Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food by Chris van Tulleken

Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food Reviews

• 
  Annie Books

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  4.5 upgraded to 5 stars
  
  INGREDIENTS: MILK CHOCOLATE FLAVOUR COATING (40%) [SUGAR*; COCOA BUTTER: COCOA MASS, VEGETABLE OIL (PALM OIL: SHEA OIL; SUNFLOWER OIL; PALM KERNEL OIL; AND/OR SAFFLOWER OIL); SKIMMED MiLK POWDER; LACTOSE (MILK) MILK FAT, WHEY POWDER (MILK; EMULSIFIERS, SOVA LECITHIN (E322), POLYGL/CEROL POLYRICINOLEATE (E476); ARTIFICIAL FLAVOUR, VANILLIN]; PEANUTS (269); PEANUT BUTTER (17%) (PEANUTS; SUGAR": DEXTROSE, SALT: CORN SYRUP*: ANTIOXIDANT, TBHQ (6319); CARAMEL (179) (HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, HIGH MALTOSE CORN SYRUP»: SWEETENER, SORBITOL (ES201; SUGAR", PALM.
  VERNEL OW - WHEY POWDER (MILK); WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE (MILK); CALCIUM CASEINATE (MILK); SALT; ACIDITY REGULATOR, TRISODIUM CITRATE: ARTIFICIAL ANILLA FLAVOUR; EMULSIFIER, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES (E471)L *PRODUCED FROM GENETICALLY MODIFIED SUGAR BEETS, CORN, AND SOYA BEANS".
  
  
  Above is the utterly shocking, and frankly disgusting, ingredient list for what was one of my reasonably regular indulgent treats; perhaps once or twice a week I would eat this Reese’s Nutrageous bar, usually because my preferred Cadbury’s Starbar was unfathomably unavailable, AGAIN, in Sainsburys! I will be checking its ingredients list when I can get one.
  
  As I scan through that list again I could be forgiven for asking what have I actually ingested?! What have I eaten?! And the answer as this fabulous book informs me -
  
  “It's not food. It's an industrially produced edible substance.”
  
  It’s not often I purchase a new release hardback edition book because I can usually patiently wait for the paperback but I had an uncomfortable premonition that I needed to read this book.
  
  This wasn’t a wonderful novel to escape into,
  it wasn’t a memoir of a fabulous life to experience through words
  - 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.
  
  Having hit the big 50 earlier this year I want to stay healthy to hike as many hills as possible and read as many books as possible , so this timely book will hopefully kickstart some better decisions by me about the amount of processed and ultra-processed stuff I eat.
  
  
  
  “ 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.”
  
  “Some ultra-processed foods may activate the brain reward system in a way that is similar to what happens when people use drugs like alcohol, or even nicotine or morphine.”
  
  Highly recommend reading for everyone.
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• 
  Liong

  The author calls these unhealthy foods "Ultra-Processed" (UPF) because they are more like chemical creations than real food.
  
  They are grouped with things like artificial flavours, sugars, and fats, and our bodies get tricked into wanting more and more.
  
  It is not just our fault that eating too much UPF leads to bad stuff like obesity, diabetes, and even mental health issues.
  
  The book also points out how food companies make UPF super appealing and cheap, making it hard to choose healthy options.
  
  This book gives you tips on how to spot UPF and make better choices.
  
  We are living in a fast-food world, but this book gives you a map to find the fresh fruit and vegetable garden in the middle.
  
  Sometimes I want to grab a burger at fast food, but I know I can choose to resist! 😅
  
  I am feeling a bit sad after reading about UPF foods, such as soda, cookies, frozen dinners, and processed meats, but ready to discover amazing new healthy options.
• 
  Jennifer

  Hi, my name is Jennifer, and my ultra-processed food (henceforth UPF) addictions are to: crunchy salty things (CST on the weekly grocery list, e.g. chips, crackers, various extruded potato/vegetable things), boba (it has a tenuous relationship at best with its cassava precursor), and electrolyte and calorie-filled convenience drinks/bars for fieldwork. There might be more; as Chris van Tulleken writes, if you have to wonder if it's UPF, it probably is.
  
