Podcasts about tulleken

You need to pinky swear you listened to the previous episode before you listen to this one. We're trusting you.Links:Season 2, Episode 2: We're Stronger Than the FireLebanon Bologna (Sausagepedia)Episode 41: The Bikini-Industrial ComplexGood Calories, Bad Calories by Gary TaubesEvery Time Brennan Has Talked About Loving Heavy Food [Compilation] (from Gastronauts on dropout.tv, this is on Youtube)Salt Sugar Fat by Michael MossUltra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken

In their new BBC Radio 4 podcast, Drs Chris and Xand are on a mission to help us take better care of ourselves.

Contact Annmarie In this honest and slightly wobbly episode, Annmarie opens up about the reality of her long term weight journey that's hit a slump. With her usual mix of humour and heartfelt reflection, she talks about feeling stuck, summer photos that don't help, and the Facebook memories that used to inspire — but now feel like they're having a laugh at her expense.Rather than disappear for “a little break” like last time (which lasted 18 months), Annmarie shares her current struggles and how she's learning to show up anyway — even when the motivation's gone missing.She also reflects on a quote from Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken — a book that's made a few appearances on the podcast — and how it landed differently this time.It's a warm and relatable episode for anyone who's had a weight wobble and needed a bit of encouragement to keep going.Mentioned in this episode:

Ultra-processed food is the new cigarette—and it's fueling a global health crisis hiding in plain sight. In today's episode, I'm joined by Dr. Chris van Tulleken—infectious disease physician, BBC broadcaster, and author of Ultra-Processed People—to expose the truth behind ultra-processed foods and the industries driving their consumption. To find out what this food is really doing to us, Dr. van Tulleken became the first subject in a groundbreaking clinical trial—eating 80% of his calories from ultra-processed food for a full month. We unpack what makes ultra-processed food fundamentally different from real food—even when the ingredients look similar, and why its impact on your brain, metabolism, and long-term health is far worse than anyone thought… You'll learn: How ultra-processed food hijacks your brain's reward system The science behind food addiction and satiety hormones Why food labels and front-of-package claims are designed to mislead you What the latest data says about UPFs and 32 chronic diseases The global policy movements and lawsuits now underway to fight back This episode is part science, part exposé, and a wake-up call for anyone who thinks food is just about calories and willpower. If you care about your health, your kids, or the future of our food system, you need to hear this. https://linktr.ee/ultraprocessedpeople View Show Notes From This Episode Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman https://drhyman.com/pages/picks?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Sign Up for Dr. Hyman's Weekly Longevity Journal https://drhyman.com/pages/longevity?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast

Welcome back to a brand new season of Public Health Disrupted! As Rochelle makes her return to the podcast following maternity leave, we're excited to present the very first episode of Season 5: a fascinating examination and celebration of the power of movement to foster connection and belonging. This episode will be of particular interest to runners and fans of group or community exercising, or simply those interested in the intersection of public health and community engagement. Xand Van Tulleken and Professor Rochelle Burgess delve into the transformative world of community fitness events, particularly the groundbreaking success of Parkrun. They explore how grassroots initiatives are reshaping not only individual lives but entire communities by breaking down barriers to exercise and fostering social connections. Joining them are Dr. Flaminia Ronca, leading expert in exercise neuroscience, and Chrissie Wellington OBE, a four-time world Ironman champion and former global head of health and wellbeing for Parkrun. In this episode: - the profound impact of community fitness on mental and emotional wellbeing - the science behind exercise and brain health - inspiring stories of how Parkrun has created inclusive spaces for all. Public Health Disrupted, hosted by Dr Rochelle Burgess and Xand Van Tulleken is edited by Annabelle Buckland at Decibelle Creative / @decibelle_creative Transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/health-of-public/news-and-events/public-health-disrupted/season-5-ep-1-running-together-notes-and-transcript Date of episode recording: 2025-03-03T00:00:00Z Duration: 00:40:26 Language of episode: English TAGS: #PublicHealthDisrupted #UCLHealthPublic Presenter:Xand van Tulleken; Rochelle Burgess Guests: Chrissie Wellington OBE; Flaminia Ronca Producer: Anabelle Buckland

Contact AnnmarieIn this episode, Annmarie explores the hidden dangers of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and how they dominate modern diets. Inspired by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee's conversation with Dr. Chris van Tulleken, author of Ultra-Processed People, she looks at:✅ What qualifies as ultra-processed food and why it's everywhere ✅ The shocking health risks linked to UPFs—including obesity and metabolic disorders ✅ Why convenience foods keep us hooked (and who really benefits) ✅ Practical tips to break free from the UPF trap and make healthier choicesWith 80% of the food consumed by UK teenagers being ultra-processed, it's time to rethink what we eat. Can we escape the cycle of addictive, engineered foods? Let's dive in!

Llyfrau Gwaharddedig... neu lyfrau sydd wedi cael eu banio!Pam wahardd llyfrau a pha wledydd sydd yn wahardd y mwyaf?Fel arfer yr ydyn yn trafod pob dim dan haul ac yn mynd lawr ambell i lwybr.Dyma restr ddarllen o'r cyfrolau hyfryd a drafodwyd yn y bennod:Hunangofiant Dyn Positif - Bywyd a Gwaith, Wayne HowardDiwedd y Gân - Rebecca RobertsNightshade Mother - Gwyneth LewisCry of the Kalahari - Mark a Delia Owens Ten Ponies and Jackie - Judith M BerrisfordTackle! - Jilly CooperTrespasses - Louise KennedyFel yr Wyt - AmrywiolO Ffrwyth y Gangen Hon - gol. Nia MoraisDatod - gol. Beti GeorgeThe House of Water - Fflur DafyddSêr y Nos yn Gwenu - Casia WiliamWant - Anonymous (gol. Gillian Anderson)Croesi Llinell - Mared LewisCymeriadau Cefn Gwlad - Ap NathanDeath At The Sign Of The Rook - Kate Atkinson.Casglu Llwch - Georgia RuthPotholes and Pavements - Laura LakerUltra Processed People - Chris van Tulleken

Send us a textIn this episode of Words, Wobbles, and Wisdom, host Annmarie Miles shares her personal journey over the past 18 months—why she made the decision to never go on another diet, how that affected her weight, and the mindset shifts that have helped her move forward.She reflects on The Angry Episode from Series 2 and how she has come to realise that frustration and self-blame weren't serving her. Instead, she is now focusing on balance, self-compassion, and learning how to eat healthily without the pressure of dieting.Annmarie also discusses the eye-opening BBC documentary Irresistible: Why We Can't Stop Eating by Dr. Chris van Tulleken. His powerful statement—"It's not your fault"—had a profound impact on her perspective on food, cravings, and the challenges of weight loss. This episode is a must-listen for anyone who has ever felt like they are failing in their weight-loss journey.In This Episode, She Discusses:✅ Why she stopped dieting (and what happened next)✅ How shifting her mindset has been more powerful than any diet plan✅ The impact of ultra-processed foods on eating habits✅ Why struggles with food and weight are not your fault✅ Her upcoming deep dive into Ultra Processed People by Dr. Chris van Tulleken

5x15 is delighted to welcome leading science broadcaster and doctor Chris van Tulleken for a special online event in January, fresh from delivering the Royal Institution's prestigious Christmas Lectures. Chris's latest book Ultra-Processed People was a Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller upon publication last year, and it was widely hailed as a 'Book of the Year' and a ground-breaking intervention in the food world. It has, quite simply, changed the conversation around what we eat. We have entered a new 'age of eating' where most of our calories come from an entirely novel set of substances called Ultra-Processed Food, food which is industrially processed and designed and marketed to be addictive. But do we really know what it's doing to our bodies? Ultra-Processed People follows Chris through the world of food science to discover what's really going on. It's a book about our rights. The right to know what we eat and what it does to our bodies and the right to good, affordable food. Don't miss the chance to hear Chris van Tulleken share his expert insights into food, health and the issues that affect us all, live in conversation with food campaigner, cross-bench peer and 5x15 co-founder Rosie Boycott. Praise for Ultra-Processed People '[Chris van Tulleken] is starting a really important revolution and conversation around what we eat. Books come along once in a while, once every couple of years, once in a generation that meet culture at the exact moment…it's these books that end up changing the world.' - STEVEN BARTLETT 'If you only read one diet or nutrition book in your life, make it this one.' - BEE WILSON ‘Incendiary and infuriating, this book is a diet grenade; the bold and brutal truth about how we are fed deadly delights by very greedy evil giants' - CHRIS PACKHAM 'A devastating, witty and scholarly destruction of the shit food we eat and why.' - ADAM RUTHERFORD Chris van Tulleken is an infectious diseases doctor at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London. He trained in medicine at Oxford University, has a PhD in molecular virology from University College London where he is an Associate Professor and where his research focuses on how corporations affect human health, especially in the context of nutrition. He works closely with UNICEF and the World Health Organization in this area. His book Ultra-Processed People was a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller. He is one of the BBC's leading science broadcasters on television and radio for children and adults. Photo Credit: Jonny Storey With thanks for your support for 5x15 online! Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

For today's Classic Debate we're revisiting our 2018 debate "Parenting Doesn't Matter (Or Not As Much As You Think)". We were joined by Professor of Behavioural Genetics Robert Plomin, the Developmental Clinical Psychologist Susan Pawlby, therapist, parenting counsellor and broadcaster Ann Pleshette Murphy, and Stuart Ritchie, lecturer in social genetics and developmental psychiatry and author of Science Fictions. Hosting the debate was Doctor and broadcaster, Dr Xand van Tulleken. ------- If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events  ...  Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series … Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. … Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this week's episode, we delve into "Ultra-Processed People" by Chris van Tulleken. This discussion unpacks the pervasive issue of ultra-processed foods (UPF) and their impact on global health and society. We explore how to identify UPFs and their extensive presence in our diets, the alarming scale of consumption worldwide, and the significant health consequences this trend poses. We also consider the environmental and societal challenges created by the industrial food complex, often referred to as 'Big Food.' The episode provides practical advice for recognizing and reducing UPF in your diet, empowering listeners to make informed food choices. Tune in to understand the depths of the UPF problem and its implications, not just for individual health but also for societal well-being. Join us for a crucial conversation about navigating the complexities of modern eating habits and the steps we can take to reclaim our health and environment from the grasp of ultra-processed foods. I trust that this episode, will prove beneficial to you, your loved ones, and the broader world. As always, I will be sharing several thought-provoking concepts for you to ponder and apply in real-life scenarios in the upcoming days. For those feeling adventurous, there will also be a challenge awaiting your participation!All the love, all the power, all of the time! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link: https://linktr.ee/w.salski Link to the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultra-Processed-People-Stuff-That-Isnt/dp/1529160227/ref=asc_df_1529160227?mcid=a2b4ead9461c3e9b8e2eca160f5de067&th=1&psc=1&hvocijid=11261172179073281889-1529160227-&hvexpln=74&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=696285193871&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11261172179073281889&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046888&hvtargid=pla-2281435176378&psc=1&gad_source=1 Links to Mentioned Media: PBD Podcast about food (episode) - https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ByvLyx1mN054FiHVwnAum?si=8f56bec51ad84a02 Easy Way to Quit Smoking (episode) - https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LlIUurH3ecQZQR3s9lUW1?si=c30683cc67934cbb Ignorance Ain't Bliss (episode) - https://open.spotify.com/episode/5zECBuQD0YIrfIWEuXSXPl?si=ac0ffbf3073142a4

