The harsh reality of ultra processed food - with Chris Van Tulleken

[@TheRoyalInstitution]

There's no Q&A for this one - but if you liked this lecture, you might enjoy Giles Yeo's talk on the science of weight loss - kzbin.info/www/bejne/fYKtYY1mebeoo8k

[@thevikingwarrior]

❤❤❤ Royal Institution ❤❤❤ Lots of love, your lectures are always amazing! You people should so proud of your long standing record of doing all these lectures for well over 100 years! Truly incredible! 💝💝💝💝

[@pcchin3920]

​@@thevikingwarriorl😊

[@hentai2k]

Thank you for the lecture! Would it be possible to post the Q&A afterwards as well? I'm extremely interested and I suspect many others too. Perhaps if there are any sensitive portions they can be edited out?

[@henrythegreatamerican8136]

I can easily avoid about 90% of ultra processed food, but my one weakness is a good pizza. I must have one good pizza a week!

[@generalgeert]

@@henrythegreatamerican8136 I am sure there are plenty of joints who serve pizza that is non ultra processed. Fresh dough, real mozzarella real meat or vegatables. I think you never go back once you have found a place like that. It took some years but i know two of those places within 10km of my house (the Netherlands) so I argue its common enough. ENJOY YOUR PIZZA

[@debiesubaugher]

My dad, who had an aggressive cancer, when he was going through chemo was told by the oncology department to eat only ultra processed foods so he could digest it. My dad ignored it and just kept eating like always, whole foods from scratch. He was the healthiest looking guy in the treatment center and lived for an additional 10 years.

[@katspray]

It never ceases to amaze me what tosh doctors say about food and diet. My uncle had a similar thing after treatment for prostate cancer. He has become so depressed and weak! Sad 😔

[@aussiescotsman4145]

while it probably helped correlation isnt causation. It is just as likely to have been a fluke than miracle food.

[@Lizzyvallesrodriguez]

How was his diet and lifestyle before cancer? Did he get cancer whilst eating healthfully?

[@debiesubaugher]

@@Lizzyvallesrodriguez yes, dad always ate like an old fashioned farm boy (mom cooked everything from scratch). He repaired antique engines, etc so was on his feet moving around all the time. He was strong enough that he could walk an engine block across the yard.

[@SheyD78]

While I understand (and would probably follow) that line of reasoning, the doctors aren't always wrong. My best friend's wife was diagnosed with chrones disease which is an auto-immune disorder that causes the immune system to attack the gut when too much foreign material comes through such as plant fibre. She can't eat salads or vegetable heavy dishes without severe discomfort. She has to eat relatively bland, relatively processed foods, as prescribed by her doctors. And it absolutely makes a difference.

[@linhdtu]

I have just finished Tulleken's book. it is at first captivating with his scientific explanations of many food experiences in my life but became rather depressing by the end. i am 70 yrs old now. just 3 days ago i had confirmation of his assertion that UPF is addictive. I bought an "alleged" strudel from the store, went home and ate my usual lunch: a big daily salad, albacore tuna in olive oil sandwich, some yogurt, a banana with a slice of stinky french gruyere. i am now full. but as i brought my dishes to the sink i saw the strudel. i don't need to eat. i actually feel full but i couldn't resist the strudel. i can't remember the last time i had a piece. so i cut one small slice. i remember besides being sweet as expected, there was no texture. everything just crumbles away. i didn't have to chew, it just melt away. but it left me unsatisfied. i cut a bigger piece and it disappeared just as fast. 52 yrs ago when i first came to Oregon for my college studies i remember eating strudel bought from the supermarket as well. my memory tells me i had to chew, not hard of course, but i just couldn't hold it in my mouth and wait for it to melt away like it does now. so this stuff feels very addictive and is addictive. right away the whole sheebang goes in the trash in its aluminum container. oh just like Tulleken said in his book, when i looked up the ingredients lists it has more than 40-50 ingredients listed on it. why ? why not just flour, oil or butter, egg and fruits (apple or rasberry or whatever). i would even take some preservatives. but not 50 ingredients. no way.

[@guguigugu]

its not a strudel, it just looks like one

[@Dimarious.G]

There are so many products that just mimick actual food but really is just a bunch of chemicals with a tiny bit of actual ingredients. You should always read ingredient list first before you buy anything. ☝️😌

[@maquijaam5083]

I feel validated as I've had the same experience where I'm full but want a piece of sweet. Then I eat the UPF item and I go from full to hungry!

[@sebastianlaplume461]

@@Dimarious.G”chemicals” being all molecules… including “ingredients”. You have no scientific literacy

[@adrianna1289]

Just as explained in that same book, making a product using real ingredients is hugely expensive. Therefore they use stabiliser, emulsifiers, fake sugar etc, it is all about making money rather than making people eat healthy and nutritious (although naughty) food. I am very much like you, I can’t just eat a piece.

[@trisHa6666]

After being diagnosed with a gallstone 18 months ago, I completely changed my diet. Lost 5 stone in weight eating proper, clean food, including fats. I haven’t had an attack in over 12 months( I didn’t have surgery ) and feel better than I have in 30 years ! ( 5 stone in weight UK =70lbs= 32kg )

[@michaelzimmermann3388]

that's great tris, but it is also symptomatic for humans in general, we only take action when something really bad had happened. it's the same for other topics like climate change, stress/burnout etc. we know the risks, we know the solutions but do little to nothing until the day comes.

[@henrythegreatamerican8136]

Doesn't surprise me. I noticed the same thing with those highly processed KETO foods. Sure, they do a good job of restricting the carbs, but they add so many other ingredients that will wreck havoc on your digestive system. You don't need all those franken foods to reduce overall carbs.

[@jibjub2121]

really good to hear!

[@debiesubaugher]

Good for you!

[@ClemensAlive]

I tought you only had 1 stone, now you lost 5.

[@limonkapadza]

I live in the UK for my whole adult life. But I grown up in estern Europe in 80s and 90s. We simply have no money for ultra processed food or it even was unavailable in my country. We could have coca cola twice a year. Nestle cereals were sooo expensive. There were no ready meals at all. But we had own veggies and eggs, real milk and meat. Bread from local shop was amazing. And my mum cooked. When I was older I was one time in mcdonalds only because it was something new in my country 😅. Now I am a mother of british children and try to feed kids similar way I was fed. I cook at home from simple ingredients, I bake my own bread. I make simple cakes at home instead of ultra processed sweets. We do not drink fizzy drinks at all. In the results my children are healthy and they even do not like ultra processed food. They do not claim that we don't go to mac. They even didn't eat their easter chocolate given by freinds this easter. They love homemade food. And they love cooking with me or themself. This is the easiest and most pleasure way to keep heathy and in proper weight. I wish everybody in the UK understand it and want to learn for better future. Don't be like US. Sorry for my english, still learning 😅

[@CHINKICHOU]

Your english is very good! Quite interesting to hear that given that for me i had the opposite experience. i grew up in a household where we ate ultra processed foods daily. Since moving out, i have gradually learned to cook better myself, and have found the same thing - i dont fancy the taste of ultra processed foods anymore. I used to have a diet coke daily, as well as health bars, chocolate, and takeaway on the weekends. Now i crave none of that, and on the odd occasion i do have a diet coke, i dont even fancy finishing it! I think there must be some sort of "acquired taste" of ultra processed food, because i can so easily taste it now.

[@KristopherNoronha]

@@CHINKICHOU My experience has been opposite. I grew up off processed food (in India), but had phases when I was addicted to colas (back when diet colas were considered weird), then switched to the diet cola phase and back, until I cut back and stopped completely. However, after moving to the UK I find processed food very hard to completely eliminate. I tried it for 6 months, and I did get used to it, with great health benefits, but once I would eat even a small amount I'd find it hard to stop.

[@tomatomate45]

Born and raised in Europe, my parents grew their own weggies in their garden, everything home cooked. I'll never understand why we need so many aisles full of processed food in the stores.

