What is 'Ultra Processed' Food, and Why Does It Lead to Weight Gain?

Ultra-processed foods have become ubiquitous in modern diets. Many of us eat them regularly without understanding their potential impacts on our health.

From hidden additives to addictive properties, these highly processed foods can pose risks.

Navigating the complex world of ultra-processing can be challenging, and many people struggle to understand what to avoid, how to break unhealthy habits, and make positive changes to their health.

In today’s episode, Jonathan is joined by a special guest, Dr. Chris van Tulleken, to explore the science behind ultra-processed food.

Dr. Chris van Tulleken is an infectious diseases doctor at University College Hospital, in London, and one of the BBC’s leading science presenters.

Chris shares the groundbreaking research from his own lived experiments, including the now famous study with his twin brother Xand. His book Ultra-Processed People is out now.

Jonathan and Chris are joined by ZOE regular Tim Spector. Drawing from their combined expertise, our guests provide practical tips and advice, empowering listeners to make informed choices and take control of their diets.

If you want to uncover the right foods for your body, head to joinZOE.com/podcast and get 10% off your personalized nutrition program.

Timecodes:
00:00 Introduction
01:29 Quick Fire Questions
05:00 Start of Chris's journey in nutrition
06:23 Discordant twins - How can twin studies help us?
08:32 What part do genetics play in our differences in health?
12:41 What were the potential consequences of weight gain?
15:17 What is ultra processed food (UPF)?
16:57 What's the difference between processed and ultra processed food?
18:59 Is ultra processing purely about profit?
21:37 Examples of ultra processed foods (UPF)
23:39 ZOE UPF survey - How much does the ZOE community eat?
26:01 Are the products that say they're healthy lying to us?
26:47 Are certain ingredients hidden by UPF?
28:22 Is low fat yoghurt that good for us?
31:26 Is UPF just junk food?
33:30 Kevin Hall’s UPF study
35:09 What makes UPF addictive?
37:24 Chris' ultra processed food experiment
40:04 Could food manufacturers make healthier UPF?
42:18 How do we solve the issue of UPF as a society?
46:28 Practical advice for cutting down on UPF
52:51 Summary
56:45 Goodbyes
56:55 Outro

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[ute.fritzkowski]

What urks me most is if you have a desk job, keeping healthy is a second fulltime job. Your work, you have a commute, and you are already tired, and then you are supposed to cook from scratch, excersise at least an hour, manage your household and all the rest, and get enough sleep. There is really no time for anything else in the day. I don't think many people want to live like that. Just doing chores and sleep. What is the use of a longer life, if it is just full of "duties".

[macsmiffy]

I tried to downsize to a flat a few years ago. I was shocked at how many being built today, don’t have a kitchen. It’s simply a sink with a small worktop placed on one wall of an open space room. Presumably built for young people who are out at work all day, buy some ping food on the way home and then sit in front of the TV to eat it. So it’s not just the food we have to worry about, it’s the whole environment we live in.

[susanharris]

I have been reading food labels for years because my 3 children had food intolerances and allergies. Now I avoid super processed foods because they are inflammatory and cause me joint and gut pain. I think if more people realized the effects that super processed foods were having on their bodies they’d get on board. Cue the doctors here…tell your patients that food can be inflammatory and cause pain. Not one of my doctors has ever told me that diet could be making my problems worse. I had to find that out on my own.

[Antineii]

Delighted that Jonathan received compliments for his summary from both Chris and Tim. Jonathan is a great moderator and adds a quirky Everyman perspective to the Zoe podcasts.

[mattstevens]

I thought I was weak or greedy because it is so hard to stop eating. The role of UPF is fascinating. It does seem like a good explanation for why we are so overweight and unwell.

[kathrynlongstaff]

Hi - I'm a regular listener and I would really appreciate a podcast on packed lunch ideas for kids. The ideas seem obvious - unprocessed fresh food but the reality is harder. What would be a well-balanced reasonable/time efficient solution. Note - not all kids tolerate visible vegetables! Thank you and I appreciate all the content you produce. I'd like to say it's a re-education but the reality is it's an education!