Hey BlurtstarsOn a jam packed show today we will start with "Blurt Around The World":* E-scooter battery explodes causing a unit fire.* Australians of The Year recipients.* How secure is your PIN?* Ancient DNA shows women were the heart of society.Then on "Let's Get Technical" the Kegsta will blurt about Deepseek AI, what is it, who created it and why does it have a global impact. Then Wencee will tell us about how AI is helping with the recent LA fires.And to finish off the show, on "Do Ya Self A Favour", Wencee will review a podcast called A Thorough Examination with Drs Chris and Xand. Then the Kegsta will tell us what he thinks about "Namaste Motherf***ers!"So let's get on with the show!Tune in and find out more on https://www.youtube.com/@thenewblurt7773, with Wencee and the Kegsta.Subscribe to our newsletter: https://thenewblurt.substack.com or contact us at blurtstar[at]gmail.com.Blurt Around The WorldExploding battery sets fire to unit on the Gold Coast, Australia. What should one do with a very hot rechargeable battery? Find out more here →ABC News | Gold Coast unit explodes in flames as hot e-scooter battery put in freezerAustralian of The Year 2025 awards were announced on 25 January. The Australian of The Year award went to Neale Daniher AO, who has motor neuron disease (MND) and has been raised funds for MND over a number of years →Australian Of The Year 2025 | OfficialDo you use the same PIN for all your ATM cards? How secure is your PIN? Read the following news article from the ABC news to find out more →ABC News | Almost one in 10 people use the same four-digit PINWe've known it for generations. Women are the glue to society and research now shows that in Celtic Britain they had many important roles in family life as well as society, including having wealth and being land owners →BBC News | Women held keys to land and wealth in Celtic BritainLet's Get TechnicalThis week Artificial Intelligence has taken the spotlight in the news. What is this DeepSeek that everyone is talking about? And why did NVIDIA and the USA stock exchange lose 100s of billions of dollars? Find out more here →The Atlantic - China's DeepSeek SurpriseABC News | What is DeepSeek, and why did the AI startup cause US tech stocks to fall?How can AI help with the recent LA fires? AI researchers use AI to investigate past and present wildfires to better understand them →Grist news | What sparks a wildfire? The answer often remains a mysteryDo Ya Self A FavourYou may know them from BBC shows “Operation Ouch” and “Trust me, I am a doctor”, twin doctors Dr Chris van Tulleken and Xand van Tulleken are hosts of “A thorough examination with Dr Chris and Xand to food”. Wencee rated this podcast 4.1 out of 5 Blurtstars →.BBC | A Thorough Examination With Drs Chris and Xand: Addicted to FoodThe Kegsta reviewed "Namaste Motherf***ers!" hosted by Cally Beaton who is also a British stand-up comedian, writer and former TV executive. The Kegsta gave this podcast 3.9 out of 5 Blurtstars →Namaste Motherf**kersCally Beaton officialFollow us on our socials:YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@thenewblurt7773Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/blurtstar/Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/blurtstar/Threads - https://www.threads.net/@blurtstar This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thenewblurt.substack.com

This week, I'm thrilled to welcome Paul Wheat, a dedicated 55-year-old triathlete who exemplifies what it means to be a High Performance Human. For Paul, high performance transcends athletic excellence; it encompasses all aspects of life, including sleep, nutrition, exercise, relationships, and mental health. The beauty of this journey is that you don't need to be a top-tier athlete to excel in these areas. Paul's transformative journey began in 2020 when he joined my SWAT Inner Circle after experimenting with a complimentary 12-week plan amid the COVID pandemic. The structured approach not only challenged him but also revealed the vital connections between fitness, nutrition, sleep, and work habits. Like many, Paul was once caught in the cycle of stress and fatigue from constant travel as a manager. However, he took proactive steps by applying training principles from SWAT, incorporating the 80:20 Pareto principle, and catalyzing a substantial transformation in both his personal life and professional environment. One of Paul's standout achievements has been the establishment of a workplace culture that encourages his team to maintain a healthy work-life balance, limiting work to eight hours a day. This impactful change has led to enhanced productivity and notably reduced staff turnover. Over the past five years, Paul has made impressive strides in his athletic performance, significantly improving his 70.3 Ironman time by 75 minutes—down from 6:45 to 5:30. Additionally, he has shed 19 kg, proudly stating that he achieved this by “cleaning up what I eat, understanding that processed foods aren't real food, and being more active.” If you're inspired to embark on a lifestyle transformation in 2025, Paul's journey is sure to motivate you! In this episode, we'll explore: The lifestyle changes Paul implemented and their impact on his health. How these changes elevated his triathlon performance. The process of integrating healthy habits within his work team. The positive effects of these workplace changes on overall performance. Paul's top three pieces of advice for anyone looking to start a similar journey. Join us for an enlightening conversation that could kickstart your own path to high performance! Paul doesn't do social media so you can't follow him but if you'd like to get a feel for how he has upped his game he recommends the following books: Ultra-Processed People:The Definitive #1 Bestseller You Need to Understand Ultra-Processed Food by Chris can Tulleken. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss.   He also loves to listen to THIS podcast Things People Do with Joe Marler ***Join our SWAT/High Performance Human tribe using this link, with a happiness guarantee! You can watch a brief video about the group by going to our website here, and join our SWAT High Performance Human tribe here. You can find all of my social media links HERE: You'll also find some really great content on my Instagram and YouTube! Instagram  YouTube   **To get a free copy of my personal daily mobility routine, please click HERE** **To download your FREE infographic ‘7 steps to swimming faster', please click HERE  Sign up for Simon's weekly newsletter Sign up for Beth's weekly newsletter To contact Beth regarding Life Coaching, please visit her website at BethanyWardLifeCoaching.uk. If you would like to help offset the cost of our podcast production, we would be so grateful. Please click here to support the HPH podcast. Thank you! Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes.  For any questions please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com.

Min 4: SUPER FILTRO RACHEL 2025 Feliz Año Nuevo y bienvenidos a un 2025 que promete emociones fuertes, títulos de altura y grandes historias que nos van a tener pegados a la pantalla durante meses. Por eso el objetivo que nos marcamos en este primer "Estamos de Cine Edición Series" es desglosar un completo avance de las novedades más potentes que nos esperan. Nos hemos confabulado con nuestra experta de Hobby Consolas, Raquel Hernández para empezar a abrir los regalos que nos traen los Reyes Seriéfilos: Min 7: THE LAST OF US 2 (2025. Craig Mazin. Max) Min 13: STRANGER THINGS. Season Finale (2025. Duffer Brothers. Netflix) Min 21. EL CABALLERO DE LOS SIETE REINOS ( 2025. Parker Bross. Max) Min 31: THE WHITE LOTTUS 3: TAILANDIA (2025. Mike White. Max) Min 38. BLADE RUNNER 2099. (2025. Jonathan van Tulleken. Prime video) Min 44: ANDOR 2 (2025. Tony Gilroy. Disney Plus)

This week is a special episode of the podcast where we are looking back on some of our favourite pieces from the magazine over the past year and revisiting some of the conversations we had around them. First up: the Starmer supremacy Let's start with undoubtedly the biggest news of the year: Starmer's supermajority and the first Labour government in 14 years. In April, we spoke to Katy Balls and Harriet Harman about just what a supermajority could mean for Keir Starmer. Listening back, it's an incredibly interesting discussion to revisit. The aim of Katy's piece was to communicate the internal problems that could arise from such a sweeping victory and, crucially, how Starmer might manage a historic cohort of backbenchers. One MP who knows about adjusting to life in government after a supermajority is Harriet Harman, former leader of the Labour party and a member of Tony Blair's first cabinet. (01:51) Reflections from the editor's chair The change in No. 10 Downing Street is, of course, not the only notable shake-up in Westminster this year. Fraser Nelson stepped down as editor of The Spectator in September after 15 years of wielding the editor's pen, with 784 issues to his name. We sat down with him on his final day in the office to reflect on his time at 22 Old Queen Street. (08:31) Do historians talk down to children? In June, Mary Wakefield dedicated her column to this very question. She wrote about her experience trying to find engaging and challenging history books for her 8-year-old and compared the dumbed-down, one-dimensional version of history portrayed in modern children's books with the classic Ladybird books of the 1960s. She joined the podcast to discuss this with Dominic Sandbrook, author of the Adventures in Time children's book series and host of The Rest is History podcast. (17:18) Are ultra-processed foods really so bad? On The Edition podcast, we enjoy a fiery debate, and none was more heated than our discussion on ultra-processed foods. This debate, between columnist Matthew Parris and Christoffer van Tulleken, associate professor at UCL and author of the bestselling book Ultra-Processed People, took place in May. It was sparked by Matthew's column on the myths surrounding ultra-processed foods—foods engineered to be hyper-palatable and typically containing preservatives, emulsifiers, sweeteners, artificial colours, flavours, and so on. Such additives are widely considered detrimental to our health. Matthew says we shouldn't be worried, but we'll let you decide. (29:10) By whose values should we judge the past? On the podcast, we showcase articles from across the magazine—from the front half to the life pages, to books and arts. One of the most intriguing books of the year was Joan Smith's Unfortunately, she was a nymphomaniac: A New History of Rome's Imperial Women. An eye-catching title that is ‘as thought-provoking as it is provocative', as Daisy Dunn wrote in October. Many popular historians are singled out for their analysis of women in ancient Rome, including Professor Dame Mary Beard. In the interest of granting a right of reply, we invited Mary onto the podcast to discuss the merit of judging history by today's standards. (49:40) And finally: the politics of the breakfast buffet We thought we would leave you with one of the most prescient discussions we had on the podcast this year: the politics of the hotel breakfast buffet. Is it ethical to pocket a sandwich at a hotel breakfast buffet? Laurie Graham explored that question in the magazine back in September. Specifically, she revealed the very British habit of swiping food from free breakfasts to save for lunch later in the day. Laurie joined us alongside Mark Jenkins, a former hotel manager in Torquay, whom listeners may remember from the Channel 4 documentary The Hotel. (01:04:04) Hosted by William Moore and Lara Prendergast. Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Patrick Gibbons. 

This week is a special episode of the podcast where we are looking back on some of our favourite pieces from the magazine over the past year and revisiting some of the conversations we had around them. First up: the Starmer supremacy Let's start with undoubtedly the biggest news of the year: Starmer's supermajority and the first Labour government in 14 years. In April, we spoke to Katy Balls and Harriet Harman about just what a supermajority could mean for Keir Starmer. Listening back, it's an incredibly interesting discussion to revisit. The aim of Katy's piece was to communicate the internal problems that could arise from such a sweeping victory and, crucially, how Starmer might manage a historic cohort of backbenchers. One MP who knows about adjusting to life in government after a supermajority is Harriet Harman, former leader of the Labour party and a member of Tony Blair's first cabinet. (01:51) Reflections from the editor's chair The change in No. 10 Downing Street is, of course, not the only notable shake-up in Westminster this year. Fraser Nelson stepped down as editor of The Spectator in September after 15 years of wielding the editor's pen, with 784 issues to his name. We sat down with him on his final day in the office to reflect on his time at 22 Old Queen Street. (08:31) Do historians talk down to children? In June, Mary Wakefield dedicated her column to this very question. She wrote about her experience trying to find engaging and challenging history books for her 8-year-old and compared the dumbed-down, one-dimensional version of history portrayed in modern children's books with the classic Ladybird books of the 1960s. She joined the podcast to discuss this with Dominic Sandbrook, author of the Adventures in Time children's book series and host of The Rest is History podcast. (17:18) Are ultra-processed foods really so bad? On The Edition podcast, we enjoy a fiery debate, and none was more heated than our discussion on ultra-processed foods. This debate, between columnist Matthew Parris and Christoffer van Tulleken, associate professor at UCL and author of the bestselling book Ultra-Processed People, took place in May. It was sparked by Matthew's column on the myths surrounding ultra-processed foods—foods engineered to be hyper-palatable and typically containing preservatives, emulsifiers, sweeteners, artificial colours, flavours, and so on. Such additives are widely considered detrimental to our health. Matthew says we shouldn't be worried, but we'll let you decide. (29:10) By whose values should we judge the past? On the podcast, we showcase articles from across the magazine—from the front half to the life pages, to books and arts. One of the most intriguing books of the year was Joan Smith's Unfortunately, she was a nymphomaniac: A New History of Rome's Imperial Women. An eye-catching title that is ‘as thought-provoking as it is provocative', as Daisy Dunn wrote in October. Many popular historians are singled out for their analysis of women in ancient Rome, including Professor Dame Mary Beard. In the interest of granting a right of reply, we invited Mary onto the podcast to discuss the merit of judging history by today's standards. (49:40) And finally: the politics of the breakfast buffet We thought we would leave you with one of the most prescient discussions we had on the podcast this year: the politics of the hotel breakfast buffet. Is it ethical to pocket a sandwich at a hotel breakfast buffet? Laurie Graham explored that question in the magazine back in September. Specifically, she revealed the very British habit of swiping food from free breakfasts to save for lunch later in the day. Laurie joined us alongside Mark Jenkins, a former hotel manager in Torquay, whom listeners may remember from the Channel 4 documentary The Hotel. (01:04:04) Hosted by William Moore and Lara Prendergast.   Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Patrick Gibbons. 