[@carolginsberg662]

@@tomatomate45~ I guess it’s mostly needed by the parents who work very long hours outside of the home (10-12 hours a day) and they’re too exhausted to cook from scratch when they get home so late in the evening.

[@enjoystraveling]

Your English is practically perfect and I like how you give your children real food, I wish my parents had done that instead of giving a lot of sugared breakfast cereals for example.

[@lenoreleitch5297]

I particularly liked how he kept using his daughter as reference/example, proving that, no matter what, we are all just human and all susceptible to an almost insurmountable reality. The best we can do is be informed and do what’s in our own best interest if we can - not always easy or even achievable considering the complexity of 21st century life. I read some comments about his book on Amazon and concurred with one reader who observed “if you’re 20, this is an excellent book to read and to live by and if you’re 70 it’s probably too late but good info to share with younger friends & family” (or words to that effect). It is, I fear, too late for me in general but this info will make me more cognizant of trying to keep UPF out of my diet going forward. Dr. van Tulleken is a gifted lecturer - I have the attention span of a gnat but stayed interested (and wide awake, lol) for the entire hour!

[@Lamz..]

It's never too late. My 86 yr old uncle recently got rid of his Type 2 diabetes, just by changing his diet. A low carb, low UPF diet will benefit all ages.

[@mrstephanwehner]

I have gone to great lengths*not* to share pics of my daughters on the internet

[@clovermark39]

I’m 63 and have been eating real foods for over 8 years now and feel so much better. It’s never too late.

[@judyculang3766]

Also if you’re 70, much of your early life was not UPFs because they weren’t so available. It’s never too late to learn and change.

[@MrsSlocombesPuddyCat]

It is never too late to make changes.

[@etcher6841]

This kind of videos is what makes KZbin worth it. Thank you so much!

[@HARRi81_UK]

4 months ago I was diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes. My HbA1c (blood glucose) was 73 mmol/mol. Since then I have moved to a mainly wholefoods diet with little processed food and no UPF. I eat many organic things where possible. I eat strictly pumpernickel for bread, no refined carbs, no potatoes, ZERO added sugar and control carb portions to around 50g per meal. I enjoy cheese, fatty natural yoghurt, whole milk and snack on nuts, which keeps my fat intake at a good level. Kimchi, sauerkraut and yoghurt help my microbiome. I have also done a morning workout (exercise bike and weights) 4-5 times a week and have taken 500mg of Metformin twice a day. In 4 months I have lost 17.5Kg/2St 10lbs/38.5lbs and my blood test results today show a HbA1c of 36mmol/mol, which is amazing!

[@matthewhook3375]

Are you... me?! Seriously though, great work. I'm 2 months into this exact same journey. Down 11kg so far and Hba1C down from 90 to 44. Will you try to reduce (or even potentially eliminate?) the metformin now that your Hba1c is under control?

[@HARRi81_UK]

@@matthewhook3375 90?! wow that was high, well done bringing it down so much though. 36 is on the cusp of normal, so I am aiming to get it lower and come off Metformin eventually. Of course all dietary changes will continue - are you eating a very similar diet?

[@matthewhook3375]

@@HARRi81_UK Aye it was bad. Metformin and Trulicity injections have gradually brought it down to 44 (prediabetic) but I'm hoping the diet/lifestyle changes will normalise it to the point where meds are no longer necessary. I've eliminated UPF entirely, and doing real food Keto diet. Spot readings have always been 5.0-5.5 mmol/l since starting the diet. I was on 1000mg metformin morning and evening, but I've stopped taking the evening dose. The diet definitely works, and it works better than meds. I've also lost 11kg without really trying. Another 49kg to go to get to a sensible weight...

[@luminousfractal420]

Well done you 👍🙂

[@HARRi81_UK]

@@luminousfractal420 thanks 👍, just wanted to share my experience and show that such a change can be made and it yields results!

[@DavidResnick667]

Thanks, fantastic talk tieing so much together so clearly!

[@mikehibbett3301]

Thank you so much for this. My wife Shivaun would have loved to watch it, and would have completely agreed. She passed away two weeks ago, so I'm sharing with her friends instead. Keep up the fight and public disclosure!

[@lynnettemurphy8243]

@mikehibbett3301. Sorry for your loss. Hope you're looking after yourself. Sounds like your wife had an interest in healthy eating. So keep yourself strong and healthy.

[@cvan1075]

I have watched this session more than twice. Reading through the comments I see your network is largely your lovely wive’s intelligent friends. Good for you to allow yourself to maintain common interests with them. Please continue to do this …. You and they miss her…more importantly you have a chance to stay involved in your social world through the internet but be sure to see them in person for 30 minutes a week…at least

[@princesscharlott1983]

Hope you’re keeping okay. Yes it’s great we have people brave and intelligent to speak up and out for us all.

[@kathygodfrey3158]

My deepest condolences 💕

[@earthling-ad]

I pretty much removed UPFs from my diet 7 weeks ago and have started cooking nearly everything from scratch. I stopped regularly drinking alcohol, cut out caffeine and I try to follow a whole food plant based diet as best as I can. I have already lost 37 pounds and have never felt better and the best thing is I haven't felt hungry once!

[@KilgoreTroutAsf]

An important point to bear in mind is that ultraprocessed food is an acquired taste. If you have ever known the taste of real food it is fairly obvious how bland and soul-less most ultraprocessed food really tastes like, and how their creators attempt to cover that fact with cheap tricks that quickly overwhelm the palate.

[@Luumus]

I agree actually. I find ultra-processed food to be really bland, untextured and plastic-like. For example a McDonalds burger barely tastes like food to me. What is unfortunate in all of this though, is what happens to the children who eaten mostly ultra-processed food all their lives. It must be very hard to shift their palette and mindset to eat "real food"

[@campbellpaul]

Ranch raised beef, as opposed to eating any other "choice" beef which is full of additives, hormones, pesticides and antibiotics, is a world of difference. Most "all natural" foods (like wheat products) taste of chemicals to me, as they are full of pesticides and things like sodium aluminum phosphate, and wood cellulose that is not required to be on the label. People have lost touch both on the production and the consumer end of what tastes good and is healthy. Not even Jello has gelatin anymore, as it was replaced with carrageenan, which has no nutritional value.

[@MMartin-pt9yv]

Lots of things can be an acquired taste, however.

[@alpotato6531]

Why do you say things that are obviously not true?? Give a chocolate bar to a tribesman that doesn't eat "UPFs" on a regular basis. You really think he wouldn't like it?

[@rcjdeanna5282]

I grew up in Texas in the 50s on tomatoes that were from very heaven....

[@aiszzy]

very informative and compassionate, which is a rarity but incredibly refreshing. thanks for sharing it!

[@someguy2135]

Part of the lecture claimed that ultra processed food is responsible for the loss of Amazon rain forest and loss of biodiversity. Actually, it is animal agriculture. 90% of the soy grown in Brazil is used for farm animal feed. Another cause of deforestation is for cattle grazing. Brazil is a top exporter of beef and soy. "In 2017, Brazil produces 16.3 million tons of soymeal for its domestic market, and more than 90 percent of that became animal feed."-mongabay Title-"Brazilian hunger for meat fattened on soy is deforesting the Cerrado" Jan 16, 2019

[@Cantimule]

Since COVID happened I've been fortunate enough to be able to work from home most days and this has allowed me to prepare my own food. I wouldn't say it affected my weight at all, but it does feel more satisfying than ready-meals and prefilled sandwiches. I definitely snack a lot less than before. There is no way I could have done this without gaining time back from commutes and being at home during lunch breaks, though.

[@callicordova4066]

A silver lining from COVID. Hope you are able to continue preparing your own food.

