daily reflections: what I learnt about life from a book about ultra-processed foods

This is why I like reading a variety of books - or books I won’t expect to like or are too niche, etc. You learn stuff that you won’t expect to learn. Relevance comes in the most unexpected of ways sometimes.

Ultra-Processed People 
Written by Chris Van Tulleken

Recently I read Ultra-Processed People, which talks about the problems of highly processed food and how it encourages us to over-consume, at the cost of our health.

Here’s why we consume so much Ultra-Processed Foods (UPF), sometimes against our conscious desire. UPFs, when compared to less- or non-processed foods containing similar nutritional content i.e. fat, salt and sugar, are:

• Less expensive

• More accessible

• More convenient

• Packaged better

• More advertising

• Less filling (despite having the same calories due to the way they signal)

• More addictive

What this means is that we are encouraged at a subconscious level to continuously desire ultra-processed foods, even though they actually harm our health by:

• Affecting our microbiome

• Being chemically changed

• Having less fibre

• Overeating and obesity

Furthermore, according to Chris, there’s a lot of other things being marketed to us that are not necessarily true, like

• Exercise’s role in weight loss

• Sugar and carbs’ role in weight gain

• Our inability to balance or select our nutritional intake

And more…

This doesn’t mean that they are wrong, if anything, my point is noting them down is to show that not everything shared in mass media is true (and you probably know that but the extent of it is sometimes unexpected).

More importantly, experiments and consequently scientific results are not always accurate — not because of any wrongdoing but because the nature of the scientific method is to assume a hypothesis is correct until proven wrong. And most experimental and research attempts are to prove various things wrong. Until then, they are considered “correct”.

So what does it mean for us? My biggest learning from a health standpoint is this: listen to your body. Now, Chris doesn’t explicitly say this but the evidence suggests that our body is pretty good at regulating itself. For instance, he writes that:

• Babies are able to instinctively manage their own food intake to ensure nutritional balance, given a variety of safe food choices

• Our metabolism regulates itself and burns less energy in other activities when we exercise to ensure our energy expenditure stays the same

For the record, I didn’t read too closely into the science and the experimental methodology so I still don’t know what is right or wrong but what I learnt is this.

We’re just not listening closely.

Our body tells us when sometimes goes well or when something goes bad

• Maybe exercise doesn’t help us lose weight - but tell me, whenever you do exercise, do you feel better? Physically and mentally stronger? (There are indeed non-weight-related benefits to exercising that makes it important)

• Does taking a lot of sugar make you feel good? Or sleepy and tired?

A lot of problems come when we ignore our body - distracted by societal or other pressure. Like not eating properly to finish a client project, or sitting excessively long even when your back hurts.

Please note, this is not medical advice - just food for thought.

Incentives 
And why things are more complex than it seems

But the bigger problem, not limited to food and beverages, is actually over-consumption.

Does that sound familiar? Of course, it happens in tech, fashion and almost every other industry.

Why? Companies are driven to make more money, which happens when we consume more. And so they make things more addictive, “cool”, or a ton of other things that manipulate us into consuming more, even if it’s not really good for us.

And the interesting part of this, really, is that no one thinks they’re doing wrong. At every level of industry, from the sales rep to the CEO, there is an incentive for them to behave the way they do.

You may wonder then, why does it continue to happen if it’s so bad? Or why haven’t you heard of it? Because these organisations are also making extensive efforts to make you think that all these are good for you - from funding scientists to ward off claims that are detrimental to sales to influencing governments to support them.

It’s not because they’re evil people trying to take us all down - they’re just trying to make a living. A complex ecosystem of incentives arise to make it this way — it’s the fault of the system.

What makes this worse is that human nature has a part to play in this. We’re inclined to over-consume, whether out of survival instincts or otherwise.

Less is more 
Or why it’s so difficult to control ourselves

Over-consumption is not always good for us. We have been told all our lives to get more and more - but past a certain point, where basic needs and average wants are met, more could mean less of other things.

More food could mean less health. More social media could mean less relationships. More money could mean less trust.

As shared above, it’s so difficult to control ourselves because of the environmental influences working on us. It’s almost like you fighting against armies of highly intellectual individuals with powerful incentives trying to make you consume more - do you think you would win?

And as some of you might already know, we don’t always know what’s best for ourselves. And even if we know, we may not always have the willpower / discipline / strength to do it.

So what does this mean for you?

1. Eat less UPF. Or none at all.

2. Design your environment or life in a way that prevents over-consumption

3. Don’t blindly chase more - always think about whether more is worth it

Balance is in the art of listening,
Joesurf