There is a lot of talk in the media at the moment about ultra-processed foods (UPF) driven in large part by the excellent book Ultra-Processed People by Dr Chris van Tulleken, who you may have seen on the TV with his identical twin brother Xand. This article shares a great classification chart to help you navigate through your food choices and a few tips on how to reduce the amount of UPF in your diet.

If you would like a free introductory coaching discussion about your own food environment and simple dietary changes you could make, do drop me a message as I am am currently offering a free 30 minute Ditching UPF coaching session. You can also book directly by following this link and choosing your time slot: watch-your-waist/free-ditching-upf-coaching-session

THE book

Ultra-Processed People is only in hardback (or Kindle) at the moment making me break my rule of only buying paperbacks, but I had read a few reviews and thought despite knowing a lot about this area already it would add to my knowledge. And it did! The book is very readable and explains very well what UPF is, why it is so bad for us, why we are in this messed up food environment in the UK and some suggestions for what we as a country could do about it.

The content is grounded in evidence with a lot of input from a wide range of people and includes a stack of references for geeky people like me. There isn’t much advice in the book on how individuals could go about reducing their own consumption of UPF which is where my 1-2-1 coaching can help. We are all very different, with varying food and family set ups and environments making individual support invaluable. Having a coaching conversation with a nutrition expert to come up your own plan of action for change could be really beneficial if you feel you need to improve your diet.

If you like podcasts you may enjoy and learn from Chris and Xand’s podcast from a couple of years ago ‘A Thorough Examination’ that took Xand on a weight loss through elimination of UPF journey. I found it fascinating: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds

UPF is a big issue in the UK

Most foods need processing in some way, altering the raw ingredients from their natural state to help with flavour or to preserve them. But there is a world of difference between basic processes such as drying, freezing, milling or canning and the industrialised complex processes involved in creating ultra-processed foods. Most of which end up becoming ‘food-like’ substances with poor nutritional value, rather than actual food, at the end of the processing.

Shockingly in Britain almost 60% of our calories (the majority!) come from UPF, which is way above other more nutritionally enlightened countries who have much more of a culinary culture. Think of France where a home cooked lunch is still very much considered an essential part of the working day compared to us Brits eating a cheap meal deal at our desks…

This data comes from a very interesting report, UPF A Global Threat to Public Health, from the Global Food Research Programme you can find here if you want to read more about it: UPF_ultra-processed_food

As humans we have been fine-tuned over millions of years of evolution to thrive on real food and these highly processed foods that make up the majority of our diet really aren’t good for us. As Chris says in his book ‘Over the past 150 years food has become…not food’.

‘Our calories increasingly come from modified starches, invert sugars, hydrolysed protein isolates and seed oils that have been refined, bleached, deodorised, hydrogenated and underspecified. And these calories have been assembled into concoctions using molecules that our senses have never been exposed to either: synthetic emulsifiers, low-calorie sweeteners, stabilising gums, humectants, flavour compounds, dyes, colour stabilisers, carbonating agents, firming agents, bulking and anti-bulking agents’ !!!

This is what constitutes the majority of what people eat in the UK which is truly appalling.

Over consumption of UPF is causing obesity but there are also other health impacts such as dementia and bowel disease and the health risks increase with the quantity of UPF consumed irrespective of weight gain. To my mind, and also Chris’, eating too much UPF is form of malnutrition and is having a big impact on both adults (half of whom are overweight) and also our children (with more than a quarter overweight).

What exactly are ultra-processed foods?

One of the best and easiest ways to think about UPF is the NOVA classification system developed by researchers in Brazil that categorizes foods and beverages into one of four groups according to extent and purpose of processing. Here is my summary of the NOVA system illustrated with pork and the various different ways we can process/eat it.

And to make the UPF point here is the ingredients list from the Asda Sausage and Mash ready meal:

Personally it is beyond me why anyone would buy such a thing when grilling or oven baking a few quality sausages and serving with some vegetables (I would skip the potatoes 😉) is so easy and quick to do…

The even easier way to think about UPF is that if the food comes in a pack and has ingredients in it you wouldn’t find in a home kitchen it is UPF. This goes beyond the typical ‘junk food’ we are all familiar with and will also include many foods labelled as ‘healthy’.

Tips for reducing your own UPF intake

There are plenty of easy real food recipes and meal ideas on the recipe section of this website if you don’t know what to eat - let me know what you think of them or recipes you would like to see. Eat well!

Ultra-Processed Food