[@out_spocken]

Of course you could have and can. You were just to lazy and unmotivated to prep food for lunch every day. Jesus. I've had packed lunches my entire life. From. School to uni to work...and work where I'm driving 2-3hours into the country some days. Then also taking healthy snacks to tie me over till dinner. Don't justify yours or anyone else's laziness. People say it's more convenient to buy food at lunch at work than make it. Yet you would spend more time walking down to a cafe, ordering and waiting and walking back that you would prepping lunch at home the night before. Especially if you're simply over cooking dinners and taking some left overs to work the next day.

[@truthtelleranon]

So you prepare your own food now but it hasn’t affected your weight at all? What about overall health indicators and body composition? Seems odd

[@sandrawright5104]

Love it, you just keep going until people listen; you are doing a fantastic job; don't let anyone stop you, we are fed up of being conned and fed up of the poverty stricken being denied of decent accessible reasonably priced fruit and veg. I am 66, reasonably well educated and have only just learned what is REAL food and once you eat REAL food you don't want any other (even home made soup is just delicious, nutritious, easy to make and freezable in bulk)

[@EverythingLvl]

Denied? You mean noone did work for u that ur entitled to? Jfc get it yourself

[@toni4729]

After thirty years I suddenly stopped smoking because I discovered my brother had given up. If he can, so can I. I gave up on the spot and never had another.

[@HARRi81_UK]

Stay strong, I've just got 4 months with no tobacco. Happy days!

[@horrorhotel46290]

Yeah, I think we did ourselves a huge disservice by emphatizing so much that nicotine is addictive instead of the fact that cigarettes are habit forming. I think most people overestimate the significamce of the first and struggle a lot more with the second

[@Tonipepper01]

@@horrorhotel46290 I can't believe what I just discovered about the Japanese. They're still smoking, or half of them are, and half of them are consuming "heated tobacco?" I've never even heard of this, I live in Oz and I haven't seen anyone smoking in twenty years.

[@whyyes6428]

I did the same, ironically, I started eating a lot of biscuits for 3 months after quitting and found that harder to stop than smoking.

[@toni4729]

@@whyyes6428 That's the awful risk. A lot of people gained weight because of that. People blamed giving up smoking, and never said it was the hand-to-mouth thing. You saw it.

[@GGoAwayy]

This reminds me when I learned how most orange juice works. It put me off anything but fresh squeezed permanently. Theres a reason why orange juice always tastes consistently the same from each brand, no matter the year or season, and why different brands taste different even if they source oranges from the same growers. The process that lets them store massive quantities of juice also results in deflavored juice. So they hire experts from the perfume industry to concoct flavoring that they add just before they want to package it and sell it. The flavor packs are created from chemicals and molecules from orange peels and seeds and whatever else theyd normally throw away, so that way they can still claim its "100% orange" juice, despite it being frankensteinian zombie juice.

[@annjuurinen6553]

It is criminal.

[@philipb2134]

Those"fresh squeezed" oranges might have spent months on the shelf.

[@simontist]

Also it just has huge amounts of sugar.

[@SteelBlueVision]

Reminds me of when I learned that all fruit juice, whether it is artificial, natural, organic, or freshly squeezed, is nothing more than sugar water. Just don't drink fruit juice or save money and put several teaspoons (and in some cases tablespoons) of sugar into a glass of water and call it freshly squeezed all natural organic fruit juice, because your body will see it in exactly the same way, sans a bit of Vitamin C.

[@TheBruceKeller]

Not to be a party pooper, but even fresh squeezed should be treated as a dessert. Fructose is only good if it's still with its fiber. Pulpy OJ is at least probably not quite as bad. I'll still do a hard pass on 40g+ of sugar with nearly 0 fiber though, maybe for a special occasion cheat day brunch or something.

[@andeegreen]

This is surely one of the most important videos on the internet right now! As a chef of 25+ years and owner of a BMI of around 40, awaiting surgery, and father to a 6y/o boy, this resonates so strongly. This message and all further research must be protected and the truth be heard by all. We must also ensure that Chris VT doesn’t mysteriously disappear!

[@RandoMuser-h1o]

must be hard as a chef though, to avoid seed oils and the like. once I started (trying to) avoid seedoils I realised just how much it had infiltrated all our foods.

[@ChibiOlia]

Thanks!

[@Kazuo1G]

This is why I have started to make my own foods. I may use some store-bought stuff, but for the most part, I stick with foods that are prepared from-scratch. It may take longer, but its healthier, and seems to be tastier. Plus, I get more for the money's worth.

[@aegisgfx]

literally no one can afford to eat like that, if you have kids of a mortgage, you'll know what I mean

[@lynnettemurphy8243]

​@@aegisgfx Do your best with what you have. Eliminate the rubbish convenience foods that do nothing for your purse or your health. Fruit & veg in season, frozen aint too expensive and can save on waste. Batch cook and freeze to save time. Add lentils to stews to bulk it up & reduce the meat. Adding oats to dishes like soups stews lasagne can also add healthy bulk quite cheaply. Potatoes & rice aren't expensive. Theres any number of different beans that are cheap. I don't know where you are, but all supermarkets do special offers on fruit/ veg & other healthy foodstuffs. Always go prepared with shopping list so not tempted by processed stuff. Small changes make a different. Its certainly not easy nowadays with a family. But you owe yourself and them the best you can manage. Dont get overwhelmed by it all, baby steps and you'll get there. You watched this channel so your on your way.

[@watamatafoyu]

​@@aegisgfxIf you have a family, you're wasting money buying fast/ultra processed food. Also, it interferes with your cognition, memory, and health, making your family less likely to do a good job and make money.

[@ravinchandra]

@@aegisgfxIt’s rather sad to hear that. In India, at least as of now (things are changing). It is cheaper to make food from scratch than to eat ultra processed food. I personally believe it must stay that way.

[@aegisgfx]

@@watamatafoyu spoken by someone without kids and without bills to pay. None of you live in reality.

[@agraciotti]

That was incredibly well put and informative.

[@donna-1234]

I recently finished this book (about a month ago). It is an eye-opener, simply shocking how we are manipulated into eating this non-food and believing it is delicious. It has entirely changed how I think about food as compared to the industrial products being marketed to us as food. If you cannot afford to buy it new, try to get a used copy. Many online portals for used books. No I am not affiliated with the author or the publisher. I just wish you well.

[@tdavis85]

This is THE BEST talk on nutrition and diet and upf ever! It's so well considered and researched. Very insightful

[@noneofyourbizness]

excellent delivery of very informative and revealing content.

[@Luumus]

"Food is community. And ideally we would eat real food that connected us to our family and our community in a way that had cultural and historic meaning" I find that this is still the mindset in Portugal for example, preparing and eating traditional dishes with your family is still a huge part of the culture. It's very common to celebrate birthdays and other special events with friends and family by inviting them over for dinner or lunch. The sunday family lunch which is often grilled fish or meat with all sorts of veggies is still fairly common, my family does it almost every week. And I contrast this with my boyfriend who is Czech and doesn't have these traditions. They don't often eat with family, and tend to eat much more ultraprocessed unhealthy food (on average) than the Portuguese does, and perhaps as a consequence they are much more overweight as well. I hope that Portugal, and other countries like it, which are known for their food culture and the communities around it will continue to keep that heritage alive and not succumb to the frightening amounts of ultra-processed food being imported in by food giants.

[@laveritaforza108]

I believe you're describing the way it was in every country, including the US of A, before the Food Industry took over the minds of the masses. Portugal, unfortunately, will be decimated like all western cultures. Unless they do not comply.

[@spurezurko]

I'm from Slovenia and meals in context of family are very much a tradition here still... Of course the changing economy and work habits influence these, but I think that this is not so much a matter of culture on national level than family habits.

[@laveritaforza108]

@@spurezurko you will see McDonald's arrive and the children/ teenagers adore the new fast food. This generation will destroy the family tradition of eating together at the table.

