Ultra-processed People

[NHE]

Thanks goes to Jaded for recommending Dr. Chris Van Tulleken's book Ultra-processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food. I have recently finished reading it and can recommend it as well. The book is well written, informative and has abundant references.

It discusses the many deleterious effects of consuming ultra-processed food as well as Dr. Van Tulleken's month long experiment of eating a diet consisting of 80% ultra-processed food. The book also describes how food manufacturers create hyper-palatable food that's deficient in nutrients and spurs addiction. Much of this is done solely for profit.

Manufacturers use ingredients which not only aren't found in your kitchen, but are synthetic and aren't found in nature. One example was KFC's use of polydimethylsiloxane. For those that aren't chemistry nerds, as the name implies, that's a synthetic polymer of silicon. I remember putting silicone on my new shoes to make them water resistant. Perhaps I could have just rubbed some KFC on them.

Here's the text from the inside flaps of the dust jacket.

"It’s not you, it’s the food.

We have entered a new age of eating. For the first time in human history, most of our calories come from an entirely novel set of substances called Ultra-Processed Food. There’s a long, formal scientific definition, but it can be boiled down to this: if it’s wrapped in plastic and has at least one ingredient that you wouldn’t find in your kitchen, it’s UPF.

These products are specifically engineered to behave as addictive substances, driving excess consumption. They are now linked to the leading cause of early death globally and the number one cause of environmental destruction. Yet almost all our staple foods are ultra-processed. UPF is our food culture and for many people it is the only available and affordable food.

In this book, Chris van Tulleken, father, scientist, doctor, and award-winning BBC broadcaster, marshals the latest evidence to show how governments, scientists, and doctors have allowed transnational food companies to create a pandemic of diet-related disease. The solutions don’t lie in willpower, personal responsibility, or exercise. You’ll find no diet plan in this book―but join Chris as he undertakes a powerful self-experiment that made headlines around the world: under the supervision of colleagues at University College London he spent a month eating a diet of 80 percent UPF, typical for many children and adults in the United States. While his body became the subject of scientific scrutiny, he spoke to the world’s leading experts from academia, agriculture, and―most important―the food industry itself. But more than teaching him about the experience of the food, the diet switched off Chris’s own addiction to UPF.

In a fast-paced and eye-opening narrative he explores the origins, science, and economics of UPF to reveal its catastrophic impact on our bodies and the planet. And he proposes real solutions for doctors, for policy makers, and for all of us who have to eat. A book that won’t only upend the way you shop and eat, Ultra-Processed People will open your eyes to the need for action on a global scale."