  Van Tulleken defines UPF most simply as anything that comes wrapped in plastic and has at least one ingredient that you wouldn't find in a domestic kitchen, for example: lecithin, xanthan gum, carrageenan, dextrose, sucralose, etc. Good luck finding many packaged things at the supermarket that don't meet this definition.
  
  I'm not sure how to rate Ultra-Processed People, as I find some parts of it very persuasive but don't have the background to truly assess any of his arguments (any registered dieticians want to chime in?). His basic hypothesis is that UPF is actively designed to be addictive, causes obesity beyond what might be expected based on its fat/sugar and total caloric breakdown, alters metabolism, damages the microbiome, and contributes to climate change.
  
  The evidence is solid for addictiveness (food industries have panels to test palatability, and they never, ever send the one that people eat less of to market). I am really intrigued by the obesity claim, which is based partially on correlative studies that look at how obesity skyrockets in developing nations once UPF is introduced, and partly on a study in which people ate one of two diets - one UPF, the other minimally processed, each designed to have similar fat/sugar/fiber profiles - and found that the UPF group ate way more of the available food and rapidly gained weight. Chris van Tulleken goes on his own UPF diet for a month and is shocked at changes to his weight, his brain MRI scan, and his levels of hunger and satiation hormones.
  
  The additives / microbiome sections seem a little weaker to me in terms of evidence, though it skeeves me out that there's a huge loophole for the regulation of additives (self determination: company asserts it's safe, FDA is OK with that, it goes on the market). I didn't know xanthan gum was a polysaccharide made of bacterial slime, but the evidence that it messes with your gut microbiome seems tenuous (a bacterial species is present in billions of people who eat it, but absent in remote hunter-gatherer people - well, we're exposed to a a lot more stuff than just xanthan gum). Several of the studies van Tulleken cites are in mice, which are not a perfect analogue to humans, though I see the ethical problems in subjecting a human test group to huge amounts of a chemical.
  
  I laughed out loud at one part in which van Tulleken is describing the squirrely rules used by the British government to determine what foods are luxury items that VAT is charged on (gingerbread men = necessity; gingerbread men with more than a couple chocolate decorations = luxury). It made me feel slightly less bad about the incompetence / deliberate corruption of my own country's rules. But it also made me kinda miss British UPF that's hard to get in the States - Greggs vegan sausage rolls, jaffa cakes, chocolate digestives - and that was not the point at all.
  
  Overall, I'd be surprised if Ultra-Processed People didn't persuade you to reduce your intake of UPF even if you, too, are unwilling to give up absolutely all of it. I was hoping to be more engaged than I was with the book, though this might be because I already make a lot, say 70-80%, of my food from scratch, down to the basics like bread (grocery bread after artisan sourdough? never!) and yogurt. The main difficulty with quitting UPF is that you, or someone else in your household, will probably have to spend a lot more time in the kitchen. And so, van Tulleken offers some tips for giving up UPF but spends considerably more time emphasizing how governments need to step in, because the food industry will never mend its wicked - but profitable ways - until it has to.
  
  Lots of food for thought here. And with that, I'm off to go start my next batch of yogurt, courtesy of a bequeathed Instant Pot.
• 
  Jenna ❤ ❀ ❤

  "Most UPF is not food... it’s an industrially produced edible substance."
  
  You know that slimy stuff that builds up in water bowls or under the dish drainer, or anywhere that water sets if you don't clean it every day?
  
  That, my friends, is bacteria poop, aka xanthan gum. If you ever look at ingredients lists, you've no doubt seen it listed. It's in a heck of a lot of "food" - sauces, dairy products, meat products, beverages, pastries, etc.
  
  It's in the ultra-processed ones, not the food you make at home. What's worse is that xanthan gum is perhaps one of the least disgusting additives I learned about in this book.
  
  And disgusting is the least of the problems with UPF (ultra-processed foods).
  
  Two ways to tell if your food is ultra-processed:
  1. "If it’s wrapped in plastic and has at least one ingredient that you wouldn’t usually find in a standard home kitchen, it’s UPF."
  
  2. "Almost every food that comes with a health claim on the packet is a UPF." When was the last time you saw a head of broccoli or stalk of celery with a colorful label touting its health benefits? Truly healthy foods rarely say they are, they just are.
  
