In an ideal world, we all eat a diet made up of whole foods and then we wouldn’t need to be concerned with any of this! But unfortunately that’s not the reality. Half the food that the average Irish person is buying is ultra processed and diet-related chronic conditions have never been higher. I believe a big part of the problem is: 1. Our food environment - A lack of policies to shape a healthy food environment has caused ultra-processed foods to dominate the Irish and UK diet. Ultra processed foods are everywhere and sometimes in packaged foods you wouldn’t expect! A report from the Climate and Health Alliance (CHA) last year said that “Ireland’s food system is like a slow motion disaster, fuelling premature death and disability due to diet-related chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, type two diabetes and obesity” 2. People are overstretched, time poor & haven’t had awareness about packaged foods - Like I said it would be wonderful if we all ate a diet of whole foods but people don’t have the resources or the time 7 days a week. We should all strive to eat more whole foods and I’m always encouraging this, however processed foods are part of our modern world and that is the reality. And yet there is a big variance in processed foods - there are options that are minimally processed with good quality ingredients and then there are options of the SAME KIND OF FOOD which are very ultra processed and a long list of additives. I believe people have been doing their food shopping completely unaware of this! And I think that is why my series of videos have gained such interest.. it’s opened up people’s eyes to the difference in ingredients between the same food product but manufactured by different brands or own label. So I believe that that awareness which was missing for people is starting to change and people ARE becoming more aware and making some clever swaps to reduce their exposure to ultra processed foods. And I’m very proud to have played some little part in that as it is only going to benefit public health. I’d love to hear your thoughts below thank you ❤️ #ultraprocessedfoods #cleverswaps #foodlabels - @sophiemorrisofficial