The public’s awareness of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) has spiked this year, as individuals increasingly attempt to shun them. High-profile experts such as Dr Chris van Tulleken have been delving deeper into the potentially damaging effects of UPFs on our bodies and minds.
In a revealing discussion earlier this year, Dr Chris shared insights with entrepreneur and podcast host Spencer Matthews about his evolving stance on UPFs. Dr Chris confessed to drastically reducing his intake of UPFs, likening it to a vegan cutting out meat.
Meanwhile, Spencer Matthews, the ex-Made in Chelsea star, described an eye-opening moment involving a chicken wrap during his interview. Despite assuming it contained just a handful of ingredients, he was taken aback to discover a lengthy list when he checked the label.
He recounted: “Here when I have long days in Global, I would pick up a chicken wrap just as a quick snack that I thought I was being quite healthy about 450 calories, something like that. A quick easy snack just to fill a void of going out for a meal.”
“In it is chicken, mayonnaise lettuce and a tortilla wrap and I thought that’s fine. I was gripped by your book and I thought to myself I’ll have a quick look at what is in this thing.
And I picked up the chicken wrap and I flipped it over and I saw there were like 40 ingredients in this thing, a bunch of stuff that I’d never heard of.”, reports GloucestershireLive.
“Huge long scientific words that I’ve never heard of and it immediately made me even more in your book. I was like oh my goodness so I stopped eating it altogether and that was the case for lots of food that I would eat regularly.”
Dr Chris wasn’t surprised to hear how many ingredients there were and added that each sandwich or wrap had, give or take, around “35 to 45 ingredients” inside it.
On his own experience with UPFs, Dr Chris recalled: “While I continued to eat moderate processed food. I now think I eat none. My mum made a potato salad the other day and I don’t know if she used store-bought mayonnaise. I don’t police it that thoroughly.”
“But my experience if you eat none as a vegan would eat no meat or as someone of Jewish or Muslim faith would eat no pork if they observe that rule. The opportunities for actually eating are quite small, if you’re at a service station good luck to you. There’s just a load of my day where I just don’t eat.”
Dr Chris isn’t the sole voice raising alarms about processed foods, with researchers expressing worry after a study published earlier this year revealed that toddlers in the UK derive around half of their calories from ultra-processed foods (UPFs).
In response to these startling findings, University College London has called for new policies to “redress the balance of children’s diets toward a lower proportion of UPF”.
The Guardian was informed by the lead author of the study, Professor Clare Llewellyn, who stated: “It is extremely unlikely that children now consume less UPFs than in 2008/9 or 2014, or that dietary patterns of children have changed markedly. So, these are likely to be conservative estimates of UPF consumption.”
