What is "Ultra Processed" Food, and Why Does It Lead to Weight Gain?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 มิ.ย. 2024
- Ultra-processed foods have become ubiquitous in modern diets. Many of us eat them regularly without understanding their potential impacts on our health.
From hidden additives to addictive properties, these highly processed foods can pose risks.
Navigating the complex world of ultra-processing can be challenging, and many people struggle to understand what to avoid, how to break unhealthy habits, and make positive changes to their health.
In today’s episode, Jonathan is joined by a special guest, Dr. Chris van Tulleken, to explore the science behind ultra-processed food.
Dr. Chris van Tulleken is an infectious diseases doctor at University College Hospital, in London, and one of the BBC’s leading science presenters.
Chris shares the groundbreaking research from his own lived experiments, including the now famous study with his twin brother Xand. His book Ultra-Processed People is out now.
Jonathan and Chris are joined by ZOE regular Tim Spector. Drawing from their combined expertise, our guests provide practical tips and advice, empowering listeners to make informed choices and take control of their diets.
If you want to uncover the right foods for your body, head to joinZOE.com/podcast and get 10% off your personalized nutrition program.
Timecodes:
00:00 Introduction
01:29 Quick Fire Questions
05:00 Start of Chris's journey in nutrition
06:23 Discordant twins - How can twin studies help us?
08:32 What part do genetics play in our differences in health?
12:41 What were the potential consequences of weight gain?
15:17 What is ultra processed food (UPF)?
16:57 What's the difference between processed and ultra processed food?
18:59 Is ultra processing purely about profit?
21:37 Examples of ultra processed foods (UPF)
23:39 ZOE UPF survey - How much does the ZOE community eat?
26:01 Are the products that say they're healthy lying to us?
26:47 Are certain ingredients hidden by UPF?
28:22 Is low fat yoghurt that good for us?
31:26 Is UPF just junk food?
33:30 Kevin Hall’s UPF study
35:09 What makes UPF addictive?
37:24 Chris' ultra processed food experiment
40:04 Could food manufacturers make healthier UPF?
42:18 How do we solve the issue of UPF as a society?
46:28 Practical advice for cutting down on UPF
52:51 Summary
56:45 Goodbyes
56:55 Outro
Follow Chris on Twitter: / doctorchrisvt
Follow ZOE on Instagram: / zoe
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Episode transcripts are available here: joinzoe.com/learn/category/nu...
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What urks me most is if you have a desk job, keeping healthy is a second fulltime job. Your work, you have a commute, and you are already tired, and then you are supposed to cook from scratch, excersise at least an hour, manage your household and all the rest, and get enough sleep. There is really no time for anything else in the day. I don't think many people want to live like that. Just doing chores and sleep. What is the use of a longer life, if it is just full of "duties".
90% of our meals are from scratch and the burnout is real.😅.
I am 32 with 4 kids, I work part-time and I can confirm that most of my day is just competing duties.
I'm 20 pounds overweight. 😂but I'm sure I would be more if I ate premade meals.😅
Same. Having to cook from scratch with a 3 hour commute, family commitments and food allergies here. It takes much longer to eat better with all the home cooking, but it’s so worth it. Saves me using my epipen.
I used to think this too but I've managed to balance it. I watched shit loads of time management videos and audiobooks.
When I cook I take my laptop into the kitchen and I listen to podcasts the same time I cook and excercise. The more u cook the easier and quicker it gets.
This video is 1 hour long. U don't have to sit and watch it lol.
Aaccording to the NHS, 30 minutes daily of cardio (cycling, running etc..) is fine.
Personally I cut this time in half by doing an intense weight lift session which seems to be more effective. I really push myself untill I feel like I'm dying and completely out of breathe 🤣. I do this first thing in the morning and then have a 3 minutes cold shower straight after, after cold shower I do wim hof breathing excercise for 10mins. All of this is done in under 30-40mins. And I don't eat breakfast. I just have water. (Sometimes coffee)
I used to snooze for the same amount of time but doing this morning routine has helped me manage mental health
For lunch I eat salad which takes me about 10 mins to prepare the night before. I use one of those salad box cutter things. I just whack all the veg into it and it comes out cut into pieces. I usually make Greek style salad. I buy a little container and put some homemade dressing in it. Then add the dressing when it's ready to eat at lunch.
For dinner I usually cook some kind of meat with veg. It takes me about 40 minutes to make it but I watch a podcast whilst I'm doing it.
Air fryer has really helped speed up roasting time. Sometimes I'll cook extra meat and freeze it or add it to my salad for the next days lunch.
P.s I do not eat healthy everyday. Some days I eat pre made chips or ready meals. I just ate a chocolate bar whilst watching this 🥲. Still working on it. I see the time I put into cooking and excercise an investment, all investments require a sacrifice. I don't feel like I'm wasting time cos I'm doing the same thing I'd be doing if I didn't cook or excercise. Now I'm just multi tasking. Soz for the long response, I hope this helps you tho.
@@Chopsyochops wow a three hour commute? Is that each way? Or total? I’m annoyed with having to drive thirty minutes to work!
I have been reading food labels for years because my 3 children had food intolerances and allergies. Now I avoid super processed foods because they are inflammatory and cause me joint and gut pain. I think if more people realized the effects that super processed foods were having on their bodies they’d get on board. Cue the doctors here…tell your patients that food can be inflammatory and cause pain. Not one of my doctors has ever told me that diet could be making my problems worse. I had to find that out on my own.
I've noticed a difference in my arthritis pain. I started low carb in October 2021. During the winter leading up to that I was having to wear compression gloves during the day because my fingers ached from the cold. The winter after going low carb I didn't need to wear them at all. We have just started winter here in Australia and we have had some colder days and my fingers, even when I have been cold in my body, have not been achy. I don't know whether my low carb WOE will halt/slow the progression of my arthritis, but even if all it does is reduce the pain it is a big plus for me. BTW I started low carb after being diagnosed with diabetes, which was remitted after only 3 months. However I have had many improvements other areas which have been very encouraging. I'm now only on a very low dose of BP drug. And my knees and lower back are very thankful for the 35 lb weight loss.
…that’s because doctors are taught to prescribe medication, not give prophylactic advice.