[emmabell]

I am a senior chemo nurse studying nutrition and cancer. This is so fascinating considering what I should be saying to my cancer patients in the future.

[oysteinsoreide]

In most grocery stores there are a couple of places with unprocessed foods. Vegetables, eggs, meat, fish poultry etc. That is the place to go and buy stuff from.

[revolutionaryhealthandfitn]

I love Dr Chris! My daughter and I loved watching him and his brother in Operation Ouch and his "Dr who gave up drugs". He seems like such a genuine, empathetic, no bullshit guy who genuinely cares and makes complex issues easy to understand for the lay person.

[louisehibbert]

Great podcast 🙌. Since i switched to whole foods a couple of years ago i found that it wasnt so much the cost (im on a very low income) but the time it takes to prepare food from scratch, particularly if you are vegan. A lot of the attraction of UPF is how quick and convenient it is. Its also really shocking when you walk around a supermarket how much food is UP 😢

[Sophie-zgfb]

The main problem is that to eat food that hasn’t been ultra processed I have to shop at least twice a week for fresh quality food. This works well if you happen to live near a good market or a quality grocery store. When I was younger there were shops that only sold fruit & vegetables but where are they now?

[sallybridge]

I read Chris’s book on holiday and it is shocking the way the food industry are conning us and basically making us addicted to their products without any come back and how marketing plays such an important role. It is a fantastic read that I highly recommend that will change the way you think of upf forever.

[lilytea]

0:00: 💡 The speaker discusses the importance of selling more food to generate growth in a food company and how the development of ultra-processed food has led to obesity.
5:54: 👥 The speaker, who is an infectious diseases doctor, became interested in nutrition and the differences between identical twins after seeing the impact of poor nutrition on patients in low-income countries.
11:55: 🥦 Ultra processed food is defined as food that is wrapped in plastic and contains at least one ingredient not typically found in a domestic kitchen, and it has been linked to early death, cancer, weight gain, and other health issues.
16:48: 🍽 Ultra processed foods are designed with cheap ingredients to be addictive and profitable, while lacking in nourishment.
22:44: 🥦 Ultra processed foods may have long-term consequences, but their consumption is often underestimated and hidden in seemingly healthy products.
28:21: 🥦 Ultra-processed food is not just fatty, salty, and sugary, but it also contains other harmful chemicals that have negative effects on our health.
34:35: 🍔 Ultra processed foods can lead to overeating and weight gain due to their effect on the brain and appetite system.
41:14: 💡 The speaker discusses the challenges of reformulating ultra-processed foods and suggests that consumers should demand proper food labeling and health warning stickers.
46:49: 🍽 The speaker suggests that individuals can start reducing their consumption of ultra processed foods by making changes to their breakfast choices and bringing their own meals to work.
50:45: 🍽 Ultra processed foods have a negative impact on our health, including the gut microbiome, and are linked to various health issues such as obesity and dementia.
56:05: 🍽 The speaker discusses the difficulty of avoiding unhealthy food, the shock of discovering processed ingredients, and the importance of reading food labels.
Recap by Tammy AI

[AnnaAdventuring]

In my opinion, your most important podcast yet.
The growth of UPF by stealth is shocking and criminal!
I’ve intuitively thought for a long time that the escalation of obesity and chronic disease must be connected to UPF, so I am gratified to see the subject being tackled on a wider platform than ever before.
I am halfway through Chris’s book, and commend him on how ‘user-friendly’ it is for those who are new to all this. It’s exactly what’s needed right now, and will hopefully increase awareness significantly.
I genuinely eat an almost ultra-processed free diet, although I do occasionally slip up with a packet of crisps (although I know from participating in the Zoe trials that they make my blood sugars go through the roof!) or a Costa coffee and cake. Not too often though!
Masses of fresh organic veg with a good source of protein and a 16:8 eating window suits me very well.

