Ultra-processed food (UPFs) piqued our interest in 2023 as they featured in many articles online.
Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken launched last year, too. Now it's out in paperback form and on sale (like a cheap loaf of fluffy white bread), we seized the opportunity to read it.
Packed within this work is all manner of alarming insights on UPFs. Our key takeaway from it all? It's really time for everyone to check the ingredients list of every foodstuff before you buy it. Otherwise, nasties may be within.
Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn't Food... and Why Can't We Stop?
Okay, we know we drone on in anti-capitalistic fashion a fair bit on this site. But it's with good reason—it's because of stuff like ultra-processed foods. How the food we eat is manipulated for mass production to make a handful of people rich.
Much of this work is pretty simple in its message:
- Take time to consider what you're eating
- Stop eating junk food
- Have a diet rich in fresh vegetables, fruit, and lean meats
Easy in theory, of course, but due to the disastrous nature of capitalist economy over the last 10+ years this isn't possible for a lot of people.
One of the key points van Tulleken addressees early on in the work is inequality. The more money you have, the easier it is to afford a healthy diet. Fact is, if you want a consistent, healthy diet these days it costs a lot.
"The poorest 50 per cent of households would need to spend almost 30 per cent of their disposable income on food if they wanted to eat a diet that adheres to our national healthy-eating guidelines. The poorest 10 per cent of households by income would need to spend almost 75 per cent. UPF is almost universally cheaper, quicker and supposedly just as nutritious - if not more so - than foods and meals that need home preparation. The combination of low wages, loss of time and the promise of something delicious all probably contribute to the high levels of UPF in our diets - perhaps it's no surprise that UPF is eaten in greater quantities in countries like the UK and USA that are more economically unequal than similar high-income countries."
Unfortunately, this is all at a time when we've got a bunch of inane right-wing soundbites ("if you're poor you should work harder" etc.) to brush over the complexities of the financial inequality crisis.
We see this online all the time. Right-leaning types exploding in rage when it's explained people are too poor to feed themselves properly. They can't think beyond the "I'm fine so should everyone else be" line and the glories of capitalism that can be achieved with a bit of hard work.
What are Ultra-Processed Foods? Our Guide to Ruining Your Fun Diet!
Right, so there are common processed foods like bacon, cheese, ham, and salted nuts that are kind of part of modern life these days. Not good for you, but a lot of people consider them as familiar and good.
UPFs take things a step further. It's food like:
- Supermarket bread
- Ready meals
- Breakfast cereals
- Cakes
- Crisps
- Cookies
- Ice cream
Chris van Tulleken explains early on in the book about ice cream, one of those foodstuffs we all know and love. But these days most of it is full of UPFs to stop it from melting as fast.
"I took a spoonful. It was a tepid gelatinous foam. Something had stopped the ice cream from melting.
I took a look at the ingredients online: 'fresh milk, sugar pistachio paste (Bronte pistachios 4%, almonds 2%, sugar, soy protein, soy lecithin, coconut oil, sunflower oil, chlorophyll, natural flavours including lemon), dextrose, fresh double cream, glucose, skim milk powder, stabilisers (locust bean gum, guar gum, carrageenan), emulsifier (mono and diglycerides of fatty acids), Maldon sea salt.'"
We did our own check earlier in the year on a supermarket own brand load of white bread. It has these ingredients (for a 45p and 800g loaf).
"Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin], Water, Yeast, Salt, Preservative (Calcium Propionate), Emulsifiers (Mono- and Di-Acetyl Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono- and Di-Glycerides of Fatty Acids), Spirit Vinegar, Rapeseed Oil, Flour Treatment Agent (Ascorbic Acid)."
It's disturbing as it's one of those everyday items people buy. All whilst thinking they're making healthy lifestyle decisions.
We've even turned it into a game now where we find products in store. Then try to locate one with an absurdly long list of ingredients (we're dorks like this, yes).
As all that lot is the "hallmark" of UPFs.
Emulsifiers are the particularly bad one. Now, in the New York Times review of this book If We Are What We Eat, We Don't Know Who We Are there's this explainer.
"The term comes from a relatively recent classification scheme called NOVA. (Think of it as a competitor to the traditional food groups of fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins and dairy.) Created by researchers in Brazil, in the past decade NOVA has been widely adopted by NGOs, activists and researchers.
Food Group 1 is defined as 'unprocessed or minimally processed foods,' things like meat, fruit, flour and pasta. Group 2 is 'processed culinary ingredients' — oils, butter, sugar, honey and starches. Group 3 is 'processed food': ready-to-eat mixtures of the first two, processed for preservation, meaning beans, salted nuts, smoked meat (and, notably, 'proper freshly made bread'). Group 4, finally, is 'ultra-processed foods,' defined as formulations of ingredients, 'mostly of exclusive industrial use, made by a series of industrial processes, many requiring sophisticated equipment and technology.'
Translated into ordinary parlance, ultra-processed foods are what our parents called junk food: packaged snacks, soda, sugary cereals, energy drinks, candy bars. The book's use of the scientific-sounding 'UPF' moniker connotes something new and scary lurking on an ingredient list. It is easy to forget that what's new here isn't the food; it is the label or framework for describing it."
Now, frozen readymeals were created for the US market in the 1940s and really caught on in the 1950s. Especially when households began to enjoy new luxuries, such as having a TV in the living room for the first time (something we take for granted these days).
Ultra-Processed People is methodical and clear in its approach. There's no hysteria or sensationalism here, just research-driven facts about the food we eat.
We think of works such as Fast Food Nation (2002) by Eric Schlosser and this could well be a new generation's equivalent—its Super Size Me moment. As the book's success shows a lot of people want to have clear information about this issue, which has a direct impact on our mental and physical health.
Part three of Ultra-Processed People has this chapter heading.
"Oh, so this is why I'm anxious and my belly aches!"
A huge chunk of world's western population now functions off cheap coffee, max sugar energy drinks, fizzy drinks, UPFs, and fast food. And it's taking its toll on mental health as much as physical.
A long-term diet of ultra-processed foods leads to anxiety, depression, and a higher risk of dementia. They also increase the risk of:
- Type II diabetes
- Obesity
- Sleep problems
- Heart disease
Alongside the health issues UPFs contribute to, the food is often included with single-use packaging.
"Each year, globally, Coca-Cola produces 3 million tonnes of plastic waste, and we know that almost none of this is recycled. A staggering 91% of all the plastic waste ever produced has not been recycled and has either been burned, put into landfill or is simply in the environment."
And this is just the plastic issue, never mind everything else to go with it.
All of which creates this mass of crap humans are consuming long-term. And for the first time in our long and (occasionally) illustrious history.
You Can Get a Flake With That, Love, Conclusion
Reading this work is an eye-opener. It's packed full of science stuff, so you do get an understanding of what's going on here. If you value your health and want to know how the food world now works, it's an essential read.
But food is a political issue. Along with the climate change crisis, poverty, and various other capitalist-driven crises, it's one right-wingers tend to scoff at and think of as irrelevant. The climate change hoax, the UPF hoax, the socialist scumbags etc.
In the UK, our Conservative government has done nothing to address the UPF issue. All whilst driving millions into poverty with its austerity measures. Foodbank usage has skyrocketed in the UK since 2010 and in-work poverty is the norm, exacerbated by a terrible housing crisis.
All of which means a sad reality—poor people can't afford to address this issue.
When so many people can't even afford food and rely on foodbanks, the capacity for everyone in society to lead a healthy diet is a very long way off.
For those who can afford to, and we're lucky about that, then you can start by checking ingredients lists. Plus... cook from scratch!
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