The sad thing is it's most likely the junk they've been eating that caused the allergies and intolerances since junk often contains histamines and other chemicals that will mess up their gut biome. Once they're healthy their allergies will go away.
Dr won’t tell people there weight is an issue now ..I was sent an NHS survey about this who should give dietary advice …I was staggered to realise that unless asked Dr won’t give any ….someone should but seems we all now have a right to eat bad diets ..never miss the nhs can’t cope with all these folk who are poorly where diet may be an issue. Makes no sense ,
0:00: 💡 The speaker discusses the importance of selling more food to generate growth in a food company and how the development of ultra-processed food has led to obesity.
5:54: 👥 The speaker, who is an infectious diseases doctor, became interested in nutrition and the differences between identical twins after seeing the impact of poor nutrition on patients in low-income countries.
11:55: 🥦 Ultra processed food is defined as food that is wrapped in plastic and contains at least one ingredient not typically found in a domestic kitchen, and it has been linked to early death, cancer, weight gain, and other health issues.
16:48: 🍽 Ultra processed foods are designed with cheap ingredients to be addictive and profitable, while lacking in nourishment.
22:44: 🥦 Ultra processed foods may have long-term consequences, but their consumption is often underestimated and hidden in seemingly healthy products.
28:21: 🥦 Ultra-processed food is not just fatty, salty, and sugary, but it also contains other harmful chemicals that have negative effects on our health.
34:35: 🍔 Ultra processed foods can lead to overeating and weight gain due to their effect on the brain and appetite system.
41:14: 💡 The speaker discusses the challenges of reformulating ultra-processed foods and suggests that consumers should demand proper food labeling and health warning stickers.
46:49: 🍽 The speaker suggests that individuals can start reducing their consumption of ultra processed foods by making changes to their breakfast choices and bringing their own meals to work.
50:45: 🍽 Ultra processed foods have a negative impact on our health, including the gut microbiome, and are linked to various health issues such as obesity and dementia.
56:05: 🍽 The speaker discusses the difficulty of avoiding unhealthy food, the shock of discovering processed ingredients, and the importance of reading food labels.
Recap by Tammy AI
I am a senior chemo nurse studying nutrition and cancer. This is so fascinating considering what I should be saying to my cancer patients in the future.
Delighted that Jonathan received compliments for his summary from both Chris and Tim. Jonathan is a great moderator and adds a quirky Everyman perspective to the Zoe podcasts.
I thought the same, it's the most valuable part of the podcast for me when he stitches everything together 👏
Jonathan has a real gift for concise summaries
I can’t stand the vocal fry he puts on and his playing “devils idiot” I understand why interviewers do the latter but it really irritates me.
He’s a great facilitator for conversation
Isn’t Jonathan great! His summaries are amazing and how he moderates the conversation to stay on point is so clever
In the first 30 years of my life I was living on a ranch or near a ranch and we got around 80% of our food from our garden (meat and vegetables/fruits included), and the things we bought were not ultra processed either (we basically only bought sour cream and yoghurt, the same brand for the past years and they have nothing, just the milk and the necessary bacteria, our bread came from the local bakery or we bake it at home, we made our own sausages, etc.). And I've been paying attention to ingredients ever since I was a teenager, thanks to my older sister who guided me.
I recently moved overseas to the Americas and holy hell... I realized that it's basically impossible to buy for example sour cream that does not have a really long list of ingredients (xantan and guar gum being the #1), the people I started to live with bought supermarket bread and it is disgusting (and not only because of the ingredients list, but also because 2 slices have as much sugar as 1,5-2 kg bread in my home country in Europe - or our homemade bread didn't have any). Even with home cooked meals in the first 2 months I started to feel really shitty, tired all the time, not being able to explain why my stomach feels weird, and I was gaining weight as if it was a must. So basically I became my own test bunny...
I am finally able to cook our own meals and I'm preparing breakfast for my boyfriend now as well (I am over the moon that he stopped eating store-bought cereals and biscuits, flavoured milks and granola bars and instead eats my homemade granola, bars and biscuits and drinks my milkshakes). I'm feeling better, but still not a 100%. My boyfriend however lost some weight and he says "he can't explain it, because he's not eating less". I can see he's a bit upset that it takes me 10 minutes in a store just to buy one thing, because I'm reading the ingredients list and I cannot find anything that does not have UP stuff in it. I can't even explain him that butter is NOT the same as margarine. I try to explain why am I buying the vanilla that costs 2-3x as much as the other one his mom used to buy, and he does not understand (or maybe doesn't even care) that that flavouring has NOTHING natural in it, even if it says so on the bottle, because he grew up here and with these ingredients. But I try. I mean he has no choice since I'm the one cooking. :D
However I agree to other people that it does take a lot more time (last night I spent 2 hours preparing the biscuits, granola bars and granola for the next 2 weeks, not to mention how long it takes to make a sourdough bread) and I know that sadly most of the people do not have that time (or money for that matter). Which is extremely sad. I really hope that it will change in the future, but my hopes are not high. :(
Thank you for the amazing interview! I really hope some people who know nothing about this or are skeptical will listen as well.
That's what I was thinking - I was watching this and went to my fridge and the only things I could find with an ingredient list in there were the yoghurt (milkd and bacteria), the butter and the ketchup and mayo. But none of these had a long list of ingredients, or had things I don't usually have at home (granted, I do have Xantham gum for our milkshakes, 'cause my husband likes them thick like starbucks' ones :D). However, in my case, I feel genetics plays a part, as I can't lower my weight even when I'm eating less and only home-cooked and exercising... In any case, I'm really glad that Europe has a different approach to food aditives than USA. :)
I really hopes he sees that your choices of what you buy are actually healthy and better for him. Its worth taking your time at the store looking at each ingredient cause you are what you eat.
I love Dr Chris! My daughter and I loved watching him and his brother in Operation Ouch and his "Dr who gave up drugs". He seems like such a genuine, empathetic, no bullshit guy who genuinely cares and makes complex issues easy to understand for the lay person.
Hi - I'm a regular listener and I would really appreciate a podcast on packed lunch ideas for kids. The ideas seem obvious - unprocessed fresh food but the reality is harder. What would be a well-balanced reasonable/time efficient solution. Note - not all kids tolerate visible vegetables! Thank you and I appreciate all the content you produce. I'd like to say it's a re-education but the reality is it's an education!