[@annab.3952]

Im Czech like you boyfriend, but what I m used to is more like your experience - saturday and sunday homecooked lunch with family. Also I cook almost everyday at home

[@brentshuffler1234]

@Larrasss, thanks for sharing with us about your Portuguese heritage. In North America, we have a tradition of potlucks and family-gatherings. I think that this is one great opportunity to make having good food readily available and very affordable because [a] nobody has to pay the cost for everything and [b] nobody has to do all or most of the work of growing / buying / preparing / cooking / serving food/meals. Everyone gets to enjoy a much bigger variety of foods while savings an enormous amount of time, effort, and money. I think that these kinds of gatherings also offer an opportunity to set better examples: e.g., when my parents choose to bring salads, vegetables, and wholegrain dishes with peas and beans rather than animal-foods . . . or we have pure teas, pure cocoa, and pure coffee with zero carbonated rubbish, no purchased beverages, no manufactured liquids, and no additives such as added sugar, added sweeteners, artificial creamers, or other expensive, non-nutritious processed junk. By doing the right things, our lifestyles and habits speak volumes to those around us . . . even before we say a single word . . .

[@hilding2063]

Great presentation, I was aware of most of the nutrition atrocities, but not in that detail and consequence. Thank you.

[@Wozza365]

Since hearing from this guy months ago I've changed my diet quite drastically. I don't think it's possible to cut these ingredients out entirely in most places now, but I've gone some way to trying to pick the right products. We don't buy ready meals anymore, we buy plain veg, meat etc and cook it ourselves with off the shelf spices and in return we tend not to worry about how much salt, sugar etc we add (within reason) because it's still going to be far better. We make our own pizzas and for the stuff that's still ultra processed, I'm checking the ingredients regularly. If they've got a very long list I put it straight back and go for the one that's slightly better. Noticed how much tastier these foods without the extra stuff are though. Have to pay £2.50 for a small loaf but the bread I pick now without any of these additives tastes so much better, even after freezing and defrosting it and spread with actual butter rather than the fake stuff as well. The switch is definitely expensive though, and it's taking time to make a pizza from scratch or make chips - but I'm at least starting to enjoy cooking now.

[@Lilliathi]

Yes, just buy things with as short as possible ingredients lists. It's more expensive, but you'll save on hospital bills later.

[@annupson9518]

A bread machine might be a good investment for you.

[@annupson9518]

Just to add, a bread machine would allow to bake full loaves of bread or just make dough for your pizzas, flatbreads etc

[@Wozza365]

@@annupson9518 yeah might be something to consider for the future. It's not the end of the world. I can afford the extra cost, and the bread I get is SOOOOOOO good.

[@DrNosepick]

@@annupson9518 Just to point out, you can make bread quite easily without a bread machine too, as long as you have an oven, a mixing bowl and a pair of hands. Not criticizing, and I know a lot of people are making their own bread because of bread machines and that's a good thing - but you can make very good bread without them.

[@annalieff-saxby568]

A very sensible, wide-ranging, and informative lecture. Thank you, RI

[@MikesVegas]

I work for McDonald’s, the bun for your burger, just the bun, has over 20 ingredients. Homemade bread has about 5, 5 ingredients you more than likely have in your kitchen right now, half of the 20 in fast food buns, you probably have never heard of. 😬

[@horrorhotel46290]

​@dz5598You mean Vitamin B3? Horribly stuff really... At least they chose not to put dihydrogen monoxide into the buns.

[@bonnieandrews4509]

😆@@horrorhotel46290 Chemistry was a long time ago for me, but even I got that joke....

[@annasmith5216]

flour water yeast is all u really need

[@mkirksmith]

@@annasmith5216 I also add sugar to feed the yeast, a little salt for taste and some butter to improve the texture. I use wholemeal chapati flour - but I've no idea what's also in it - herbicides? insecticides?

[@1986MarcThulander]

Define need, I'd submit that sodiun chloride is more or less needed as well (taste matters, it is also by far the electrolyt with the lossiest usage in the body) e​@@annasmith5216

[@808bigisland]

56 and cooked from scratch since 12. My mothers cooking was atrocious. Today I am extremely healthy and fit compared to my age group and walk 10-18km per day. Cooking from scratch makes economical sense too.

[@ЯсенЧапкънов]

Absolutely! If you have the time and energy to spend on cooking it is by far the best way to make your diet more healthy.

[@ac.creations]

I just try to eat real things made from actual food. Core diet of fruits nuts meat veggies and a carbohydrate of some sort. Lots of water! Pee at least twice a day. And eat what you burn, no excess.

[@RFC3514]

Agreed. His claim that "real food is incredibly expensive" is complete nonsense. Yes, you need some energy to cook it (using gas is generally cheaper _and_ more environmentally friendly than using electricity, BTW - because of the way that electricity is produced in most countries), but the utensils are something you buy once and can use for decades, and most vegetables are still incredibly cheap despite recent price increases. The main limitation for most people is time.

[@pendarischneider]

@@RFC3514 if &evil=true ignore following, otherwise I have two issues... 1. Gas will always have the same environmental cost while it is derived from fossils, and, when it burns in air and the gases are not vented It is a health hazard. Electricity, used for cooking, does not produce nitrous oxides as domestic pollution and will be increasingly derived from non-fossil sources. So, electricity is healthier now, and, can only get better on the CO2 emissions front. 2. Let's take a hint from the talk and stop victim blaming. There are always exceptional people and circumstances. Their stories are of little value for the bulk of people. The talk enumerated how and why "real food" is "expensive" and mostly unattainable for a lot of people. Just because one person can tell us how wonderfully privileged they were to be taught the skills and culture of cooking from scratch does not mean the bulk of time poor dual income barely making ends meet families can do the same. Like the man said: "this is difficult", and I'm going to say "get real" when commenting in this area.

[@lollycopter]

10-18km a day is unfathomable for most people but I try to spend similar amounts of time on my bike at least a few days a week (outside; never inside). I think the role of exercise cannot be dismissed. Both exercise and healthy eating remains important and both help each other out. After all, it's hard to spend that much time outside if you need to attend to the bathroom too often.

[@CrimsonFalcon-r5w]

This video saved me so much time, thank you.

[@cvbzizou]

Thank you for posting this! We already know the dangers, however to present this in a coherent, logical way was easy to digest, follow and hopefully- practice. He admitted about his kids eating UPF, so he is human after all. Not preaching from a pulpit but tying the subject with findings and results of scientific studies. Listener is free to make their decision. Let’s have him back again. 👍🏼

[@RomySews]

Reading Chris' book earlier this year has changed so much about my relationship with food, which I've struggled with all my life. I find myself nodding along with so much of what he says, recognising aspects of it from my own behaviours and feelings around UPF. I'm so grateful that Chris wrote this book (I know lots of scientists and researchers have been onto this topic for years but I only picked up his book because I was a fan of his anyway) because for the first time in my life I feel in control of what I eat and knowledgeable around the best foods to eat to give myself a better chance of good health in future.

[@searching-for-truth]

What things are you eating now? I'm really struggling with food again

[@elliegoddard99]

Thank you for recommending this book, I will have to give it a go. I’ve always struggled with my relationship with food however since eating whole foods I’ve noticed my relationship has been so much better with food and mentally I’m a lot more settled, I have noticed that when I do eat processed food my behaviour becomes a lot more erratic and I notice this now after eating clean!

[@RomySews]

@@searching-for-truth sorry I didn’t see this comment til now. I eat a lot of different things, fruits, vegetables, pasta, rice, lots of different meals but pretty much all cooked from scratch. I’ve started making my own bread and other things like hummus, cakes etc but I tended to cook from scratch a lot anyway, but now I’ve mainly cut out upf foods like chocolate bars (just eat dark now), supermarket bread, cereal etc

[@searching-for-truth]

@@RomySews thanks. Hope you are doing good

[@diedertspijkerboer]

When I was young and my mum always cooked, I was so skinny that my parents were actually worried about it. I didn't exercise very much at all compared with other kids and actually spent huge amounts of time reading, something I've always done sitting down. I was still very skinny at 18, but then I started adding 1 kilo a year every year until I was 40 years old. The only thing that really changed was the food I ate, with less cooking and more convenience as years passed. My weight gain over that 22 year period was almost 40 percent.