Dr Chris van Tulleken shares stories from the making of his chart-topping podcast, Fed. In conversation with Leyla Kazim, at Hay Festival 2024.In Fed, Dr Chris van Tulleken, investigated the entangled web of forces that shape what ends up on our plates. And he focused his investigation around one foodstuff in particular. The most widely eaten meat on our planet, a staple of nearly every diet and a global food production phenomenon: the humble chicken, Chris dug into the history of our relationship with this extraordinary animal, to try to get to the truth of why we eat so much of it, and what that means for the birds, for us, and for the planet.In this lively conversation, recorded live at Hay festival 2024, Chris talks to Leyla Kazim about the hidden stories behind the globalised food networks of today. From industrial-scale farming, to food labelling, to ethical dilemmas, environmental quandaries, and the complexities of the world of fast food. Plus tales from the adventure that ran through the whole series: raising his own tiny flock of broiler chickens, in his back garden.

Dr Chris van Tulleken has been at the forefront of the campaign to change our food system and better regulate the sale of ultra-processed foods (UPF). This year he will be giving the Royal Institution Christmas lectures, Britain's most prestigious public science lectures, in which he'll be investigating how food has fundamentally shaped human evolution, the importance of our microbiome – as the extra ‘organ' we didn't know we had – and how we can all eat better in future, for the sake of our own health and the health of the planet. Nicola Davis sat down with Van Tulleken to discuss the lectures, the challenge of understanding the impact of UPFs on our health, and his top tip for Christmas dinner. Madeleine Finlay hears from them both in this Christmas special edition of Science Weekly. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Podcast Overview: The Truth About Ultra-Processed Foods In this episode, we explore the eye-opening insights from Chris van Tulleken's book, Ultra-Processed People, revealing the hidden dangers of ultra-processed foods (UPFs). UPFs, often found in sugary snacks, ready meals, and sodas, are loaded with artificial additives, preservatives, and unrecognizable ingredients. These foods are designed to be addictive, altering brain chemistry and driving overconsumption, as evidenced by studies like Kevin Hall's 2019 trial, which showed participants eating 500 extra calories daily on a UPF diet. The result? Weight gain, mood shifts, and chronic health issues like obesity and diabetes. UPFs' dominance stems from systemic factors, including marketing, affordability, and convenience, but their health impacts are far-reaching. From ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup to artificial flavors and emulsifiers, these foods are engineered for taste and shelf life at the expense of nutrition. Tune in to learn how to identify UPFs, understand their effects, and take simple steps toward healthier, whole-food alternatives. For extra support, follow us on Instagram @HormoneGenius and post your favorite clean products to claim a free grocery guide with the ingredients to be aware of! Thanks to our sponsor Fiat Institute! If the content you're hearing on this podcast has stirred something in your heart, and you feel called to be part of the change—to launch a mission in hormone health, wellness, and true women's health care—then this program is for you! The Fiat Institute certifies women as hormone coaches in a six-month program. You'll learn about gut health, inflammation, liver detox, cycle charting, cycle-syncing, root cause restoration, and the FiatWay Coaching Methodology. Plus, you'll find community in weekly calls, small-group breakouts, and the Fiat Sisterhood. Seats for January's cohort are limited! Schedule a discovery call with Jamie today! Be part of the movement to restore women's health. Fill out an inquiry form: www.honeybook.com/widget/fiat_inst…0194ff00292a19e2 OR Schedule a 15min 1:1 chat with her! See link: calendly.com/hormoneconsult/fir…chat?month=2024-12 To learn more you can visit www.fiatinstitute.com. Medical disclaimer: The information presented in this podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for actual medical advice from a doctor, or any medical professional.

A bumper show today full of energy and great debate. We'll be back with our first show of 2025 on 8th January. Wishing all of you a peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year. Recommendations: Catriona Swiped - CH4 Emma and Matt Willis challenge a group of Year 8 pupils at the Stanway School in Colchester to give up their smartphones completely for 21 days Angela Irresistible -BBC2 Why are ultra-processed foods so irresistible, and how they have come to dominate food culture? This documentary by medical doctor and academic Dr Chris van Tulleken features interviews with former food industry insiders who talk openly about the way in which popular foods have been designed to be irresistible. Food companies go to extraordinary lengths to ensure their products connect with consumers - from using brain scans to assess the deliciousness of ice cream to carefully engineering the sound of a crunch. Ultra-processed foods are hyper-delicious and super-convenient, have long shelf lives and are extremely cheap. But a growing body of evidence is linking these products to our declining health. David A Quiet Evening: The Travels of Norman Lewis Collected here, from a period of nearly five decades, are thirty-six of Norman Lewis's best articles. In each, his writing crackles with poker-faced wit and stylistic brilliance. As a witness to his times – the good, the bad and the absurd – he was unmatched, and his instinct for important events, and moments, was infallible. His range here includes Ibizan fishermen, an interview with Castro's executioner, the genocide of the South American Indian tribes, a paean to Seville and his meeting with a tragic Ernest Hemingway. That meeting was ‘a shattering experience,' Norman wrote to Ian Fleming who had commissioned him, ‘of the kind likely to sabotage ambition.'Fortunately it didn't, and the articles assembled between these covers are compulsive, hilarious, tender and beautifully written, at times deeply upsetting, and always unforgettable. The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World  With a mind-boggling mastery of sources, Dalrymple weaves a thrilling tale of India's cultural hegemony, not forgetting its invention of mathematics and related disciplines still in use today - Andrew Lycett, Spectator Eamonn Comfort and Joy Alan Bird (Bill Paterson, Outlander, Dad's Army) thinks he has life pretty well organised. Glasgow's top DJ, with a nice apartment, and the only red BMW Cabriolet north of Manchester, he has little to worry about until his kleptomaniac girlfriend Maddy ditches him just before Christmas.

In the news pod, Chris van Tulleken tells us what he's got planned for this years Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. Then we hear about the innovation to harness energy from radioactive carbon-14 atoms, and learn more about when humans and Neanderthals got to know each other. Then, we look skyward, where astronomers have described a series of mysterious near-Earth objects similar to the famous Oumuamua... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

In this episode, Jake and Damian share four impactful health hacks they've picked up from remarkable experts featured on High Performance. Drawing insights from guests like Dr. Peter Attia, Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, Ruari Fairbairns, and Dr. Chris van Tulleken, they explore how small lifestyle changes, such as reducing alcohol and eating immune-boosting foods, have improved their health and well-being, emphasising the value of long-term thinking and building habits through manageable steps.Listen in as Jake and Damian offer actionable tips you can start using today and uncover how minor adjustments in mindset and routines can create massive improvements on your health journey.Listen to the episodes mentioned:Dr Peter Attia: https://pod.fo/e/1e7be5Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: https://pod.fo/e/115f19Ruari Fairbairns: https://pod.fo/e/21baafDr. Chris van Tulleken: https://pod.fo/e/24d790