  The average American and British person gets 60% of their calories from UPF, and many get at least 80%. The author of this book makes the case (through many studies, including an informal one on himself) that UPF is responsible for the obesity epidemic, type-2 diabetes, intestinal problems, and many, many other diseases.
  
  It was a real eye opener and made me glad I mostly eat whole foods. And the small amount of UPF I eat? Gone.
  
  Of course, I am fortunate that I can afford whole foods and have the time to prepare them. Many people do not have this luxury and many do not even have whole foods available where they live.
  
  I made 56 highlights while reading this book and had planned to share some of them. However, I can't narrow it down to just a few. Instead, I recommend you read this book if you care about what you're eating and the effect it has on your body.
  
  Those of us who are skinny might think that this junk isn't harming us, but we have an even higher chance of developing things like dementia from eating UPF than someone with overweight or obesity.
  
  (I love that the author insists these are things people have, not what/who they are. It's not someone's laziness or lack of willpower that causes obesity and I am glad he showed exactly why that is because I will admit to sometimes being a bit judgmental, which I hate about myself. Obesity is a disease and we wouldn't say someone has cancer or arthritis because they're lazy or have no will power.)
  
  There are so many reasons to read this book. Not only is it full of interesting and important information, it's very well written. The author cites scientific studies to back up everything he says. I like that he also points out studies with contradictory results - which all end up being tied to the UPF industry, either funded by corporations like Nestle or Coca-Cola or have their employees sitting on the panel, and thus the results are biased in their favor.
  
  I hope a lot of people will read this book and that as we become educated about what this shit is doing to us, we will demand our governments intervene. Corporations are never going to start making it healthier on their own - they have money to make and they make money by using the cheapest possible "ingredients" and by making the stuff highly addictive and bypassing our body's natural system of telling us when we're full. They want us to eat their products and eat a lot of it.
  
  If bacteria poop isn't something you want to be eating, you need to read this book.
• 
  Here for the reviews

  While I agree with the main thesis of the book, the book itself was winding and self indulgent. Also, I went and read up some of the studies mentioned and the conclusion derived by Chris seemed to be a bit of a stretch. Too much of the book focuses on Chris, his daughter and his brother - these parts were boring and lacked serious introspection.
  
  Also, the whole "processed food guys were literally Nazis!" part was just silly. I mean - the United Fruit company got the CIA to overthrow a whole country, doesn't mean I stop eating fruit.
  
  Strongly suggest you read the main study behind the book. The study is both more interesting and more convincing.
  
  
  https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/...
• 
  Dez the Bookworm

  I consider this a must read book, and although I’m adding to my list, there aren’t many on it.
  
  This book is full of knowledge, well researched and well written. We learn about ultra-processed food (UPF) and what it’s doing to our bodies, our society and the environment.
  
  If you’re on a health journey, health curious, trying to find a connection for possible ailments you have and eat processed food, this book will enlighten you.
  
  Connections about disease and earlier deaths are linked to UPF and it’s astounding this stuff is regulated for consumption by our govt. I highly encourage everyone to read this just to understand what they are putting into their bodies and how it affects us on both the daily and long term.
• 
  Heather Smith

  Potentially, the horror book of the year
• 
  Lori

  Not a perfect book, but as a result of reading it I've eliminated ultra-processed food, and that feels great and is worth all the stars.
  
  rtc
• 
  donna backshall

  Ultra-processed foods: it's not a conspiracy, is it?
  
  Of course not, they say. It's capitalism, and effective business practices.
  
  Tomato, tomahto. Potato, dehydrated, additive-laden, fried, engineered-for-highly-addictive-taste potahto. (I'm looking at you, Pringles)
  
  We all know junk food is bad for us.
  Chris van Tulleken explains, in his not-so-humble opinion, that this definition has been way too narrow for way too long, and then spends almost 400 pages showing us why broadening this "junk" definition is so important. Since the early 1900s, mass production of processed foods has changed us, and certainly not for the better.
  
  We're being manipulated into overeating and then overspending on more tastiness to overeat, so a few big "food" companies can roll around in their trillions. We have forgotten what real food tastes like and what we feel like when we eat it.
  
  Spoiler: Unprocessed foods can help us get our collective groove back.
  
