Headlines about ultra-processed food and pesticides on fruit can leave you wondering what you’re supposed to eat.
One story tells you to avoid food from a packet. The next makes you nervous about the strawberries in your shopping trolley. Where does that leave you?
I want to take a little more time than a news bulletin allows, look at what the research actually shows, and ask the question that matters: what can you do differently tomorrow?
You don’t need to run around like your hair’s on fire. You need information you can use.
Watch the video below for the full discussion, or read on for the research and practical takeaways.
Ultra-processed food: what did the study actually show?
The television coverage described a striking investigation into how ultra-processed food affects our bodies and brains. But some details deserve a closer look.
The study, published in Nature Metabolism in October 2026, involved 57 healthy-weight adults. Thirty-two completed the meal-testing sessions. Researchers compared an ultra-processed meal with a non-ultra-processed meal, carefully matched for energy and several nutritional measures.
The ultra-processed meal produced a higher insulin response. However, the overall blood glucose response did not differ between the meals. Those are different findings, and they shouldn’t be rolled into one claim about prolonged blood sugar spikes.
The brain-imaging component involved looking at food photographs. That matters when interpreting a headline about what happens to your brain while eating.
It was also a short-term experiment. It helps us understand responses to particular meals; it doesn’t tell us everything about what happens over months or years. Read the study.
The findings are interesting enough without making them more dramatic.
One meal is not the whole story
To understand why ultra-processed food matters in everyday life, we also need to look at what happens when people eat these diets over longer periods.
In a controlled US trial involving 20 adults, participants ate an ultra-processed diet for two weeks and an unprocessed diet for two weeks. They could eat as much as they wanted.
On the ultra-processed diet, they ate around 500 more calories a day and gained approximately 0.9 kilograms. On the unprocessed diet, they lost a similar amount. Read the NIH summary.
That’s a substantial difference over just two weeks.
A later UK trial recruited 55 adults and compared two eight-week diets, both designed to follow healthy eating guidelines. Participants lost weight on both, but the percentage weight loss was about twice as large on the minimally processed diet. They weren’t instructed to follow a fixed calorie deficit; they could eat freely from the food supplied. Read the trial.
For me, this is the more useful conversation. How does the food you regularly eat affect how much you eat, how satisfied you feel, and how easy it is to maintain your habits?
Start with your usual meals and snacks. Where could you make a straightforward swap towards less processed food? You don’t have to rebuild your entire diet overnight.
Then comes the headline about pesticides on fruit
Just as people are being encouraged to eat more whole foods, another story raises concerns about chemicals on fruit and vegetables.
It would be easy to think: “That’s it. I’ll leave the fruit and buy something in a packet.”
That would be the wrong takeaway.
Pesticide Action Australia’s 2026 residue report tested 78 samples across 13 types of fruit and vegetables, bought from Coles, Woolworths and Aldi in five Australian cities.
It is a snapshot of the produce tested, rather than a national average or a verdict on every punnet in the supermarket. Read the report.
That doesn’t mean the findings should be dismissed. I strongly support the call for more testing and more transparent publication of results. Consumers should be able to see what is being monitored and what happens when a problem is found.
But we also need to distinguish between a residue being detected, a legal limit being exceeded, and the health risk associated with a particular exposure. Maximum residue limits regulate what can legally be present; assessing health risk involves the chemical, the amount and the exposure. FSANZ explains maximum residue limits.
Take the findings seriously. Keep them in context.
What can you practically do?
This is where I want the conversation to land: useful actions that fit into real life.
Wash your fruit and vegetables
My everyday approach is simple: rinse fresh produce under running water before preparing or eating it.
Washing can help remove dirt and some surface contamination. It won’t remove everything that may be inside the produce, but it remains a sensible habit. You don’t need soap or detergent. Read the produce-washing guidance.
Keep variety in your diet
I regularly encourage variety in meal planning: different vegetables, different fruits and different protein sources.
If you enjoy strawberries, you don’t need to turn them into a forbidden food. Enjoy other fruits too. Raspberries, blueberries, apples, citrus and the many other options available give you room to vary what you eat.
The same thinking applies to your meals. Rather than eating the same protein and vegetables every day, build a rotation you enjoy and can afford.
Ask questions without expecting to live in a bubble
Buying from a local grower or grocer can give you an opportunity to ask where food comes from and how it is grown.
That can be useful. But knowing the seller isn’t, by itself, a guarantee about residues.
We also eat at restaurants, visit friends and buy food when we’re busy. Nobody has complete control over every part of the food supply.
The aim is to make informed choices that you can maintain.
Look beyond the strawberries
A frightening headline can direct all your attention towards one food while the rest of your daily routine goes unexamined.
That is why I created Check Your Chemical Exposure. It broadens the conversation beyond fruit and vegetables and gives you a practical resource to work through at your own pace.
Download your free Check Your Chemical Exposure guide.
Think about how you prepare, serve and store food, as well as what you buy. Hot takeaway food sitting in plastic and the containers you use for reheating are useful places to review.
One straightforward habit is to transfer food to a suitable plate or glass or ceramic container for reheating, following the manufacturer’s instructions.
You don’t need to replace everything in your kitchen in one afternoon. Start with the habits you repeat most often.
Make the next choice a useful one
There is room to ask for stronger monitoring and greater transparency while continuing to enjoy fruit and vegetables.
There is also room to reduce your reliance on ultra-processed food without making every shopping trip an exercise in anxiety.
Choose one or two practical changes. Rinse your produce. Add more variety. Review your food containers. Look at the meals and snacks you eat most often.
Then use the guide to consider what else deserves your attention.
Be informed, not alarmed.
Jon Bowly | Fast Forward Nutrition