Why the War on “Processed” Food Is Misguided

Over a third of Americans now believe the lie that all processed foods are unhealthy. Another fifth aren’t sure what “processed” even means. This isn’t a minor confusion, it’s a public health issue, a political distraction, and a textbook example of how ignorance protects the industries actually fuelling the rise in chronic disease.

The term “processed food” is so vague it’s practically meaningless. Apple slices in a bag? Processed. Pasteurised oat milk fortified with B12? Processed. A breakfast cereal that lowers your cholesterol? Processed. A hot dog made from the carcass of a mutilated pig? Also processed.

Lumping these together is more than bad science. It’s propaganda.

Who Benefits From the Confusion?

According to a large 2025 survey by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), only 28% of Americans identified meat products, like hot dogs, burgers, and deli slices, as processed foods. Just 1% mentioned meat when asked what increases type 2 diabetes risk. Sugar was blamed five times more often.

That’s despite decades of research showing processed meat is a major driver of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and colorectal cancer, even in small amounts. One hot dog a day? That’s an 11% higher risk of diabetes and a 7% higher risk of colorectal cancer.

Meanwhile, plant-based “ultra-processed” foods like fortified cereals and vegan meat alternatives are consistently associated with neutral or even positive health outcomes. Not that you’d know it from the media headlines or the health influencers fearmongering about ingredients they can’t pronounce.

The effect? We’re seeing plant-based foods demonised while meat sails under the radar. The same corporations that profit from dead animals and chronic illness are watching the public rage at oat milk and tempeh instead.

It’s Not the Processing. It’s the Product

“Processing” simply refers to altering a food from its original state. That can mean anything from milling oats to canning beans, fermenting soy, drying herbs, or making protein powder out of upcycled fruit peels. The process itself is neutral. What matters is what you’re processing and why.

There’s a world of difference between processing a dead animal to extend its shelf life and processing chickpeas to increase accessibility, affordability, and nutrition.

A slice of bacon and a slice of fortified wholegrain bread are not health equivalents, just because they both came out of a factory. Neither are tofu and sausages. But current classification systems often treat them as though they are. That isn’t science. It’s lazy categorisation, one that conveniently shields the most harmful foods from scrutiny.

Recent studies have called out this absurdity. Vegan meats often contain fewer additives than supermarket white bread. Fortified cereals and canned veg are essential for many people’s nutrition. And pre-prepared plant-based foods are a lifeline for those who are disabled, ill, time-poor, or living in food deserts.

Weaponising Language to Stall Progress

Terms like “ultra-processed” have become blunt instruments, used to bash plant-based innovation while leaving the rotting flesh of exploited animals virtually untouched. They’re designed to sound scientific while functioning more like dog whistles for dietary purists and anti-vegan propagandists.

What happens when we treat all processing as equal? The meat industry gets to stay in business under the guise of “traditional” food. Meanwhile, forward-thinking alternatives, built for health, equity, and sustainability, get tarred with the same brush.

We’ve created a narrative where eating a fortified veggie burger is suspect, but eating a nitrate-laden corpse is somehow normal. A world where the ingredient list on a vegan steak is judged more harshly than the slaughter methods behind a real one.

Reclaim the Narrative

It’s time to stop letting misinformation drive our choices or our policies. Americans aren’t failing to eat well because of B12-fortified cereal or canned beans. They’re failing because the truth about food has been buried under industry spin, wellness elitism, and political convenience.

Not all processed foods are bad. Not all “natural” foods are good. If your meal required breeding, imprisoning, and killing someone, no amount of “whole” or “traditional” is going to change that. The real question isn’t how your food was processed. It’s who was processed to make it.