Still Ultra-Processing: A Policy Discussion on Ultra-Processed Foods

What’s the difference between a processed and “ultra-processed” food? Are ultra-processed foods really that bad for us? Plus, what is the role of policy to help us stay informed and healthy amid the ultra-processed foods all around us?

Join the Food Law and Policy Clinic and the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation as we discuss these questions and more with Dr. Christina Roberto, the Mitchell J. Blutt and Margo Krody Blutt Presidential Associate Professor of Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Founding Director of the Center for Food and Nutrition Policy at UPenn. We’ll hear from Dr. Roberto about her groundbreaking research on diet-related disease and discuss how laws and policies can push for better population-level health outcomes.

Date: Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Time: 12:20 -1:15pm EST
Venue: GRS 110

• Speaker Bio: 

Christina A. Roberto, Ph.D. is the Mitchell J. Blutt and Margo Krody Blutt Presidential Associate Professor of Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the Founding Director of the Center for Food and Nutrition Policy at Penn. The Center brings together researchers across Penn and CHOP to develop innovative policy solutions to the world’s most urgent food system challenges. Unhealthy diets are a leading cause of premature death globally and contribute significantly to climate change. At the Center, researchers collaborate with policy change agents to design and rigorously test food policies that can promote health and save lives.  

Dr. Roberto has an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Princeton University where she graduated magna cum laude. She earned a joint-PhD at Yale University in clinical psychology and chronic disease epidemiology. Dr. Roberto completed her clinical internship at the Yale School of Medicine and was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She was a National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leader and is an elected member of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.