"Ultra-Processed" Is Just a Distraction

Another excuse fails to hold up to scrutiny.

A new UK government report confirms what the meat industry would rather you didn’t know: plant-based meats are not associated with adverse health outcomes.

That’s right. Despite the panic over “ultra-processed foods,” plant-based meat alternatives were singled out as not carrying the risks seen in processed animal products. The government reviewed years of research, clinical trials, and scientific papers. Their conclusion? The health concerns linked to ultra-processed products apply to processed meats and animal-based junk food - not to plant-based versions.

Of course, the animal agriculture industry has been hoping you’d lump them all in together. Because once you stop pretending your bacon is a health food, what’s left?

The lie was simple: “Processed = bad. Therefore, vegan meat = bad.” But like most smokescreens, it falls apart with the slightest scrutiny.

The Meat Lobby's Favourite Label

“Ultra-processed” has become the new buzzword for lazy health discourse. It’s vague. It’s subjective. And it tells you almost nothing about whether a food is actually good for you.

Tofu, oat milk, hummus, wholemeal bread, fortified cereals - they're all technically “ultra-processed.” So is the vegan burger. But also: the bacon rasher. The hot dog. The beef lasagne. The greasy takeaway sausage roll.

And somehow, only one of those gets marketed as dangerous.

A report titled Processing the Discourse Over Plant-Based Meat calls this out directly: the hysteria over UPFs is disconnected from science and being used as a political tool. A weapon. One aimed at the very foods that could replace the meat industry.

It’s no coincidence. The backlash isn’t about nutrition - it’s about power.

Meat Marketing, Not Medicine

The same industry that’s pumping animals full of antibiotics, selling cancer-linked products, and devastating the planet now wants to position itself as the guardian of public health.

They have the audacity to push “five-ingredient rules” and fearmongering over additives while lobbying to keep warning labels off red meat. They’ll sell you a charred corpse in plastic packaging and claim the problem is… soy?

But the science doesn’t agree. The UK government’s Office for Health Improvement & Disparities states plainly: plant-based alternatives are not associated with negative health effects. Meanwhile, processed meat products are.

This builds on earlier findings from 2023, where no link was found between plant-based meats and risks like cancer, heart disease, or type 2 diabetes. The same can’t be said for the animal versions.

Public Confusion Isn’t Accidental

Two-thirds of Europeans now believe UPFs are bad for you. But most people still don’t know what “ultra-processed” even means. That’s the point.

Confusion works in favour of the meat industry. If you think vegan food is just as unhealthy as meat, you’re more likely to keep choosing the version that props up their profits. You’re more likely to believe health is about labels, not systems. You’re more likely to ignore the real issue: the bodies behind the burgers.

Let’s Not Forget the Bodies

This isn’t just about disease statistics and food pyramids. It's about who gets eaten.

Billions of animals are killed every year for products that are now being directly replaced - often by healthier, tastier, more sustainable options. And yet those shelves stay full of corpses.

Why?

Because people still believe they need meat. That lie is holding everything up. And the “ultra-processed” panic is its latest costume.

When the government’s own scientific advisers are saying these plant-based products are fine, and the meat industry is still shouting “but processing!” - you know this was never about your wellbeing.

The Convenience Myth

Yes, some plant-based meats come from factories. But so do most of the foods in your kitchen cupboard. Processing isn’t the problem - exploitation is.

People aren’t sick because of tofu. They’re sick because they’ve been sold a diet based on flesh, fat, and dairy. A diet that’s linked to some of the most preventable chronic illnesses we face. A diet that’s propped up by culture, not evidence.

And now that evidence is piling up.

Even Taste Isn’t a Real Excuse Anymore

Blind taste tests now show that people often can’t tell the difference between animal-based and plant-based versions of the same food. In many cases, they prefer the vegan one.

So what happens when the taste is the same, the health risks are lower, and no one had to die?

Apparently… people still reach for the dead one. Not because they’re addicted to flavour. Because they’re addicted to habit.

So What’s Left?

If processed vegan food isn’t dangerous, and processed meat is…

If the taste gap is disappearing…

If the climate cost is catastrophic…

If the suffering is real…

What’s left?

Pride?

Stubbornness?

An identity so tied to domination that no evidence will break it?

Because let’s be clear: the excuses are running out. And reports like this don’t just close one more loophole - they expose the mindset behind the whole mess.

This was never about health. It was about control. Of animals. Of public perception. Of narrative.

But the narrative is changing.

And we’re not buying it anymore.