Laura A. Schmidt PhD

Scientists Call for Global Shift Away From Ultraprocessed Foods

As I told the @nytimes.com, "it's not inevitable." It's not inevitable that ultraprocessed food (UPF) companies must dominate our food supply, harming our health.

We simply apply our existing tobacco control regulations to UPF. We have the tools to fix this.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/w...

Next step: Direct studies of the mechanisms. Is it the lack of fiber, a larger dose of sugar, slow transit time or chemical additives that make liquid sugar worse for health?

While ultraprocessed food companies pursue profits at the cost of making populations obese, pharmaceutical companies pursue profits with drugs promising to make the same people thin. Why not make money off both sides of the world's obesity crisis?

I found the study discussed here to be quite compelling, with large samples from different regions of the world. The next step is to sort out why liquid sugar is worse for health: No fiber? Too easy to overconsume? Short transit time in the gut? Or all of the above?

As more people experience an end to craving and "food noise" from taking GLP-1s, we may see a greater willingness to accept that #ultraprocessedfoods are addictive, like alcohol and tobacco.

New GLP-1 drugs have the potential to change “the persistent, widespread cultural assumption that obesity is a problem of individuals rather than a societal problem of the food system.” @drlauraschmidt.bsky.social & Luc Hagenaars write:
issues.org/ozempic-era-...

Toxic Priorities: How Trump’s EPA Puts Polluters Over People YouTube video by Senate Environment & Public Works Committee

Excellent speech by @traceywoodruff.bsky.social If the administration is serious about making America healthy they need to fund environmental research. It is science fiction to think that you can cut 55% of EPA’s budget and expect people’s health to improve.
www.youtube.com/live/3l-bOsI...

Industry study sponsorship and conflicts of interest on the effect of unprocessed red meat on cardiovascular disease risk: a systematic review of clinical trials Experimental research on the link between unprocessed red meat and cardiovascular disease risk is inconsistent and may differ according to the financial interests of red meat industry sponsors.

Now we know that if a study is funded by the meat industry, it is 4 times more likely to conclude that red meat has positive or benign effects on cardiovascular disease risk. NIH should fund nutrition scientists so they can stop working for the food industry. ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S000...

Please join me for this free, online webinar. I will be sharing new results from my research using the @ucsf-industrydocs.bsky.social library on the tobacco industry's role in developing #ultraprocessedfoods.
May 22, 2025
9am - 10am PT | 12pm - 1pm ET
Zoom (virtual event)
lnkd.in/eEY-4PWF

I encourage everyone to join me at the UCSF Global Oral Health Symposium, held for free and online. I will be speaking about recent developments in the #sodatax debate and this recent publication in @jama.com: lnkd.in/gd2_Z5bU.
@ahascience.bsky.social
@americanheart.bsky.social

The Changing Landscape of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxes This Viewpoint discusses how sugar-sweetened beverage taxes in small US cities have provided an example for how to enact such policy changes elsewhere, which could help improve population health.

Read my new piece in @jama.com on how Coca-Cola and Pepsi plan to sue the small City of San Cruz because voters had the audacity to pass a #sodatax to pay for health initiatives. Courageous officials in this small city are preparing to stand up to the corporate bully.
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Read my new piece on how GLP-1 agonist medications could fundamentally shift the scientific paradigm for obesity to more closely align with models of tobacco and alcohol addiction, written for the @nationalacademies.org @issuesinst.bsky.social #obesity #ozempic #addiction

issues.org/ozempic-era-...

Looking forward to this free webinar on what's going on with #ultraprocessedfoods in California.

Top researcher quits NIH, citing censorship under RFK Jr. | CNN Dr. Kevin Hall joins The Lead

Thanks to @jaketapper.bsky.social for inviting me on his show yesterday! www.cnn.com/2025/04/17/h...

The New Tobacco? A Discussion about Ultra-Processed Foods
Mon 5/5 at 12pm

You are welcome to join a free online webinar hosted by @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social on Monday, May 5 at 12p PT. Gain insight into #processedfoods as the new tobacco.

Register today: lnkd.in/gcQ6-GwR

#foodpolicy #obesity

Top NIH nutrition researcher studying ultraprocessed foods departs, citing censorship under Kennedy | CNN When President Donald Trump named Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his choice to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services, one group of health researchers was cautiously optimistic that their cause...

