Remember The Marlboro Man?

He was the rugged cowboy you’d see on magazines and billboards in the early ’70s.

“Come to Marlboro Country” the tagline read.

And I REALLY WANTED TO GO THERE.

It looked cool… those wild west landscapes full of wild horses and guys in massive hats smoking cigarettes.

Which was the whole point, I guess…

To create a dramatic widescreen cinematic vision that would appeal to young people who loved movies and adventure…

And get them to choose Marlboro cigarettes, the coolest and most masculine of ALL cigarettes!

At the time, I didn’t think anything could possibly be wrong with The Marlboro Man.

But today, it all seems like utter madness!

Since that time, there has been a massive shift in attitudes to smoking.

Our knowledge of what cigarettes do to the human body has transformed. Smoking has gone from something a doctor might even recommend (well, in adverts anyway)… to something banned in public places.

Not only that, but there’s been a change in our attitude to advertising too.

Marketing addictive, unhealthy products to young, impressionable minds is no longer acceptable either.

And this same kind of shift is happening again – but this time, in the food industry.

Another Major Shift in Public Attitude

For the past three years, a series of articles, books and exposes have revealed the danger of ultra process foods (UPF for short).

These include breakfast cereals…. ‘healthy’ snack bars… ready meals…. fizzy drinks… cakes and crisps… pasties and sausage rolls… supermarket sandwiches… pasta sauces… mass market loafs… fast food burgers…

These foods are not as safe as we used to think.

In early 2026, the British Medical Association published a report warning that UPFs are fuelling obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Not only that, they’re addictive, cheap to buy and available almost anywhere. This has huge social impacts in the form of obesity and illness, piling pressure on the NHS.

So what exactly is a UPF?

A simple test is, if it comes wrapped in plastic and contains an ingredient you’d never find in your kitchen cupboard, it’s almost certainly ultra-processed.

These foods make up around 60% of the calories the average Briton eats. For children it’s worse. Research shows that around two-thirds of what our children eat is ultra-processed, and that over 70% of school lunches are made up of these products.

And like the tobacco story, this could be by design.

This year, the American Journal of Public Health revealed that the same tobacco giants who once sold us cigarettes moved into the food business, buying up household-name brands.

They engineered their products for maximum “hedonic impact,” giving people a hit of reward that fades fast so they come back for more.

Then they marketed it heavily, often aimed at children.

Now there’s a huge kickback against UPFs…

And whether you agree or not that your sausage roll is dangerous, this should be of interest to you.

Because this new trend is going to create lots of potential opportunities for someone looking to start a business.

Everything from information products that help people shop and cook more healthily… to food prep and storage products on Amazon… to tools for monitoring and tracking dodgy food ingredients.

Let’s take a look…

A New Health Crisis

Public fears were sparked in 2024, when the British Medical Journal published a review of 45 studies covering almost 10 million people. It linked diets high in ultra-processed food to 32 separate health problems.

And the stats made for grim reading…

• Around a 50% higher risk of dying from heart disease
• A 48 to 53% higher risk of anxiety and common mental disorders
• A 12% greater risk of type 2 diabetes
• A 21% higher risk of early death from any cause
• A 22% higher risk of depression

The full roll-call of conditions linked to these foods included…

• Heart disease,…
• High blood pressure…
• Strokes….
• Bowel and pancreatic cancer…
• Obesity and metabolic syndrome…
• Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease…
• Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and other gut troubles
• Asthma and wheezing
• Depression, anxiety and poor sleep

The bad headlines keep coming, too.

In late 2025, a major study in JAMA Oncology followed nearly 30,000 women and found that those eating the most ultra-processed food had a 45% higher risk of developing the kind of precancerous bowel growths that can turn into cancer.

Scientists believe this may help explain the alarming rise in bowel cancer among younger adults.

Meanwhile a Harvard professor has reported that people eating the most ultra-processed food had a 58% higher risk of developing dementia and a 46% higher risk of mild cognitive impairment.

It’s not only a physical health issue…

The Addiction Problem

Much of this food has been engineered to be moreish in the same way cigarettes were engineered to be addictive.

Researchers now use something called the Yale Food Addiction Scale to measure it. A review of nearly 300 studies across 36 countries concluded that ultra-processed foods meet the criteria for an addictive substance.

The reason is the brain’s reward system…

These foods trigger a surge of dopamine, the feel-good chemical, in a way that scientists compare to nicotine and alcohol.

