This book may change how you look at food (Watch st your own risk.)

Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken is a non-fiction book that investigates the science, economics, and health impacts of ultra-processed foods (UPFs), arguing they are a primary driver of diet-related diseases and that willpower isn't enough to combat them. The book details van Tulleken's self-experiment with an 80% UPF diet, explores the food industry's role, and calls for systemic solutions beyond individual responsibility, highlighting how UPFs are designed to be addictive and hijack our bodies' natural hunger cues. 

Key themes and arguments 

• It's not your fault: 

  The book argues that UPFs are engineered to be hyper-palatable and addictive, making it nearly impossible to eat them in moderation, shifting the focus from personal failure to a systemic problem. 
• The "third age of eating": 

  Van Tulleken describes a new era where most calories come from these industrially produced substances, which are often "food that isn't food". 
• Health consequences: 

  UPFs are linked to metabolic dysfunction, chronic diseases, and weight gain, with the book exploring the science behind these effects. 
• Self-experiment: 

  A central part of the book is a month-long experiment where van Tulleken ate an 80% UPF diet under medical supervision, which affected his brain's reward system and his ability to regulate his intake. 
• Beyond willpower: 

  Solutions proposed focus on policy, regulation, and a right to know what we're eating, rather than just telling people to exercise more or have more willpower. 

Review

"[Ultra-Processed People] is persuasive and scary. . . . As van Tulleken rightly insists, there is simply something creepy about eating things whose composition we can’t comprehend."
― Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker

"Ultra-Processed People makes the case that corporate interests have given rise to highly addictive ultra-processed foods. . . . A brisk and engaging read, though it might piss you off. That’s kind of the point."
― Ashwin Rodrigues, GQ

"Before reading van Tulleken’s work, I felt pretty confident that junk food was bad. That didn’t stop me from eating it, however. Learning about UPF is a different experience―you begin to realize that some of this stuff is barely food at all."
― Helen Lewis, Atlantic

"In Ultra-Processed People, a persuasive mix of analysis and commentary, [Chris van Tulleken] shows how [ultra-processed] foods affect our bodies and how their popularity stems in part from shady marketing and slanted science."
― Matthew Rees, Wall Street Journal

"There is much to cheer about calories being cheap and abundant, when for most of human history they were neither. But as Chris van Tulleken’s new book, Ultra-Processed People, explains, that cheapness and abundance come at a cost."
― Economist

"Van Tulleken is at his best when using his own scientific expertise to help readers through otherwise unnavigable science, data and history, explaining with precision what we are actually eating."
― Jacob E. Gersen, New York Times

"An unsettling examination of the food we eat [and] a fascinating, but frankly horrifying, investigation into our industrialised food system."
― Ben Spencer, Sunday Times

"Ultra-Processed People [is] a fearless investigation into how we have become hooked on ultra-processed food . . [It] is more than just a great science book: it breaks down a complex issue of cultural, social, economic and political importance with clarity and sensitivity but without moralising; it competently evaluates the scientific literature; and it roams the globe in search of answers."
― Anjana Ahuja, Financial Times

"Deeply researched and persuasive."
― Sophie McBain, New Statesman

"If Super Size Me were an introduction, Chris van Tulleken's book is the Ph.D. course . . . [Ultra-Processed People] is highly readable and van Tulleken writes with the confidence of a doctor who has a reassuring bedside manner."
― Dave Hage, Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Another year, another reason to be fearful of the food we eat―although van Tulleken would counter that 'food' is too kind a name for the synthetic, stabilised products that increasingly sustain and addict us. His prescription not to eat anything you wouldn’t recognise in a home kitchen is reassuringly grandmotherly."
― Harriet Fitch Little, Financial Times

"Eye-opening . . . Ultra-Processed People is a tremendously important book that will help readers choose less processed, better food."
― Vincent Lam, Toronto Star

"The book is ‘scholarly’ . . . Yet it’s also witty, pacy and (despite a lot of academic stuff) approachable."
― Adam Leyland, The Grocer