  Whole Foods, and so many food co-ops around the world, ban hundreds of food additives and make it clear where they stand on processed foods vs. farm fresh items. According to
  Chris van Tulleken's research and experience, they should all go much, much further and we, as consumers, should demand it.
• 
  Wanda Pedersen

  This is another one of those books that make you think about what you buy at the grocery store. Ultra processed foods (UPF) have become ubiquitous in our food stores. What is a UPF you ask? It is a food that generally comes in a lot of plastic packaging and it has an ingredient list that includes things that you don't have in your kitchen (and you may not even have any idea what they are). One researcher refers to them as “industrially produced edible substances.” Another calls them “pre-chewed" as they slip down our throats so fast and easily.
  
  The author actually encourages you to keep eating UPF while you read the book, but it becomes increasingly difficult to do as you proceed. I found myself heading for the fruit bowl for a juicy peach and reveling in the natural flavour. That's not always my go to snack, however. I don't have a sweet tooth, but I lurve salty snacks—chips, cheezies, popcorn, crackers, rice cakes, pretzels. Carbohydrates and salt. Even better if there's some fat involved, butter on popcorn or dip for the chips. But now that I have multiple health issues, I make sure I eat enough healthy food before I head to the grocery store and I avoid the junk food aisle. You can't eat it if you don't buy it.
  
  ”The basic construction materials of UPF are industrially modified carbs, fats, and proteins, and the processes they are put through remove almost all of the chemical complexity. The intensity of ultra-processing means that vitamins are destroyed, fibre is reduced, and there's a loss of functional molecules like polyphenols. The result is lots of calories but very little other nutrition. …Those thousands of chemicals [lost] bring health benefits, but they also bring flavour. And so, when they're stripped out, flavouring must be added back in. But this added flavour won't contain any of the lost nutrients that it should signal.”
  
  I recently consulted a dietitian, who recommended that I switch out my fat-free coffee creamer with milk. I was resistant to the idea until I read the ingredient list on the creamer this morning. Now I'm having difficulty enjoying my morning coffee. I was somewhat relieved to see that my preferred spaghetti sauce (for those days when I'm not willing to cook) has only two additives, but I was dismayed by the contents of my favourite cottage cheese. We all have to decide how much and how many UPF we are willing to consume. It's a definite advantage to be interested in cooking. I have to confess that, as a gluten free eater, I was horrified at what van Tulleken wrote about xanthan gum, a key component of GF baked goods. I have a jar of it in my baking cupboard. Microbial slime is not really something I want in my muffins! I think I must get tested for celiac disease to see if I can reintegrate wheat products into my diet.
  
  As disturbing as I found this book, I'm glad that I read it. If you find this book useful, I would recommend
  The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor. It also deals largely with processed food as well as the connections between flavour and nutrition. If you're particularly interested in the care and feeding of your microbiome, I would suggest
  Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, and Optimizing Your Microbiome as well. Don't beat yourself up if you continue to consume UPF but , like me, you may hear Fernanda Rauber whispering in the back of your mind, “It's not food, it's an industrially produced edible substance.”
• 
  Numidica

  This is an important book about food, and how food has become something other than food in the last fifty years. Chris van Tulleken has executed a deep dive into the additives and processing methods of industrial food, and what his research reveals is eye-opening. My son has long criticized my occasional foray to McDonalds for "The Big Breakfast", telling me, "Dad, you know that's not real food, right?" Turns out he was right. One of the Italian scientists the author talked to corrected him when he used the term "ultra-processed food"; no Chris, she said, those are not foods, they are manufactured edible substances. Van Tulleken has interviewed dozens of scientists, regulators, activists, and food industry officials to get a picture of the current state of food safety, and it's not pretty.
  
