The BAFTA-winning broadcaster and physician joins us to reveal what ultra-processed foods are doing to your body, our society, and the planet.
Over the past 150 years, we have entered a new ‘age of eating’ where most of our calories come from an entirely novel set of substances: Ultra-Processed Foods.
Now award-winning broadcaster, practicing NHS doctor and leading academic Dr Chris van Tulleken joins us to reveal the disastrous effects of Ultra-Processed Food on our health. UPFs are now the leading cause of early death globally and the number one cause of environmental destruction.
Ultra-Processed Food (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 find in your kitchen, it’s UPF.
Drawing on his own experiment of eating an 80% UPF diet for one month, Chris will explore the invention of UPF and its impact on our health and weight – from altering metabolism and appetite, to an increased risk of serious health problems like cardiovascular disease and dementia.
He will show that almost all our staple foods are ultra-processed – bread, cereal, biscuits, desserts, dairy products and condiments; explains why exercise and willpower cannot prevent obesity and ill health due to UPF; and provides solutions for individuals, policy makers and the food industry.
Revelatory, powerful and rigorously researched, Chris’s insights into Ultra-Processed Food will change how we eat forever.
Praise for Chris van Tulleken’s Ultra-Processed People:
“A wonderful and fascinating exposé … Reading this book will make you question what you eat and how it was produced.” – Michael Mosley
“If you only read one diet or nutrition book in your life, make it this one … In clear, humorous and informative prose, Chris lays out what ultra-processed food is and why it is the single greatest problem with modern diets.” – Bee Wilson
“Packed with ‘I never knew that’ moments, Ultra-Processed People is a wonderfully playful book that changed forever how I think about what I eat and why” – Hannah Fry
