“Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food that isn’t Food”
By Jon Huang
In recent years, the concerns over the adverse effects of ultra-processed foods has grown. In June 2023, British Infectious Disease physician and scientist Chris van Tulleken published “Ultra Processed People: The Science behind Food that Isn’t Food.” The book shows the growing scientific evidence on the harm of UPF and its global impact.
UPF is a term coined by Brazilian scientists around 2009 as part of its NOVA food classification system to group foods according to the extent and purpose of the processing they undergo. Food processing involves anything from washing or freezing of food to chemically adding or altering it to obtain a desired flavor or texture.
NOVA defines UPF as industrial formulations made entirely or mostly from substances extracted from foods, derived from food constituents or synthesized in laboratories from food substrates or other organic sources. These include many packaged snacks and sweets, ice cream and frozen desserts, soda and energy drinks, prepackaged meals and many sweetened and flavored yogurts.
Tulleken gives a simpler definition. “If it’s wrapped in plastic and has at least one ingredient you wouldn’t usually find in a standard home kitchen, it’s UPF,” he says.
The aim of UPF is to replace the ingredients of traditional foods with cheaper alternatives and additives that prioritize shelf life, centralize distribution and increase consumption. Traditional ingredients are replaced with cheap, sometimes entirely synthetic alternatives. By mimicking flavors and textures of foods, UPF creates the sensation of receiving the same nutrients found in their whole food equivalents without delivering the benefit.
For example, he discusses artificial sweeteners, often marketed as a low caloric alternative to sugar. These send signals to the body to expect sugar that the body doesn’t receive, increasing the cravings for these foods. Bodies normally send signals to the brain when it is hungry or full based on the food we eat. However, many UPFs, especially those mimicking sweet or salty flavors, imitate these sensations without delivering the same signals.
“Flavours out of context may be messing up the body’s ability to make the correct associations between a nutrient and a food.” Tullekin says. This, in turn, contributes to certain food addictions.
Tulleken also discusses how different food additives damage the gut and the immune system, contributing to chronic inflammation in the body and an increase in health issues like heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune diseases (conditions where the body inappropriately attacks itself) and obesity.
Further, because many widely used additives are derived from only a few crops, this has driven harmful farming practices, decreased crop diversity, increased deforestation and has led to artificially low prices that undercut local food producers of whole foods, particularly in more rural areas. Because fewer crops are grown at greater rates without returning adequate nutrients to the soil, this has increased the use of synthetic fertilizers, which have damaged the soil and contributed to herbicide and pesticide resistance.
For example, in Brazil, multinational corporations have pursued large-scale soy production to use primarily as a base for many of their heavily processed foods and animal feed, clearing large swaths of rainforest to do so. Tulleken interviewed local villagers about the increase in obesity and type 2 diabetes that arose after Nestle’s aggressive marketing and distribution practices of its UPF. In Indonesia, huge areas of rainforests have been cleared to grow and harvest palm oil, which is predominantly used to make UPF.
One statistic Tulleken cited jumps out.
“Just 12 plants and 5 animals make up 75 percent of all food eaten or thrown away on earth,” he says, showing how corporate industrial practices have prioritized efficiency and profit over physical and environmental health.
Then, there are the food regulatory issues. Current Food and Drug Administration regulations allow businesses to easily circumvent serious examination of the potential harms of their products. He explains how ties between industry and policy makers have influenced public health recommendations and downplayed UPF-related health issues.
For solutions, Tulleken proposes government regulation in the form of food taxes and requiring more accurate marketing of UPF to better inform the public of its potential harms. Much like tobacco, he argues for preserving consumer choice but with better transparency.
In my opinion, the book’s strength is in showing the harm to physical health and the environment of large-scale UPF production and consumption. His book details how the unbridled pursuit of profit, convenience and efficiency have led to unacceptable sacrifices to our health and environment. It gives a scientific explanation for why reducing its consumption is important for ourselves and the environment. Many of us may have grown up with parents who told us that glimmering box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch wasn’t healthy, but now we have a more complete understanding of why.
The book falls short in giving practical solutions to individuals and local communities, including the financial and production challenges within agriculture, labor shortages and corporate consolidation of the food industry. For most individuals, the decisions involve finances, time and social stressors that drive eating habits. While he mentions how food addictions can be related to psychosocial issues, he simply encourages people to get help for those issues.
His narrative primarily relies on the assumption that if people knew how bad UPF was, they would choose to make healthier decisions. Based on my own experience as a primary care physician managing chronic diseases, it’s not always that straightforward.
In showing how multinational corporations have exploited the system, he suggests the inherent structure of these businesses and their financial entanglements make it difficult for them to contribute to the solutions without harming their bottom line. The book lacks perspectives from corporations themselves and does not discuss ways people are trying to address some of these health and environmental concerns. In addition to sensible government policy, there will need to be changes both personally and communally to reform the problems around our current food culture.
