Pre-chewed and barely edible
What I learnt about ultra-processed food over the Christmas break.
Hey friends,
You’ve probably eaten an ultra-processed food (UPF) today. It’s almost impossible not to—UPF is everywhere among us in the Western world. It’s cheap, convenient, and tastes so good. Suspiciously good.
UPFs include most packaged breads, breakfast cereals, most packaged snacks, some processed meat like sausages and burgers, frozen meat like chicken tenders and fish fingers, most sauces and condiments, fruit yoghurts, margarine, chips, biscuits, crackers, fizzy drinks, chocolate, ready-to-eat meals. The list goes on.
What makes a food ‘ultra-processed’?
UPFs are industrially engineered edible substances made primarily from ingredients not commonly found in a standard home kitchen, like emulsifiers, sweeteners, stabilisers, preservatives, synthetic oils, gums & dyes, and various chemical additives. It isn’t really food.
UPFs often contain refined carbohydrates, hydrogenated oils, and highly processed proteins that have been stripped of their natural nutrients, only to be reassembled into food-like products. They have been so intensely processed that they no longer resemble something remotely food-like. It’s pre-chewed.
How do I know if something is ultra-processed?
Here’s a simple criteria for identifying UPF:
High number of ingredients: UPF typically contain five or more ingredients.
Lack of wholefoods: UPF often have minimal or no wholefood ingredients. For example, a UPF might list "potato starch" instead of potatoes.
Industrial additives: If you read a long ingredients list and don’t recognise (or can’t pronounce) several items, it’s likely ultra-processed. See an ingredient that you wouldn’t find in a home kitchen? It’s a UPF.
Packaging and branding: UPFs are typically wrapped in plastic for long shelf life and convenience, often accompanied by branding that highlights claims like “healthy,” “low-fat,” or “natural” to appeal to consumers.
Here’s an example of a food, a processed food, and an UPF to give you a clearer picture:
Food: Almonds. Ingredients: Almonds.
Processed food: Almond butter. Ingredients: Ground almonds, salt.
Ultra-processed food: Almond protein bar. Ingredients: Soy Protein Nuggets (25%) (Soy Protein Isolate, Tapioca Starch, Salt), No Added Sugar Milk Choc Protein Compound (19%) (Vegetable Fat, Sweetener (Erythritol), Bulking Agent (Polydextrose), Milk Solids, Soy Protein Isolate, Cocoa Powder, Emulsifier (Soy Lecithin), Natural Flavour), Almonds (16%), Humectants (Sorbitol, Glycerol), Brown Rice Syrup, Isomalto-oligosaccharide, Bulking Agent (Polydextrose), Mineral (Calcium Citrate), Cocoa Powder, Vegetable Fat Natural Flavour, Salt, Cinnamon, Natural Sweetener (Monk Fruit Extract). Source.
Why is ultra-processing a thing?
Ultra-processing creates hyper-palatable, convenient, and highly profitable products. Manufacturers use UPF primarily for cost-effectiveness. These products are cheaper to produce by using inexpensive ingredients, allowing manufacturers to sell products at lower prices.
They cater to consumers demand for convenience, often ready-to-eat with minimal effort required. UPFs also have a long shelf lives due to preservatives and packaging, helping manufacturers reach a wide market and maintain stock consistency.
So what’s the issue with UPF?
UPFs are engineered to be addictive. They are finely tuned to get consumers to consume and consume—to the undeniable point of overconsumption—so they keep handing over their money.
Designed to bypass the body’s natural satiety mechanisms, these products encourage overconsumption through combinations of salt, sugar, and fat, alongside artificial flavours that mask their lack of nutritional value. They are engineered to drive cravings and brand loyalty, often from childhood, through complex flavour profiles and targeted marketing.
We haven’t evolved to consume UPF, and evidence shows it is harming us.
UPFs are typically soft and calorie-dense, leading to overconsumption before the body signals fullness. Additives like protein isolates, refined oils, and modified carbohydrates, get absorbed too quickly to trigger fullness signals and lead us to overeating. Non-nutritive sweeteners cause metabolic stress, while flavour enhancers and chemicals disrupt brain reward systems, driving further overeating and cravings.
