The BAFTA-winning broadcaster and physician joins us to reveal what ultra-processed foods are doing to your body, our society, and the planet.
Over the past 150 years, we have entered a new ‘age of eating’ where most of our calories come from an entirely novel set of substances: Ultra-Processed Foods.

Now award-winning broadcaster, practicing NHS doctor and leading academic Dr Chris van Tulleken joins Robin Ince to reveal the disastrous effects of Ultra-Processed Food on our health. UPFs are now the leading cause of early death globally and the number one cause of environmental destruction.

Ultra-Processed Food (UPF) has a long, formal scientific definition, but it can be boiled down to this: if it’s wrapped in plastic and has at least one ingredient that you wouldn’t find in your kitchen, it’s UPF.

Drawing on his own experiment of eating an 80% UPF diet for one month, Chris will explore the invention of UPF and its impact on our health and weight – from altering metabolism and appetite, to an increased risk of serious health problems like cardiovascular disease and dementia.

He will show that almost all our staple foods are ultra-processed – bread, cereal, biscuits, desserts, dairy products and condiments; explains why exercise and willpower cannot prevent obesity and ill health due to UPF; and provides solutions for individuals, policy makers and the food industry.

Revelatory, powerful and rigorously researched, Chris’s insights into Ultra-Processed Food will change how we eat forever.

Praise for Chris van Tulleken’s Ultra-Processed People:
“A wonderful and fascinating exposé … Reading this book will make you question what you eat and how it was produced.” – Michael Mosley

“If you only read one diet or nutrition book in your life, make it this one … In clear, humorous and informative prose, Chris lays out what ultra-processed food is and why it is the single greatest problem with modern diets.” – Bee Wilson

“Packed with ‘I never knew that’ moments, Ultra-Processed People is a wonderfully playful book that changed forever how I think about what I eat and why” – Hannah Fry

Chris van Tulleken has a medical degree from Oxford and a PhD in molecular virology from UCL. He is a practicing infectious diseases doctor in the NHS and an associate professor at University College London, 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 Organisation on infant nutrition. As one the UK’s leading science broadcasters, Chris has won two BAFTAs for his long-running CBBC series Operation Ouch, co-presented with his twin brother Xand. Following his BBC One documentary ‘What Are We Feeding Our Kids?’ and the chart-topping podcast ‘A Thorough Examination – Addicted to Food’, Chris has become the UK’s go-to expert on UPF.

Robin Ince is the co-presenter of Radio 4’s multiple award winning The Infinite Monkey Cage. He spent 2019 appearing across the world in the Universal tour with Brian Cox – travelling from LA to Oslo, Wellington to Aberdeen and ending up in Reykjavik after shows at the 02 and Wembley Arena. Robin co-wrote How to Build a Universe (part 1) with Brian Cox and authored other works including The Importance of Being Interested – Adventures in Scientific Curiosity, and his most recent book, Bibliomaniac: An Obsessive’s Tour of the Bookshops of Britain.