@@suzanneknight some lovely ideas, thank you
You're right, this can be a struggle. Personally, I give my 10yo daughter homemade sushi, chilli and rice, curry and rice, cottage pie, cold meats and vegetable sticks, grapes, diced apple sprinkled with cinnamon and other homemade or minimally processed options. Investing in a SHO food flask and a stainless steel bento tin (coupled with cool blocks) has made it much easier.
I'm lucky that the child that I'm still currently regularly making packed lunches for is very in to veg and healthy foods, however my two eldest children although I wouldn't call them fussy eaters were harder to cater for... I will also add that I have an energy limiting chronic illness so efficiency and convenience are absolute priorities for me. That being said, it seems to me that getting kids involved and excited about food is really important! Green soup is yuck, crocodille soup made from freshly caught crocodilles (i.e. nettles or other greens) is fun and tasty.... Asking the child what they would like to add into their pasta salad, getting them involved (and ultimately doing it for themselves when age appropriate is even better!) I write out menus like in a pasta bar: they can choose one of the ingredients from the first list (protein: cheese cubes, hard boiled eggs, kidney beans... ), two or three from the second (veg: tomatoes, cucumber, sweetcorn, brocolli, peas, spinach...) and a sauce (pesto, tomato with sneeky added veg, curry/dahl (from the freezer)/ creamy pea sauce...)
For time efficient solutions there's nothing better in my opinion than preplanning: cooking up extra pasta, rice, veg, hard boiled eggs etc... ready for use either in the fridge or freezer so that at least a part of todays meal can be recycled into tomorrows (or day after tomorrows) packed lunches or meals for myself.
The struggle with meals for kids on the go/away from home and no way of heating stuff up is real! especially when there are energy/time and:or money constraints... and I too would love that this be a future video topic...
I hope that these suggestions can help you or someone else...
Love, light and spoons to all!
hi kathryn, Plantiful kiki on youtube has great ideas for kids lunches etc
I know it may sound gross but 1 way u can gradually get children (young children 3-10years) to eat veg is by allowing them to dip it all in chocolate. I know it sounds mental lol! U might wanna do it at home first before u put it in the lunch box. Of course the choc is processed but it's a start in trying to change children's opinions on veg.
Get brocoli, carrots, celery etc... And allow your kids to dip it in a small container of melted chocolate. Like you would do with strawberries. After a while you can swap the chocolate dip with hummus. Tell them it's a desert.
Btw it doesn't actually taste bad cos when raw, these vegetables are rather bland.
I agree with Suzanne too. First thing that came to mind is to copy what a lot of Asian people do with bento boxes. Even just giving them the left overs of whatever u ate the night before might be good.
I thought I was weak or greedy because it is so hard to stop eating. The role of UPF is fascinating. It does seem like a good explanation for why we are so overweight and unwell.
Two years ago I stopped eating seed oils and only use avocado for frying and olive oil in salads, etc. The change in the sense of physical well being was remarkable. It only took a couple weeks to feel the full benefit. The avocado oil needs to be pure, and you can find it by researching undiluted, high quality harvest date stamped 100% avocado oil or olive oil. A lot of it is diluted with seed oils.
@velvetbees I exclusively use extra virgin olive oil and it's great. Very calorie dense ofc but heart healthy and definitely the best oil for cooking
The main problem is that to eat food that hasn’t been ultra processed I have to shop at least twice a week for fresh quality food. This works well if you happen to live near a good market or a quality grocery store. When I was younger there were shops that only sold fruit & vegetables but where are they now?
stuff like dried lentils, splitpeas + beans are good for cupboard food. fresh fruit and veg is overrated with frozen being better nutritionally since properly kept frozen does not degrade nearly as much and can be got in bulk, its just some specific use cases where it does not work. batch cooking reduces shopping for freezable resciples that make it easier on busy days. even in cases where it cant be stopped completely its still good to reuduce it down to 30%. quite a bit of healthy cooking is more knowedge and planning intnsive than cost.
I know bring back the greengrocers
I read Chris’s book on holiday and it is shocking the way the food industry are conning us and basically making us addicted to their products without any come back and how marketing plays such an important role. It is a fantastic read that I highly recommend that will change the way you think of upf forever.
Great podcast 🙌. Since i switched to whole foods a couple of years ago i found that it wasnt so much the cost (im on a very low income) but the time it takes to prepare food from scratch, particularly if you are vegan. A lot of the attraction of UPF is how quick and convenient it is. Its also really shocking when you walk around a supermarket how much food is UP 😢
Thank
Exactly. When they first started coming out in the 70s, they were known as convenience foods. Processed foods are often ready-to-eat, instead of having to spend 45 minutes cooking. And, often come in packets that can be thrown away, instead of having to wash-up and clean the kitchen.
They also sacrifice nutrition for taste. Which is highly tempting and addictive, for everyone, but especially children. They are cheap, easy to buy and store, and don’t go off as quickly as real food. They are a great antidote to stress, which leads to comfort eating and overeating.
No wonder so many of us are hooked, overweight, and unhealthy. In addition, we are all brainwashed by advertising and because everyone else is eating that way, so it is the norm. I now think food should taste good, but not too good. And I try to think of cooking and washing up as a meditation: time spent alone, doing something mindless and boring.
I noticed the exact same thing. Especially after work, it's very tiring to cook from scratch. And making something plant based is even more tricky. It can be difficult to stay motivated, especially when everybody around you is eating mainly UPF. I try to see the isles in the supermarket full of UPF as not 'real food' and that helps me to limit how much I buy and eat. But of course, 100% elimination of UPF would be a serious commitment, and I'm not sure I could handle that haha
@@ashleighspeight3670 You don’t have to be perfect. Just do as much as you can manage. And that will vary from time to time.
@@pmw3839 Fully agree with your comment, except for suggesting that cooking and washing up is “mindless and boring”! Why not see preparing food for yourself and your family or friends as an act of care, devotion or love. And the time you spend clearing up afterwards- best if the tasks can be shared so you can spend quality time with the people you love- time to think, or at least be mindful, switch off from the horrible things out there in the world and focus on the peace within your own special place- your home 🙂
It’s so refreshing to hear people talk about nutrition in a way that we can all get on board with. I’m personally a Whole Foods plant based person. But nothing is more annoying than when the Keto or carnivore crowd act like they have the one true way to live, even though these are laypeople who simply heard an idea and then evangelized it. Equating carbs as a synonym for processed sugar and then demonizing our bodies main energy source. Carbs aren’t the problem. It’s processed crap that’s the problem.