A leader for conducting rigorous randomized trials of humans along with animal models for understanding nutrition and metabolism, Dr. Kevin Hall is a Senior Investigator at the National Institutes of Health, and Section Chief of the Integrative Physiology Section, NIDDK. In this podcast, we reviewed his prolific body of research a recent publications. The timing of optimizing our diet and nutrition seems apropos, now that we're in in the midst of the holiday season!Below is a video snippet of our conversation on his ultra-processed food randomized trial.Full videos of all Ground Truths podcasts can be seen on YouTube here. The current one is here. If you like the YouTube format, please subscribe! The audios are also available on Apple and Spotify.Note: I'll be doing a Ground Truths Live Chat on December 11th at 12 N EST, 9 AM PST, so please mark your calendar and join!Transcript with links to publications and audioEric Topol (00:05):Well, hello. This is Eric Topol with Ground Truths, and I'm really delighted to have with me today, Dr. Kevin Hall from the NIH. I think everybody knows that nutrition is so important and Kevin is a leader in doing rigorous randomized trials, which is not like what we usually see with large epidemiologic studies of nutrition that rely on food diaries and the memory of participants. So Kevin, it's really terrific to have you here.Kevin Hall (00:34):Thanks so much for the invitation.Ultra-Processed FoodsEric Topol (00:36):Yeah. Well, you've been prolific and certainly one of the leaders in nutrition science who I look to. And what I thought we could do is go through some of your seminal papers. There are many, but I picked a few and I thought we'd first go back to the one that you published in Cell Metabolism. This is ultra-processed diets cause excessive caloric intake and weight gain. (Main results in graph below.) So maybe you can take us through the principle findings from that trial.Kevin Hall (01:10):Yeah, sure. So that was a really interesting study because it's the first randomized control trial that's investigated the role of ultra-processed foods in potentially causing obesity. So we've got, as you mentioned, lots and lots of epidemiological data that have made these associations between people who consume diets that are very high in ultra-processed foods as having greater risk for obesity. But those trials are not demonstrating causation. I mean, they suggest a strong link. And in fact, the idea of ultra-processed foods is kind of a new idea. It's really sort of appeared on the nutrition science stage probably most prominently in the past 10 years or so. And I first learned about this idea of ultra-processed foods, which is really kind of antithetical to the way most nutrition scientists think about foods. We often think about foods as nutrient delivery vehicles, and we kind of view foods as being the fraction of carbohydrates versus fats in them or how much sodium or fiber is in the foods.Kevin Hall (02:17):And along came this group in Brazil who introduced this new way of classifying foods that completely ignores the nutrient composition and says what we should be doing is classifying foods based on the extent and purpose of processing of foods. And so, they categorize these four different categories. And in the fourth category of this so-called NOVA classification scheme (see graphic below) , they identified something called ultra-processed foods. There's a long formal definition and it's evolved a little bit over the years and continues to evolve. But the basic ideas that these are foods that are manufactured by industries that contain a lot of purified ingredients made from relatively cheap agricultural commodity products that basically undergo a variety of processes and include additives and ingredients that are not typically found in home kitchens, but are typically exclusively in manufactured products to create the wide variety of mostly packaged goods that we see in our supermarkets.Kevin Hall (03:22):And so, I was really skeptical that there was much more about the effects of these foods. Other than that they typically have high amounts of sugar and saturated fat and salt, and they're pretty low in fiber. And so, the purpose of this study was to say, okay, well if there's something more about the foods themselves that is causing people to overconsume calories and gain weight and eventually get obesity, then we should do a study that's trying to test for two diets that are matched for these various nutrients of concern. So they should be matched for the macronutrients, they should be matched for the sugar content, the fat, the sodium, the fiber, and people should just be allowed to eat whatever they want and they shouldn't be trying to change their weight in any way. And so, the way that we did this was, as you mentioned, we can't just ask people to report what they're eating.Kevin Hall (04:19):So what we did was we admitted these folks to the NIH Clinical Center and to our metabolic ward, and it's a very artificial environment, but it's an environment that we can control very carefully. And so, what we basically did is take control over their food environment and we gave them three meals a day and snacks, and basically for a two-week period, they had access to meals that were more than 80% of calories coming from ultra-processed foods. And then in random order, they either received that diet first and give them simple instructions, eat as much as little as you want. We're going to measure lots of stuff. You shouldn't be trying to change your weight or weight that gave them a diet that had no calories from ultra-processed foods. In fact, 80% from minimally processed foods. But again, both of these two sort of food environments were matched for these nutrients that we typically think of as playing a major role in how many calories people choose to eat.Kevin Hall (05:13):And so, the basic idea was, okay, well let's measure what these folks eat. We gave them more than double the calories that they would require to maintain their weight, and what they didn't know was that in the basement of the clinical center where the metabolic kitchen is, we had all of our really talented nutrition staff measuring the leftovers to see what it was that they didn't eat. So we knew exactly what we provided to them and all the foods had to be in our nutrition database and when we compute what they actually ate by difference, so we have a very precise estimate about not only what foods they chose to ate, but also how many calories they chose to eat, as well as the nutrient composition.And the main upshot of all that was that when these folks were exposed to this highly ultra-processed food environment, they spontaneously chose to eat about 500 calories per day more over the two-week period they were in that environment then when the same folks were in the environment that had no ultra-processed foods, but just minimally processed foods. They not surprisingly gained weight during the ultra-processed food environment and lost weight and lost body fat during the minimally processed food environment. And because those diets were overall matched for these different nutrients, it didn't seem to be that those were the things that were driving this big effect. So I think there's a couple of big take homes here. One is that the food environment really does have a profound effect on just the biology of how our food intake is controlled at least over relatively short periods of time, like the two-week periods that we were looking at. And secondly, that there's something about ultra-processed foods that seem to be driving this excess calorie intake that we now know has been linked with increased risk of obesity, and now we're starting to put some of the causal pieces together that really there might be something in this ultra-processed food environment that's driving the increased rates of obesity that we've seen over the past many decades.Eric Topol (07:18):Yeah, I mean I think the epidemiologic studies that make the link between ultra-processed foods and higher risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, neurodegenerative disease. They're pretty darn strong and they're backed up by this very rigorous study. Now you mentioned it short term, do you have any reason to think that adding 500 calories a day by eating these bad foods, which by the way in the American diet is about 60% or more of the average American diet, do you have any inkling that it would change after a few weeks?Kevin Hall (07:54):Well, I don't know about after a few weeks, but I think that one of the things that we do know about body weight regulation and how it changes in body weight impact both metabolism, how many calories were burning as well as our appetite. We would expect some degree of moderation of that effect eventually settling in at a new steady state, that's probably going to take months and years to achieve. And so the question is, I certainly don't believe that it would be a 500 calorie a day difference indefinitely. The question is when would that difference converge and how much weight would've been gained or lost when people eventually reached that new plateau? And so, that's I think a really interesting question. Some folks have suggested that maybe if you extrapolated the lines a little bit, you could predict when those two curves might eventually converge. That's an interesting thought experiment, but I think we do need some longer studies to investigate how persistent are these effects. Can that fully explain the rise in average body weight and obesity rates that have occurred over the past several decades? Those are open questions.Eric Topol (09:03):Yeah. Well, I mean, I had the chance to interview Chris van Tulleken who wrote the book, Ultra-Processed People and I think you might remember in the book he talked about how he went on an ultra-processed diet and gained some 20, 30 pounds in a short time in a month. And his brother, his identical twin brother gained 50, 60 pounds, and so it doesn't look good. Do you look at all the labels and avoid all this junk and ultra-processed food now or are you still thinking that maybe it's not as bad as it looks?Kevin Hall (09:38):Well, I mean I think that I certainly learned a lot from our studies, and we are continuing to follow this up to try to figure out what are the mechanisms by which this happen. But at the same time, I don't think we can throw out everything else we know about nutrition science. So just because we match these various nutrients in this particular study, I think one of the dangers here is that as you mentioned, there's 60% of the food environment in the US and Great Britain and other places consist of these foods, and so they're unavoidable to some extent, right? Unless you're one of these privileged folks who have your backyard garden and your personal chef who can make all of your foods, I'm certainly not one of those people, but for the vast majority of us, we're going to have to incorporate some degree of ultra-processed foods in our day-to-day diet.Kevin Hall (10:24):The way I sort of view it is, we really need to understand the mechanisms and before we understand the mechanisms, we have to make good choices based on what we already know about nutrition science, that we should avoid the foods that have a lot of sugar in them. We should avoid foods that have a lot of saturated fat and sodium. We should try to choose products that contain lots of whole grains and legumes and fruits and vegetables and things like that. And there's some of those, even in the ultra-processed food category. I pretty regularly consume a microwavable ready meal for lunch. It tends to be pretty high in whole grains and legumes and low in saturated fat and sugar and things like that. But to engineer a food that can heat up properly in a microwave in four minutes has some ultra-processing technology involved there. I would be pretty skeptical that that's going to cause me to have really poor health consequences as compared to if I had the means to eat homemade French fries every day in tallow. But that's the kind of comparison that we have to think about.Eric Topol (11:36):But I think what you're touching on and maybe inadvertently is in that NOVA class four, the bad ultra-processed foods, there's a long, long list of course, and some of those may be worse than others, and we haven't seen an individual ranking of these constituents. So as you're alluding to what's in that microwave lunch probably could be much less concerning than what's in these packaged snacks that are eaten widely. But I would certainly agree that we don't know everything about this, but your study is one of the most quoted studies ever in the ultra-processed food world. Now, let me move on to another trial that was really important. This was published in Nature Medicine and it's about a plant-based diet, which is of course a very interesting diet, low-fat versus an animal-based ketogenic diet. Also looking at energy intake. Can you take us through that trial?Plant-Based, Low Fat Diet vs Animal-Based, Low Carbohydrate Ketogenic DietKevin Hall (12:33):Sure. So it's actually interesting to consider that trial in the context of the trial we just talked about because both of these diets that we tested in this trial were relatively low in ultra-processed foods, and so both of them contained more than a kilogram of non-starchy vegetables as a base for designing these, again, two different food environments. Very similar overall study design where people again were exposed to either diets that were vegan plant-based diet that was really high in starches and was designed to kind of cause big insulin increases in the blood after eating the meals. And the other diet had very, very few carbohydrates of less than 10% in total, and we built on that kind of non-starchy vegetable base, a lot of animal-based products to kind of get a pretty high amount of fat and having very low carbohydrates. Both diets in this case, like I mentioned, were pretty low in ultra-processed foods, but what we were really interested in here was testing this idea that has come to prominence recently, that high carbohydrate diets that lead to really large glucose excursions after meals that cause very high insulin levels after meals are particularly obesogenic and should cause you to be hungrier than compared to a diet that doesn't lead to those large swings in glucose and insulin and the prototypical case being one that's very low in carbohydrate and might increase the level of ketones that are floating around in your blood, which are hypothesized to be an appetite suppressant. Same sort of design, these minimally processed diets that one was very high in carbs and causes large swings in insulin and the other that's very low in carbs and causes increases in ketones.Kevin Hall (14:22):We ask people, again, while you're in one food environment or the other, don't be trying to gain weight or lose weight, eat as much or as little as you'd like, and we're going to basically measure a lot of things. They again, don't know what the primary outcome of the study is. We're measuring their leftovers afterwards. And so, the surprise in this particular case was that the diet that caused the big swings in glucose and insulin did not lead to more calorie consumption. In fact, it led to about 700 calories per day less than when the same people were exposed to the ketogenic diet. Interestingly, both food environments caused people to lose weight, so it wasn't that we didn't see the effect of people over consuming calories on either diet, so they were reading fewer calories in general than they were when they came in, right. They're probably eating a pretty ultra-processed food diet when they came in. We put them on these two diets that varied very much in terms of the macronutrients that they were eating, but both were pretty minimally processed. They lost weight. They ended up losing more body fat on the very low-fat high carb diet than the ketogenic diet, but actually more weight on the ketogenic diet than the low-fat diet. So there's a little bit of a dissociation between body fat loss and weight loss in this study, which was kind of interesting.Eric Topol (15:49):Interesting. Yeah, I thought that was a fascinating trial because plant-based diet, they both have their kind of camps, you know.Kevin Hall (15:57):Right. No, exactly.Immune System Signatures for Vegan vs Ketogenic DietsEric Topol (15:58):There are people who aren't giving up on ketogenic diet. Of course, there's some risks and some benefits and there's a lot of interest of course with the plant-based diet. So it was really interesting and potentially the additive effects of plant-based with avoidance or lowering of ultra-processed food. Now, the more recent trial that you did also was very interesting, and of course I'm only selecting ones that I think are particularly, there are a lot of trials you've done, but this one is more recent in this year where you looked at vegan versus ketogenic diets for the immune signature, immune response, which is really important. It's underplayed as its effect, and so maybe you can take us through that one.[Link to a recent Nature feature on this topic, citing Dr. Hall's work]Kevin Hall (16:43):Yeah, so just to be clear, it's actually the same study, the one that we just talked about. This is a secondary sort of analysis from a collaboration we had with some folks at NIAID here at the NIH to try to evaluate immune systems signatures in these same folks who wonder what these two changes in their food environment. One is vegan, high carbohydrate low-fat diet and the other, the animal-based ketogenic diet. And again, it was pretty interesting to me that we were able to see really substantial changes in how the immune system was responding. First of all, both diets again seem to have improved immune function, both adaptive and innate immune function as compared to their baseline measurements when they came into the study. So when they're reading their habitual diet, whatever that is typically high in ultra-processed foods, they switched to both of these diets.Kevin Hall (17:39):We saw market changes in their immune system even compared to baseline. But when we then went and compared the two diets, they were actually divergent also, in other words, the vegan diet seemed to stimulate the innate immune system and the ketogenic diet seemed to stimulate the adaptive immune system. So these are the innate immune system can be thought of. Again, I'm not an immunologist. My understanding is that this is the first line defense against pathogens. It happens very quickly and then obviously the adaptive immune system then adapts to a specific pathogen over time. And so, this ability of our diet to change the immune system is intriguing and how much of that has to do with influencing the gut microbiota, which obviously the gut plays a huge role in steering our immune system in one direction versus another. I think those are some really intriguing mechanistic questions that are really good fodder for future research.Eric Topol (18:42):Yeah, I think it may have implications for treatment of autoimmune diseases. You may want to comment about that.Kevin Hall (18:51):Yeah, it's fascinating to think about that the idea that you could change your diet and manipulate your microbiota and manipulate your gut function in a way to influence your immune system to steer you away from a response that may actually be causing your body damage in your typical diet. It's a fascinating area of science and we're really interested to follow that up. I mean, it kind of supports these more anecdotal reports of people with lupus, for example, who've reported that when they try to clean up their diet for a period of time and eliminate certain foods and eliminate perhaps even ultra-processed food products, that they feel so much better that their symptoms alleviate at least for some period of time. Obviously, it doesn't take the place of the therapeutics that they need to take, but yeah, we're really interested in following this up to see what this interaction might be.Eric Topol (19:46):Yeah, it's fascinating. It also gets to the fact that certain people have interesting responses. For example, those with epilepsy can respond very well to a ketogenic diet. There's also been diet proposed for cancer. In fact, I think there's some even ongoing trials for cancer of specific diets. Any comments about that?Kevin Hall (20:10):Yeah, again, it's a really fascinating area. I mean, I think we kind of underappreciate and view diet in this lens of weight loss, which is not surprising because that's kind of where it's been popularized. But I think the role of nutrition and how you can manipulate your diet and still you can have a very healthy version of a ketogenic diet. You can have a very healthy version of a low-fat, high carb diet and how they can be used in individual cases to kind of manipulate factors that might be of concern. So for example, if you're concerned about blood glucose levels, clearly a ketogenic diet is moderating those glucose levels over time, reducing insulin levels, and that might have some positive downstream consequences and there's some potential downsides. Your apoB levels might go up. So, you have to kind of tune these things to the problems and the situations that individuals may face. And similarly, if you have issues with blood glucose control, maybe a high carbohydrate diet might not be for you, but if that's not an issue and you want to reduce apoB levels, it seems like that is a relatively effective way to do that, although it does tend to increase fasting triglyceride levels.Kevin Hall (21:27):So again, there's all of these things to consider, and then when you open the door beyond traditional metabolic health markers to things like inflammation and autoimmune disease as well as some of these other things like moderating how cancer therapeutics might work inside the body. I think it's a really fascinating and interesting area to pursue.Eric Topol (21:55):No question about it. And that also brings in the dimension of the gut microbiome, which obviously your diet has a big influence, and it has an influence on your brain, brain-gut axis, and the immune system. It's all very intricate, a lot of feedback loops and interactions that are not so easy to dissect, right?Kevin Hall (22:16):Absolutely. Yeah, especially in humans. That's why we rely on our basic science colleagues to kind of figure out these individual steps in these chains. And of course, we do need human experiments and carefully controlled experiments to see how much of that really translates to humans, so we need this close sort of translational partnership.On the Pathogenesis of Obesity, Calories In and Calories OutEric Topol (22:35):Yeah. Now, you've also written with colleagues, other experts in the field about understanding the mechanisms of pathogenesis of obesity and papers that we'll link to. We're going to link to everything for what we've been discussing about calories in, calories out, and that's been the longstanding adage about this. Can you enlighten us, what is really driving obesity and calories story?Kevin Hall (23:05):Well, I co-organized a meeting for the Royal Society, I guess about a year and a half ago, and we got together all these experts from around the world, and the basic message is that we have lots of competing theories about what is driving obesity. There's a few things that we all agree on. One is that there is a genetic component. That adiposity in a given environment is somewhere between 40% to 70% heritable, so our genes play a huge role. It seems like there's certain genes that can play a major role. Like if you have a mutation in leptin, for example, or the leptin receptor, then this can have a monogenic cause of obesity, but that's very, very rare. What seems to be the case is that it's a highly polygenic disease with individual gene variants contributing a very, very small amount to increased adiposity. But our genes have not changed that much as obesity prevalence has increased over the past 50 years. And so, something in the environment has been driving that, and that's where the real debates sort of starts, right?Kevin Hall (24:14):I happen to be in the camp that thinks that the food environment is probably one of the major drivers and our food have changed substantially, and we're trying to better understand, for example, how ultra-processed foods which have risen kind of in parallel with the increased prevalence of obesity. What is it about ultra-processed foods that tend to drive us to overconsume calories? Other folks focus maybe more on what signals from the body have been altered by the foods that we're eating. They might say that the adipose tissue because of excess insulin secretion for example, is basically driven into a storage mode and that sends downstream signals that are eventually sensed by the brain to change our appetite and things like that. There's a lot of debate about that, but again, I think that these are complementary hypotheses that are important to sort out for sure and important to design experiments to try to figure out what is more likely. But there is a lot of agreement on the idea that there's something in our environment has changed.Kevin Hall (25:17):I think there's even maybe a little bit less agreement of exactly what that is. I think that there's probably a little bit more emphasis on the food environment as opposed to there are other folks who think increased pollution might be driving some of this, especially endocrine disrupting chemicals that have increased in prevalence. I think that's a viable hypothesis. I think we have to try to rank order what we think are the most likely and largest contributors. They could all be contributing to some extent and maybe more so in some people rather than others, but our goal is to try to, maybe that's a little simple minded, but let's take the what I think is the most important thing and let's figure out the mechanisms of that most important thing and we'll, number one, determine if it is the most important thing. In my case, I think something about ultra-processed foods that are driving much of what we're seeing. If we could better understand that, then we could both advise consumers to avoid certain kinds of foods because of certain mechanisms and still be able to consume some degree of ultra-processed foods. They are convenient and tasty and relatively inexpensive and don't require a lot of skill and equipment to prepare. But then if we focus on the true bad guys in that category because we really understand the mechanisms, then I think that would be a major step forward. But that's just my hypothesis.Eric Topol (26:43):Well, I'm with you actually. Everything I've read, everything I've reviewed on ultra-processed food is highly incriminating, and I also get frustrated that nothing is getting done about it, at least in this country. But on the other hand, it doesn't have to be either or, right? It could be both these, the glycemic index story also playing a role. Now, when you think about this and you're trying to sort out calories in and calories out, and let's say it's one of your classic experiments where you have isocaloric proteins and fat and carbohydrate exactly nailed in the different diets you're examining. Is it really about calories or is it really about what is comprising the calorie?Kevin Hall (27:29):Yeah, so I think this is the amazing thing, even in our ultra-processed food study, if we asked the question across those people, did the people who ate more calories even in the ultra-processed diet, did they gain more weight? The answer is yes.Kevin Hall (27:44):There's a very strong linear correlation between calorie intake and weight change. I tend to think that I started my career in this space focusing more on the metabolism side of the equation, how the body's using the calories and how much does energy expenditure change when you vary the proportion of carbs versus fat, for example. The effect size is there, they might be there, but they're really tiny of the order of a hundred calories per day. What really struck me is that when we just kind of changed people's food environments, the magnitude of the effects are like we mentioned, 500 to 700 calories per day differences. So I think that the real trick is to figure out how is it that the brain is regulating our body weight in some way that we are beginning to understand from a molecular perspective? What I think is less well understood is, how is that food intake control system altered by the food environment that we find ourselves in?The Brain and GLP-1 DrugsKevin Hall (28:42):There are a few studies now in mice that are beginning to look at how pathways in the brain that have been believed to be related to reward and not necessarily homeostatic control of food intake. They talk to the regions of the brain that are related to homeostatic control of food intake, and it's a reciprocal sort of feedback loop there, and we're beginning to understand that. And I think if we get more details about what it is in our foods that are modulating that system, then we'll have a better understanding of what's really driving obesity and is it different in different people? Are there subcategories of obesity where certain aspects of the food environment are more important than others, and that might be completely flipped in another person. I don't know the answer to that question yet, but it seems like there are certain common factors that might be driving overall changes in obesity prevalence and how they impact this reward versus homeostatic control systems in the brain, I think are really fascinating questions.Eric Topol (29:43):And I think we're getting much more insight about this circuit of the reward in the brain with the food intake, things like optogenetics, many ways that we're getting at this. And so, it's fascinating. Now, that gets me to the miracle drug class GLP-1, which obviously has a big interaction with obesity, but of course much more than that. And you've written about this as well regarding this topic of sarcopenic obesity whereby you lose a lot of weight, but do you lose muscle mass or as you referred to earlier, you lose body fat and maybe not so much muscle mass. Can you comment about your views about the GLP-1 family of drugs and also about this concern of muscle mass loss?Kevin Hall (30:34):Yeah, so I think it's a really fascinating question, and we've been trying to develop mathematical models about how our body composition changes with weight gain and weight loss for decades now. And this has been a long topic, one of the things that many people may not realize is that people with obesity don't just have elevated adiposity, they also have elevated muscle mass and lean tissue mass overall. So when folks with obesity lose weight, and this was initially a pretty big concern with bariatric surgery, which has been the grandfather of ways that people have lost a lot of weight. The question has been is there a real concern about people losing too much weight and thereby becoming what you call sarcopenic? They have too little muscle mass and then they have difficulties moving around. And of course, there are probably some people like that, but I think what people need to realize is that folks with obesity tend to start with much higher amounts of lean tissue mass as well as adiposity, and they start off with about 50% of your fat-free mass, and the non-fat component of your body is skeletal muscle.Kevin Hall (31:45):So you're already starting off with quite a lot. And so, the question then is when you lose a lot of weight with the GLP-1 receptor agonist or with bariatric surgery, how much of that weight loss is coming from fat-free mass and skeletal muscle versus fat mass? And so, we've been trying to simulate that using what we've known about bariatric surgery and what we've known about just intentional weight loss or weight gain over the years. And one of the things that we found was that our sort of expectations for what's expected for the loss of fat-free mass with these different drugs as well as bariatric surgery, for the most part, they match our expectations. In other words, the expected amount of fat loss and fat free mass loss. The one outlier interestingly, was the semaglutide study, and in that case, they lost more fat-free mass than would be expected.Kevin Hall (32:44):Now, again, that's just raising a little bit of a flag that for whatever reason, from a body composition perspective, it's about a hundred people underwent these repeated DEXA scans in that study sponsored by Novo Nordisk. So it's not a huge number of people, but it's enough to really get a good estimate about the proportion of weight loss. Whether or not that has functional consequences, I think is the open question. There's not a lot of reports of people losing weight with semaglutide saying, you know what? I'm really having trouble actually physically moving around. I feel like I've lost a lot of strength. In fact, it seems to be the opposite, right, that the quality of the muscle there seems to be improved. They seem to have more physical mobility because they've lost so much more weight, that weight had been inhibiting their physical movement in the past.Kevin Hall (33:38):So it's something to keep an eye on. It's an open question whether or not we need additional therapies in certain categories of patients, whether that be pharmacological, there are drugs that are interesting that tend to increase muscle mass. There's also other things that we know increase muscle mass, right? Resistance exercise training, increase this muscle mass. And so, if you're really concerned about this, I certainly, I'm not a physician, but I think it's something to consider that if you go on one of these drugs, you might want to think about increasing your resistance exercise training, maybe increasing the protein content of your diet, which then can support that muscle building. But I think it's a really interesting open question about what the consequences of this might be in certain patient populations, especially over longer periods of time.Dietary Protein, Resistance Exercise, DEXA ScansEric Topol (34:30):Yeah, you've just emphasized some really key points here. Firstly, that resistance exercise is good for you anyway. And get on one of these drugs, why don't you amp it up or get it going? The second is about the protein diet, which it'd be interesting to get your thoughts on that, but we generally have too low of a protein diet, but then there are some who are advocating very high protein diets like one gram per pound, not just one gram per kilogram. And there have been studies to suggest that that very high protein diet could be harmful, but amping up the protein diet, that would be a countering thing. But the other thing you mentioned is a DEXA scan, which can be obtained very inexpensively, and because there's a variability in this muscle mass loss if it's occurring, I wonder if that's a prudent thing or if you just empirically would just do the things that you mentioned. Do you have any thoughts about that?Kevin Hall (35:32):Yeah, that's really a clinical question that I don't deal with on a day-to-day basis. And yeah, I think there's probably better people suited to that. DEXA scans, they're relatively inexpensive, but they're not readily accessible to everyone. I certainly wouldn't want to scare people away from using drugs that are now known to be very effective for weight loss and pretty darn safe as far as we can tell, just because they don't have access to a DEXA scanner or something like that.Eric Topol (36:00):Sure. No, that makes a lot of sense. I mean, the only reason I thought it might be useful is if you're concerned about this and you want to track, for example, how much is that resistant training doing?Kevin Hall (36:13):But I think for people who have the means to do that, sure. I can't see any harm in it for sure.Continuous Glucose Sensors?Eric Topol (36:19):Yeah. That gets me to another metric that you've written about, which is continuous glucose tracking. As you know, this is getting used, I think much more routinely in type one insulin diabetics and people with type 2 that are taking insulin or difficult to manage. And now in recent months there have been consumer approved that is no prescription needed, just go to the drugstore and pick up your continuous glucose sensor. And you've written about that as well. Can you summarize your thoughts on it?Kevin Hall (36:57):Yeah, sure. I mean, yeah, first of all, these tools have been amazing for people with diabetes and who obviously are diagnosed as having a relative inability to regulate their glucose levels. And so, these are critical tools for people in that population. I think the question is are they useful for people who don't have diabetes and is having this one metric and where you target all this energy into this one thing that you can now measure, is that really a viable way to kind of modulate your lifestyle and your diet? And how reliable are these CGM measurements anyway? In other words, do they give the same response to the same meal on repeated occasions? Does one monitor give the same response as another monitor? And those are the kinds of experiments that we've done. Again, secondary analysis, these trials that we talked about before, we have people wearing continuous glucose monitors all the time and we know exactly what they ate.Kevin Hall (37:59):And so, in a previous publication several years ago, we basically had two different monitors. One basically is on the arm, which is the manufacturer's recommendation, the other is on the abdomen, which is the manufacturer's recommendation. They're wearing them simultaneously. And we decided just to compare what were the responses to the same meals in simultaneous measurements. And they were correlated with each other thankfully, but they weren't as well predictive as you might expect. In other words, one device might give a very high glucose reading to consuming one meal and the other might barely budge, whereas the reverse might happen for a different meal. And so, we asked the question, if we were to rank the glucose spikes by one meal, so we have all these meals, let's rank them according to the glucose spikes of one device. Let's do the simultaneous measurements with the other device.Kevin Hall (38:53):Do we get a different set of rankings? And again, they're related to each other, but they're not overlapping. They're somewhat discordant. And so, then the question becomes, okay, well if I was basically using this one metric to kind of make my food decisions by one device, I actually start making different decisions compared to if I happen to have been wearing a different device. So what does this really mean? And I think this sort of foundational research on how much of a difference you would need to make a meaningful assessment about, yeah, this is actionable from a lifestyle perspective, even if that is the one metric that you're interested in. That sort of foundational research I don't think has really been done yet. More recently, we asked the question, okay, let's ignore the two different devices. Let's stick to the one where we put it on our arm, and let's ask the question.Kevin Hall (39:43):We've got repeated meals and we've got them in this very highly regimented and controlled environment, so we know exactly what people ate previously. We know the timing of the meals, we know when they did their exercise, we know how much they were moving around, how well they slept the night before. All of these factors we could kind of control. And the question that we asked in that study was, do people respond similarly to the same meal on repeated occasions? Is that better than when you actually give them very different meals? But they match overall for macronutrient content, for example. And the answer to that was surprisingly no. We had as much variability in the glucose response to the same person consuming the same meal on two occasions as a whole bunch of different meals. Which suggests again, that there's enough variability that it makes it difficult to then recommend on for just two repeats of a meal that this is going to be a meal that's going to cause your blood glucose to be moderate or blood glucose to be very high. You're going to have to potentially do this on many, many different occasions to kind of figure out what's the reliable response of these measurements. And again, that foundational research is typically not done. And I think if we're really going to use this metric as something that is going to change our lifestyles and make us choose some meals other than others, then I think we need that foundational research. And all we know now is that two repeats of the same meal is not going to do it.Eric Topol (41:21):Well, were you using the current biosensors of 2024 or were you using ones from years ago on that?Kevin Hall (41:27):No, we were using ones from several years ago when these studies were completed. But interestingly, the variability in the venous measurements to meal tests is also very, very different. So it's probably not the devices per se that are highly variable. It's that we don't really know on average how to predict these glucose responses unless there's huge differences in the glycemic load. So glycemic load is a very old concept that when you have very big differences in glycemic load, yeah, you can on average predict that one kind of meal is going to give rise to a much larger glucose excursion than another. But typically these kind of comparisons are now being made within a particular person. And we're comparing meals that might have quite similar glycemic loads with the claim that there's something specific about that person that causes them to have a much bigger glucose spike than another person. And that we can assess that with a couple different meals.Eric Topol (42:31):But also, we know that the spikes or the glucose regulation, it's very much affected by so many things like stress, like sleep, like exercise. And so, it wouldn't be at all surprising that if you had the exact same food, but all these other factors were modulated that it might not have the same response. But the other thing, just to get your comment on. Multiple groups, particularly starting in Israel, the Weizmann Institute, Eran Segal and his colleagues, and many subsequent have shown that if you give the exact same amount of that food, the exact same time to a person, they eat the exact same amount. Their glucose response is highly heterogeneous and variable between people. Do you think that that's true? That in fact that our metabolism varies considerably and that the glucose in some will spike with certain food and some won't.Kevin Hall (43:29):Well, of course that's been known for a long time that there's varying degrees of glucose tolerance. Just oral glucose tolerance tests that we've been doing for decades and decades we know is actually diagnostic, that we use variability in that response as diagnostic of type 2 diabetes.Eric Topol (43:49):I'm talking about within healthy people.Kevin Hall (43:53):But again, it's not too surprising that varying people. I mean, first of all, we have a huge increase in pre-diabetes, right? So there's various degrees of glucose tolerance that are being observed. But yeah, that is important physiology. I think the question then is within a given person, what kind of advice do we give to somebody about their lifestyle that is going to modulate those glucose responses? And if that's the only thing that you look at, then it seems like what ends up happening, even in the trials that use continuous glucose monitors, well big surprise, they end up recommending low carbohydrate diets, right? So that's the precision sort of nutrition advice because if that's the main metric that's being used, then of course we've all known for a very long time that lower carbohydrate diets lead to a moderated glucose response compared to higher carbohydrate diets. I think the real question is when you kind of ask the issue of if you normalize for glycemic load of these different diets, and there are some people that respond very differently to the same glycemic load meal compared to another person, is that consistent number one within that person?Kevin Hall (45:05):And our data suggests that you're going to have to repeat that same test multiple times to kind of get a consistent response and be able to make a sensible recommendation about that person should eat that meal in the future or not eat that meal in the future. And then second, what are you missing when that becomes your only metric, right? If you're very narrowly focused on that, then you're going to drive everybody to consume a very low carbohydrate diet. And as we know, that might be great for a huge number of people, but there are those that actually have some deleterious effects of that kind of diet. And if you're not measuring those other things or not considering those other things and put so much emphasis on the glucose side of the equation, I worry that there could be people that are being negatively impacted. Not to mention what if that one occasion, they ate their favorite food and they happen to get this huge glucose spike and they never eat it again, their life is worse. It might've been a complete aberration.Eric Topol (46:05):I think your practical impact point, it's excellent. And I think one of the, I don't know if you agree, Kevin, but one of the missing links here is we see these glucose spikes in healthy people, not just pre-diabetic, but people with no evidence of glucose dysregulation. And we don't know, they could be up to 180, 200, they could be prolonged. We don't know if the health significance of that, and I guess someday we'll learn about it. Right?Kevin Hall (46:36):Well, I mean that's the one nice thing is that now that we have these devices to measure these things, we can start to make these correlations. We can start to do real science to say, what a lot of people now presume is the case that these spikes can't be good for you. They must lead to increased risk of diabetes. It's certainly a plausible hypothesis, but that's what it is. We actually need good data to actually analyze that. And at least that's now on the table.Eric Topol (47:04):I think you're absolutely right on that. Well, Kevin, this has been a fun discussion. You've been just a great leader in nutrition science. I hope you'll keep up your momentum because it's pretty profound and I think we touched on a lot of the uncertainties. Is there anything that I didn't ask you that you wish I did?Kevin Hall (47:23):I mean, we could go on for hours, I'm sure, Eric, but this has been a fascinating conversation. I really appreciate your interest. Thank you.Eric Topol (47:30):Alright, well keep up the great stuff. We'll be following all your work in the years ahead, and thanks for joining us on Ground Truths today.**************************************Footnote, Stay Tuned: Julia Belluz and Kevin Hall have a book coming out next September titled “WHY WE EAT? Thank you for reading, listening and subscribing to Ground Truths.If you found this fun and informative please share it!All content on Ground Truths—its newsletters, analyses, and podcasts, are free, open-access.Paid subscriptions are voluntary. All proceeds from them go to support Scripps Research. Many thanks to those who have contributed—they have greatly helped fund our summer internship programs for the past two years. I welcome all comments from paid subscribers and will do my best to respond to them and any questions.Thanks to my producer Jessica Nguyen and to Sinjun Balabanoff for audio and video support at Scripps Research.Note on Mass Exodus from X/twitter:Many of you have abandoned the X platform for reasons that I fully understand. While I intend to continue to post there because of its reach to the biomedical community, I will post anything material here in the Notes section of Ground Truths on a daily basis and cover important topics in the newsletter/analyses. You can also find my posts at Bluesky: @erictopol.bsky.social, which is emerging as an outstanding platform for sharing life science. Get full access to Ground Truths at erictopol.substack.com/subscribe

