Ultra-Processed Foods Should Come With Warning Labels
A conversation with Chris van Tulleken about the economics, science, history and health impacts of our diets.
Most of what we eat is making us food addicts.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images North AmericaYou encounter them constantly — plastic-wrapped foods containing ingredients you can’t pronounce. Dubbed “ultra-processed foods,” they include “fresh” breads in the supermarket bakery, organic granola bars and the juices you buy your kids. Now, they comprise 60% of what the average US adult eats and even more of what kids eat.
And according to Chris van Tulleken, an infectious diseases specialist and an assistant professor at the University College London, they’re making us seriously sick. His recent book, Ultra-Processed People, explores the economics, science, history and health impacts of overengineered foods. I reached him on his vacation in the Canadian wilderness to get his take on how toxic products have come to dominate the business of food and what to do about it.