Obviously the WFPB crowd doesn’t annoy me but I can imagine others giving the exact same critique to us. Demonizing dietary fat isn’t the way forward either. Stop thinking about food as macros. That’s why I don’t preach but simply live how I want to live.
The thing that is obvious in nutrition is that WHOLE FOODS is the proper way forward. There’s no point in vegan and meat eaters bickering when everyone else is eating themselves to death on ultra processed crap.
Let’s get everyone on Whole Foods before we argue about meat being carcinogenic or plants having anti nutrients and such.
You’re just not gonna get most people on board pushing extreme ways of eating anyway. Stop demonizing macros and start demonizing the modern processing that created these modern health problems.
In most grocery stores there are a couple of places with unprocessed foods. Vegetables, eggs, meat, fish poultry etc. That is the place to go and buy stuff from.
In my opinion, your most important podcast yet.
The growth of UPF by stealth is shocking and criminal!
I’ve intuitively thought for a long time that the escalation of obesity and chronic disease must be connected to UPF, so I am gratified to see the subject being tackled on a wider platform than ever before.
I am halfway through Chris’s book, and commend him on how ‘user-friendly’ it is for those who are new to all this. It’s exactly what’s needed right now, and will hopefully increase awareness significantly.
I genuinely eat an almost ultra-processed free diet, although I do occasionally slip up with a packet of crisps (although I know from participating in the Zoe trials that they make my blood sugars go through the roof!) or a Costa coffee and cake. Not too often though!
Masses of fresh organic veg with a good source of protein and a 16:8 eating window suits me very well.
I'm an urban american in a healthy-ish minded medium/large city / metro-area, who was a child in the '70s when the 'junk' food insdustry was starting to get highly sophisticated apparently, namely sugared stuff of course, but also what McDonald's was selling. What's fascinating about chips, is that they're not all created equal and it's very complicated to get into! Basic potato chips that could be made with olive oil and not too much of it, could be decent. Personally, i do love some of the chip type snacks but i avoid them now that i'm middle aged and did so increasingly in my late thirties on. I also realized that anything with cheap vege oil was empty anti-nutrition food, particularly when not burning a ton fo cal's on a weekly basis, by exercising (was not always exercising, it was intermittent really like it is for most ppl possibly). Anyway, many chips are loaded with additives and reconstructed physicaly , like corn chips, which ironically, if made well, can be ok-ish for health, but only in very limited quantities probably (same issue though to my mind, ie basic veg oil is what even the best healthiest version uses, and therefore i stopped eating them. Most breads are technially far healthier, based on my understanding. That's how bad chips tend to be. That said, it's all about quantity.
Thank god for this podcast! I have recently been getting educated on food for the first time in my life and I now have a healthier relationship with food. Thank you Tim, Jonathan and the team!!!!! 🎉
I’m not perfect but I treat my microbiome like a favourite pet! Only the best for it..
G
I’m getting more aware as I go on. Been eating better for 15 months. An interesting thing is that the “ childhood asthma “ which pops up in winter (since age of 2 years)every year for 76 years……it didn’t this winter! .
That's wonderful to hear, love the idea of treating your gut microbiome like a pet
Me too, he’s called Bernard.
My diet cured my Asthma, had asthma all my life, writhing 3 months of my diet it was gone. Off both inhalers.
Market research: I once tested 27 different strawberry Jogurts. 9 each day ! Could not find one that even tasted a little like the Jogurts of my childhood. And put me off fruit Jogurts for years. I now add real strawberries to Greek Jogurt 😊
I don't eat yogurt anymore. Too sour for my stomach now
So very interesting. My generation were probably the last to be taught at school how to cook proper food. I have continued these principles all through my adult life and my household sit down to a home cooked meal from scratch every night, with the exception of when we’re on holiday. I am in full agreement with pretty much everything discussed however I do feel that making the important changes required to diets is a luxury probably only the middle classes can afford.
Me too, home economics, but my mum also fed us good food made from scratch
That’s where subsidies need to come in on healthy foods and taxes on UPFs - just gotta get past the lobbyists first 🫤
@@michelles2299 As a guy in my HS, not many took Home Ec.... I did ,as i always watched my Silician mother cook such amazing meals.... i figured, this will benefit me greatly. it has and still does.... and yes, i did take construction & electronics as dad said these were important classes to take too!
New Zealand has a terrific loophole that allows freshly made food to be sold without labels. Supermarkets here have exploited this for years. The other day I bought a Sourdough loaf from a local, small, organic, blah-de-blah, 'artisan' bakery and found my guts in a bad way after I ate a couple of slices plain with no toppings. I was shocked. I thought that a small bakery making legitimate Sourdough (and supplying our 2 local, wholefood shops) would surely only be using a bit of yeast, flour and water. When I did ask for the ingredients it turned out to have Maltodextrin in it. I cottoned-on to supermarket breads years ago but, it seems, that even 'hipster' bakeries are not immune to the tricks of the food industry trade. So many of us choose freshly baked breads because we assume they are less 'processed' than the boofy, white loaves in packets. Depressingly, we do need to be vigilant but we need governments to help us. (But 20kgs down after two years and have never had so much, if any, control of my appetite. Getting UPF out of my diet has been like a miracle. THANK YOU ZOE for being a HUGE part of my journey.)
A similar thing happens in Portugal, lots of breads and pastries are labelled as traditionally made but then you check the ingredients and it's full of palm oil and e numbers, it just has artisan looking packaging and the word "traditional" on it.
Here in Australia I noticed that bakeries were buying prepared ingredients much like we would buy a cake mix, except in bulk. For example, the cheesecake filling was not being made from scratch.
