Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken — how our food turned to junk
On Monday, the World Health Organization issued new guidelines advising non-diabetic consumers against using non-sugar sweeteners to control weight. Its top nutritionist declared: “NSS are not essential dietary factors and have no nutritional value.” Yet incarnations of NSS, such as aspartame, sucralose and stevia, can be found sprinkled throughout common foods and drinks, especially low-fat versions that purport to benefit health.
The announcement will not surprise Chris van Tulleken, a London-based podcaster, television presenter and infectious disease doctor. In Ultra-Processed People, a fearless investigation into how we have become hooked on ultra-processed food, or UPF, van Tulleken identifies sweeteners as just one component of a modern nutritional landscape in which “most of our calories come from food products containing novel, synthetic molecules, never found in nature”. We are no longer eating food, one academic memorably tells him, but “industrially produced edible substance”. Those substances are formed using a mix of cheap ingredients, machine processing and synthetic additives such as stabilisers and flavourings.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Anjana Ahuja
