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Nova Campfire - The Future of Food: Ultra-processed Foods as a growing threat to human health and sustainability

We have a blockbuster line up of incredible speakers who are bravely working on different aspects of this great and difficult challenge. Food is the foundation of life – how every living thing is formed, sustained, and functions. It is perhaps the most fundamental way we interact with the world around us, including our social relationships. Our food seeds and shapes the living ecosystems within us—the vast and dynamic communities of microbes critical to our physical and mental health—and food production has a major impact on wider environmental ecosystems. In this context, there is enormous concern that the surge of addictive ultra-processed, energy-dense, low-nutrient food marketing and consumption is adversely affecting the health of individuals, societies at large, and the wider ecosystems on which we depend.

The following interwoven topics to provide the kindling for our discussions...
• Welcome and intro (Susan Prescott) and mindful moment (Rick Scott):
• Ultra-processed foods: Engineered for “addiction”
—Carlos A. Monteiro, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• Unmasking food Industry tactics to deflect and conceal human and environmental impacts
—Cristin Kearns, University of California, San Francisco
• Effects of flavor enhancers and artificial sweeteners (excitotoxins) on brain development and neuropsychiatric symptoms in children and adults
—Kathleen Holton American University, Washington
• Can increasing public awareness of industry tactics help support for policies to regulate food-industry strategies?
—Selena E Ortiz, Pennsylvania State University
• Adverse effects of Ultra-processed food (UFP) consumption on physical and mental health outcomes
—Chris D’Adamo, University of Maryland, Baltimore.
• Rewilding our first foods: Healthier and Sustainable Diets in Early life diets have implications for mental health and positive personality traits
—Nina C. Øverby, University of Agder, 4630 Kristiansand, Norway

Discussion

Mar 23, 2023 11:00 AM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)