A tour of how the science of processing has allowed companies to produce goods that are no longer even faint echoes of the real food of which they are copies. . . . Van Tulleken is at his best when using his own scientific expertise to help readers through otherwise unnavigable science, data and history, explaining with precision what we are actually eating.” — The New York Times Book Review Van Tulleken undermines his own argument a couple of times. In his discussion about sugar, he states the reason sugar is bad is not because it’s ultra processed (HFCS obviously is, but as van Tulleken points out, our bodies don’t know the difference); sugar is bad because it causes people to overeat and rots teeth. This is a good argument against added sugars, but it’s not exactly on point with his thesis. He also notes in the last chapter that one of his friends who also chose to abstain from all UPF actually started to *gain* weight when he decided eat all the cheese and unprocessed bread he wanted. The point is glossed over, but clearly even without anything processed in one’s diet, certain healthy eating rules still apply. One interesting side note that has caused me to re-think another book I read recently (Outlive) is the effort by Peter Attia and his partner to pin the blame for the obesity epidemic on sugar. Attia and Taube founded an organization called NuSI to study how sugar in food drives obesity, and, to give them credit, they had a strict scientific methodology in their studies. The problem is that studies showed no difference between calories obtained from fat or carbohydrate or protein in terms of obesity outcomes. What does make a difference is whether the food has high UPF content. Attia, in his book, pushes a high protein diet but says he now believes nutrition is far less important than exercise in controlling weight. I think this new stance comes from being burned (and losing millions of dollars) in his NuSI initiative, so I now have other questions about Attia's assertions in his book. But I digress. If you’ve read much on this topic, nothing van Tulleken presents is new, and his argument didn’t entirely convince me. While I like the premise of describing UPF in a way that makes it unappealing, and whatever a turkey Twizzler is sounds truly disgusting, I found myself craving Cheez its and cheap chocolate pretty consistently anyway while reading.

A wonderful and fascinating expose of ultra-processed food, edible substances with strange sounding ingredients which are manufactured by some of the wealthiest companies on the planet and which, worryingly, form an increasing part of our diet... reading this book will make you question what you eat and how it was produced.' - Michael Mosley Category three is “processed foods”. These include freshly made bread and cheese; tinned food – vegetables, fish, fruit; cured meats and smoked fish; and salted or sugared nuts and seeds. And what almost certainly is UPF? Unsettling and deeply important. . . . [ Ultra-Processed People] integrate[s] concepts of detailed food science and global market forces, showing how these affect individual humans. Tulleken weaves these threads together in a way that is evidence-based, compelling and humane. . . . A tremendously important book that will help readers choose less processed, better food.” —Vincent Lam, Toronto Star The opposition of the raw and the cooked, to borrow from the title of Claude Lévi-Strauss’s most cited though not best-read book, seems basic to our ideas of nature and culture. A raw prawn is part of the sea; broiled, it becomes part of our art. But for Lévi-Strauss the real work was done by the third leg of his “culinary triangle”: the rotting. Spoilage, after all, is a natural tendency of food and the most urgent reason we transform nature into culture—we’re desperately trying to keep what we’re about to eat from going bad.Eating as much UPF as you like might turn you off it for good. Photograph: LauriPatterson/Getty Images What if I want to quit UPFs? The UK government’s scientific advisory committee on nutrition said last month that the “observed associations between higher consumption of [ultra-] processed foods and adverse health outcomes are concerning”. But it urged caution in weighing the evidence so far. Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics. Besides, dietary addictions of this kind long preceded the introduction of ultra-processed food. The Scottish poet and aphorist Don Paterson has a hair-raising chapter in his marvellous new memoir, “ Toy Fights,” about sugar addiction in the Scottish family and town where he grew up—just as intense as the kind of food addiction van Tulleken ascribes to contemporary techniques, though the processing here is the ancient one of sugarcane refinement. Such addictions of food or drink, if properly called so, hardly seem an artifact of our era. William Hogarth’s nightmarish “Gin Lane”—capturing a curse of the English working classes—was an image from the Enlightenment. The Omnivore’s Dilemma meets Fast Food Nation from a global perspective in this game-changing look at the science, economics, and history of ultra-processed food and the industry’s effect on our health and planet.

The education provided by this book is unreal. As someone who grew up eating what I now understand to be ultra-processed foods and having carried that habit into adulthood, I'm pretty disgusted at how terrifyingly naughty the methods used to make them are, how cantankerous they cat within our bodies and entirely aghast at the overall impact on health. Mind blowing stuff. Professor Green A handy, free resource is the Open Food Facts app. This app, by a non-profit organisation based in France, with contributions from tens of thousands of volunteers, lets you search for products and scan barcodes to identify UPFs. So far, the database contains more than 3m products. What foods are definitely not UPF?This audiobook contains exclusive bonus content between Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken, where they deep-dive into what you've just listened to at the end of each part. A fearless investigation into how we have become hooked on ultra-processed food. . . . [van Tulleken’s] key message will have you scurrying to your cupboards. . . . And, if there is any justice, this gripping, well-evidenced exposé will shame policymakers and shake the food industry to its money-driven core. . . . [ Ultra-Processed People] is more than just a great science book: it breaks down a complex issue of cultural, social, economic and political importance with clarity and sensitivity but without moralising; it competently evaluates the scientific literature; and it roams the globe in search of answers.” —Financial Times Unprocessed … fresh fish. Photograph: ingwervanille/Getty Images I don’t have time to read every label in the supermarket! The past 10 years has seen an inflection point in human history, where more people in the world are now dying of eating too much, than of eating too little. This urgent and captivating read digs deep into one of the huge reasons, the rise and rise of ultra-processed food' Giles Yeo

UPFs contain ingredients that our body can't process properly, causing our brain to be out of sync with our stomachs. these novel ingredients are confusing our gut microbiomes. the government does not regulate the food industry like it does the pharmaceutical industry, and there's no knowing what the long term effects of these highly processed ingredients are. To be avoided … bought sandwiches. Photograph: Caziopeia/Getty Images To summarise, if you think it might be UPF … I almost let the 'celebrity' of Chris Van Tulleken put me off from purchasing this book, I'm so glad it didn't. I'd previously listened to A Thorough Examination - Addicted To Food podcast and a lot of the topics covered in that and this book are very relatable.UPF has 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 usually find in a standard home kitchen, its UPF.” Fascinating, but frankly horrifying investigation into our industrialised food system' - Ben Spencer, The Times A fascinating, forensically researched and ultimately terrifying expose of the food we consume. Van Tulleken leaves no stone unturned, shining his spotlight into the dark corners of what masquerades as nutrition these days. Read it; your diet will never be the same again! Mariella Frostrup 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. this was a book providing knowledge, and a message, for me, and for many other ultra-processed people out there who possibly have no idea of what they are eating and what it could be doing to their body.