Guidance from Health Canada to limit highly processed foods (HPF) seeks to ensure that Canadians remain within intake recommendations for nutrients of concern. However, HPF can contribute to dietary requirements of specific populations. The Canadian Nutrition Society and Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutritional Sciences convened speakers for a Food for Health workshop in 2021 to provide evidence and perspectives from government, industry, and healthcare on reasons for advocating limits and potential unintended consequences of limiting HPF, and implications and necessity of HPF in clinical settings. This paper discusses advantages and disadvantages of HPF explored at this workshop.
Keywords: added sugar; aliments d'origine végétale; aliments hautement transformés; aliments ultra-transformés; clinical setting; gras saturés; highly processed foods; long-term care; milieu clinique; plant-based foods; saturated fat; sodium; soins de longue durée; sucre ajouté; ultra-processed foods.