[GyuriVanda]

In the first 30 years of my life I was living on a ranch or near a ranch and we got around 80% of our food from our garden (meat and vegetables/fruits included), and the things we bought were not ultra processed either (we basically only bought sour cream and yoghurt, the same brand for the past years and they have nothing, just the milk and the necessary bacteria, our bread came from the local bakery or we bake it at home, we made our own sausages, etc.). And I've been paying attention to ingredients ever since I was a teenager, thanks to my older sister who guided me.
I recently moved overseas to the Americas and holy hell... I realized that it's basically impossible to buy for example sour cream that does not have a really long list of ingredients (xantan and guar gum being the #1), the people I started to live with bought supermarket bread and it is disgusting (and not only because of the ingredients list, but also because 2 slices have as much sugar as 1, 5-2 kg bread in my home country in Europe - or our homemade bread didn't have any). Even with home cooked meals in the first 2 months I started to feel really shitty, tired all the time, not being able to explain why my stomach feels weird, and I was gaining weight as if it was a must. So basically I became my own test bunny...
I am finally able to cook our own meals and I'm preparing breakfast for my boyfriend now as well (I am over the moon that he stopped eating store-bought cereals and biscuits, flavoured milks and granola bars and instead eats my homemade granola, bars and biscuits and drinks my milkshakes). I'm feeling better, but still not a 100%. My boyfriend however lost some weight and he says "he can't explain it, because he's not eating less". I can see he's a bit upset that it takes me 10 minutes in a store just to buy one thing, because I'm reading the ingredients list and I cannot find anything that does not have UP stuff in it. I can't even explain him that butter is NOT the same as margarine. I try to explain why am I buying the vanilla that costs 2-3x as much as the other one his mom used to buy, and he does not understand (or maybe doesn't even care) that that flavouring has NOTHING natural in it, even if it says so on the bottle, because he grew up here and with these ingredients. But I try. I mean he has no choice since I'm the one cooking. :D
However I agree to other people that it does take a lot more time (last night I spent 2 hours preparing the biscuits, granola bars and granola for the next 2 weeks, not to mention how long it takes to make a sourdough bread) and I know that sadly most of the people do not have that time (or money for that matter). Which is extremely sad. I really hope that it will change in the future, but my hopes are not high. :(
Thank you for the amazing interview! I really hope some people who know nothing about this or are skeptical will listen as well.

[jonathanbenn]

Thank god for this podcast! I have recently been getting educated on food for the first time in my life and I now have a healthier relationship with food. Thank you Tim, Jonathan and the 🎉

[vjohnson]

So very interesting. My generation were probably the last to be taught at school how to cook proper food. I have continued these principles all through my adult life and my household sit down to a home cooked meal from scratch every night, with the exception of when we’re on holiday. I am in full agreement with pretty much everything discussed however I do feel that making the important changes required to diets is a luxury probably only the middle classes can afford.

[christine]

Its been almost two weeks for me in stopping eating junk food and I've lost about 12 lbs and feel so much better!! I enjoyed this conversation (void of frivolous debate) very much, it was very informative and easy to understand. Thank you :)

[Chopsyochops]

I’ve been forced by food allergies to cook from scratch. Sadly my gluten free replacements with xantham gum and other junk have made me quite unwell and overweight. So now I’m looking at going even more wholefoods based once I’ve finished the book. I made my first home made Mayo yesterday and did a taste test with shop Mayo. What an amazing difference and it was so easy to make.

[marilynbeth]

I'm an identical twin. We're both thin at the moment. I'm slightly underweight and my twin is just inside the normal range. Most of my life, I was the fatter twin. However, I doubt that I've ever been more than ten kilos heavier than her. Most of our lives we've eaten intuitively. We've maintain our weight most of our adult lives with weights just above or below the overweight line. We now eat less processed food and more fruits and vegetables to be healthier than we did in our younger years.