Over time the brain turns down its receptors, so you need more and more of the stuff to get the same little lift. Some people even get withdrawal-style symptoms when they try to cut back.

One global study found that nearly one in seven adults, and a similar share of teenagers, show signs of food addiction.

This brings a number of struggles:

• Powerful cravings that strike in the evening or under stress
• The ‘I can’t just eat one’ feeling with crisps, biscuits and chocolate
• Eating out of boredom, tiredness or low mood rather than hunger
• Years of habits and routines built entirely around convenience food
• Guilt, shame and the endless cycle of “starting again on Monday”
• Reaching for these foods as comfort or reward, then feeling worse afterwards

In short, cutting down on UPFs is not just a shopping problem. People need help with cravings, habits, stress and their relationship with food.

Why Shoppers Struggle to Avoid UPFs

We now have millions of people who are genuinely worried and genuinely motivated to eat less ultra processed food.

But they have a huge mountain to climb.

We’ve spent two or three generations forgetting how to feed ourselves from scratch. Convenience food is so cheap, so quick and so abundant that old skills and knowledge have faded away.

So when people finally decide to break free, they run into practical obstacles:

• They lack cooking skills. Many genuinely do not know how to turn raw ingredients into a meal, and feel embarrassed to admit it.
• They lack nutritional knowledge. They cannot read a label, do not recognise half the ingredients, and are baffled about what is actually healthy.
• They lack free time. Between work, family and sheer exhaustion, cooking from scratch every night feels impossible.
• They are stressed and tired. At the end of a long day, the ready meal wins. Willpower has run dry.
• They worry about the cost. They assume whole, fresh food is far dearer, and it is often sold that way.
• They waste food and money. They buy vegetables with the best intentions, then watch them rot at the bottom of the fridge.

• They feel overwhelmed. They have no idea where to begin, who to trust, or how to make any of it stick.

On top of all that comes perhaps the most maddening problem of the lot.

Conflicting Advice

Even when someone decides to do the right thing, it’s hard to work out what the right thing actually is.

Even the experts don’t all agree with each other.

The definition of “ultra-processed” is fuzzy. Not all are equally bad, and some nutritious foods…. like a tub of hummus, a packet of All-Bran or a wholemeal supermarket loaf… get swept up in the same scary category as a fizzy drink or a packet of sweets.

So the poor shopper is left utterly bewildered:

• One headline says a food is dangerous, the next says it is fine
• The packaging uses words like “healthy”, “natural” and “high in protein” while the ingredients tell a different story
• Influencers contradict each other, and go against the official advice
• Shoppers cannot tell the difference between a harmful product and a sensible convenience food. They are frightened of getting it wrong.

It can be even more of a struggle for parents whose kids have grown up on foods that are hard to resist.

Mums and dads up and down the country are wrestling with:

• The fussy eater who will only touch beige, packaged food and turns their nose up at anything fresh
• The packed lunch battle, trying to fill a lunchbox with something healthy that will actually get eaten and not swapped or binned
• The school-gate problem, knowing that their child nips to the shop or canteen for fizzy drinks, crisps and sweets the moment they are out of sight
• The pester power of clever advertising and brightly coloured packaging aimed squarely at their kids
• The exhaustion of cooking proper meals for a whole family, every single day, on a budget and against the clock
• The nagging worry that by reaching for the easy option they are somehow failing their children, or storing up health problems for them down the line

A parent worried about their child’s health will gladly accept help from anyone who can make it easier.

So can you see the opportunity here?

The UPF Business Opportunity In a Nutshell

Whenever the public mood turns against an old way of doing things, it opens up a wave of new opportunities. Because millions now want to change how they shop, cook and eat.

• They want to know which products to avoid and which to trust.
• They want healthy swaps for family favourites and feed their children better without a daily battle.
• They want to beat the cravings, kick the habit, read the labels, and find food that is convenient but not full of the nasties.
• They want to know what to cook and how to cook it, without spending a lot of time and money.

But most of them have no idea where to start.

Every gap in skill, knowledge, time, money, confidence and parenting knowhow is a problem you could help to solve.

Or alternatively you could offer equipment that makes whole food preparation and storage easier, quicker and less costly.

That is where a small business can step in with the guidance, tools, recipes and products these people are crying out for.

To show you what’s possible and give you some niche business ideas to consider, I’ve created a new trend report.

Click here to access it now.

I hope it inspires you!