activities) and adult cookery course please contact Emma on
Emma.hart@shareslancashire.co.uk

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SHARES recruitment are hiring. Are you a qualified Teacher or Teaching Assistant and do you have experience in working in schools.
Get in touch with our recruitment office to complete an application form
recruitment@shareslancashire.co.uk

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Confused about portion sizes for your self and your children? Have a look at this and it may help.

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5 A Day fruit and vegetable portion sizes, including fresh, dried and canned fruit; fresh, cooked, salad and frozen vegetables; beans and pulses; and juice and smoothies.

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This fantastic resource has all the information about how our plates should look at meal time. How to read food labels and how to create a balanced diet in our lives.

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Top tips to encourage your little ones to get active

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Top tips to encourage your little ones to get active

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Some brilliant ideas for how to keep your little ones active and on the move.

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CCS0917084738-1_Partnership on Demand Change 4 Life_Eat well for 3 to 5 year olds_A4 poster_V7 KU_PRINT READY

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Sensory Play Toolkit, the fun way to help avoidant, picky or fussy eaters

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Sensory Play Toolkit, the fun way to help avoidant, picky or fussy eaters

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sensory-play-toolkit.pdf

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ICAN Know your rights Money Go Round June 2024[6828]

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Our Senior Dietitian reveals what ultra-processed foods are, how they can affect your health, and simple ways to avoid them.

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What's on this page?

More than half of the energy (calories) an average person in the UK eats and drinks comes from ultra-processed foods. That's perhaps not surprising as they can be convenient, appealing, and are heavily marketed to us. But researchers have shown that ultra-processed foods can impact our health. So, what are ultra-processed foods and how can we avoid them?

What is ultra-processed food?

The term 'ultra-processed foods' comes from the NOVA food classification system, which was developed by researchers at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.

The system places food into four categories based on how much they have been processed during their production:

1. Unprocessed or minimally processed foods: This includes produce such as fruit, vegetables, milk, fish, pulses, eggs, nuts and seeds that have no added ingredients and have been little altered from their natural state.

2. Processed ingredients: This includes foods that are added to other foods rather than eaten by themselves, such as salt, sugar and oils.

3. Processed foods: These are foods that are made by combining foods from groups 1 and 2, which are altered in a way that home cooks could do themselves. They include foods such as jam, pickles, tinned fruit and vegetables, homemade breads and cheeses.

4. Ultra-processed foods: Ultra-processed foods typically have five or more ingredients. They tend to include many additives and ingredients that are not typically used in home cooking, such as preservatives, emulsifiers, sweeteners, and artificial colours and flavours. These foods generally have a long shelf life.

A list of common ultra-processed foods

Examples of ultra-processed foods include ice cream, ham, sausages, crisps, mass-produced bread, breakfast cereals, biscuits, carbonated drinks, fruit-flavoured yogurts, instant soups, and some alcoholic drinks including whisky, gin, and rum.

Unprocessed or minimally processed foods: Fruit, vegetables, eggs, meat and grains.

Processed culinary ingredients: Sugar, salt, butter, lard, oils, vinegar.

Processed foods: Freshly made, unpackaged bread, tinned fruits and vegetables, salted nuts, ham, bacon, tinned fish and cheese.

Ultra processed: Ice cream, ham, sausages, crisps, mass-produced bread, breakfast cereals, biscuits, carbonated drinks, fruit-flavoured yogurts, instant soups, and some alcoholic drinks including whisky, gin, and rum.

Why are ultra-processed foods bad for us?

Ultra-processed foods often contain high levels of saturated fat, salt and sugar and when we eat them, we leave less room in our diets for more nutritious foods. It's also been suggested that the additives in these foods could be responsible for negative health effects.

The actual processing of the food could also make a difference to how our bodies respond to it. Studies have shown, for example, that when foods such as nuts are eaten whole the body absorbs less of the fat than when the nut is ground down and the oils are released. Another new theory is that diets higher in ultra-processed foods could also affect our gut health.

More research is needed to separate these different elements and understand exactly what about ultra-processed foods could be bad for our health: is it one of these elements or is it their combination?

