I read Rachel Dixon’s piece (‘Avoid ingredients you don’t know’: 25 of the healthiest processed foods you can buy in the UK, 31 July) with wry amusement, segueing seamlessly into irritation.
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are damaging health on a massive scale. Cheap, carb and sugar-laden, over-packaged foodstuffs are targeted at the poorest sections of society. They cannot afford £4.50 on a fancy niçoise salad or a litre of flavoured water in snazzy cans.
The Guardian isn’t helping by pointing Waitrose shoppers to overpriced hummus or falafel, or expensive ice-cream. That’s really not going to address the crisis of diabetes in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
Laurence N Mann
Twickenham, London
• I feel the article by Rachel Dixon has missed an opportunity to enlighten readers about UPFs. We have been told that they pose some health risks – so what is a UPF? Is it a food made from certain ingredients, the way the food is manufactured (ie processed), or a combination of both? I have never enjoyed cooking, and with convenience foods I am only too happy to let someone else do it, so that I can enjoy the time saved to do something else. So when does a “convenience” food become a UPF?
Helen Grist
Honeybourne, Worcestershire
• Doesn’t the article show that it all comes down to cost? A lot of what you show is Waitrose or high-end expensive foods. It’s one thing to pay £1.15 for a 40g bag of Tyrell’s crisps when a 22-pack of 25g Sainsbury’s crisps costs £3.65. The article you should have written would show how people on a budget can afford to eat healthily. Why does the food industry place a premium on healthy products? Pay or die is the question.
Niklas Grundstrom
East Preston, West Sussex
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