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Ultra Processed People

Chris van Tulleken, 2023

A doctor eats industrially made food for four weeks, measures what it does to his body and brain, and explains why it is designed to make you eat more.

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17 parts, about 32 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Argues that rising obesity is driven by industrially made food and the money behind it, not by failing willpower
  • Gives you a simple way to recognise ultra processed products on a shelf and see why they are eaten fast and in excess
  • A doctor tests the diet on himself and weighs controlled trials, twin studies and industry funding conflicts

Who it is for

  • People who blame themselves for struggling with weight
  • Parents deciding what goes into their children's lunches
  • Health professionals and policy makers working on diet

What the summary covers

  1. The Ice Cream That Wouldn't Melt2 min
  2. What Counts as Ultra Processed Food2 min
  3. Not a Weight Loss Book2 min
  4. A Sceptic Put It to the Test2 min
  5. What the Wider Evidence Shows2 min
  6. What Appetite Is, and What Sugar Isn't2 min
  7. It Is Not Willpower2 min
  8. It Is Not Exercise Either1 min
  9. What the Diet Did to Me2 min
  10. Soft, Dry and Eaten Fast1 min
  11. A Mismatch Between Mouth and Gut3 min
  12. Emulsifiers and the Gut1 min
  13. Who Decides an Additive Is Safe1 min
  14. What It Does to a Place2 min
  15. Corporations Are Organisms Powered by Money3 min
  16. What I Would Ask Governments to Do3 min
  17. If You Want to Stop1 min

Recommended by

  • Hannah FryAuthor of Hello World
    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.
  • Alice RobertsAuthor of Anatomical Oddities
    Mindblowing. You’ll never see food—or your body—the same way again.
  • Michael MosleyAuthor of The Clever Gut Diet
    A wonderful and fascinating exposé.
  • Adam RutherfordAuthor of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
    A devastating, witty and scholarly destruction of the shit food we eat and why.

About the author

  • Chris van TullekenInfectious disease doctor and professor of infection and immunity at University College London
    • Born in London on 18 August 1978, twin brother of Xand van Hoogenhouck Tulleken
    • Studied medicine at St Peter's College, Oxford, from 1996
    • Studied tropical medicine after graduating in 2002 and worked in humanitarian emergencies in the Central African Republic, Pakistan and Myanmar
    • PhD in molecular virology at University College London, 2017
    • Won the Max Perutz award for HIV research in 2016
    • Research on how corporations affect human health, especially child nutrition, with UNICEF and the WHO
    • His broadcasting has won two BAFTAs
    • Presented television and radio programmes with his twin brother, including Operation Ouch!

Read it alongside

  • Pushes backFree to Choose

    Chris van Tulleken argues that competition in food favors addictive products and that governments must set the rules; Milton and Rose Friedman argue that free competition is the consumer's best defense and that regulators are often captured or biased toward delay.

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