Currently, it's also hard to know whether it is something within the foods that is the issue or whether eating a diet high in these foods suggests an overall lifestyle that is linked to poorer health. However, given the high salt, sugar, and saturated fat content of most of these foods, cutting down does seem sensible.

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Are cereal and bread considered ultra-processed foods?

When you think of ultra-processed foods, you might think of chips, sweets, and colourful sugary drinks, but there are some less obvious examples. Everyday items such as breakfast cereals and mass-produced or packaged bread can be considered ultra-processed foods. This is because they often have extra ingredients added during production, such as emulsifiers, sweeteners, and artificial colours and flavours.

One of the criticisms of the NOVA method of categorising foods is that foods like these, which can be part of a healthy diet, sit alongside less nutritious ultra-processed foods. Less nutritious ultra-processed foods can include pre-prepared meals, sausages and nuggets, as well as sweets, biscuits, pastries, buns, cakes and pre-prepared chips.

Plant-based meat and cheese substitutes are also ultra-processed, and so might not be as healthy as they are marketed to be. Despite the problems with lumping different types of food together under the umbrella term ultra-processed, the NOVA system is still widely used in research. While there are pros and cons to using it, it's helped establish a link between diets high in these foods and worse health.

Should I be cutting out ultra-processed foods?

It might sound like we should go back to eating only foods that are minimally processed, but with restricted time and budget, this isn't an option for most of us. Although the evidence to suggest that ultra-processed foods are bad for our heart and circulation seems to be growing, the type and quality of the research means it's still not clear that we need to completely exclude them.

The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN), who reviewed the evidence on processed foods and health this summer, concluded that because of limitations to the research available caution is still needed when it comes to making dietary recommendations.

Instead of trying to completely cut out these foods, think about the balance in your diet. Make sure that there are minimally processed foods in there too - eat fruit and vegetables with your meals and drink water instead of sugary drinks - and try to fit in time over the week for home cooking.

It's also important to remember that not all ultra-processed foods are equal. When you do include ultra-processed foods in your diet, choose those with more nutritional benefit - wholegrain bread and cereals or baked beans for example, instead of crisps, sweets or pizzas. Get in the habit of reading food labels so you can easily identify and cut back on foods that are high in sugar, salt, or saturated fat.

How to cut down on ultra-processed foods

Eating a lot of processed foods leaves less room for healthier foods like fruit and vegetables, fish, unsaturated oils, pulses and nuts and seeds. So, if you want to change your diet, try to make some swaps, such as:

Instead of flavoured yogurts with added sugar or sweeteners, choose plain yogurt and add your own chopped fresh, frozen or dried fruit for sweetness.

Instead of buying sauces or ready meals, cook your favourites in larger amounts at home and freeze the extra in portions to use another day.

Have porridge in the morning with fruit and nuts instead of sugary low-fibre breakfast cereals.

Eat fresh, baked or stewed fruit instead of shop-bought fruit pies or cakes.

Have some nuts instead of biscuits with your afternoon cuppa.

Tried to cut back?

Let us know how you got on or any tips you might have cutting back on ultra-processed foods. Email your thoughts and any photos for a chance to be featured in the next magazine.

The latest research on ultra-processed foods and heart health

Several studies have shown that eating higher amounts of ultra-processed foods is linked to a greater risk of:

One study, presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in August 2023, tracked 10,000 Australian women for 15 years. Those with the highest amounts of ultra-processed food in their diet were 39 per cent more likely to develop high blood pressure than those with the lowest.

Another larger analysis, also presented at the meeting, looked at 10 studies involving more than 325,000 men and women. It showed that those who ate the most ultra-processed food were 24 per cent more likely to experience serious heart and circulatory events including heart attacks, strokes and angina. Each 10 percent rise in daily intake of ultra-processed food was linked with a 6 per cent increase in heart disease risk.

A study from 2019, which followed 19,899 university graduates in Spain, also showed a connection between ultra-processed foods and risk of early death. Participants were split into groups depending on their level of ultra-processed food intake. The group eating the fewest ultra-processed foods ate less than two servings per day, and the group eating the most ate more than four servings per day. People in the highest intake group were 62 per cent more likely to have died after an average of 10.4 years than people in the low consumption group.