  Anyone who has read the ingredients list of almost any packaged food will notice items like xanthum gum, maltodextrin, and various emulsifiers, or three to four letters acronyms for other chemicals like flavorings. Van Tulleken looks at what these additives do, and why we should be worried about them, and in the process he examines the food regulatory process, or, more properly, the lack of a food regulatory process, especially in the US, UK, and Canada. As to what the additives do, they have three primary functions: make the food item shelf stable at a wide range of temperatures, make it more appealing to the customer by making it soft and easy to consume, and crucially, reduce the cost of manufacturing and transport of the food so as to maximize profit. It's no secret that companies, including food companies, are in business to make money, but governments should be in the business of insuring that food is safe for their citizens. Unfortunately, the structure of regulation, especially in the US and UK means that the regulators are always a step behind the corporations. The onus is on the regulator to prove that an additive does harm, rather than it being the responsibility of the company to prove the additive does no harm before it can be used. In the US, there are approximately 10,000 additives in use, and that number is a guess, because no one, including the FDA keeps a comprehensive list. There are multiple studies that show that UPF "foods" are more appealing, and that people will eat more of a UPF meal than of an exactly equivalent non-UPF food. There are several theories about why this is so, but the evidence is there that it is so.
  
  There is a lot of additional research that should be done on UPF additives, and it has started, but at a low level, and with no real impetus from governments. Also, the amount of money available to Nestle or other food companies to lobby governments or market their products simply dwarfs the resources of all governmental food regulatory agencies worldwide, and the food companies have no interest in changing the way they do business. There is a strong correlation between the explosion of obesity in the US, UK, Brazil, Mexico and other countries, and the introduction of UPF foods to those countries. There have also been preliminary, but persuasive studies linking many additives to behavioral issues in children, which is quite scary to me as a grandfather.
  
  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.
  
  On a personal level, van Tulleken says that the revelations of his research made both he and his twin brother extremely vigilant consumers of food, and as a result, van Tulleken's twin lost about 45 pounds (20kg). Since reading this book I have been diligently reading ingredient labels on various food packaging labels, and I've been moving toward a more whole food diet, which is, admittedly, more expensive and more trouble to prepare, but I'm persuaded of the benefits. A side effect of moving toward whole foods is that one simply eats less because, to me at least, the food seems more filling, and the corollary of this is I'm not eating UPF foods which have been designed to make one want more.
  
  My only complaint in this otherwise wonderfully informative book is that I think van Tulleken could have better organized and shortened the book. That said, this is a book that could change the way you think about food and what you eat. It has for me.
• 
  K.J. Charles

  Extremely powerful book that's going to make you eat differently, like it or not (though the author bends over backwards to be giving information not instructions, and this is explicitly not a lose weight book).
  
  It's hugely researched and very well written, jammed with quotable stuff in an 'oh Jesus listen to this'' way, and mostly it makes me want to throw up quite a lot of the shit I've eaten over the years. I suspect this will be in the exclusive ranks of life-changing non-fiction books, along with the bastard that made me cut down on caffeine.
  
  Indispensable reading, the more so if your diet is high in ultra processed food, because I regret to say it is doing you no good at all. I'm now doing a no-UPF month, to see. I may be baking a lot.
• 
  Bam cooks the books ;-)

  *4.5 stars rounded up.
  
  Ultra-processed food: So tasty. So convenient. So prevalent on the grocery store shelves world wide. But is it killing us? Driving the obesity epidemic? Contributing to Type-2 diabetes, heart attack, cancer? Dr Chris van Tulleken thinks so and presents some compelling scientific studies and information to advance that theory.
  
  Definition of ultra-processed food: 'If it's wrapped in plastic and has at least one ingredient that you wouldn't usually find in a standard home kitchen, it's UPF.'
  
  Much of this information I was already familiar with, having read several books on the subject, such as
  
  Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated Into What America Eats
  and
  
  Formerly Known As Food: How the Industrial Food System Is Changing Our Minds, Bodies, and Culture.
  
  But I don't think I had really considered the sociological ramifications associated with UPFs. Dr van Tulleken writes about how the spread of cheap ultra-processed food around the world has displaced much of the world's food culture and explains how it drives inequality, poverty and early death and damages the planet.
  
  I believe this is a must-read book for anyone at all concerned about health issues or even the environment. BTW, my daughter put 'Yuka' on my phone, an app to help me judge a grocery product by scanning the barcode. The site rates a product from bad to excellent based on its ingredients and offers suggestions for alternate/better choices.
  
  I received an arc of this important book from the author and publisher via NetGalley. Many thanks! My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.
• 
  Nicholas

  5 Stars // I have to (un)process what I just read
  
  This book should be read by everyone.
  It’s a frightening, terrifying, yet thoroughly researched and easily comprehensible book about one of the most important aspects of human life: food and the modern day over-processing thereof.
  
