'Ultraprocessed' Spreads Beyond Food to Describe 4 Parts of Modern Life
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 11
'Ultraprocessed' Spreads Beyond Food to Describe 4 Parts of Modern Life
2 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 11
Summary
“Ultraprocessed” is increasingly being applied to phones, films, AI-driven culture and social media feeds, extending a food-health label into a broader critique of modern life.
That expansion builds on a food classification system that sorts products into 4 categories by degree of alteration, even though researchers and policymakers still struggle to define exactly what counts as ultraprocessed food.
Writers and academics now use the term to suggest experiences are engineered, addictive or nutritionally empty in a cultural sense—turning a scientific label into shorthand for suspicion of industrially shaped consumption.
The shift also reflects the word “ultra-” carrying a long history of implying something beyond accepted norms, even as marketers still use it positively in brands from Michelob ULTRA to Ultraboost.