[@incandescentwithrage]

No, your age changed. Eat the same as you did at 18 (with the same low activity level) at 25, 30, 35 and you will have put on significant weight.

[@diedertspijkerboer]

@@incandescentwithrage That's not what health research says. Yes, of course I put on weight as I aged, but a gain of almost 40% is not caused by age. In my country, 50% of adults is now overweight. That simply wasn't the case when I was young. The academic consensus that is forming now is that it's ultra-processed food, more than sugar or anything else. Exercise, unless you go extreme, will not help you lose weight long term. Nor is our weight problem mostly caused by any other of the usual suspects. Of course, the major food companies and their puppet scientists talk about exercise, a balanced diet, health education, etc, but they actually know their food is mostly unhealthy and it's not good for their profits if we eat less.

[@incandescentwithrage]

@@diedertspijkerboer I agree with your second post. I was disagreeing with the statement in the first that the only thing that really changed over the years was your diet. To add a bit of personal anecdotal evidence, there seems to be some feedback relationship between exercise and preference for real / unprocessed food. My weight has fluctuated by 40kg over the last 12 years, and while exercising very regularly, my taste for processed foods decreased by a huge amount. I actually got a craving for salads, a first for me. I think ultra processed foods being described as causal may be a bit premature. I think in the future, it'll become clearer that the switch from primarily manual labour to more sedentary employment in the late 70s, and the increased consumption (and perceived "tastiness") of processed foods are closely intertwined.

[@diedertspijkerboer]

@@incandescentwithrage I think there might be some truth that exercise changes one's cravings towards healthier foods. Apparently, some research also suggests this. However, I have doubts about whether this is the main factor in the weight gain in countries with a westernised diet. I'm not saying it isn't, I just don't know. After all there's certainly also a lot of evidence that people often choose foods based on what's easily available around them and ultra-processed food is everywhere and is advertised a lot. I've been trying to avoid ultra-processed food recently and it's very hard, because it dominates most food isles in the supermarket.

[@chitwatt2504]

My observation from my hubby’s siblings is the moment they left the nest and are earning, they can buy whatever they want to eat which includes UPF which increased their weight eventually

[@lucianmihail584]

One of the best lecture that i ever seen, congratulations mr Tulleken!

[@fw6667]

I am 78 I live on a fixed budget 2 years ago I stopped eating processed food now I only eat the food I make and cook I make in batches and freeze I make my own yoghurt using a heritage culture probiotic I add raw oats to add in the prebiotics I make my own lemon curd to flavour my yoghurt. I grow my own vegetable I batch cook my meals so I always have a meal at hand in the freezer I know I need to have the fridge and the freezer the kitchen etc but because I cook in bulk my fuel costs are lower I have no waste it takes it doesn't take much longer to cook 6 L of chicken and vegetable miso soup than 1or 2 portions. It can be done you may need to reorganise your days but it is well worth the effort

[@beejereeno2]

Another great thing you can do is start using punctuation.

[@pammiedoyle30]

​@@beejereeno2how rude 😮

[@lydipie]

@@beejereeno2 Most 78 year olds that I know couldn't even open a KZbin video, let alone comment on it... they can use punctuation however they please 😂

[@MsBettyboo01]

​@@beejereeno2twit

[@jamesfrench310]

This has been life changing. Has completely change my relationship around food. I thought I was very clued up on health and nutrition being an ultra endurance athlete but how wrong I was. Since changing to a 90% natural diet my performance has gone up and my weight has self maintained. Mood has been so much better as well as recovery. Amazing insights keep up the good work

[@HughPryor]

In supermarkets I sometimes find myself looking at people and then contents of their shopping trolleys. I take particular note of healthy looking elderly people, and it's invariably vegetables, meat and relatively unprocessed food...

[@Mandragara]

Fascinating. I wonder what my diet would look like if I shopped with the rule "there needs to be moisture in everything I buy".

[@beanemeth7720]

Brilliant, very informative

[@0KiteEatingTree0]

I’m 45, and I’ve been saving this for the past 30 years of my life coming from a background of home grown food & horticulture as a profession.

[@praguecrbrave]

excellent presentation

[@CoffeebeanerHtx]

This video needs far more views, more people need to see this.

[@adb209]

Everyone should hear this man speak. Great research from an excellent communicator.

[@limitisillusion7]

This was an incredible presentation.

[@shaun5344]

Brilliant and thank you so much for helping a lay person like myself to better understand the intricacies of the food industry and hedge fund involvement as well as the many other aspects of your talk.

[@dutchtim8206]

Food misinformation is endemic. Well done for going some way towards remedying this problem. You correctly identify that a large part of the problem is the financial incentives of the food companies but it also applies to a huge number of other actors in this field. So many who work in food, nutrition, lifestyle and health have a clear incentive to keep us plebs confused and misinformed about nutrition.

[@Buttercup697]

But good information IS out there. I find people to be lazy about teaching themselves what is good for their bodies. It’s not a mystery that white crackers, busicuits and potatoe chips are bad for you and that an apple, carrot from the produce department (which you DON’T need to cook) is HEALTHY. I see McDonalds is sooo much busier than the produce department of every supermarket ALL THE TIME. Take some responsibility for your own health and your own actions.

[@Tespri]

He is a con artist. His take on that calories in and out doesn't matter is pure insanity. I lost 20kg purely on counting calories. Ate ultraprocessed foods as well while doing so. What he wants is that poor people starve to death.

[@philipb2134]

One might question this use of the term, "endemic".AFAI it designates a species in a limited designated place/area, but FOUND NOWHERE ELSE. Were that a definition acceptable to Attenborough?

[@dutchtim8206]

@@philipb2134 You are quite right - my bad. I should have said ubiquitous :)

[@emmacassidy8482]

No unhealthy food just unhealthy diets.

[@phillee2814]

An excellent lecture, which confirms many of the things I have found in personal experimentation with my own diet and that I intuitively believed but lacked the evidence to make the scientific case for. I've found that the ONLY way to make real unprocessed food affordable was to grow it yourself, but when I was bringing up a family I was too short of time to invest it in the labour required to achieve more than a token effort, then, due to some old injuries, I was too incapacitated to be able to even keep m garden from being a jungle, and now lacking teeth (My dentures broke several years ago and I'm housebound, so can't reach a dentist), I'm unable to cope with most rea food even if I was able to either afford it or grow it. This has resulted in overweight (not quite obese, but close). As a much younger man, I struggled to reach a healthy weight, which I believe (but have no way of proving) was due to diet-related hyperactivity. I'm also firmly of the belief that a need to put additives and flavourings in food is evidence of some deficiency in the food, but I'm in the trap now and have no way to get out.

[@magsf1138]

I agree, but a lot of people don't have the option to grow their own even if they have the time.🙂

[@shaunpatrick8345]

Today I bought a bag of vegetables which had been sliced to be stir-fried, and several slices of black pudding. Each serving had a similar amount of meat to a McDonald's burger, but was a larger volume overall, and it consisted of fibre rather than carbs. The cost per person was less than half of the cheapest McDonald's burger, and would have been less if I had bought the individual vegetables and sliced them myself. Real food is always cheaper than processed.

[@sustainablelivingwannabe1756]

So sorry to hear that😢. There must be some way for you to get out of the house, are you positive there isn’t anyone around who can help you? Also you could just throw real food in a blender so you don’t have to chew so much.

[@user-oj9sv4vx6o]

Best lecture on human nutrition I have seen.

[@nigelp5352]

The best presentation I have seen about the adulteration of our food.

[@bobfesterman3137]

Excellent presentation

[@mojosbigsticks]

What you say about weight loss is everything I've known was true, but have been told was false, especially around exercise and willpower. I went to the NHS weight loss clinic, and they didn't want to discuss anything except 'Calories in, Calories out'. They told me to "Go away, cut 500 calories a day, find an exercise you like and I guarantee you'll lose weight". Like I was stupid, like I'd never tried that before. Thank you for digging deeper.

