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The Soy Connection for Health Professionals
The Soy Connection Newsletter | Spring 2026 - Vol 34, No 2 Processed Foods, Demystified: Scientific Insights to Put into Practice
Processed Foods, Demystified: Scientific Insights to Put into Practice awards 1.25 CPEUs in accordance with the Commission on Dietetic Registration’s CPEU Prior Approval Program.
In This Issue:
The spring 2026 issue of the Soy Connection Health & Nutrition newsletter invites health professionals to take a deeper, evidence-based look at processed foods through the lenses of food science, formulation, and consumer perception. Throughout this issue, the articles encourage a nuanced approach to evaluating processed foods, emphasizing that health implications are best understood by considering nutrient composition and dietary context alongside the role of processing. The featured articles explore why food processing and regulated ingredients are essential to a safe, affordable, and nutritious food supply; highlight soy’s important role as a source of protein, fat, and functional ingredients across the global food system; and examine food rating apps that translate complex nutrition science into simplified scores, while outlining strategies for using these tools to support patient and client education. Together, these pieces equip practitioners with practical, scientific perspectives to address patient and client questions, clarify common misconceptions, and support more balanced conversations about processed foods, ingredients, and overall dietary patterns.
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By Dennis P. Cladis, PhD, and Mario G. Ferruzzi, PhD
What you need to know:
- Food processing is foundational to food security and safety. Defined broadly as any deliberate change in a food occurring between harvest and consumption, food processing has played a central role in food preservation for thousands of years to reduce waste, extend shelf life, preserve nutrition, and enable affordable, safe foods at scale — benefits often overlooked in public discourse.4
- Ingredients and additives serve science-based functions. From safety and stability to texture, flavor, and fortification, ingredients are selected and regulated to meet strict functional and safety standards, including FDA oversight and GRAS criteria.
- Nutrition matters more than processing labels. All processed foods, including those labeled ultra-processed, are formulated and regulated similarly; their health value should be assessed by nutrient content and dietary role, not degree of processing alone.
By Mark Messina, PhD, MS
What you need to know:
- Soybeans are a cornerstone of the global food system. Their high yields, unique macronutrient profile, and versatility support widespread use. While most soy is used for animal feed,5 soy protein and soybean oil also enter the human food supply in numerous forms.
- Soybean oil and other soy-derived components play important nutritional and functional roles in the food supply. Soybean oil contributes essential fatty acids and cholesterol-lowering polyunsaturated fats9 (recognized by an FDA qualified health claim),11 while other soy components include bioactives such as lecithin – a major dietary source of choline – and phytosterols with demonstrated lipid-lowering effects.
- Soy protein ingredients provide high-quality, complete protein and essential food functionality.23,24 They support muscle health, improve nutrient density, and enhance texture and stability in both animal-based and plant-based foods, with evidence supporting their efficacy across diverse dietary applications.
By Kacie Barnes, MCN, RDN
What you need to know:
- Food rating apps use streamlined scoring systems designed for quick guidance. In the Yuka app, composite scores integrate nutrient metrics alongside food additive and organic criteria, which can be helpful for awareness but may not fully reflect real-world risk or overall nutrition quality on their own. Other examples of popular food rating apps include Open Food Facts, Fooducate, and diet-tracking tools like MyFitnessPal or Cronometer.
- Food rating apps can boost interest in nutrition, but their simplified “good/bad” scores don’t always capture the full picture. Important factors like portion size, overall dietary patterns, and individual needs may be missed, and some users may develop unnecessary concern or moral judgments about certain foods, particularly those that are processed or contain additives.
- Clinicians can leverage food rating apps as supportive learning tools. Health professionals are well positioned to help clients and patients interpret scores, emphasize key nutrients and dietary patterns, clarify risk versus hazard, and guide them toward more personalized, non-moralizing digital resources.
