With all the fuss over defining the term ultra-processed, public and private groups are filling the gap with labels that identify foods that are not ultra-processed.

I know of three ultra-processed labeling initiatives so far.

I.  Leading the way is the Non GMO Project. It already is licensing foods meeting its non ultra-processed standards to carry this seal.

II.  California is considering a front-of-package label to indicate foods that are not ultra-processed; it expects only about one-third of processed supermarket foods to meet its criteria.

III.  And in Europe, Nutri-Score (as I written about previously) is considering adding something about ultra-processing to its current labels.  Even food products meeting its A criteria can be ultra-processed.

Comment: While fusses about the definition of ultra-processed continue, labels like these ought to help people recognize and cut down on such foods.  As for me, I’m not too worried about the definition.  As one of my colleagues put it, as with pornography. everyone recognizes an ultra-processed food when they see one.

I’ve been writing about Beyond Meat’s financial troubles since at least 2022, so the latest problems come as no surprise.

Beyond Meat, you will recall, makes plant-based meat alternatives: nutrition powerhouses, clean protein, fiber essential for the gut microbiome.

Recently, Beyond Meat announced that it would be moving into beverages—“a logical move—and not an admission of defeat—after another grim quarter.”

Grim quarter?  Indeed yes (thanks to Steve Zwick for sending)

As another commentator points out:

1. Beyond Meat has never made a profit.

2. Each $1 of product it sold in 2025 cost it $1.95 to make.

3. That’s a dramatic change since 2024, when each $1 of product it sold cost $1.32 to make.

4. It has $1.2 billion of accumulated losses on its balance sheet.

In the meantime, according to USDA, the per capita availability of red meat has increased by 10 pounds since 2014 and is now 105 pounds per capita per year or roughly a third of a pound a day for every man, woman, and baby in the country—and that’s for boneless.

We would all be healthier, and so would the planet, if we ate less red meat on average.  That was the point of developing plant-based alternatives; these were supposed to substitute for real meat.  Apparently, they don’t.

This means: If you want to reduce the impact of your diet on climate change, reduce your intake of red meat however works for you.

EPA, HHS Announce Historic Actions to Protect Americans from Microplastics and Safeguard Drinking Water

[EPA] For the first time in the program’s history, EPA is including microplastics as a priority contaminant group in its draft Sixth Contaminant Candidate List (CCL 6), now open for public comment. CCL 6 also includes pharmaceuticals as a group—another first—along with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), disinfection byproducts, 75 individual chemicals, and nine microbes that may be present in public drinking water systems.

[HHS] Additionally, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) announced the launch of STOMP—Systematic Targeting of Microplastics—a first-of-its-kind nationwide initiative to build a comprehensive toolbox for measuring, researching, and removing microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) from the human body. STOMP takes a three-pronged approach:

• Measure: Deploy gold-standard detection technology to accurately quantify microplastics levels in water and human tissue.
• Target: Identify the most harmful plastic contaminants and determine how they enter and move through the body.
• Remove: Develop and validate methods to eliminate microplastics from the human body.

This is a win for MAHA (Make America Healthy Again):

RFK Jr has been pushing for this.  He says “Animal studies show that microplastic exposure can drive inflammation, cardiovascular damage, impaired cognition, and tumor growth.”

Human studies show this too.  Here’s the latest, which correlates pre-term births to chemicals in plastics.

RJK Jr also said the $144 million national program will be called STOMP, which stands for “Systemic Targeting of MicroPlastics.” The program will bring toxicologists, data scientists and other experts together to create standardized tools capable of detecting and quantifying microplastics in the human body, research the effect they have on humans, and develop targeted strategies to remove them from the body.

This could be a good step forward if they actually act on it.  We shall see.

I was interested to run across this article announcement:

Nestlé researchers find Taurine-B vitamin blend may support motivation: A study in healthy adults found that daily supplementation had a positive impact on motivation, attention, mental energy and effort toward achieving goals after 14 days of intake…. Read more

It immediately raised the question: Why would Nestlé researchers do this study?

I went right to the source.

The study: A nutritional blend of taurine, vitamins B6, B9, and B12 improves motivated behaviors in healthy adults—a double-blinded randomized clinical trial. Front. Nutr. 13:1711478. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2026.1711478

Methods: …we identified candidate nutrients found in foods that could enhance brain GSH [glutathione] production as a possible approach to sustain motivated behaviors….we discovered that taurine was able to efficiently increase GSH production…but only when levels of vitamin B9 were adequate. The above led us to test a blend of taurine, vitamin B6, B9, and B12 in humans, in a randomized, double-blind, 2-arm, cross-over study with 44 participants aged 25–40 years old.

Results: Results showed significant improvements after 14 days supplementation in the first period, as well as after 28 days in the second administration period, compared to placebo.

Discussion: Overall, these findings demonstrate how targeted nutritional supplementation can sustain brain health and modulate behaviors, such as motivated and goal-oriented performance.

I know I just posted a bunch of these, but here are even more.

To understand what’s happening with alternative meats—both plant- and cell-based—it helps to remember that companies making these products are businesses funded by venture capitalists.

The European Union’s recent ban on using the term “meaty” to apply to these products could have major implications for sales.

In the U.S.