As Adrienne reflects on 6 years of the Power Hour, we are going to share some of our favourite episodes from the archives on Thursdays.Today we're sharing April 2023's episode all about Ultra-processed food, with guest Dr Chris van Tulleken. Since this episode Chris has been on a mission to get us discussing our diets and making positive healthy changes, and the phrase ultra-processed food has become common parlance!From the episode notes...Adrienne is joined by the wonderful Dr Chris van Tulleken to discuss his new book Ultra-Processed People. In the book Dr Chris discusses how we have entered a new 'age of eating' where most of our calories come from an entirely novel set of substances called Ultra-Processed Food, food which is industrially processed and designed and marketed to be addictive. But do we really know what it's doing to our bodies?Dr Chris van Tulleken is an infectious disease doctor at University College London Hospitals, and a Medical Research Council clinical research fellow at University College London in the Greg Towers lab, where he studies viral evolution and HIV. He has worked with aid organisations around the world over the past 10 years, including Doctors of the World. He also presents a range of programmes for the BBC including the double-Bafta winning Operation Ouch!. He is on Twitter @DoctorChrisVT Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Chris van Tulleken shares stories from the making of his chart-topping podcast, Fed. In conversation with Leyla Kazim, at Hay Festival 2024.In Fed, Dr Chris van Tulleken, investigated the entangled web of forces that shape what ends up on our plates. And he focused his investigation around one foodstuff in particular. The most widely eaten meat on our planet, a staple of nearly every diet and a global food production phenomenon: the humble chicken, Chris dug into the history of our relationship with this extraordinary animal, to try to get to the truth of why we eat so much of it, and what that means for the birds, for us, and for the planet.In this lively conversation, recorded live at Hay festival 2024, Chris talks to Leyla Kazim about the hidden stories behind the globalised food networks of today. From industrial-scale farming, to food labelling, to ethical dilemmas, environmental quandaries, and the complexities of the world of fast food. Plus tales from the adventure that ran through the whole series: raising his own tiny flock of broiler chickens, in his back garden.