These three studies were observational, meaning they can only find associations between factors. They can't prove that ultra-processed foods directly cause negative health outcomes like heart disease; it's possible that other factors could be responsible for the association.

In the Spanish and Australian studies, the researchers found the same increased risks after taking into consideration other aspects of people's diets, such as their saturated fat, salt and sugar intake. This suggests the processing itself may be harmful rather than the higher fat, salt and sugar levels.

BHF Senior Dietitian Victoria Taylor said: "It's important to remember that observational studies like these can only show an association. They cannot tell us what is behind this. The classification of ultra-processed foods used by the researchers is very broad and so there could be a number of reasons why these foods are being linked to increased risk to our health, for example nutritional content, additives in food or other factors in a person's life. Before we consider making any changes to advice or policy it is important to understand this thoroughly."

"We already recommend people adopt a Mediterranean-style diet, which includes plenty of minimally or unprocessed foods such as fruit, vegetables, fish, nuts and seeds, beans, lentils and wholegrains. This, along with exercising regularly and not smoking, has been shown to be beneficial for lowering risk of heart and circulatory disease."

What to read next...

Updated August 2023

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Ultra-processed foods: how bad are they for your health?

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Find out what ultra-processed foods are, how they can affect your health, and how to avoid them.

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Ultra-processed food (UPF) is directly linked to 32 harmful effects to health, including a higher risk of heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, adverse mental health and early death, according to the world's largest review of its kind.

The findings from the first comprehensive umbrella review of evidence come amid rapidly rising global consumption of UPF such as cereals, protein bars, fizzy drinks, ready meals and fast food.

In the UK and US, more than half the average diet now consists of ultra-processed food. For some, especially people who are younger, poorer or from disadvantaged areas, a diet comprising as much as 80% UPF is typical.

The findings published in the BMJ suggest diets high in UPF may be harmful to many elements of health. The results of the review involving almost 10 million people underscored a need for measures to target and reduce exposure to UPF, the researchers said.

The review involved experts from a number of leading institutions, including Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US, the University of Sydney and Sorbonne University in France.

Writing in the BMJ, they concluded: "Overall, direct associations were found between exposure to ultra-processed foods and 32 health parameters spanning mortality, cancer, and mental, respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and metabolic health outcomes."

They added: "Greater exposure to ultra-processed food was associated with a higher risk of adverse health outcomes, especially cardiometabolic, common mental disorders and mortality outcomes.

"These findings provide a rationale to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of using population-based and public-health measures to target and reduce dietary exposure to ultra-processed foods for improved human health."

Ultra-processed foods, including packaged baked goods and snacks, fizzy drinks, sugary cereals, and ready-to-eat or ready meals, undergo multiple industrial processes and often contain colours, emulsifiers, flavours and other additives. These products also tend to be high in added sugar, fat, and/or salt, but are low in vitamins and fibre.

Previous studies have linked UPF to poor health, but no comprehensive review had yet provided a broad assessment of the evidence in this area.

To bridge this gap, researchers carried out an umbrella review - a high-level evidence summary - of 45 distinct pooled meta-analyses from 14 review articles associating UPF with adverse health outcomes.

The review articles were all published in the past three years and involved 9.9 million people. None were funded by companies involved in the production of UPF.

Estimates of exposure to ultra-processed foods were obtained from a combination of food frequency questionnaires, 24-hour dietary recalls, and dietary history and were measured as higher versus lower consumption, additional servings per day, or a 10% increment.

The researchers graded the evidence as convincing, highly suggestive, suggestive, weak, or no evidence. They also assessed the quality of evidence as high, moderate, low, or very low.

Overall, the results show that higher exposure to UPF was consistently associated with an increased risk of 32 adverse health outcomes, The BMJ reported.

Convincing evidence showed that higher UPF intake was associated with about a 50% increased risk of cardiovascular disease-related death, a 48 to 53% higher risk of anxiety and common mental disorders, and a 12% greater risk of type 2 diabetes.

Highly suggestive evidence also indicated that higher PF intake was associated with a 21% greater risk of death from any cause, a 40 to 66% increased risk of heart disease related death, obesity, type 2 diabetes and sleep problems, and a 22% increased risk of depression.

