Professor Teresa Fung was quoted in two recent articles for the Sentient, addressing trending claims on the nutritious benefit of meat vs. plants, and what foods are considered “ultra-processed.”
In “No, Plants Aren’t Bad for You (and Other ‘Meatfluencer’ Claims, Fact-Checked)”, Fung puts into perspective recent claims that the pectins in vegetables can harm consumers’ health, noting that the amount of lectins these foods contain is overstated and that “a lot of the lectins can be destroyed by heat — cooking would do it…We don’t eat raw beans. We don’t eat raw wheat kernels.”
Fung was later quoted in “The Media Is Obsessed with Ultra-Processed Foods in 2025 — but Coverage Is Missing the Forest for the (Broccoli) Trees” urging consumers to determine the quality of their food, instead of categorizing a broad range of items as ultra-processed. As Fung advised: “The things I would rather look at are the ingredients list, as well as the nutrient content.”