In this episode of the RCP Medicine podcast's Health Inequalities series, Dr. Rohan Mehra delves into the commercial determinants of health—how private sector activities influence health outcomes and deepen inequalities. This episode focuses on the food industry, examining how corporate actions like product design, marketing, and lobbying can negatively impact public health.Joining Rohan is Dr. Chris Van Tulleken, an infectious diseases consultant at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London, associate professor at University College London, and an acclaimed researcher and BAFTA wining broadcaster. Chris' work, including his bestselling book Ultra-Processed People, shines a light on how corporations, particularly in the food industry, affect health, especially in the context of child nutrition. Together, they explore the pressing issue of corporate influence on health and discuss practical ways to address these challenges. Resources:Lancet commercial determinants of health series: https://www.thelancet.com/series/commercial-determinants-healthCommercial determinants of health- WHO fact sheethttps://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/commercial-determinants-of-healthLSHTM research on commercial determinants of health (CDRG workgroup)https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres-projects-groups/cdrg  Music: www.bensound.com

Today we're discussing ultra processed food. Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are everywhere. Many of us eat them over and over again without really understanding the detrimental impact they're having on our health.  But why are these foods so addictive? Here to help us identify the ultra-processed parts of our diet are Professor Tim Spector and Dr. Chris van Tulleken.

