On December 10th, 2025, The Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University and Food Tank hosted an event in Washington D.C. titled “Eating Ourselves Sick? Ultra-Processed Foods and U.S. Health Policy”. The event brought together members of Congress and experts in public health to discuss the impact of diets high in ultra processed foods and the negative health effects associated with ultra-processed foods.
Why FoodStream’s Founders Attended
FoodStream’s founders attended the Tufts University and Food Tank event in Washington D.C. because the conversation around ultra-processed foods sits at the heart of our mission. As a platform working to transform how food moves through communities, and as educators bringing nutrition, cooking, and gardening into K–12 schools across NYCPS, it was important for us to be in the room with national leaders shaping the future of food and public health.
Hearing directly from policymakers, researchers, and public health officials helps us stay aligned with emerging science, understand the barriers communities face, and identify where local action can support national goals. For us, being present wasn’t just observational—it was a commitment to ensuring that the families and schools we serve are represented in broader conversations about diet, health equity, and the food systems shaping our country.
Ultra-Processed Foods & Health
According to the researchers at Tufts, ultra-processed foods are foods that have undergone intense processes, such as refining, high-temperature extrusion, or molding. They typically include colors, flavorings, emulsifiers, and other artificial ingredients. These foods are designed to be visually appealing, cheap, have a long shelf life and be good tasting, but with little regard for their nutritional value. Ultra-processed foods are often calorie dense, high in sugar and sodium and can contain additives known to be bad for health. These ingredients help contribute to non-communicable diet related diseases like diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
Ultra-Processed Foods & Public Policy
With the prevalence of ultra-processed foods available to the American consumer and diet related diseases on the rise in the United States, public health officials and policymakers are faced with a significant public health dilemma. At the Tufts and Food Tank event, panelists called for increased efforts to promote healthy diets through education for diet related disease prevention, changes to the types of food available with public food programs and legislation that requires the removal of unhealthy additives from foods. For example, Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas called for federal legislation that incentivizes farmers to produce more healthy foods made from increased regenerative agriculture, instead of commodity foods that are used to make ultra-processed foods. Secretary of Health for the State of West Virginia, Arvin Singh, noted that legislation at the state level is restricting the types of foods available for purchase under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), to encourage recipients to buy healthier foods. These proposals and incentives are just some of the interventions proposed at the event, but they show policy makers and public health officials recognize that change in diets is needed to prevent disease and promote public health.
Food, Diet & Local Action
Making healthy diets available to everyone is a multi-faceted challenge. Certain communities have limited options to purchase fresh or healthy foods and the immediate challenge of food insecurity and hunger is daunting. At FoodStream we work with farmers and producers to make more healthy food available to people in need. Through the FoodStream Learn program we are bringing cooking, gardening and nutrition learning into K-12 classrooms. We believe that through better food and nutrition education, people can better understand what nutritious food is, where it comes from and how to prepare it. More informed individuals and communities can then take action to promote the availability and access to healthy foods, promote healthy diets and prevent disease.
Responses