My lab is in mourning today about Kevin Hall's early retirement from NIH. As an addiction scientist, it especially troubles me to hear that he felt forced to adhere to preconceived ideas about food addiction. That just isn't how science is done.

edition.cnn.com/2025/04/16/h...

Kevin, you have contributed game-changing science on ultraprocessed foods and human health. Information from your current trial is urgently needed to help us disentangle the complex mechanisms giving rise to our obesity and CMD crisis. My lab is in mourning today.

This is another big loss at NIH. He explains why in the thread below.
Our recent conversation about what we should eat
erictopol.substack.com/p/kevin-hall...

‪I encourage everyone to read Murray Carpenter's new book on Coca-Cola's disinformation campaign to muddle nutrition science. He tells my story of the San Francisco soda tax. He will be reading from his book at the Ferry Building this Sunday at 2. @murray-journo.bsky.social new @mitpress.bsky.social

Trends in Access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder This cross-sectional study examines the association between Medicaid unwinding and dispensing of prescription buprenorphine, overall and by payment sources nationally and by state.

New paper - Medicaid "unwinding" associated with net decrease in buprenorphine prescribing for opioid use disorder (some offset from commercial insurance).

Some state policies mitigated this negative impact.

Hats off to @drsumedhagupta.bsky.social for this work!

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The Nutritionist Marion Nestle Meets Her Moment, At 88 After five decades in the field of nutrition, Dr. Marion Nestle thought she had seen it all. Then came “Make America Healthy Again.”

This wonderful profile of Marion Nestle at @newyorkuniversity.bsky.social by @nytimes.com captures her boundless energy and practical approach nutrition through an omnivorous whole foods diet. Worth a read!
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/w...

YouTube video by Emery Pharma Robert Lustig: Apple Juice Spikes Glucose Fastest, Apple Puree Next, but Whole Apple is the Safest

When you destroy fiber, it can't act on your behalf.

Consider apple versus apple sauce versus apple juice:

youtu.be/00CYtZ366do?...

March 2025 Updates - Over 400K new documents added! Email from UCSF Industry Documents Library         Collection Updates Opioid Industry Documents Archive Teva and Allergan Documents OIDA staff added over 220,000 documents to the Teva and Allergan

It's Document Drop Day! 🎉
We added over 220K new Teva and Allergan documents and 200K Juul Labs documents to the IDL today. Read more about the new documents and get the latest education and research updates in our monthly newsletter:
conta.cc/3RmmUSa
#industrydocuments #library

🚨 Researching Juul Labs & the North Carolina settlement?

UNC Libraries has you covered! Their research guide dives into the #Juul Labs Collection’s origins, industry practices, public health impacts, and more. Check it out: guides.lib.unc.edu/juul
#PublicHealth #Research @unclibrary.bsky.social

Ultra-processed babies: are toddler snacks one of the great food scandals of our time? For time-poor parents, straws, sticks, pouches and powders can seem like a quick, convenient and even healthy option. But these oversweetened, mushy foods are creating a generation of choosy consumers...

The target marketing of #ultraprocessedfoods to toddlers is a strategy that many of today's food corporations (Kraft, Nabisco, General Foods) learned during decades of ownership by tobacco companies--instill brand loyalty as young as possible. @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Dansk forskningsprojekt støttet af Novo Nordisk Fonden får kritik af eksperter verden over Et nyt dansk forskningsprojekt på Københavns Universitet om ultraforarbejdede fødevarer, har vist sig at være så kontroversielt, at flere end 90 eksperter verden i et åbent brev har kritiseret det.

I am among > 90 scientists boycotting a U Copenhagen study designed to "rethink" #ultraprocessedfoods. The foundation of Novo Nordisk (maker of #ozempic) is funding these researchers, who have minimized health concerns about these foods. @melissamialon.bsky.social

www.tjekdet.dk/indsigt/dans...

This systems analysis holds keys to how America might exit its current trajectory of rising #obesity and #chronicdisease rates. Our inability to prevent these problems comes down to a societal bias towards blaming individuals rather than the #ultraprocessed #foodindustry. #weightstigma

Food insecurity is a major risk factor for cardiometabolic disease. Food security interventions should focus on diet quality and nutrition security.