Under-nutrition harms health, but so does over-nutrition. The Bill and Melinda Gate's foundation has just released their Goalkeepers' report - highlighting the detrimental impact that poor nutrition is having on children's health.  Rasa Izadnegahdar, director of Maternal, Newborn, Child Nutrition & Health at the foundation joins us to explain how they are targeting nutritional interventions. Also this week, a new investigation in The BMJ has found that the UK government's  Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition - the people who help guide the UK's nutrition policy - have competing interests with the food industry. We hear from Chris van Tulleken, University College London; Rob Percival, the Soil Association; and Alison Tedstone, chair of the Association for Nutrition.   Reading list: Goalkeepers Report 2024 UK government's nutrition advisers are paid by world's largest food companies, BMJ analysis reveals    

Here in the UK, ultra-processed food makes up 60 percent of the average diet. The trouble is, says today's guest, UPFs have been shown to be the leading cause of early death in the world, ahead of tobacco. Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my weekly podcast for your mind, body, and heart. Each week I'll be featuring inspirational stories and practical tips from some of my former guests. Today's clip is from episode 414 of the podcast with Dr Chris van Tulleken. Chris is a practising infectious diseases doctor, one of the UK's leading science broadcasters, and author of the book Ultra-Processed People. Over consumption of ultra-processed foods may be the biggest public-health crisis of our time and, in this clip, he shares why he believes we eat stuff that isn't really food and why can't we stop. Thanks to our sponsor https://www.drinkag1.com/livemore Support the podcast and enjoy Ad-Free episodes. Try FREE for 7 days on Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/feelbetterlivemore. For other podcast platforms go to https://fblm.supercast.com. Show notes and the full podcast are available at drchatterjee.com/414 DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website.

Purified and Born Again 1 Peter 1:22-2:3 Teacher: Blaine Dennison, Congregational Care Pastor at Oak Pointe Church Dr. Chris van Tulleken set out on a 30-day quest to discover what happens to the body on a diet of ultra-processed food (UPF). He found himself consuming more and more calories as time went on, yet he rarely felt full. One night he remarked, “I'm not enjoying it, but I can't stop.” The UPFs were causing him to want to eat increasingly more even while physically he was feeling worse. With a similar introspection, the Apostle Peter calls us to take care of our spiritual diet by consuming what is good and putting off the junk that stunts our growth. Is your heart feeling sluggish and insatiable? Do you crave what you know you shouldn't? Join us tomorrow morning for a spiritual checkup and learn how to get your heart in shape.

Are you ready to transform your health and embark on a journey toward a healthier, more purposeful life? Health, Vitality and Weight Loss Coach Sue Ellar shares her journey from struggling with weight and chronic ailments to thriving with energy through proper nutrition. Learn what natural, unprocessed foods can do for you and how to break free from misleading industry practices. Sue's mission is to empower the next generation with healthy eating habits however to achieve it, she needs your help with what corporations produce. That will only happen with changing the demand.   KEY TAKEAWAY ‘People are confused about what they can eat, what's healthy and what's not. So I can't set out on a mission to change the food industry, because let's face it, the only way we can change big corporations is by changing the demand.'   BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS* Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken - https://amzn.eu/d/iARYyM2 Focus on Why by Amy Rowlinson – https://amzn.eu/d/6W02HWu     ABOUT SUE Sue Ellar is on a mission to help women dramatically improve their health, energy, sleep, and release excess weight naturally. She harnesses the beautiful simplicity of evolutionary nutrition and behavioural change psychology to embed a more supportive, peaceful relationship with food. In just 90 days Sue's Eat Well Feel Great programme delivers significant health improvements such as reduced joint pain, improved gut health and sleep. Weight loss happens as a natural side effect - average 21 lbs. Sue's compassionate and doable approach helps ensure the changes last and clients are able to enjoy a life of food freedom, health and vitality for years to come.    CONNECT WITH SUE http://facebook.com/sueellar/ http://instagram.com/sue.ellar/ https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sueellar http://linktr.ee/sueellar    ABOUT AMY Amy is a Life Purpose Coach, Podcast Strategist, Global Podcaster, Speaker and Mastermind Host. Helping you to improve productivity, engagement and fulfilment in your everyday life and work. Prepare to banish overwhelm, underwhelm and frustration to live with clarity of purpose.   WORK WITH AMY If you're interested in how purpose can help you and your business, please book a free 30 min call via https://calendly.com/amyrowlinson/call   KEEP IN TOUCH WITH AMY Sign up for the weekly Friday Focus - https://www.amyrowlinson.com/subscribe-to-weekly-newsletter   CONNECT WITH AMY https://linktr.ee/AmyRowlinson   HOSTED BY: Amy Rowlinson   DISCLAIMER The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast belong solely to the host and guest speakers. Please conduct your own due diligence. *As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Today's bonus guest is Dr Chris van Tulleken, he's the author of the bestselling book Ultra Processed People, an infectious diseases doctor and broadcaster. Now for anyone who's been listening to Big Fish for a while, you'll know that this book absolutely changed my life. It's an eye-opening exploration into ultra processed food and why we can't stop eating it. He looks at how this industrially processed food is designed and marketed to be addictive, why exercise and willpower can't save us and what UPF is really doing to our bodies and our health. I absolutely loved this conversation with Chris - you'll find it utterly fascinating.

Dr Chris van Tulleken wrestles with the dilemma of slaughter. Could he bring himself to dispatch an animal himself? Is he happy supporting an industry which kills animals in his name? And if not, what could he eat instead?Chris explores the rise of the alternative protein industry – plant-based meat alternatives, lab-grown meat, or most shocking of all for some, actual meat abstinence, Veganism.And it is time to revisit that initial question: what's influencing our choices when it comes to eating chicken, what impact is that having – and are we bothered?

Willpower has long been associated with self-control, but why has it not been associated with the ingredients in our foods?Dr. Chris van Tulleken is one of the BBC's leading science presenters and author of the groundbreaking book, Ultra-Processed People. He discusses how ultra-processed foods and willpower are so closely linked, and why a seeming 'lack' of willpower is NOT your fault.Listen to the full episode here.Watch the full episode on YouTube here.

Do YOU know what you're eating? Are you sure?Dr Chris van Tulleken is keen to make good food choices, and buy the best chicken possible for his dinner. High welfare, tasty, and good for the environment, ideally. But it's not as easy as that. How CAN he make good food choices if he has no idea what he's buying?Chris explores what we actually know about the food we buy, and to what extent we can trust what's on a label.He also uncovers the startling truth about two very different ways that we buy chicken - lifting the lid on why sometimes, even the most moral meat shoppers turn a blind eye...

The is the second instalment of a two-part discussion. We're living longer than ever before but we are also spending more years in poor health and some communities become more sick than others. In June 2024 science journalist Layal Liverpool and medical doctor Chris van Tulleken came to Intelligence Squared to reveal the underlying causes of our growing health crises. Drawing on the themes of their respective books Systemic: How Racism is Making Us Ill, and Ultra-Processed People, they uncover how structural problems and inequalities – from racism in medicine to processing in food – are making us increasingly and needlessly ill. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. This is the second instalment of two-part discussion. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all three parts immediately and all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events - Our member-only newsletter The Monthly Read, sent straight to your inbox ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series ... Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. ... Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The is the first instalment of a two-part discussion. We're living longer than ever before but we are also spending more years in poor health and some communities become more sick than others. In June 2024 science journalist Layal Liverpool and medical doctor Chris van Tulleken came to Intelligence Squared to reveal the underlying causes of our growing health crises. Drawing on the themes of their respective books Systemic: How Racism is Making Us Ill, and Ultra-Processed People, they uncover how structural problems and inequalities – from racism in medicine to processing in food – are making us increasingly and needlessly ill. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. This is the first instalment of two-part discussion. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all three parts immediately and all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events - Our member-only newsletter The Monthly Read, sent straight to your inbox ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series ... Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. ... Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We've heard about the potential problems around chicken welfare. But how does that square with their impact on the environment?Dr Chris van Tulleken finds out what it takes to produce the most eco-friendly chicken meat possible. And makes a devastating discovery. Welfare concerns, and environmental credentials, often pull in OPPOSITE directions. Does he want to eat the happiest birds, or the ones kindest to the planet?Halfway through his poultry quest, Chris remains massively conflicted: he loves chicken, but some of what he's discovered makes him question how much he eats it. Will he still be able to look at it the same way as he goes deeper down the rabbit hole? And more importantly, should he keep serving it up to the family?

We eat chicken. A LOT of it. We might love the taste, but what about how we're treating those birds?After witnessing first-hand the reality of indoor chicken farming - how most of the chicken we eat is raised - Dr Chris van Tulleken wants to know: are the birds happy enough, or is our method of rearing cheap chicken actually cruel?If so, what's the ‘happier' alternative – and do carnivores like Chris care enough to pay the price for that, or does a love of meat ultimately trump ethics?Chris battles with his conscience, and finds the answer hard to stomach.

So we started farming this bird called chicken, and it spread around the world. But what does it actually TAKE to feed us the amount of chicken we want to consume?100 years ago this was a scrawny, egg-laying bird, only good for a stew once her eggs ran out – no one ate chicken meat. Fast forward to today and it's the most consumed protein on the planet. How did we come to eat it in the first place, and what are the consequences of producing chicken meat on the vast, industrial scales we now consume it?Dr Chris van Tulleken uncovers the extraordinary accident of history that birthed a new industry, and changed the way we eat – and think about – meat forever.

Dr Chris van Tulleken is on a mission to find out what we're eating, why, and who or what might be influencing our decisions. And he's starting his quest to uncover food truths with the most eaten meat in the world, and one of the most numerous animals on our planet: chicken.He's recently been forced to confront a serious gap in his food knowledge - what happens before it gets to our plates - and has decided this, the world's most popular meat, is an ideal starting point.Chris' initial investigations reveal the vast scale of modern chicken consumption; and how a once revered jungle fowl was manipulated to become a modern food success story, a fast-growing heavy-breasted beast to feed the masses.Now, he's torn: is this a triumph of human ingenuity – or the creation of a monster?