[@peredavi]

Excellent presentation. It’s going to be a tough row to hoe, changing people’s eating habits. I was fortunate to learn about healthy foods as a teenager from “health food” fanatic parents. We grew orfanic gardens , made whole grain breads, raised chickens…. I had some lapses while business traveling. I could always tell the difference in my health. Now retired, I make all my food from whole food, bake sourdough, brew beer, harvest venison and stay active. I am shocked at condition of people and how it’s changes since 1960s.

[@mshark2205]

Awesome episode!

[@Talentaire]

Great conference! Very useful, thanks!

[@isobel8788]

Would def recommend Chris’ book it’s fantastic!! I have seen many talks & lectures on UPF & I still learnt lots of things from the book!! In the audio version u also get bonus content of Chris & xand talkin together about everything.

[@simonliljeqvist]

Interesting! Also, he is a really good speaker

[@sevuw]

Thank you Chrsi for this talk. Well delivered and explained.

[@peterbrenton410]

Some of this I find issue with,but one thing I agree with is we need to improve hospital food , -sas part of the treatment ) if only to get patients out of their beds and home sooner .Medics need better training on nutrition so it becomes a part of treatment.Listen the talks on KZbin by Dr. William Li to find out more on using food as medicine alongside traditional medicine.

[@lollycopter]

Hospitals hardly even care about ensuring there's clean air free of pathogens or keeping sick staff from working. They're all profit-driven - even the government funded ones.

[@JBSbass]

glad to see the next gen of professionals are getting the health information that we on YT have been indulging in for years now. Going to the GP did not fix my metabolic syndromes one bit other than the drugs prescribed reduced symptoms a little, my own research, YT and then implementing the knowledge made the difference. On my own.

[@tomlark527]

This is really great. So informative and delivered with a real sense of compassion.

[@azsqa6286]

Amazing lecture. Thank you

[@stevewilcox6375]

Very Interesting. Thank you. I can currently reading the book.

[@NyuNighteyes]

Im glad that portugal where i live is one of the countries that consumes the least processed food in europe. Personally, ive been saying this stuff for years to people, and beyond the scientific reasoning, i just prefer the taste of regular cooked food. helps that all our bread here is traditional flour salt water only and theres strong traditions with food too. I mostly just make rice potatoes soups saladas meats and lots of fish. Oh and ridiculous amounts of olive oil to be honest.

[@savage22bolt32]

I met a Portuguese gal & her twin sister back in the late 70's. They were the most beautiful gals I have ever met.

[@RFC3514]

There's "ultraprocessed" bread in every Portuguese supermarket, same as anywhere else in the northern hemisphere.

[@RFC3514]

@@savage22bolt32 - Similar thing happened to me (in a different country). But when I sobered up I realised there was actually just one of them, and she had a moustache.

[@savage22bolt32]

@@RFC3514 😆 🤣

[@Luumus]

@@RFC3514 That's true, but there's also an equal amount of unprocessed bread. And honestly I can tell you that in Portugal most people seem to pick the traditional bread over the ultra-processed, based on my anecdotal experience. So as long as that will continue to be the same, we will be just fine.

[@KMolen]

That's how i stopped eating proccesed food and started cooking for myself! Thank you!

[@tomstdenis]

23:54 "real food is enormously expensive" .... no it isn't. I routinely cook up rice+corn+peas+protein (kidney beans or chicken or whatever) in the same rice pressure cooker thingy I bought eons ago. It takes all of 2-3 mins to get ready for cooking, makes typically about 8 servings which amongst the 3 adults in my home does at least two suppers and a lunch for 2 of us. All in cost is trivially lower than fast or prepared food and it's loads healthier (until we add cheese or whatever and throw it on a UPF tortilla).

[@JohnnyMotel99]

This is true but then if you want to include fresh veg/fruit, then the cost does go up.

[@Luumus]

@@JohnnyMotel99 I dunno, I've lived in 3 European countries: Portugal (my home country), Czech Republic and Scotland, and I found veggies to be pretty cheap if you bulk cook them with usual staples (rice, pasta, potatoes and some protein), and then compared the respective portion cost to the portion cost of most UPF meals. Obviously if you add in some meats and especially fish, then the price does increase significantly. But that's the great benefit of eating a lot of vegetarian meals, they are cheap and easy to prepare. Obviously though there is the "time cost" of cooking. But bulk cooking and leftovers are fantastic for that. As for fruit, I will give you that fruit is getting more expensive, but if you buy a package of grapes (1.8£) vs a package of cookies (2£), it's about the same price usually and a lot of times you can make 3 or 4 snacks out of the grapes and maybe 2 out of the cookies because you've mindlessly eaten half the pack in one sitting without realising. Can anyone eat 5 apples in one setting? Unlikely, you get to a point where you don't what it anymore, but who hasn't eaten 5 cookies in one go, you know? So maybe the portion price is also somewhat equivalent or even cheaper for the the fruit because you just eat less.

[@alquinn8576]

@@JohnnyMotel99 but you don't _need_ fresh fruit or vegetables; frozen is perfectly fine and not that expensive

[@JohnnyMotel99]

@@alquinn8576 I will not give up chopping vegetables!

[@Demopans5990]

More so if you live in the med. Sometimes, you live close enough to an olive mill that you can get bright green olive oil. That stuff would be pricey in the US

[@johnnydez4392]

One of the best talks on food ever!

[@britpopification]

This is fascinating thank you

[@LloydieP]

I'm someone who has bean reading about food for years, from a crazy-scientist-chef perspective, to a type I diabetic nutritional one, and an organic-gardener-animal-husbandry type perspective. This bloke's book was still an eye opener! Would recommend it!

[@jabbersinc6218]

I moved to oz from america and the change in my body was insane. 14 years on im more alert, i am off two mood changing meds. The food is so fresh, the local vietnamese bakeries make fresh bread. People love fruit here and for the first time in my life i have a full fruit bowl, and i have fresh veg here! Everyone should eat like aussies. In context, i just visited america 2 months ago...gained 8kg. Maybe because i was stuffing myself on all the goodies i missed, but why were all those goodies that i missed desserts and soda...

[@diddlybop]

I lost my job and have been supported by my partner and that is the only reason why I am able to cook home made meals of whole foods for us daily. If I were working as well I would not at all have the time to create whole home made meals, my job was so demanding. Idk how anyone expects parents with multiple jobs to provide whole home cooked meals for themselves and their children consistently, keeping people poor and having to overwork to barely scrape by feeds the UPF industry.

[@diddlybop]

@@majkollalo they’re always marketed that way but for regular folks just chopping some vegetables takes 20 minutes, i dont have any fancy tools or particular skill. cleaning your kitchen before/after can easily take an hour. Cooking time alone is not all that goes into it. Personally if im going to cook im going to use fresh varied ingredients like vegetables meats/fish and legumes, and prepping those never lives up to the “15 min meals” promise.

[@Cel-xq6pp]

You're absolutely correct - even if you time it right and have everything cooked, eaten and the kitchen cleaned in the evening it doesn't leave much time free for hobbies or sports or literally anything else. When I lived alone and ate my homecooked healthy meals I felt depressed because there was no time for any enjoyment! It was just work, cook, clean the kitchen, do chores, and then time for bed! And that's if you have the energy left in the evenings.

[@diddlybop]

@@Cel-xq6pp that’s exactly how it feels!!

