Book SummaryUltra-Processed People, by Chris van Tulleken

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Ultra-Processed People

In Ultra-Processed People, Chris van Tulleken argues that ultra-processed food—things like packaged snacks, frozen meals, sodas, and fast food—is destroying our health and our planet. He claims that ultra-processed food (UPF) isn’t really food at all; rather, it’s akin to an addictive substance that tricks us into eating more and more while simultaneously increasing our risk of developing a host of diseases. Plus, the industrial processes used to make UPF harm the environment and contribute significantly to climate change. He argues that the government should increase regulation of UPF and that we should avoid eating UPF as much as we can.

Chris van Tulleken is an assistant professor at University College London and an infectious disease doctor. He has a medical degree from Oxford and a PhD in molecular virology. He's also a BBC broadcaster; his TV show Operation Ouch, which teaches kids about medicine and the human body, has won two BAFTA awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

We eat a lot of ultra-processed food, says van Tulleken: UPF now makes up about 60% of the diets of people in the US and UK and a large part of the diets of people all over the world. About 20% of...

Ultra-Processed People Summary What Is Ultra-Processed Food?

Most food is processed to some extent. Even baking bread or making a smoothie in the blender are forms of processing. But ultra-processed food is different, says van Tulleken. Ultra-processing doesn’t just modify food; it transforms food into something else entirely.

Van Tulleken argues that UPF isn’t really food: It’s an industrially produced substance that looks, smells, and tastes like food. It starts out as food—usually high-yield crops like corn or soybeans that are grown for animal feed and, as a result, are subsidized in many countries. These inexpensive crops are reduced to their basic molecular constituents, then chemically and physically altered to form synthetic molecules that can mimic all kinds of natural ingredients. These synthetic molecules are then reassembled into something that looks like food and are filled with additives that add flavor, color, saltiness, and sweetness. Without the additives, UPF probably wouldn’t taste like food at all.

How Corn Becomes UPF

In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, science journalist and author Michael Pollan uses the example of corn to explain how a few...

Ultra-Processed People Summary What Are the Negative Health Effects of Ultra-Processed Food?

Van Tulleken says UPF is not only unhealthy, it’s also unsafe, capable of leading to serious illness and even death. In this section, we’ll first explore UPF’s links to a variety of diseases, including obesity. Then, we’ll examine van Tulleken’s contention that lack of willpower and inactivity aren’t responsible for obesity—which leaves UPF as the primary culprit.

UPF Is Linked to a Host of Diseases and Illnesses, Including Obesity

There is a large body of research demonstrating that UPF increases the rates of many forms of disease and illness, including cancer, heart attacks and strokes, type 2 diabetes, weight gain and obesity, mental illness, dementia, and early death. Studies have indicated that it’s the processing of UPF that causes these health problems, rather than simply the nutritional content. Van Tulleken focuses on weight gain and obesity because there are more studies of UPF’s effects on weight.

(Shortform note: Because van Tulleken focuses on obesity, he doesn’t devote much time to explaining how UPF leads to other diseases. While the science in this area is still developing, some studies do address these causal mechanisms. For example, studies show that...

Ultra-Processed People Summary How Does Ultra-Processed Food Cause Us to Overeat?

Van Tulleken explains that we have an internal system governing our food intake, and it’s very good at self-regulating. But UPF throws a wrench in that system, tricking us into eating more—and gaining more weight—even if we’re full or not hungry. In this section, we examine each of these contentions in turn.

Humans Have an Internal System to Automatically Regulate Eating

Human life is fueled by food. Our bodies have adapted over millennia to allow us to effectively consume and use the calories food provides. As a result, we have an internal system capable of automatically regulating what and how much we eat so we can obtain exactly the right amount of energy and nutrients we need to thrive.

This system comprises our stomach, liver, pancreas, small and large intestines, and other organs that transmit signals to and from the brain via various nerves, blood vessels, and hormones, constantly telling our bodies when, what, and how much to eat.

(Shortform note: The brain region involved in regulating hunger and fullness is called the hypothalamus. Its primary function is to keep your body in balance by...

Ultra-Processed People Summary Don’t Governments Regulate Food Additives?

Most people assume that any chemically altered substances and artificial ingredients in their food have been certified as safe by the government. Unfortunately, van Tulleken explains, that isn’t the case. In the US, for example, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows food companies to “self-certify” their new additives, meaning that they aren’t required to submit any proof to the government that they’ve done testing on UPF’s safety.

How did this happen? In the 1950s, the US government became concerned about the many new industrially produced chemicals that companies were adding to food. The legislature passed a law requiring testing and formal approval by the FDA before an additive could be used in food. However, the law provided an exception for additives that were “generally recognized as safe (GRAS),” so that common ingredients like salt wouldn't have to go through the FDA's extensive approval process.

Many UPS manufacturers began using this exception as a loophole, and eventually, due to a backlog in GRAS applications, the FDA decided to allow companies to make their own determinations about whether their...

Ultra-Processed People Summary What Are the Environmental Effects of Ultra-Processed Food?

In addition to directly harming human health, UPF also contributes to carbon emissions and environmental destruction on a massive scale.

Rather than growing many small crops for local communities, which is expensive, agribusiness focuses on four or five high-yield commodity crops, such as soy and palm oil. To make these crops profitable, companies either turn them into UPF or feed them to factory animals (and much of that meat is itself made into UPF). Investing heavily in a few commodity crops contributes to climate change in many ways, including:

1. Carbon emissions from the destruction of forests. Tropical forests, which are very good at cleaning carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and storing it, are clear-cut and burned to grow commodity crops. This releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

In regions like the Amazon, destroying the forest also results in less rain. (Rain in the central Amazon is caused by water evaporating from the ocean and falling on coastal forests; these forests then emit water vapor, which creates clouds that travel inland to create rain.) This lack of rain results in drought. Agribusiness in the central Amazon is not only...

Ultra-Processed People Summary How Can We Counteract the Negative Effects of Ultra-Processed Food?

UPF is harmful and ubiquitous, but we have the power to counteract its negative effects. In this section, we first examine van Tulleken’s contention that governments should regulate UPF—not by banning it, but by taking other measures to limit its consumption. Next, we discuss his suggestion that we eat less UPF or stop eating it altogether.

Government Regulation of UPF

Van Tulleken advocates three primary methods for regulating UPF: prohibiting government policymakers from taking money from the food industry, labeling UPF products accurately, and restricting UPF marketing.

Governments Should Be Prohibited From Taking Money From the Food Industry

The food industry heavily influences government policies. Various “nutritional” foundations exist for the primary purpose of shaping food policy—and they’re funded by an array of UPF companies. Much of the research critical of the link between UPF and health problems is funded by or affiliated with companies that produce UPF.

Yet the data is clear, says van Tulleken, that when an industry funds science, the results are biased in favor of the industry. He argues that the UPF industry should be divorced from scientific...

Shortform Exercise: Examine Your Relationship With UPF

Van Tulleken indicates that his primary goal isn’t to tell people what to eat; it’s to make people more aware of and informed about ultra-processed foods and their effects on our bodies. He suggests that you examine these effects by experimenting with UPF and non-UPF diets. Whether or not you do so, it may help to take inventory of the relationship you already have with UPF.

Which ultra-processed foods feel most addictive to you? List them here. Would you consider eating less of any of these foods, or “quitting” them entirely?