• Alt protein investors are tired of waiting – they want confidence in the future: As the initial hype dies down, investors in meat alternatives want a return on their investment… Read more
• Are we wrong about plant-based’s decline?  Some predict that plant-based growth could balloon in the coming decade… Read more
• Beyond Meat is now Beyond: The plant-based meat manufacturer has been diversifying for a while, but now it has fully rebranded… Read more

In the European Union

• EU ‘meaty’ names ban: What it means for the future of plant-based: Restrictions on naming may not be a disaster for meat alternatives… Read more
• EU ‘meaty’ names ban agreed, ‘burger’ and ‘sausage’ exempt: The ban will go ahead, but certain words will be allowed… Read more
• Does the EU ‘meaty’ names ban affect seafood? Many have speculated that the ban could impact products beyond analogues… Read more

The new MAHA dietary guidelines could mean that changes are coming to school meals.  Or so the USDA says.

While waiting for the USDA to issue new rules, various groups are urging specific improvements.

United We Eat, a coalition of MAHA-supporting groups, urges the USDA Secretary to get busy Aligning School Meal Standards with the MAHA Mandate to Protect Children’s Health.  It is especially concerned about the poor quality of meat served in school meals (something I hear a lot about from school food service directors).

These processed animal products often contain additive heavy formulations, including preservatives
such as nitrites and nitrates, which health authorities have associated with increased colorectal cancer risk in processed meats, as well as other processing agents such as sodium phosphates that raise broader nutritional concerns and kidney damage….Beyond the concerns with processed meat, majority of all animal proteins served in schools are sourced from industrial supply chains that rely on routine antibiotic use, growth-promoting drugs including ractopamine, and feed grown with significant pesticide inputs.

Another coalition, this one of nearly 200 food service professionals, school districts, and other groups, is pressing for plant-based meat alternatives in the protein group.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, including those released in January, have long recommended diversifying protein intake across plant and animal sources. Yet in practice, school menus remain heavily dominated by animal-based proteins. A forthcoming analysis of a sample of 45 school district menus from November 2025 found that, excluding nut butter and jelly sandwiches, fewer than one in ten school lunch entrée offerings utilized plant-sourced protein to fulfill the M/MA requirement. More than 90% of school lunch entrees contained animal-sourced proteins…a plant protein subgroup within the Meats/Meat Alternates category would provide a clear, practical framework to diversify protein intake, increase fiber consumption, and improve inclusivity within child nutrition programs.

USDA ought to be issuing new school food rules soon.  I can’t wait to see what they are.  In the meantime, this is a good time to weigh in.

Mehmet Oz’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a memo to hospitals last week, telling them to align their food service policies and practices with the 2025–2030 dietary guidelines (see announcement in video).

Hospitals should:

• Limit ultra-processed food options for patients.
• Eliminate sugar-sweetened beverages unless clinically appropriate in limited scenarios.
• Eliminate refined grains and replace them with 100% whole grains.
• Prioritize minimally processed protein sources, including plant-based options.
• Emphasize vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, seafood, and healthy fats.
• Ensure baked, broiled, roasted, stir-fried, or grilled vegetables and proteins – and eliminate deep fried cooking methods
• Eliminate processed meats and foods high in added sugars, sodium, and artificial additives.
• Ensure meals contain less than 10 grams of added sugar, unless clinically appropriate.

These sound terrific!

According to RFK Jr’s advisor, Calley Means, these guidelines will be enforced.

Hospital food, of course, has been criticized heavily for decades.  A hospital director once explained to me that it was the only place in his budget that was discretionary, the only option he had for cutting spending, which he did.

But as always, the situation is complicated and the devil is in the details. Kevin Klatt, a nutrition professor in Toronto, questions on his Substack whether this is “anything more than the nutrition political theatre that we’ve come to expect from this federal administration/MAHA?”

He reviews the regulatory issues but also points out that clinical (hospital-based) nutrition is not the same as public health nutrition.

Patients who are acutely ill and hospitalized are not the general public that the DGAs are made for…Patients who are hospitalized often have conditions that impact their nutritional requirements, alter their ability to digest, absorb, and assimilate nutrients, and major barriers to consuming a normal diet – everything from altered taste and smell to the inability to chew and swallow…It’s clear no clinical dietitians…were in the room when this memo was put out…or it was always meant as more political performance before the midterms, as RJK Jr is being encouraged to quiet down on vaccines and play to his foodie base.

Yes, clinical dietitians must deal with their patients’ needs.

But surely these rules ought to apply to the hospital cafeterias and vending machines that serve visitors and staff.  That alone would be a big step forward.

Here too, I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

The American Heart Association has just published its updated dietary guidelines: The 2026 Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association  [the press release is here].

These constitute a firm rebuttal to the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) guidelines issued in January.

The AHA’s clear and straightforward messages are beautifully illustrated:

The AHA messages particularly differ from the MAHA messages:

• Protein: Plant rather than animal sources
• Meat: Lean cuts, avoid processed, limit portions
• Dairy: Low-fat or fat-free rather than full-fat
• Fats: Unsaturated rather than saturated; nontropical oils rather than animal fats and tropical oils

The Wall Street Journal summarized the differences in its headline: Heart Association clashes with RFK, Jr over red meat, dairy, and beef tallow.

The recommendations, released Tuesday by the association, contrast with dietary guidelines that the Trump administration introduced earlier this year. The differences add to disagreements between the federal government and mainstream medical groups on medicine and nutrition advice, after the Health and Human Services Department under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for instance, sought to dial back vaccine recommendations and President Trump told pregnant women to minimize Tylenol use.

I suppose clashing is a matter of perception, but the differences are real.

Earlier, Calley Means had posted a more gracious response:

Wow!  Applause to the American Heart Association.  Let’s hope its graphic replaces the meat-heavy inverted pyramid and ends up in all the textbooks.

One last point: This is dietary advice for heart disease prevention, but it works for everything else too—obesity, other major chronic diseases, overall longevity, and while it’s at it, planetary as well as human health.