Cardiologists Push Home Cooking to Slash Ultra‑Processed Food Intake

TL;DR: UK cardiologists recommend home‑cooked, minimally processed meals and mindful eating to curb ultra‑processed food consumption and reduce heart disease risk.

Context Around 8 million Britons live with cardiovascular disease, accounting for roughly 170,000 deaths each year. The European Society of Cardiology and the European Association of Preventive Cardiology have issued a clinical consensus urging doctors to discuss ultra‑processed foods (UPFs) – items with added sugars, salts, fats and industrial additives – during routine visits.

Key Facts The consensus, published in the *European Heart Journal*, calls for clinicians to ask patients how much UPF they eat and to show visual examples of typical shop‑shelf products. Doctors are asked to promote home cooking, high‑fiber minimally processed foods, slower chewing and avoidance of late‑night meals. Dr Kawther Hashem stresses that practical conversations should focus on swapping sugary drinks, packaged snacks, processed meats, ready meals and take‑away dishes for fresh alternatives. Reducing salt intake is highlighted because excess salt raises blood pressure, a leading cause of heart attacks and strokes.

Evidence linking UPF to poor health comes from cohort studies and meta‑analyses that associate frequent consumption with obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease and higher cardiovascular mortality. While these studies show correlation, the consensus treats the relationship as sufficiently robust to guide preventive advice.

Research quoted by Prof Luigina Guasti shows that people who prepare more meals at home achieve better overall diet quality and consume less UPF. Even modest increases in home‑cooked meals have been linked to incremental health gains over time.

What It Means For patients, the actionable steps are clear: plan and prepare meals at home, choose plain yoghurt over flavored versions, replace sugary drinks with water, read ingredient lists, and eat slowly to enhance satiety. For clinicians, integrating UPF screening into outpatient assessments and using visual aids can make counseling more effective.

Looking Ahead Future monitoring will track whether routine UPF counseling lowers national cardiovascular event rates and how policy changes might support healthier food environments.