There was also evidence for associations between UPF and asthma, gastrointestinal health, some cancers and cardiometabolic risk factors, such as high blood fats and low levels of 'good' cholesterol, although the researchers cautioned the evidence for these links remains limited.

The researchers acknowledged several limitations to the umbrella review, including that they couldn't rule out the possibility that other unmeasured factors and variations in assessing UPF intake may have influenced their results.

Some experts not involved in the research also highlighted that much of the research included in the umbrella review was weak and also cautioned that the findings do not prove cause and effect.

However, Dr Chris van Tulleken, an associate professor at University College London and one of the world's leading UPF experts, said the findings were "entirely consistent" with a now "enormous number of independent studies which clearly link a diet high in UPF to multiple damaging health outcomes including early death".

"We have good understanding of the mechanisms by which these foods drive harm," he added. "In part it is because of their poor nutritional profile - they are often high in saturated fat, salt and free sugar.

But the way they are processed is also important - they're engineered and marketed in ways which drive excess consumption - for example they are typically soft and energy dense and aggressively marketed usually to disadvantaged communities."

In a linked editorial, academics from Brazil said UPFs were "often chemically manipulated cheap ingredients" and "made palatable and attractive by using combinations of flavours, colours, emulsifiers, thickeners and other additives".

They added: "It is now time for UN agencies, with member states, to develop and implement a framework convention on ultra-processed foods analogous to the framework on tobacco."

Meanwhile, a separate study published in the Lancet Public Health suggested that more than 9,000 heart disease-related deaths could be prevented in England over the next two decades if all restaurants, fast food outlets, cafes, pubs and takeaways put calories on their menus.

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Ultra-processed food linked to 32 harmful effects to health, review finds

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World's largest review finds direct associations with higher risks of cancer, heart disease and early death

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Labelling foods as ultra-processed might not be so helpful for consumers who want to know how healthy a product is, UK experts say.

Currently, packs must show whether a food item is high in fat, salt and sugar but not how processed it is.

Scientists who analysed different products say it is too simplistic to brand all ultra-processed foods (UPFs) as very bad.

Technically, sliced bread is ultra-processed, for example.

Though many UPFs are clearly unhealthy, some could fall into the "healthy" green category of the "traffic-light" system.

This was the case for meat-alternative products, the University College London team said, and some people may be unaware what they were buying was ultra-processed.

Five ingredients

UPFs have been linked to obesity and heart disease.

They are defined by how they are made and what they contain.

They often have more than five ingredients, with examples including cakes, biscuits and yoghurts.

At the other end of the scale are unprocessed foods such as fruits, vegetables and fresh meat - and in the middle, processed foods such as cheeses and tinned products.

Of nearly 3,000 food and drink items popular in the UK the researchers looked at:

55% were ultra-processed and labelled red, containing significantly more fat, saturated fat, sugar, salt and energy per 100g than the minimally or unprocessed, which tended to be labelled green

But some UPFs were green and some minimally processed, such as nuts, seeds and whole milk, red

UCL senior research fellow and weight-management specialist Dr Adrian Brown told BBC News he had looked at a "meat alternative", for example.

"Generally, it can be considered highly processed - but if you look at front-of-package labelling for energy, fat, saturated fat and sugar, they're all green, which would be considered healthy," he said.

And there was too little research into the effect of UPFs on general health.

"There's a bit of a grey area [with UPFs] as, at this present time, we only have association data between ultra-processed food and health outcomes such as diabetes and heart disease," Dr Brown said.

The government's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) also described "uncertainties around the quality of evidence available".

Dr Brown's team at UCL have now begun a trial to see how healthy a UFP-only diet can be, compared with a minimally processed one, and whether guidance should be given to consumers.

"We're putting people on an eight-week diet which meets the government's recommendations for salt, fat, sugar and energy - what is considered healthy - and we're comparing the outcomes of them, related to weight and other changes in terms of health as well," he said.

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Confusion over ultra-processed food labelling- study

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Not enough data to say adding processing information to labelling would be helpful, researchers say.

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