Here are good and bad ultraprocessed foods, according to the American Heart Association | CNN

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Here are good and bad ultraprocessed foods, according to the American Heart Association

By Sandee LaMotte, Updated Aug 8, 2025

What is ultraprocessed food? Nutritionist explains why it can taste different

Step aside, MAHA. The country’s largest heart-health organization has just released its long-awaited guidelines for the consumption of ultraprocessed foods, or UPFs.

The new scientific advisory statement from the American Heart Association comes just days before the arrival of the second “Make America Healthy Again” or MAHA Commission report, spearheaded by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The first MAHA report, released in May, described how ultraprocessed foods were contributing to chronic illnesses in children. The second installment, due by Tuesday, is expected to lay out proposed policy changes.

The American Heart Association’s key message is not surprising: Most ultraprocessed foods are terrible for health, including heart health, and it is high time the food industry stopped producing them and regulators stopped letting them, the nonprofit says.

But surprisingly, the AHA also dives nose first into the hotly debated question: Are all ultraprocessed foods unhealthy?

Maybe not, according to the new guidelines released Friday in the journal Circulation. In reality, however, it’s just a few categories, like “certain whole grain breads, low-sugar yogurts, tomato sauces, and nut or bean-based spreads,” the report states. Even those “healthy” options, the report adds, should be monitored to ensure they remain that way.

That’s no reason to celebrate, says Christopher Gardner, who is vice chair of the AHA report’s writing group. “Let’s not give the industry a write-off just because there’s a few things that are a bit healthier than the vast majority of ultraprocessed foods full of sugar, salt and fat,” he said.

“We have tons of evidence that too much salt, sugar and fat are harmful — we’ve known that since the days of junk food,” said Gardner, Rehnborg Farquhar Professor of Medicine at Stanford University,who directs the Stanford Prevention Research Center’s Nutrition Studies Research Group.

“But today’s junk food is ultraprocessed with cosmetic additives that lead to overeating and tons of health issues,” he added. “That’s the problem. Can we please double down on those?”

What used to be known as junk food is now considered ultraprocessed due to the addition of additives and additional processing, experts say. Dzevoniia / iStockphoto / Getty Images / File

A growing problem

Guidance from the AHA is highly regarded by medical professionals and policy makers, and experts say tackling the issue of ultraprocessed food couldn’t come at a better time. New data released Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found Americans over the age of 1 get 55% of their daily calories from ultraprocessed food. That number jumped to 62% for children between 1 and 18 years old.

That’s concerning, the AHA report said, because research has found a dose-response relationship between ultraprocessed foods and heart attacks and stroke, type 2 diabetes, obesity and all-cause mortality.

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