I don't think that's a New Zealand loophole, I'm from New Zealand and have bought bread from bakeries in other countries including the USA where the ingredients are not listed. Here in New Zealand I'm loving the Shelley Bay Rye Loaf but it's well pricey! Contains only rye flour, rye grains, linseeds, sunflower seeds and sourdough starter 😋.
love love this, huge thank you to the guests, this was so helpful and easily understandable not doubt because of the efforts of everyone involved
What a brilliant podcast. Very educational, I've learnt a lot. Clear and precise
I'm an identical twin. We're both thin at the moment. I'm slightly underweight and my twin is just inside the normal range. Most of my life, I was the fatter twin. However, I doubt that I've ever been more than ten kilos heavier than her. Most of our lives we've eaten intuitively. We've maintain our weight most of our adult lives with weights just above or below the overweight line. We now eat less processed food and more fruits and vegetables to be healthier than we did in our younger years.
I"m finding a wealth of gripping information this Zoe video.
Do we, therefore, assume that margerines like Pro- Active spread which lowers cholesterol is a UPF and that there are healthier ways of lowering cholesterol?
@@dorothyharland9904 I would think so. But first possible read around lowering cholesterol. UK Cardiologist Aseem Malhotra has made several podcasts centered around cholesterol and fats.
This was the best episode I have watched, it was fascinating. Thank you to all involved.
jesus ur an amazing host for a podcast, the quality of the guest, how you communicate to keep the guest engaged and extract information, how the show is structured. deffo a sub mate
This was far from a depressing podcast. Crucial conversations are very much needed in this area.
Excellent podcast thank you, looking forward to reading Prof. Chris’s book. I have read all of Tim Spector’s and learned so much. I can highly recommend. Life changing, thank you!!
I’ve been forced by food allergies to cook from scratch. Sadly my gluten free replacements with xantham gum and other junk have made me quite unwell and overweight. So now I’m looking at going even more wholefoods based once I’ve finished the book. I made my first home made Mayo yesterday and did a taste test with shop Mayo. What an amazing difference and it was so easy to make.
I’m GF and had to go vegan too - would really appreciate a good mayo recipe as we eat too much of the darn stuff! Many thanks if you could tell me yours :)
@@bramsrockhopper3377 I’m afraid I’m not completely vegan based for all foods yet as I have a lot of plant food LTP allergies too. However I did see that there are some videos knocking around on TH-cam for vegan Mayo recipes that I’m yet to try. My Mayo was made with organic free range egg, mustard, lemon juice and olive oil.
Yes your allergies will go away once you fix your diet.
I can’t believe GF foods are such garbage, the reason people need GF is because their gut is royally screwed already, and this crap just makes it worse. I have a family member who is GF and I’ve never seen such rubbish on a plate.
move country and you will heal
What an absolutely brilliant informative 'Must Know' show, a MUST WATCH!!
Wonderful conversation! Thank you!!! ❤
Enjoyable, informative and very professional. Thanks
The pandemic has changed my professional dramatically, in the sense that I now work from home a lot of the time and it seems it's going to stay this way for a while. This has fantastically affected my nutrition, because I cook regularly, not just on the weekends. I was never the one to bring a home cooked meal to the office, because I always felt too tired to cook during weekdays, but now it sort of blends in more easily into my life, so even if I go to the office, I often have something with me. The time saved on commutes is crucial here.
Its been almost two weeks for me in stopping eating junk food and I've lost about 12 lbs and feel so much better!! I enjoyed this conversation (void of frivolous debate) very much, it was very informative and easy to understand. Thank you :)
It will change your life. I have never felt better and lost 34lbs in 8 weeks. I will never eat processed food again. Okay a little bit of cheese.
@@bonniem5384As long as it's not a low-fat cheese, it'll only be "processed" not "ultra-processed" - so it's generally OK. I've learned so much in the last few weeks as I investigate all this... and am delighted to discover that cheese on toast made on home-made bread isn't going to do me any harm.
Thank you…
@@bonniem5384I'm really gonna try not eating UPF from now and hope I will lose this extra weight 😢
@@bonniem5384 due to various illnesses that came to light last Jan,,,, i havent eaten a normal diet since, shredded a sickening amount of weight (near 50 lbs in 2 months).. my only vice is peanut butter... i cant seem to break this...
This is one of the most important ZOE podcasts, and I'm grateful for all your work. I started my journey only in October last year, but the results are clear. It takes months for the effects of UPF to wear off particularly in terms of satiety, but with persistence they do diminish. I really do have my life back. Hca1 at the end of the week, see what my blood thinks of it all!
I’d be interested to hear the results of your blood test if you are willing to share the details!
Excellent interview with outstanding interview partners! I could easily have listened for 2 more hours. 👍
Such an eye-opening episode that I think everyone should listen to. We need more education around nutrition and Zoe does exactly that 🙏🏻
Great Format - Super interesting. Thanks ZOE!
But I don't like how the intro starts in the middle. I don't need a preview. Just get right into it.
@@harrparr8988 thanks for the feedback Raphael and Harr. Harr noting you can always find the timestamps in the description to skip to the content you want :)
Funnily enough, the preview is exciting for us as it sets the scene and whets the appetite for another brilliant podcast - this was first class - love the real person and longer, more in depth format. Thanks. :)
A brilliant and very informative discussion. Thanks so very much
so glad you enjoyed it David
I pre ordered his book will get to read it June 27th. Can't wait. I love how he explains everything. I'm grateful I found his video.
Really enjoyed this video! Such great information that everyone needs to hear👍
Fantastic podcast. Thank you all.
Such a helpful message, enabling us all to take better control of our health destiny. Thank you for sharing 🙏
Your TOP # 1 podcast and should be a must-listen.
Fantastic information, I have learned a lot from this x
Extremely useful and informative - thank you very much
Excellent, informative podcast. Wonderful summary
Excellent podcast. I had never thought muesli a UP food, silly I know but it takes educating to understand how we’re being misguided and hoodwinked on ‘healthy’ eating.
Why is there nothing in this conversation about processing aids? These are ingredients added to food that don't even have to be declared on labels despite being present in the food. It's claimed it doesn't need to be on the ingredients list because it doesn't have a function, but it is still present.
Really interesting. Has tipped me into making some bigger changes. Starting with baking my own bread!
We have been trying to avoid UFPS and all I can say is that it’s exhausting trying to find unadulterated products - UFPS are everywhere, basic crème cheese has locust bean gum, breadsticks and oatcakes full of palm oil and preservatives. It’s like a second job meal planning (for kids and adults) lunches, snacks, picnics etc and making everything from scratch.