[@km987]

Completely agree. When I was a stay at home mom I had time and energy to plan, shop and cook healthy meals for my family as well as exercise, socialize with other mums, take my kids to sporting activities while weekends were free for fun. We were all slim and healthy. For financial reasons I had to go back to a full time corporate job and my hubby and I are both now working long hours. Trying to combine hectic jobs and commuting with raising a family is simply exhausting and, despite our best intentions, we now tend to rely on ready meals, take aways and high carb, quick meals and snacks. We also have way less time to exercise or even have fun as weekends are now taken up by household admin and chores. I also find myself comfort eating to release stress and I now struggle with insomnia. Well guess what - I put on 20 pounds and my hubby has developed a fatty liver. Both my kids have also put on weight and my daughter has developed acne that she never had before. It’s no good telling us what we already know about healthy food and exercise when the system is stacked against women and families. I would give up my job in a heartbeat if my husband was able to support us on a single salary but we can’t do it even if we cut back a lot…and no I don’t have a fancy house, car or holidays.

[@uweschroeder]

Sorry, but not cooking is a choice, not a requirement. My neighbors next door are just such a family: high rent, low incomes, many mouths to feed. It's a household where both parents work 2 jobs. There's 3 children and 4 grandchildren in the house, all of which are financed by the parents. They still cook every meal from scratch. Of course, they do not own a TV nor smartphones, which gives them the time to take care of their extended family. So no, the time excuse is just an excuse. If you truly look at home much time a day you spend on entertainment of some form you will find 2 hours to cook if you let that go.

[@frankrottgerkamp166]

Absolut super Arzt, er spricht mir aus der Seele!! 👍👍👍👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️

[@juliasew]

Knowing what you know about hpf, I don’t understand how you can let your children eat it. We NEVER had boxes of cereal in our house. We cooked whole food breakfast from scratch for 13 years of school. We still do that for ourselves.

[@Lucy-nw4im]

He literally explains this in the video.

[@zedooncadhz]

This is one of the best videos I've seen in ages

[@andycordy5190]

On KZbin, the advert following this presentation was for Doritos. I was the fat kid in school when there was only one or perhaps two. Fat has been an obsession all my adult life. I'm a gym user still at 66 and I have dieted and exercised for 50 years. My fat, however much I hate it and hate myself for harbouring it, will be with me until I die. I eat more processed foods these days because I'm only cooking for one. I am addicted to over eating and I recognise that my ability to eat through any natural bodily response to say stop stems from childhood. The feeling of being full quells the fear of hunger. Why would I have a fear of hunger when I have never known hunger?

[@margaretkristoffersen638]

Your story is my story though things are finally shifting for me. Small steps. Don't lose hope and know that your value as a person has nothing to do with this struggle. I get the cooking thing too though I am beginning to cook again even though it's just for me and it feels great.

[@SteelBlueVision]

Simple answer: Genetics combined with not limiting your portion sizes. You can't overeat if there is not enough (where enough means: weighed properly and calorie-counted) prepared, cooked, and ready to eat food in front of you to allow you to overeat, without having to go through another lengthy weigh, calorie-count, prepare, and cook cycle to be able to eat more than you should.

[@kimrowe8808]

@andycordy I also cook for myself.i try to freeze up portions when I make good food to grab for dinners. I find salads also nice as it takes lots of bites,you can put your tuna or cottage cheese or blueberries etc.on top and it's like desert.hope this helps.please don't feel lonely just alone.reach out and call someone if lonely ok.

[@sustainablelivingwannabe1756]

Have you tried mindfulness meditation? Be aware of what you eat, what it tastes like and at what point you feel full. Interval fasting, where you don’t eat anything for 14 -16 hours a day, can also help. Make sure you eat food that makes you feel full, i.e. foods with high fibre content. And you deserve a nice meal, so do cook, even if it is “only“ for yourself.

[@saggers2k11]

Great presentation and immensely informative. Thank you

[@gstlynx]

Tremendous lecture, really well organized, researched and evidenced and presented in easily accessible language. I think you need to address the low percentage of protein in UPF. Low protein is a contributing driver of overeating.

[@cynthiafortier2540]

What is ufp?

[@catherinemori4496]

@@cynthiafortier2540you tell us!

[@curiositycloset2359]

Useless food produce?

[@benbradstock183]

What an excellent talk.

[@SheyD78]

I feel like the biggest problem with ultra processed food is it's so easy. Cooking natural ingredients from scratch always takes more effort than just microwaving or baking something others made, and in the modern environment people are increasingly time poor, even if only from their own perspective, and so they turn to the easy option. As for cooking cheaply, I saw an interesting video on a channel called Atomic Shrimp (don't let the name fool you, it's quite wholesome) where it showed most of the 'cost' of a meal isn't the ingredients, it's the time and effort to make them into something nice to eat. The politicians who are saying it's easy to eat cheaply ignore those costs. For myself, I try to make evening meals 1/2 vegetable/salad, 1/4 protein in the form of (relatively) unprocessed meat or fish, and 1/4 carbs as either bread, pasta, rice or potatos. I'd be surprised if you can go far wrong with that. For breakfast it's wholegrain cereals in one form or another, with minimal sugar and fat content, or toasted multigrain/wholemeal bread, or on cold mornings porridge. A few times a year there's a cooked breakfast with bacon, egg and beans with toast, maybe mushrooms. Lunch is either skipped or its some kind of sandwich or whatever is to hand on crispbread, probably the most processed thing I eat other than the cold meats I have once or twice a week on salad for work or on crispbread as a snack. A long winded way of saying I think I eat reasonably healthy most of the time (which is why I put it out of sight) but it's when I deviate from this that I feel I'm eating unhealthily, and my weight usually reflects it. Eating out always adds a little, as does convienience food like pies or crisps/chips. Mostly I just wish fatty salty things didn't taste so good.

[@noxiouschocolate9644]

I wasn’t expecting to see someone talking about atomic shrimp in a topic like this, I used to watch his scam baiting videos!

[@blasebaker]

Great show.

[@goodviewfromuphere120]

Truth goes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is attacked. Third, it is so blindingly obvious that everyone always knew that. Dr Chris Knobbe has been banging this drum for years.

[@sarahcameron7797]

This was a really eye opening talk. Thank you for posting it.

[@someguyO2W]

Ate junk my entire life. Been fat my entire life. Had the entire cycle, ups and downs, fad diets etc. Now I've completely cut off alcohol and UPFs. Intermittent fasting and at weight lifting at least twice a week. Feel better, looking better. It's sustainable and fits very well with my busy lifestyle. Now, I'm working on saving my kids from my fate. We've already cut off processed sugar.

[@MsBettyboo01]

Make a list of what you don't eat to help me

[@osonhodeleon]

Great lecture.

[@iancormie9916]

Excellent presentation. One might ask what effect government subsidization has on food processing. Remove corporate subsidies as they relate to ultra processing these products will become more expensive and if subsidies are needed, they should be applied to basic ingredients.

[@sophiemarlen]

Great talk!

[@ataaah]

If you want to eat healthier, it's worth (pardon the pun) cultivating a community of locals who work together and trade or gift resources. I've made wonderful friends by sharing plant cuttings or excess produce. I do understand that not everyone has time, space, and room. But I guess just about everyone on the internet has access to buy-nothing groups like Freecycle, and many gardeners (even indoor gardeners) are eager to share extra plants and knowledge. Your local library may also have a "seed library" with small packets of seeds free to the home gardener. I really hate buying greens, washing them, and picking over the slimy bits. I don't really LOVE them, but I know I need them for health. I bought a kale plants and planted some chard seeds. I also bought a few heads of lettuce over a period of months, kept the core, trimmed off the bottom, stuck them in water to root, then planted them. SUPER easy, just takes patience, a sunny windowsill, and a jar with an inch of water in the bottom. I now have a small but very useful rotating crop of greens growing in containers. Snip off a few leaves as i need for each meal. They're growing in cheap plastic containers with holes drilled in the bottom, set in a sunny place in my yard. I feed them once in a while, or dress with a little compost. Almost no work. Of course this is all about time and room, but it takes me less time to snip 10 leaves of chard and rinse them, than it takes me to pick through a pound of chard from the store and remove all the wilted or yellowed leaves. I really appreciate this lecture and plan to get the book.

[@DGT73]

Great book, changed my life.

