This chapter explores the effects of eating ultra-processed food on the speaker's body and brain, including weight gain and changes in brain connectivity. It also discusses the potential impact on children's development and mental health, as well as the interference with hunger hormones and disordered thinking. Additionally, it delves into the negative effects on the microbiome and the damaging impact of synthetic emulsifiers.
Ultra-processed food makes up 60 percent of the American diet. Though to call it food is a stretch. Because it is not, strictly speaking, food at all. It is an industrially produced edible substance. And it’s killing us. That is the nauseating conclusion Chris van Tulleken reaches in his new book, “Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn’t Food.” Today, he explains how big businesses have corrupted our diets and what we can do to stop them from causing further harm.