That's how it's supposed to be. We need to make everything from scratch. The moment you go for convenient food other than a piece of fruit or vegetable you lost.
@@zacharymoore6816 ?? ‘You lost?’ What does that mean? There is no reason crème cheese has additives, breadsticks are flour, water, salt and olive oil.. is there genuinely no reason shops / bakers couldn’t sell these? People with full time jobs and kids and caring responsibilities don’t have time to make cheese etc. what a weird comment!
@@whiterose6635 The reason they have them is profit. I bet that locust bean gum improves the mouth feel of the cream cheese so it seems thicker and creamer, so more people buy it. The breadsticks have the palm oil because it's cheaper and the preservatives to improve shelf life, both of which improve profit. I guess if more people start avoiding UPF they will start selling more alternatives.
@whiterose6635 I don't trust shops or bakeries at this point. I don't consume flour either. That's a no-no. If you aren't eating clean and ridding your body of what big food and big pharma have collabed to put inside of you, then yes, you are losing. I don't mean it negatively. We can fight back. But yes, everything from scratch. Stop eating their fakeness or continue and possibly risk alzheimers, cancer, heart disease, fatty liver disease.. or diabetes to name a few.
@@whiterose6635that's right! cream cheese is a classic insidious one and to me it's fascinating. Because we can buy real cheese and kinda make our own quick cream cheese by mixing it with some other things (i experiment all the time in a bowl by combining various foods and in ways that even kids would like very much). The gums really are a problem to my surprise, and my gen, midlifers and all those up to about 75 i guess, have had LOADs of them all our lives up till the past 15-20 when whole foods starting becoming the well known goal
I’ve just got the book and I’m looking forward to reading it. I really enjoyed the podcast he did with twin brother, Xand called A Thorough Examination (series 1) where he was trying to get Xand to give up the UPFs.
Great video and important discussion. One thing I’m curious to understand more, however, is are all ingredients which make a food classed as ‘ultra-processed’ as bad as each other though? There are a lot of different thickeners, emulsifiers, etc. and do we really have much evidence to say that they all may cause cancer and other diseases or are some worse than others? Surely a food item that is mostly whole food but has a bit of preservatives in is better than these ‘food-like’ substances you discussed, that are almost entirely made out of reconstituted and highly processed foods which are unrecognisable to anything we could make in our kitchens at home.
Thank you for another fantastic epidode
Really helpful and clear. Thank you.
So pleased to hear it. Thanks for watching Odet
Chris's interview on the Channel 4 podcast is also very good, plenty of overlap with this chat.
The real jaw-dropping moment was at 39:15 with the MRI scans while on the full UPF trial diet.
The gaming of nutrition labeling rules by the food industry is maddening; I just checked my latest tin of branded baked beans labeled 'no added sugar' & 'no artificial sweeteners' ... what does it contain? Stevia!!
FYI: to avoid the 'sugar tax', many of the standard sugary drinks now have slightly reduced sugar and a little artificial sweetener to make up, so it's almost impossible to avoid the sweeteners if that's your choice [for the infrequent occasions when menu choice is limited].
Certainly taking action after this. Thank you for a great episode.
Great podcast - everyone should listen to this. I for one will be looking to make the transition to a whole food diet as soon as possible.
Fantastic video, thank you ❤
That was an excellent video. I’ve never heard of this channel and when I look at some of the other guys that have been on, I say I will pass but these two I will always watch.
great podcast thank you all
Great podcast. And great questions
The problem with twin studies is the usual perception of scientists is if twins grow up in the same house they have the same experience, but often that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Parents can treat children very differently, and it can have a huge impact on how their psyches develop (and if their experiences are traumatic, will affect how their brain architecture and central nervous system develop).
brilliant and interesting. Thank you so much for that podcast, one more subscriber
Thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. 😊 Education is the way forward and is empowering as it helps us to make healthy changes to our diet and wake up to the ingrained habits that do not serve us. Instead of buying UPF 's in the form of snacks, bread and convenience food, I've been spending the money saved on real food. The hardest thing I've found is finding the time and energy to be so organised with my meal planning and batch cooking that takes in the likes and dislikes of the whole family, but I'm working on it! Thank you!
This was such an informative interview with 2 incredible, educated, articulate & intelligent humans! I loved learning about their own connection to each other and how that experience had led each of them into some very informative directions for human health! I have struggled with my weight for 20 years...I had to have my thyroid removed completely 12 years ago and thought I understood diet and nutrition yet, frustratingly, had continued to put on weight ... I blamed my 'compromised' metabolism on my weight gain...I now realise that this may not be the case at all. I have just purchased Chris's book...great podcast!
Excellent information! I've just finished Chris's book so at the moment pretty much every food item I pick up I think to myself 'is this UPF?' The definition is hard to nail but I work on the basis if I could process it at home in the same way, I'll eat it. Therefore I can make a cake at home but I can't make a cake which will still be fresh next week so I don't eat shop-bought cake now.
I will probably start doing the same thing now after watching the video. After I started low carb (I watched a large amount of videos to learn more) I noticed that when I went to the shops for groceries I was looking at the items and thinking about their carb content, not what they taste like. Whereas before I would look at a packet of fancy biscuits, or mangoes, cherries etc and think yummy, I started thinking lots of carbs!
i;ve been reading this dude's book, about half way through.
i'm 22, 6 foot and 150 kg. i used to stuff myself with bread because there was little else i was allowed to eat, and my gut hurts when i'm even a little hungry.
today i made my own bread. 3 cups flour, yeast, salt, water and a little oil. ate it with 2 slices ham, 2 slices salami and some cheese.
this was 10 hours ago. i haven't felt the need to eat anything since then
This topic is so important. For me the problem with UPFs and the damage to health equates to the dangers of smoking. Something needs to be done at a national level and government intervention is needed to legislate to make food manufacturers responsible. But As Prof Spector so rightly says our government is corrupt and protects these food giants so what is to be done? The results of obesity are costing our country billions so why are we not preventing these nutrition related problems instead of trying to cure them by giving children weight loss injections. It is a demographic time bomb.
