Are ultra-processed foods always harmful?

‘They cannot afford £4.50 on a fancy niçoise salad.’ Photograph: robynmac/Getty Images/iStockphoto

I read Rachel Dixon’s piece (‘Avoid ingredients you don’t know’: 25 of the healthiest processed foods you can buy in the UK, 31 July) with wry amusement, segueing seamlessly into irritation.

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are damaging health on a massive scale. Cheap, carb and sugar-laden, over-packaged foodstuffs are targeted at the poorest sections of society. They cannot afford £4.50 on a fancy niçoise salad or a litre of flavoured water in snazzy cans.