UPF replaces nutrient-rich traditional options with nutrient-poor alternatives, increasing risks of obesity, metabolic diseases, cancer, and tooth decay. Additives like emulsifiers harm the gut, thinning its mucus lining, inflaming the body, altering the microbiome, and promoting chronic diseases like Crohn's and type 2 diabetes. Like the ingredients lists, the list of harms goes on and on.
UPFs don’t just harm our bodies.
The production and consumption of UPF are deeply connected to other systemic issues.
Targeted marketing and affordability exploit low-income populations, worsening health inequalities. Market dominance increases food insecurity and limits access to fresh, nutritious foods.
Multinational control concentrates economic power, harming local producers. Global adoption erodes traditional food cultures and diets. Chronic disease costs also strain local healthcare systems and reduce productivity.
Reliance on monoculture crops depletes soil, reduces biodiversity, and drives deforestation. Production and transport significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions. Excessive plastic packaging is a huge contributor to pollution too.
Capitalism is at the core.
Corporations compete for our money, and their bait is UPF—their carefully engineered products designed for our overconsumption.
These big companies disregard that their products damage our bodies, instead prioritising profit. UPF is a (somewhat edible) product of an industrial ecosystem that prioritises making money over the health of their consumers and our planet.
It’s not our responsibility, it’s theirs.
Some argue that as we’re not forced to consume UPF, it’s a matter of personal choice and responsibility.
But when obesity rates skyrocketed from the 1970s, it wasn’t due to a collective collapse in personal responsibility. It was because of changes in the food environment with the rise of UPFs.
Obesity isn’t the result of a lack of willpower. It’s the result of the collision of ancient genes and a modern UPF environment, creating a scenario where our evolved mechanisms for regulating appetite are overwhelmed.
UPF hacks our brain’s reward systems in ways similar to drugs like nicotine and alcohol. This isn’t a failure of individual effort, but rather a structural issue rooted in how UPF is made, marketed, and consumed.
These are some of the things I took away from Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn’t Food by Chris Van Tulken. I read it over the Christmas break after being recommended it by Caoilainn in their Substack brave enough. It was just five bucks on Kindle! By the way, I’m still loving my Kindle. Definitely my favourite purchase of 2024.
Caoilainn said it’s one of those rare books that causes a tectonic shift in your brain. I agree. I’m left with a strong desire to be more mindful of what I’m eating and experiment with healthier foods. Reading it while consuming copious amounts of chocolates and sweet treats helped that.
Chris writes a lot about the steps to tackle the deeply rooted societal issues related to UPF, but I’m starting with how I personally consume food.
The evidence shows I’d probably benefit from eating less ultra-processed stuff. But avoiding UPFs is tricky, particularly due to the high cost of healthier whole-food alternatives at the moment. While UPFs are cheap, widely available, and convenient, fresh fruits, vegetables, and minimally processed options are priced out of reach for many.
But I think the first step towards change is awareness. Knowing what we’re eating—reading ingredient labels, understanding the impacts of UPFs, and recognising the tactics used to market them—is a good start. Awareness gives us agency to make more informed choices.
I’m starting small: Swapping some UPF snacks for wholefood options. Learning to decode food labels and spot ingredients that I won’t want in my body. Choosing foods with shorter, simpler ingredient lists. I’ve also just joined the Air Fryer club to inspire me to make more healthy meals!
I’ve found a good listicle about practical ways to eat less UPFs here:
By making some small but intentional changes, I’ll be increasing my Luck Radius—the area around me where good experiences, opportunities, and outcomes can land. Each mindful choice could improve my chances of better health, more energy, and clearer mind. And over time, these actions could create a ripple effect and open the door to opportunities I might not have anticipated!
I encourage you to have a think about what role UPFs play in your current diet. Are you aware of the ingredients in the food you eat?
Happy New Year and have a great week,
Ben x