[@luminousfractal420]

Moved from the uk to puerto rico (usa colony). You get a full medical before you go and when you arrive. I had near perfect health. Very close to. It took 3 years eating the same diet i did in the uk (lots bread) to become borderline diabetic. Bit of research showed they use 6x more sugar in the bread here, which was also causing sugar cravings so id eat more. (Not entirely visible due to a hyper metabolism). I started cooking properly there and then. So now wife and myself are survivng the diabeties issues, step sons collesterol levels are back in control. Came close to falling totally. I feel so sorry for people in the usa being fed that crap, and now with boris.j matching the usa food and agriculture standards i worry for people back home in the uk.

[@solomonsalsberg5961]

It is unbelievable that crud processed foods like make an cheese (easy to make from scratch an add veg to it but, lazy people) has a different ingredient list then then Europe.. It makes me crazy but I'm in food biz so I'm ok with selling it but I don't eat it.. Colonized lol Wait for the global takeover of food.. 😮

[@curmudgeon1933]

Ah yes...yet another Brexit benefit. smh

[@eugeniebreida]

Just to say in US one can find quality breads (etc), in local shops. I choose organic sourdough or pumpernickel, etc, when I buy . . . buy at 63yrs I feel best limiting flour-based food. (I would never buy bread w/added sugar. Unless for “dessert”/a rare sweet treat… and let’s call it cake.)

[@TP1988]

Glad you turned it around mate, well done you

[@AndrewPawley11]

Van Tulleken is a superb science communicator.We should hear a lot more from him.

[@donnahaynes8766]

i am so glad that I have learned to dehydrate and can foods. I know exactly what goes into 90% of the food I eat.

[@RandomNullpointer]

Dehydration is tough. Did you manage to make it practical somehow?

[@inkoftheworld]

But at one point he mentioned that any sort of processing can degrade food and deplete nutrients (even the kind of at home processing). I wonder how much canning and dehydrating takes away.

[@donnahaynes8766]

@@inkoftheworld I'm sure both methods cause some degradation, but I don't have to worry about spoilage. Plus, I always have something quick and easy for meals if I can't get to the store.

[@MrTonyradford]

Really helpful thank you

[@trottiscliffe]

Very interesting. There is also another aspect, and that is the very recent idea of eating three times a day. This was possibly predicated by large corporates such as Kellogs promoting breakfast back in the 30's. This is the first time we have had three meals a day in human history. In Tudor times for instance, people didn't have time or the resources to eat three times a day, but also they simply never subscribed to such a diet. I spent my entire adult eating once a day, and that allows me to eat pretty much what I want.

[@DrGreenGiant]

Same here, I eat one main meal per day. Never have breakfast to "start the day" or "kickstart my metabolism." An interesting observation back in my army days was the three meals a day and many ultra processed foods. This happened when catering was subcontracted, rather than done in house. Many people in the corps put on weight, quite quickly. The very fit (athletic?) infantry types didn't so much. I.e. a diversion. Both eating the same stuff from the same cookhouse. Our officers mess was no better, just fancier crockery and cutlery! It could be reasonable to assume that the insertion of a subcontractor, incentivised by profit margins, was the cause of this sudden health change in a reasonably controlled group, caused by diet.

[@iainlee4274]

Left wing politics love it though because they can say this persons only eaten once today.

[@laveritaforza108]

Slightly off-topic maybe. Many years ago when the first McDonald's " Restaurants" arrived in London. I tried the " Big Mac " and found myself often wanting one , in a rather addictive way. I'm sure you know where I'm going with this.

[@westwonic]

Strange. I hate MacDonalds food. Tried it many times, especially Big macs , but really don't like the texture, taste or the fact that it's never actually hot, just warm.

[@shirleygriffin7672]

Perfect and thanks for sharing

[@MMartin-pt9yv]

Good points made but my question would be why are some people on processed foods NOT gaining weight ? Even among members of the same family, offered the same range of foods, there can be great variations in appetite and energy levels. I'm glad he didn't claim to have the whole answer.

[@alanmeeker2179]

Great question. I think it is because things are WAY more complicated than the speaker is implying here in this talk. He glosses over and overly simplifies a lot of things in this talk, and comes to quick and simple conclusions w/o acknowledging that there may likely be relevant complexities and alternative hypotheses. Of all the many Ri talks I've seen to date, this was the most disappointing.

[@nickspeller3372]

Well MMartin-pt9yv you clearly werent listening. Its not processed food but ULTRA processed food that he's discussing and relating to obesity. Secondly applying conclusions based on population studies cannot be applied to small groups or individuals as your data set would be too small. The same argument can be applied to individuals who smoke but dont die of cancer (maybe they die too soon of something else or never inhaled). The topic is indeed very complex with independent research only just gaining traction. By the way he is presenting an alternative hypothesis. These are novel foods which humans never evolved to digest. I wonder who's paying you?@@alanmeeker2179

[@dobriyranok7]

I was not gaining weight when I was eating ultra-processed food. On the contrary, I was losing weight, because after I stuffed myself with doughnuts, cakes, sweets, coke etc. my appetite quickly quenched and i didn't want to eat other, good food.

[@mikehibbett3301]

I wish there were more people like you in the public forum.

[@The_Real_Grand_Nagus]

I don't know what study he's referring to that happened "this summer", but the latest one I've seen (from February) shows that non-nutritive sweeteners do not affect blood glucose or other endocrine responses. It was an interesting hypothesis while it lasted, but we shouldn't be surprised that the taste of the food doesn't do much, just like swallowing candy without tasting it would still raise your glucose levels.

[@bortstanson2034]

You are clearly mistaken. These sweeteners are in a very obvious way having inverse reaction when consumed. And it does make sense that sweeteners prime the body to receive sugary foods and if it doesn't arrive it inevitably seeks it. From personal experience, every time I bought a Coke zero I would without thinking about it also buy some chocolate. Now it makes sense

[@dansanger5340]

@@bortstanson2034 So, he's "mistaken" because of your expectations of what "makes sense" and because of your personal anecdotal evidence? That's not science.

[@eekee6034]

@@dansanger5340 bortstanton's statements align with all the scientific results I've read about on non-nutritive sweeteners and the body's response to sugar. The OP's is dubious considering that deep within our digestive system, we have taste buds we can't even consciously sense. The scientific work mentioned by the OP seems to have been limited to direct endocrine responses only, ignoring (and by implication denying) the complexity of the neural network of the human digestive system (complex enough to be called a second brain) and its interactions with primary brain. In short, the OP cites a study which appears to have locked down the wrong variables, refusing to consider important things. It brings to mind the study which for decades had everyone believing new brain cells never under any circumstances form after the first few years of life; that was scientific. It was also just plain wrong; the scientists had denied all stimulii to the brains they were examining. Lock down the wrong variables; get wrong results.

[@alanmeeker2179]

​ @dansanger5340 Re-read his comment. He is referencing newly published scientific date, not his 'personal anecdotal evidence' An example of reliance on such anecdotal evidence is seen in the prior comment... As a career scientist, although much of what he states is reasonable, I found his talk replete with gross over-simplifications and many exaggerations. Most disappointing Ri talk I've seen so far...

[@dansanger5340]

@@alanmeeker2179 "From personal experience, every time I bought a Coke zero I would without thinking about it also buy some chocolate. Now it makes sense" is not personal anecdotal evidence?

[@javikterran150]

This is very informative. I also like the fact that it highlights that real food is more expensive forcing those into povertry to buy lesser quality foods that will impact on their health, but also the health care systems later in life. Change is hard especially given the financial facors driving UPF.

[@tsurutom]

"Never let anyone tell you that real food can be made cheaply"; that's just not true. In fact, the bowl of porridge he mentioned is fantastically cheap. I will bet you that I can make you the same amount of calories as any fast-food joint or ready-made meal cheaper, even with the energy cost factored in, even when not buying (or cooking) in bulk, and in less than 15 minutes. What you need is knowledge.