  Almost anything we find on Supermarkt shelves these days is either processed or ultra-processed food (so-called UPF): Whether it’s the ‘healthy’ oat milk, tinned beans in sauce, or tomato juice in a Tetra Pack - even food we consider as healthy alternatives come with a boatload of preservatives, emulsifiers and add-ons that can drastically harm our health in the long-term.
  
  This is a fascinating and alarming read that let me re-evaluate my own shopping habits and I encourage everyone to give it a go as well - it might be in the best way and quite literally life changing.
• 
  Laura Noggle

  “It’s not food. It’s an industrially produced edible substance.”
  
  Terrifying, disgusting, and depressing—highly recommend.
• 
  Hannah Lawrence

  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.
  
  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.
  
  I’ve been reading about the research done by Hall and Monteiro for years, so I was eager to read more in depth about it. But the description of Hall’s experiment actually made me question the validity of the experiment in the first place. I figured the UPF meals and unprocessed meals would look somewhat similar, but in reality it was pitting Spam sandwiches against fish and vegetables. I’m still glad the study was done and think the results do favor eating actual food rather than processed foods, but it seemed less rigorous than I had previously understood.
  
  The most convincing parts of the book were about the behaviors of food industry giants, which, no matter how much lip service they give to being environmentally friendly and interested in their consumers’ health, must entice us to eat more and more or risk losing profits and angering shareholders. The descriptions of how Nestle infiltrated the Amazon rainforest via the river (and then convinced local farmers to slash and burn and plant soy rather than native crops), and the hidden costs of baby formula were especially troubling. I agree that the government needs to step in more, but this book is not a manual to help citizens figure out how to do that.
  
  The writing was tedious at times. I didn’t mind the anecdotes about Chris, his brother, and their families. They were nice personal touches that most people could relate to when it comes to family eating habits. I did wonder, however, why he spends several pages introducing a colleague who he has lunch with who apparently doesn’t feel tempted to eat cookies. It’s a bland anecdote that doesn’t convince me one way or the other about the possibly addictive nature of UPF.
  
  Finally, it’s frustrating to get through the entire book, be advised that the best way to eat is to avoid all UPF, and then be provided with basically no information on how to do that. For most folks, culturally and practically, it’s nearly impossible to skip out on UPF entirely. Although van Tulleken is careful to say he doesn’t intend to make people feel guilty for eating UPF, it’s hard not to feel a little inadequate that I don’t have the time or culinary skill to abstain entirely.
  
  If you’re interested in eating for health and longevity, I highly recommend Michael Greger’s “How not to Die” and “ How not to Diet.” He provides a lot of evidence to back up his arguments and encourages people to eat in a way that maximizes their intake of the healthiest stuff, even if that means taking in small amounts of UPF for palatability. Dean Ornish is another prolific author I recommend who has spent years researching diets most likely to protect cardiovascular health. Finally, if you need advice on how to follow a relatively healthy diet that allows for a lot of flexibility and avoiding the judgments and isolation that strict dieting can cause, you can’t go wrong with Mark Bittman’s VB6 flexitarian plan.
• 
  Tanja Berg

  My last book of the year and the best nonfiction read of the year. This reads a thriller in many ways: the giant food companies, with their goals of share holder value, putting things in our food to make us eat more. Actually, most of it is not food, it’s edible industrial waste. It’s not easy to distinguish one broccoli from another, but if you can get a child addicted to a certain flavor barcode with various additives, then you have a customer for life.
  
  The author is absolutely not moralizing. You can eat what you want - the problem is that we do not know what we are eating. The food industry has no interest in telling us and it is incredibly poorly regulated. In Europe, 2000 additives are allowed, in the United States it’s more than 10000 and more coming every year with no control whatsoever.
  
  Take bread for example - you cannot get “real” bread without additives in a supermarket. “Additive” or UPF (ultra processed food) being defined as having ingredients you don’t normally find in a kitchen. I naively thought that since I live in Norway and the bread is fresh, surely it’s without additives. Well. I was wrong! There are emulsifiers galore.
  
  This is basically all that the author recommends - read the ingredient list. I thought I was eating okay, I like to cook. However, I am not good with sauce. This is often dried and I often eat mashed potatoes from a bag. Frozen pizza about once a week. It’s not really food. It’s calorie dense and soft, to encourage over eating. Fake aromas that indicate certain nutrients that we might be missing are as also causing us to over-consume.
  