The FX miniseries Shōgun takes viewers on a journey filled with action and adventure through historically accurate 1600's Edo-era Japan. Englishman John Blackthorne arrives on a Dutch trading ship after a rough voyage, interested in beginning trade with the Japanese. The country is governed by five regents locked in a power struggle, and the ruler Toranaga thinks the Englishman might be useful to him. Director Jonathan van Tulleken and cinematographer Christopher Ross worked on episodes one and two together, establishing the look of the series. They have a deep understanding of each other's creative vision, collaborating on several TV shows over the years. For Shōgun, Jonathan and Chris created a visual experience that honors both the grandeur of feudal Japan and the disorientation of a foreign visitor like the “anjin,” John Blackthorne. The two met and created a look book and sizzle reel to present to FX. Jonathan drew inspiration from movies such as The Revenant and Apocalypse Now. Chris was influenced by classic Japanese films Ran, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Akira Kirosawa's jidaigeki (historical drama) films. Most importantly, they wanted the show to be bold and stand out with a cinematic look and genuine artistic intention behind it. Chris chose anamorphic lenses and wider aspect ratios for the first two episodes, playing with the point of view of the outsider's subjectivity and disorientation. The choice of anamorphic lenses, which create a lot of background blur but keeps the character in crisp focus, may have seemed controversial, but has become more widely used on today's television shows. (Read this article from The Ringer to learn more.) Shōgun was shot in British Columbia during the winter, with the wild ocean shores of Canada and carefully designed soundstages standing in for Japan. Jonathan, Chris and the production team chose a lighting and color palette of browns and greens for the warring factions. Opulent costumes, warmer lights and colors represented palace life in Osaka, while in the village, the use of blues and grays reflected the harsh realities of the time period. The dialog is almost entirely in Japanese, and Jonathan actually enjoyed directing in a language he didn't speak. “It meant that you were not giving line readings, you couldn't give line readings. You had to direct in a much more pure way, dealing with the bigger arcs of the scene, the character development, without getting into very macro stuff that isn't helpful. I think you could just feel the emotion.” Chris agrees. “What you're hoping to achieve is some sort of emotional resonance with a character that is in tune with what they're saying and synchronous with what they're saying.” Find Jonathan Van Tulleken: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1743387/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 Find Chris Ross: Instagram @edjibevel Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Get Tickets to Cinebeer 2024! https://www.tickettailor.com/events/hotrodcameras/1263845? The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

What really is in the food we eat?In this shocking and enlightening episode, Dr. Chris Van Tulleken explores the profound impact ultra-processed foods have on our health, society, and our relationship with food. Dr. Chris van Tulleken is an infectious diseases doctor at UCLH with a diploma in Tropical Medicine and a PhD in Molecular Virology from UCL. He is one of the BBC's leading science presenters and author of the groundbreaking book, Ultra-Processed People.This conversation delves into the deceptive nature of food marketing, the challenges of dietary change, and the stark reality of food addiction. Plus, Chris discusses his firsthand experience with an 80% ultra-processed food diet and its alarming implications. This discussion will not only inform you, but empower you to scrutinise your food choices and advocate for a healthier, more transparent food system. Connect with Chris on InstagramBuy Chris's book, Ultra-Processed People***Thank you to my wonderful sponsors!Naturalmat | A healthier, more sustainable night's sleep.Use code LIVEWELL for 10% off***Timecodes00:00 Introduction00:05 Emotional Connections to Food00:08 Defining Unhealthy Foods00:17 Impact of Marketing Strategies03:06 Ultra-Processed Diet Experiments09:29 Consequences of Ultra-Processed Foods26:36 Debunking Diet Myths42:09 The Illusion of Willpower49:21 Actionable Steps for Individuals*****Join my inner circle: https://sarahannmacklin.com/members-hub-subscribe*****Let's be friends!

Reem Ibrahim, communications officer at the Institute of Economic Affairs, joins Chris Snowdon and Tom Slater for the latest episode of Last Orders. They discuss Chris van Tulleken's latest musings about UPF, why we shouldn't ban shisha and why we should ban slow-walking in London. Send your postbag questions to lastorders@spiked-online.com and we'll try to answer them in the next episode. Support spiked: https://www.spiked-online.com/support/  Sign up to spiked's newsletters: https://www.spiked-online.com/newsletters/

It's Friday, May 10th, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus Muslims attacked praying Catholic students On Sunday, May 5th, two young women were slightly wounded when a mob of Muslims assaulted a group of 15 Catholic students who were praying at a rented house in Banten Province, on the Indonesian island of Java, reports Morning Star News. Enraged at the Catholic group praying in a home rather than in a church building, the local neighborhood head incited area Muslims to break up the meeting and injure the two female students in a suburb of Jakarta at about 7:30 p.m. Some of the assailants were reportedly armed with long machetes, sickles, knives, and blocks. One of the young women suffered a slight wound near her nose while another sustained a minor wound in the stomach, in spite of efforts by some local Muslims to protect them. The conflict began when the leader, identified as Diding, peeped into the house where the students were praying, and then intruded in, confronting the students for prayer, and ultimately dispersing them. Chicago Teachers Union demanding abortion coverage, gender-neutral bathrooms The Chicago Teachers Union is demanding $50 billion in its contract negotiations to pay for a 9% wage increase, abortions, illegal immigrant services and "gender-neutral bathrooms" for every school district, according to leaked documents, reports The Christian Post. Earlier this year, local news outlet WLS reported that Chicago teachers requested $2,000 for each of the 5,000 illegal immigrant students recently enrolled in the district, including more bilingual teachers and full tuition coverage for teachers to obtain a bilingual certificate. The list of demands also included a series of sexual perversion provisions, with the Chicago Teachers Union calling for every school in the district to have at least one "gender-neutral restroom" and annual homosexual/transgender training for educators. No wonder the number of homeschooled children continues to skyrocket. Student newspaper: "Hitler's got some good ideas." The student newspaper at McClatchy High School in Sacramento, California is facing a big time controversy. The Prospector student newspaper published an anonymous quote in the most recent edition praising Adolf Hitler.  A student said, “Hitler's got some good ideas.” It was part of a story about “weird things” overheard in the school's hallways, reports CBS News. The student staff later posted a statement saying the quote did not reflect their ideals or beliefs. But they were glad it sparked a conversation on how students choose their words. The principal fired off a message to families saying the newspaper's actions were “deeply offensive.” And the newspaper's faculty adviser has been placed on paid leave, which angered journalists across the state. Steve O'Donoghue, director of the California Scholastic Journalism Initiative, said, “They have the right to print it. They're not advocating for it, they're just quoting what a student said.” Christian talk show host Todd Starnes wrote, “It's worth noting that a recent survey showed that 63 percent of Millennials and Generation Z did not know that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. That's what happens when public schools whitewash history. The kids are ignorant of great atrocities in world history and the next thing you know – the McClatchy High School student newspaper is singing Hitler's praises.” Ultra-processed food leads to weight gain, heart issues, & depression Research published in The British Medical Journal shows that eating a lot of ultra-processed foods such as sugary cereals, frozen meals, and sodas has been linked to poor mental health and a greater risk of dying from heart issues, reports The Telegraph. Ultra-processed foods are usually higher in fat, sugar and salt and contain chemicals, colorings, sweeteners and preservatives that extend shelf life. And thanks to Dr. Chris van Tulleken, author of the bestselling book Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food, it's a term now popping up everywhere. Dr. van Tulleken explains that ultra-processed foods are not only “high-fat, high-salt and high-sugar, but these ingredients have been combined into industrial products with exotic additives, which can't really be described as food. They're ultra-processed foods, a set of edible substances that are addictive for many and which are now linked to weight gain, early death and, yes – depression.” In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, the Apostle Paul asked, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you, Whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.” Hero saves 11-month-old baby from blazing fire And finally, an Ohio man is being hailed a hero after risking his life to save an 11-month-old baby trapped inside a burning home, reports FaithWire.com. John Stickovich, age 62, was on his way to work at the time and jumped out of the car after he saw smoke billowing out from a house. STICKOVICH: “The mother was sitting on the tree lawn with her one baby.  I asked her if she was all right and she said, ‘My baby is still in the house.'” He told WJW-TV that he repeatedly went inside the house to try to find the baby in the haze of smoke and fire. Emergency workers were not yet on the scene, so he acted fast. He crawled through an open door into the kitchen and started searching for the child. At first, Stickovich couldn't find the baby, so he went back outside to ask the mother for guidance. STICKOVICH: “Came back out, asked her where the baby way. She told me: ‘Next to the kitchen, by the baby gate.'” Then, he bravely entered the inferno once again. STICKOVICH: “It was getting so bad in there, I was getting ready to leave actually. And then the baby cried or made a sound. You know, I'm thinking to myself: ‘The baby is right here.” So, I just lurched forward and my arm went across his leg, I grabbed him by the leg, and we were both out.” Firefighters, who said the home was fully engulfed in the inferno by the time they arrived, are now dubbing Stickovich a hero and crediting him for saving the baby's life. The man was simply grateful he was able to assist. STICKOVICH: “I feel wonderful that I could save the baby. That mother doesn't have to mourn her baby. That baby gets to live today. I mean I would do it for anybody — it doesn't matter. And I would hope that somebody would do it for me.” John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Or, in this case, for a complete stranger who happens to be 11 months old. Close And that's The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Friday, May 10th in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Brian Cox and Robin Ince embrace failure in its many forms, with a frank look at the importance of making mistakes. They examine the flaws in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution with the anthropologist Alice Roberts, as she tells them no idea is totally watertight. And sometimes scientific error even leads to important discoveries – just ask the heart patients who took a pill that did nothing for their medical condition but did boost their libido and which we now know as Viagra. But other failures in the field of medicine have had more serious consequences, and Dr Chris van Tulleken questions why we're not better at drug development for the poorest parts of the world.New episodes will be released on Wednesdays. If you're in the UK, listen to the full series on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3K3JzyFProducer: Marijke Peters Executive Producer: Alexandra FeachemEpisodes featured: Series 15: Science's Epic Fails Series 11: Serendipity Series 25: What Have We Learnt From Covid?

Serving in church in 2024 is tough. Young people aren't as religious, churches are shrinking and closing - so what do we do? Here are some underrated changes churches should actually consider.   Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139

Why do we all eat stuff that isn't food and why can't we stop? In this episode, Dr Chris van Tulleken, author of Ultra-Processed People explains all. As well as being one of the UK's leading science broadcasters, Chris is a practising infectious diseases doctor in the NHS. He gained his medical degree at Oxford University and his PhD in molecular virology from University College London, where he is an associate professor. He works closely with the World Health Organization and UNICEF, and his research looks at how corporations affect human health. In this episode, Chris explores what may be the biggest public health crisis of our time: ultra-processed food, or UPF, for short. Many people these days, certainly most regular listeners to this podcast, will be aware of UPFs. But there's still a lot of confusion around what they really are. For Chris, it's simple: if it's wrapped in plastic and has at least one ingredient you wouldn't find in a home kitchen, it's a UPF. If it makes a health claim on the packet? Ironically, it's even more likely! A UPF is any food that's processed industrially and created for big-business profit, rather than to provide nutrients. And here in the UK, UPF makes up 60 percent of the average diet. The trouble is, says Chris, UPFs have been shown to be the leading cause of early death in the world, ahead of tobacco. Even if you remain at what is considered a healthy weight, consuming UPFs still leaves you vulnerable to things like Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease, dementia, anxiety, depression, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer and eating disorders. In this conversation, Chris provides a clear definition of the difference between processing and ultra-processing, and explains how our toxic food environment is designed to be addictive. We also discuss a whole range of different topics such as the need to see obesity as a condition and not an identity and the seemingly revolutionary idea that re-prioritising food shopping and cooking as a vital, enjoyable part of our day, could be a first step towards the societal change that's urgently needed. This podcast episode is not about shame or blame - it's about education and empowerment. Chris is a brilliant communicator who insists the prevalence and appeal of UPFs is not our fault. I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with him - I hope you enjoy listening.Support the podcast and enjoy Ad-Free episodes. Try FREE for 7 days on Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/feelbetterlivemore. For other podcast platforms go to https://fblm.supercast.com.Find out more about my NEW Journal here https://drchatterjee.com/journalThanks to our sponsors:https://zoe.comhttps://calm.com/livemorehttps://drinkag1.com/livemoreShow notes https://drchatterjee.com/414DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or qualified healthcare provider. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Doctor and journalist Chris van Tulleken wanted to know how ultra-processed foods affect us, so for a month he ate almost nothing but UPFs. His book Ultra-Processed People examines how the food we eat today is dramatically changing our bodies and minds. This episode was produced by Siona Peterous, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Isabel Angell, engineered by TK, and hosted by Noel King. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are what you eat, right? If so, then our guest has a message for us: we're “ultra-processed people.” In this episode, Abdul reflects on just how culturally-driven our food choices are and how big corporations use that to influence those choices and feed us food that's…barely food at all. Then he interviews Dr. Chris van Tulleken, a physician and health researcher, about his book “Ultra-Processed People.”