Don’t vote Tory is a good start.
the summary at the end is amazing
Thank you, another excellent vlog. Processed food it today's tobacco. I can't help think though that it's a conversation for the already convinced when this information is so valuable to broader society. There must be some way to get it these facts out to millions of people around the world. In the same way the processed food industry use PR and advocacy money to influence research, policy makers and governments the functional medicine community and others need to use the power of social media influencers to get the true facts out to the world. Who are the social media influencers with large audiences around the world who would want to encourage better health and eating?
This is very engaging material.
Brilliant !!!
Great topic guys. Our food is marketed on ‘taste’ rather than nutritional value. We all have choices when we shop. Buying and eating low carb high fat whole foods like humans did for thousands of years is the the way to health - in my opinion.
This so awesome 🤩 I find it fascinating
Wonderful information , going veggie helped me and my wife and her understanding of whole foods in the main , and it has helped me and her to adapt to mainly non processed food where we were 2 years ago and amazing changes we have felt from this in the positive , more energy less food consumed etc
Well done! Quality wholefoods are vital. I've been veggie for 20 yearsish, and eating wholefoods for 30+ years.
Thanks Guys. Glad you're getting the word out. Should be obvious, but it's amazing how it get so normalised, to the point of our close friends, relatives and loved ones almost force us to keep consuming it.
19:38. Love the definition of what UPF's are. Coming up.
Go Japans approach. They have an UPF watchdog, that is fully supportive by the government, and enforced.
Loved it, please make a podcast about teens nutrition advice. Thanks.
No 👎! Absolutely not! Not now! Not tomorrow! Not ever! 😶
Right at that 40 minute mark - just absolute MIC DROP.
Great Discussion very interesting, from a personal point of view I think us members of the public are already questioning what is in the food we are eating as we are seeing the consequence's of
having eaten ultra processed foods over a number of years,i am look forward to reading Dr. Chris van Tulleken's new book...All the best Mark.
Good point. Some of us do question, but look in a McDonald's window, look in people's shopping trolleys 😢
@@bobadams7654 I agree - my partner works with teenagers and he says that they are completely obsessed with Macdonald's. And the youth hostels have had to 'dumb down' the meals that they offer because the children won't eat it otherwise - they'll just go out and buy snacks 😬
I think it's very important that people learn to either make quick meals or prep them to save time. The more likely it is that people do that, the less they will eat these foods. In the case of yogurt, I try to buy skyr which tends to have very little ingredients. The one I get literally has two: whole milk and live/active cultures.
I live in Germany and here it's quite common to have kitchenettes at work with at least a microwave or two, so you can bring food from home and warm it up. Also eating rolled oats (Haferflocken) is much more common than cereals for breakfast.
Most places in the US have that too, but it's about preparing that food the night before or the morning of.
@@alextallen8019 Cooking a dinner isn't such a hassle, or? Also, when cooking on the weekend, you can simply cook more and freeze the extra portions. Soupy stuff like goulash, beans, lentils, pumpkin soup etc. tend to keep really well in the freezer.
I much appreciate you dedicating an episode to this. I encourage you to consider that your audience is not just the UK and US, but also other countries. If you buy freshly based bread or a frozen pizza at the supermarket in Germany, or possibly in the most high-quality chains in the UK, it may be that the ingredients are all things that you would find in your kitchen. It'd be really helpful to have a clearer definition of what ultra-processed is, with practical examples. E.g. a frozen pizza that contains only normal ingredients, no mono/diglycerids or other weird chemicals, just a bit of added sugar for a total of 3-5g/100 g, would that be considered ultra-processed? I think it isn't, and paired with some veggies, it would be acceptable to eat. How about some fish fingers that contain little amounts of added dextrose, with a relatively low sugar content overall, as the only "exotic" ingredient? That seems acceptable to me, if it's not taken on a daily basis.
At 16.57 they discussed ready meals that contain only ingredients you would have in your kitchen, which we have a lot of in the UK, and whether they count as ultra-processed. Also 31.26.
I’d recommend reading Chris’s book to answer your questions
Yes, ultra processed foods usually include a lot of salt, sugar and fat, along with additives or dyes that are mostly synthesised in a lab (usually the ingredient names you or even your older relatives won’t recognise), etc. If it doesn’t include simple, easy to recognise ingredients (with the exception of added sugar, salt and fat) then it’s ultra processed.
And you’re right about the amount of added sugar. I heard another doctor say if it’s more than 5g per serving of added sugar, then don’t eat it.
I think at the end of the day it’s for people to use their judgement. And I think that goes for all foods, but especially ultra processed foods. If you eat something that you feel like overeating on, then most likely it’s something you shouldn’t eat/ limit in your diet. For me that includes even unsalted nuts, cuz I’m prone to overeating them. So I stopped snacking on them and only have them sparingly with a meal (as a topping).
@@rezziegggso brutal but true haha - if you’re overly enjoying a particular supposedly healthy food it’s probably either processed or good but has to be severely curtailed 😅😭
Would love to be able to read labels. They need rules to say dark ink on light ground. I have trouble with colours like green and orange on a pale ground. And font size is miniscule. Is this part of the misinformation plan?
I have the same problem. For supermarket store cupboard basics I now shop online. The ingredients list is then in normal print on the screen, so much easier. I do click and collect as you only need to order a small amount. Most of my fresh food comes from the butcher greengrocer etc. I agree the packaging should be clearer though.
There are several app’s available that scan barcodes and inform you of the nutritional value. Might make it easier for you? 😊
@@jlumsden9468
That's a good idea!
I love your yellow ZOE coffee mugs! Are they for sale? Where?
Good episode. I'd be interested in hearing more on this topic. I think some particular classifications can be a bit surprising, like no-sugar Alpen, or those vegan burger/rolls they sell at Lidl, which are classified as ultra-processed, presumably because they contain gluten as a protein ingredient. Surely the impact of specific ingredients that make a food ultraprocessed (such as gluten as a protein as opposed to an integral part of a grain) hasn't been specifically examined. I mean to the extent that the impact of UPFs has been studied, it's the overall impact of a broad set of things that are purported to define/identify ultraprocessed foods, isn't it?
Personally I think if you can do and are so inclined eat food rather than 'substances'.
