Unravelling confusion around what to eat and what not to eat

BOOK IN REVIEW: Ultra-processed people by Chris Van Tulken

Read: Ultra-Processed People by Dr Chris Tulleken

I read this book cover to cover in a day and then quickly bought a copy for various members of my family and got my daughter to read sections of it too; that’s how much I loved it.

Dr Tulken takes us on a truly eye-opening journey from the first engineered margarine to the devastating effects of ultra processed foods (UPFs) on the indigenous populations in the Amazon; the book left me simultaneously gagging and open mouthed with shock.  But most importantly, it forced me fully reckon with the fact that the food industry does not, in any way, exist to safeguard our health; far from it in fact.  It is up to us to make sure we are critically appraising what goes into our mouths.

We learn how the food industry manipulates the foods we love by taking advantage of our time poor modern lives.  The ultra-processing makes them optimally palatable (often at the expense of their nutrient content), ultimately ensuring that we are left unsatisfied and wanting more and more.  As the proportion of our diets made up by ultra processed foods has increased, (more than a whopping 50% of daily calories for the average western person) so has the rise in food addiction, obesity rates and chronic health conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer. 

We don’t know whether it’s the ingredients themselves that are responsible for the worse health outcomes or if it’s the fact that these foods are designed to make us overeat and lead to overweight and obesity (which are definitely a cause of these conditions).  It could also be that social and economic factors associated with the over-reliance on ultra processed foods, lead to an increase in these health conditions, and that it has less to do with the ingredients themselves.  But either way, it seems wise to limit our consumption of UPFs is likely to be important for maintaining a healthy lifestyle and this is why it is a near universal recommendation for my patients when doing annual health screens and health promotion.

But as with everything, this conversation needs balance.  For most busy working women, never using any processed food at all is unrealistic and the prospect is overwhelming and probably unnecessary.  If your wallet and time constraints dictate you occasionally (I would define that as less than once per week) buy a ready meal or your children have a sugary breakfast cereal on holiday, then I don’t think there is any need to panic.  Similarly, there will be some processed foods that vary widely in their level of processing; and so having the ‘UPF literacy’ to be able to assess a nutrition label is so important.

This book gives you just that; the motivation to look at food labels more carefully and the motivation to make some healthier food swaps for yourself and your family.

External resources to find out more:

British Heart Foundation: Ultra Processed Foods