  The food industry loves to blame the obesity epidemic on lack of exercise. There is a clear correlation between UPF and obesity. Every independent study shows this. The only ones that do not are sponsored by the food industry.
  
  I don’t think that I can reduce my UPF intake to zero. However, I will make an effort to avoid the easy options. I am privileged enough to be able to afford it. I will learn to cook sauce from scratch.
  
  Read the book. It’s incredibly well researched - it has to be, so that the author won’t get sued. It’s also personal because the author uses examples from his own life and has also participated in documented studies on the topic.
  
  
• 
  Bonnie DeMoss

  This is a very informative and eye-opening look at what chemicals and substances are being put into our food. This is a must-read for everyone.
• 
  Donna Scott

  This is the book I've been itching to read since first listening to the podcast A Thorough Examination. I thought I knew loads already. I did not! 28% through the book was a revelation that knocked my socks off. Will it astound you too?
  
  Like Chris's brother Xand, I've has some adverse health effects from Covid. The virus attacked my thyroid and left me with hypothyroidism, which means I have gained weight and diets are particularly difficult. I tried fasting and it affected my eyes (temporarily, thank goodness). I've had nutritional advice through WeCare at work - after they rejected me for the weight loss programme. The NHS has put me at Tier 3, even though I'm not that obese. But I'm still obese. I shaped up a bit with Bootcamp, but apart from eating foods at certain times to maximise the absorption of the hormone and cutting back on soy, my diet didn't really change (and fasting is definitely not for me). Absolutely every adviser told me to use MyFitnessPal. When you read 28% into the book, you might spot my rookie error from that!
  
  If course, this is just personal context, not a review.
  
  So, to review the book: it's excellent. On the one hand, you have a personal piece of writing as family man Chris examines his relationship with Xand and his food fears for his young family. You have an academic, evidence -based critique of our obesogenic environment, and the lack of regulation, and built in racism and classism. You have food history. You have a study of ancient biology and anthropology. You have the relaying of findings from cutting edge science. You have a big picture of everything that's essentially wrong with everything, more or less linked back to the proliferation of UPF, and no kidding, he's not exaggerating!
  
  I also think you've got a bit of a blueprint on the way forward. At least, I think there's one for me. I'll let you know how I get on.
  
  In the meantime, this is an enjoyable book, the very reading of which feels good for you. Somewhere between Mark Thomas Belching Out the Devil and Felicity Lawrence Not on the Label. I learned lots.
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  Traci Thomas

  I mostly think this is really persuasive book with a clear argument and tons of research. I was horrified to learn about how our food works. The book left a huge impression on me. It is way too long though and very repetitive. The audiobook also has these interludes between the author and his twin brother about what the author has learned and how it has changed them both, which was cool but also wish it had been saved until the end.
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  Prepping Quine

  Holy Crap.
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  Stephen

  This book looks at ultra processed food (upf) and how it has developed and overtaken alot of the food chain. somethings mentioned in the book makes you look at food in a different ways some disturbing. a must read book
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  Isabelle reads a book a day because she has no friends

  DNF at 46% - if I have to hear this man say “cocoa pops” one more time I’m putting my head through a wall
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  marta the book slayer

  the best way to end the year and complete my reading goal!!!
  
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  Tamara

  I have been reading about food and diets for thirty years (as most women my generation) and foods come in and out of fashion. As a Muslim I resisted these theories - "bread is bad" - "dairy is bad" - "butter is bad" etc... This book put everything into scientific context. Ultra processed food is not actually food. It is edible, but not food in the traditional definition. I have been avoiding UPF for about a week and I'm sleeping better, and just generally feel better.
  
  Highly recommend this book. I listened on audible, but now I may need to purchase a hand held so that I can look things up. FYI to help you decide which one to purchase/ read.
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  Graeme Newell

  This book is one of those reads that leaves you in a whirlwind of emotion. On one hand, it's a treasure trove of insights about the processed food industry. On the other, it's a rollercoaster ride of dramatics and fear mongering that left me both enlightened and frustrated.
  