Goes for a vegan diet, too, eat a plant based diet _and_ eat veg, salads, plant-based fats, protein etc. instead of "pretendy" things like 'processed-into-feeling-like-a-birger' stuff.
This was so good. We cannot rely on the government or the food industry. We have to do it for ourselves. We know what to do now: go back to natural foods and home cooking.
Top-notch panel. Ultraprocessed food is the most threatening nutritional scourge in the world today. The danger of ultraprocessed food is far more relevant than the plant-based vs. animal-based nutrition debates.
This!
Fascinating!
We need to consider the hours of unpaid labour that goes into healthy food prep. I love cooking when I have time, but I can see that if you have 3 young children and a job it’s hard to avoid UHP (or is it UPF) food. We need time/saving affordable solutions to this that keep us and our kids healthy. Safely Processed Food perhaps?
Please clarify should we treat added vitamins/minerals as a signifier of ultra processing? I am looking at weetabix and the only ingredients that can't be found in a kitchen are those
Yup. Since I’ve been out of work it’s been almost no ultra processed foods. It takes time to make your own yogurt, pickles, live sourdough breads, sauces, grin my own hummus, falafel, pressure cooked beans and home canning, etc. But it takes a lot of TIME and MONEY. That’s a combination almost nobody has.
Planning, preparation and buying seasonal helps me with cheap, healthy and quick food.
I buy dry beans, use up the whole veggie/ fruit - from seeds to rind.
They managed before it existed …..just get an old cook book….home cooking as it was..
@@jacquelinearcher1158I agree ..but, thinking of the planet as well as ourselves..eating lots of meat nowadays, such as beef, is not so acceptable.
Well you don’t really have to do all that to eat and be moderately healthy. Hummus for example takes only minutes to make with a can of chickpeas and sesame seeds. Just grind the sesame seeds with some oil in a blender and you have tahini, blend it with chickpeas, add some seasoning and voila, you have hummus. It’s really not as hard as you are making it sound. As for cooking, there are plenty of oven cooked recipes that can be found online that only require 5 mins of preparation time. Plenty of one pan recipes also exist that can be accomplished with few ingredients. Obviously most people don’t have the time and money to make their own yoghurt, bread and canned food. But cooking simple and nutritious meals with simple ingredients is not a hard thing to do. Neither is it expensive.
Well; just how valuable is your health to you?
It IS that simple!
So true. Look at the dryer sheets, such as bounce, the chemicals they release on your clothing can create various shin rashes . Look at the ingredients. It’s a hot lodge of chemicals. It mimics eckzema but harms you at the cellular level. Just ask a dermatologist.
Search online how many chemicals exist in our world and how long. Also how and where they’re sourced for diff uses incl tech used daily. A friend is a consultant in environmental science and says it’s not if it’s having an effect but how and level. Avail info and reported in respected publications.
We have known that processed food is inferior to homemade food for decades: my hippy mum told us that in the 1970's. The problem is public apathy (everyone knows all this: EVERYONE) and financial pressures not leaving enough time for such "inconsequential" stuff as actually cooking.
Didn’t understand the comment that poor people cannot afford to eat wholesome food. In my experience fresh vegetables are cheaper than processed meals. Can someone please correct me on this?
You also need time to cook and clear up and the money for power to the cooker. Also if your kids refuse the healthy stuff they go hungry and you waste the food. This is why schools serve UPF.
Good discussion. It would also be useful to make the point that ultra-processed foods massively increases the glycemic index of the original food. EG: A whole oat groat has much less GI than rolled oats have. An orange less than and a glass of orange juice. The effect of that increase is that insulin is spiked and leads to great metabolic damage.
No one has ever shown in a robust study that spiking causes any damages or that there's any benefit to low GI beyond disease management. Stop repeating book selling quacks
Great podcast and really helpful round up of key points at the end. I would not recommend however that people switch from Orange Juice to Coke however. As regular coke has HUGE amounts of sugar and Diet Coke I recently discovered contains Aspartame. A sweetener that is so dangerous it was banned in most of Europe over thirty years ago. Freshly squeezed orange juice with no additives or sugars is available in the supermarket and is very good for you.
precisely! Even a lot of cheap frozen OJ is very decent. As is some non-reconstituted containers sold at stores-- when not drunk in high quantities is orders of magnitude better for the gut and brain than a coke. A coke/pepsi/sevenup/sprite/etc can be a rare treat in hot weather maybe for those who burn a megaton of cal's on that day or that week, bcuz moving a lot, physical work. Entirely interconnected issues/aspects
His point about why food companies use ultra-processed foods is really important. There is no evil man behind the curtain here. The food industry is just like any other industry. They need to be profitable to stay in business and profitable means people buy your product. They are just doing what the current system requires them to do. They are not evil (generally) they are just a company.
Hello… found Tim & Zoe today. My first question, are you baking your own bread or visiting a bakery that doesn’t start with prepackaged dough?
Thanks.
I saw a video where an AI expert was warning about giving machines goals that are not clearly defined. The example he gave of asking AI machines to get rid of CO2 could lead the machines to wipe us out as we are the main drivers. He then went on to say how, for example, the oil industry was similar to AI. Big oil had, since the outset, the unclearly defined goal of making money but didn’t have inbuilt environmental protections. You can see too how this has been the case with the food industry.
It’s a political problem. It is governments job to moderate the single mindedness of industry
right, AND the main responsibility of gvt is public safety/well-being, and arguably they are definitely NOT protecting ppl from the intentionally over-complicated problem of choosing the grocery store foods, bcuz the makers intentinally make it confusing to tell truely decent foods from ULTRA processed ones. THIS is the issue. Gvt's main function is public safety and protection, and lowering ultimate costs in the long run to society which this is entirely related to!!!!!
WoW! Thank you all so much. This is probably the most eye opening podcast ever, even to food/health conscious people and highlights our limited REAL choice , particularly in UK supermarkets. I'm a person that hates over-regulation by governments, but.....time to regulate!
I think we're going to run into problem with these definitions of UPF. If the additional of a single ingredient, such as a preservative puts a food into the UPF group then it will be grouping things like hummus alongside Pop Tarts. Clearly they're not remotely the same category.
Any broad category will have wildly different foods. I think the purpose of this talk though is that they're not as different as you might think
In fact the preservative might (only might!) mean the overall effect on your body from the hummus is worse