  This book was this weird combination of fascination, solid science, wild speculation, groundbreaking insights, cheap theatrics, and fear. But despite its flaws, I found it to be one of the most scintillating reads I’ve encountered this year.
  
  Van Tulleken does a remarkable job of unpacking the entire process behind processed food creation. The book lays bare the business strategy of manufacturing food that's not just profitable but almost insidiously addictive. It exposes how companies engineer products to maximize shelf life, resilience, and palatability, often at the cost of nutritional value. This aspect was an eye-opener for me, revealing the lengths to which food companies go to ensure their products are irresistibly tasty, to the point where we're consuming vast quantities before our brains can even register fullness.
  
  The book excels in demystifying those enigmatic ingredients listed in tiny print on labels. Ever wondered what Xanthum gum and maltodextrin really are? Van Tulleken explains these and many other substances in a way that's both informative and accessible. It's an important education, particularly in an era where ingredient lists often read like a chemistry exam.
  
  The book is also delightfully readable. I effortlessly finished it in just a couple of days. It’s conversational, straightforward and Van Tulleken has a wonderfully wry sense of humor.
  
  But here's the rub: while the book is informative, it often veers into the territory of scare tactics. The message seems to be that anything natural is inherently good, and anything born out of modern food science is inherently bad. This dichotomy is overly simplistic and, frankly, a disservice to readers seeking a nuanced understanding of nutrition and food science.
  
  The lack of definitive science on the long-term effects of many processed food ingredients is a huge concern. While Van Tulleken presents acres of rock solid science in this book, he sometimes follows the cheap tactic of presenting inconclusive studies as if they're the final word, which feels misleading. His approach left me feeling more paranoid than educated, obsessively scrutinizing food labels with a sense of impending doom.
  
  The most reprehensible trick of all is that he uses himself as a research project with one person. He dramatically eats a totally highly processed diet for one month, then describes all the grizzly feelings, the health decline and the nausea he experiences. While it's an effective narrative tool, it's hardly scientific, and it undermines the book's credibility. It's a classic example of anecdotal evidence masquerading as research.
  
  So, I close the book with a mix of gratitude and irritation. Goodness, this book had a profound effect on me. Van Tulleken provides a fascinating deep dive into the world of artificial ingredients and industrial food production. That part of the book is genuinely revelatory. I will never read a food label in the same way again and I’m so glad I learned this stuff. After reading this book, I made some serious changes to my diet and I bring a whole new awareness to my weekly grocery shop.
  
  But despite all this, Van Tulleken’s reliance on fear mongering and his occasional unscientific approach leaves a sour taste. It's a reminder that in the quest for healthier eating, there's a fine line between being informed and being scared into paralysis.
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  Antonia

  This is an amazing book and an especially great listen!!
  
  For most of us, a large percentage of our daily caloric intake comes from substances that really don’t meet traditional definitions of food. Rather, they are processed “stuff” that contain a myriad of substances you’d never have in your kitchen. A lot of them are harmful or of unknown effects on the body. And a lot of them are pretty disgusting. But the book is about a lot more this. Van Tulleken delves into the production and distribution of ultra-processed foods on a global scale. He considers the environmental costs of cheap food, as well as the corporate forces that have created and perpetuate our current food culture, which is harmful for everyone, but that especially takes advantage of disadvantaged people the world over, wreaking disproportionate havoc on those who can least afford it and have few alternatives. A really important and eye-opening read.
  
  The book is read by the author who is just great. There’s lots of science here, but he really breaks it down, makes it easy to follow, and interjects many anecdotes, often humorous, drawn from his own experiences.
  
  This is number 71 of the 100 books I had aimed to read this year. Not such a great finish — but of course I have my excuses . . . I mean reasons! I might sneak in one more. :)
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  Ryan

  Not a ton of surprises in this book, but still a very good scientific approach to Ultra-processed food, and the results it has on our bodies and our society. And no shocker here, but the results are bad.
  
  Probably the biggest takeaway for me was there are forces at work that make it extremely difficult to give you, as an individual the real choice of the kind of food you eat. Multi-national corporations, poverty, governments, and special interest groups certainly don't erase our ability to choose what to eat, but undeniably, we live in a society where the cards are stacked against us if we want to eat *real* food and avoid Ultra-processed "food."