There's no Q&A for this one - but if you liked this lecture, you might enjoy Giles Yeo's talk on the science of weight loss - ua-cam.com/video/GQJ0Z0DRumg/v-deo.html
❤❤❤ Royal Institution ❤❤❤ Lots of love, your lectures are always amazing! You people should so proud of your long standing record of doing all these lectures for well over 100 years! Truly incredible! 💝💝💝💝
Thank you for the lecture! Would it be possible to post the Q&A afterwards as well? I'm extremely interested and I suspect many others too. Perhaps if there are any sensitive portions they can be edited out?
@@henrythegreatamerican8136 I am sure there are plenty of joints who serve pizza that is non ultra processed. Fresh dough, real mozzarella real meat or vegatables. I think you never go back once you have found a place like that. It took some years but i know two of those places within 10km of my house (the Netherlands) so I argue its common enough. ENJOY YOUR PIZZA
My dad, who had an aggressive cancer, when he was going through chemo was told by the oncology department to eat only ultra processed foods so he could digest it. My dad ignored it and just kept eating like always, whole foods from scratch. He was the healthiest looking guy in the treatment center and lived for an additional 10 years.
It never ceases to amaze me what tosh doctors say about food and diet. My uncle had a similar thing after treatment for prostate cancer. He has become so depressed and weak! Sad 😔
@@Lizzyvallesrodriguez yes, dad always ate like an old fashioned farm boy (mom cooked everything from scratch). He repaired antique engines, etc so was on his feet moving around all the time. He was strong enough that he could walk an engine block across the yard.
While I understand (and would probably follow) that line of reasoning, the doctors aren't always wrong. My best friend's wife was diagnosed with chrones disease which is an auto-immune disorder that causes the immune system to attack the gut when too much foreign material comes through such as plant fibre. She can't eat salads or vegetable heavy dishes without severe discomfort. She has to eat relatively bland, relatively processed foods, as prescribed by her doctors. And it absolutely makes a difference.
I live in the UK for my whole adult life. But I grown up in estern Europe in 80s and 90s. We simply have no money for ultra processed food or it even was unavailable in my country. We could have coca cola twice a year. Nestle cereals were sooo expensive. There were no ready meals at all. But we had own veggies and eggs, real milk and meat. Bread from local shop was amazing. And my mum cooked. When I was older I was one time in mcdonalds only because it was something new in my country 😅. Now I am a mother of british children and try to feed kids similar way I was fed. I cook at home from simple ingredients, I bake my own bread. I make simple cakes at home instead of ultra processed sweets. We do not drink fizzy drinks at all. In the results my children are healthy and they even do not like ultra processed food. They do not claim that we don't go to mac. They even didn't eat their easter chocolate given by freinds this easter. They love homemade food. And they love cooking with me or themself. This is the easiest and most pleasure way to keep heathy and in proper weight. I wish everybody in the UK understand it and want to learn for better future. Don't be like US. Sorry for my english, still learning 😅
Your english is very good! Quite interesting to hear that given that for me i had the opposite experience. i grew up in a household where we ate ultra processed foods daily. Since moving out, i have gradually learned to cook better myself, and have found the same thing - i dont fancy the taste of ultra processed foods anymore. I used to have a diet coke daily, as well as health bars, chocolate, and takeaway on the weekends. Now i crave none of that, and on the odd occasion i do have a diet coke, i dont even fancy finishing it! I think there must be some sort of "acquired taste" of ultra processed food, because i can so easily taste it now.
@@CHINKICHOU My experience has been opposite. I grew up off processed food (in India), but had phases when I was addicted to colas (back when diet colas were considered weird), then switched to the diet cola phase and back, until I cut back and stopped completely. However, after moving to the UK I find processed food very hard to completely eliminate. I tried it for 6 months, and I did get used to it, with great health benefits, but once I would eat even a small amount I'd find it hard to stop.
Born and raised in Europe, my parents grew their own weggies in their garden, everything home cooked. I'll never understand why we need so many aisles full of processed food in the stores.
@@tomatomate45~ I guess it’s mostly needed by the parents who work very long hours outside of the home (10-12 hours a day) and they’re too exhausted to cook from scratch when they get home so late in the evening.
Your English is practically perfect and I like how you give your children real food, I wish my parents had done that instead of giving a lot of sugared breakfast cereals for example.
After being diagnosed with a gallstone 18 months ago, I completely changed my diet. Lost 5 stone in weight eating proper, clean food, including fats. I haven’t had an attack in over 12 months( I didn’t have surgery ) and feel better than I have in 30 years ! ( 5 stone in weight UK =70lbs= 32kg )
that's great tris, but it is also symptomatic for humans in general, we only take action when something really bad had happened. it's the same for other topics like climate change, stress/burnout etc. we know the risks, we know the solutions but do little to nothing until the day comes.
Doesn't surprise me. I noticed the same thing with those highly processed KETO foods. Sure, they do a good job of restricting the carbs, but they add so many other ingredients that will wreck havoc on your digestive system. You don't need all those franken foods to reduce overall carbs.
I have just finished Tulleken's book. it is at first captivating with his scientific explanations of many food experiences in my life but became rather depressing by the end. i am 70 yrs old now. just 3 days ago i had confirmation of his assertion that UPF is addictive. I bought an "alleged" strudel from the store, went home and ate my usual lunch: a big daily salad, albacore tuna in olive oil sandwich, some yogurt, a banana with a slice of stinky french gruyere. i am now full. but as i brought my dishes to the sink i saw the strudel. i don't need to eat. i actually feel full but i couldn't resist the strudel. i can't remember the last time i had a piece. so i cut one small slice. i remember besides being sweet as expected, there was no texture. everything just crumbles away. i didn't have to chew, it just melt away. but it left me unsatisfied. i cut a bigger piece and it disappeared just as fast. 52 yrs ago when i first came to Oregon for my college studies i remember eating strudel bought from the supermarket as well. my memory tells me i had to chew, not hard of course, but i just couldn't hold it in my mouth and wait for it to melt away like it does now. so this stuff feels very addictive and is addictive. right away the whole sheebang goes in the trash in its aluminum container. oh just like Tulleken said in his book, when i looked up the ingredients lists it has more than 40-50 ingredients listed on it. why ? why not just flour, oil or butter, egg and fruits (apple or rasberry or whatever). i would even take some preservatives. but not 50 ingredients. no way.
There are so many products that just mimick actual food but really is just a bunch of chemicals with a tiny bit of actual ingredients. You should always read ingredient list first before you buy anything. ☝️😌
Just as explained in that same book, making a product using real ingredients is hugely expensive. Therefore they use stabiliser, emulsifiers, fake sugar etc, it is all about making money rather than making people eat healthy and nutritious (although naughty) food. I am very much like you, I can’t just eat a piece.
Thank you so much for this. My wife Shivaun would have loved to watch it, and would have completely agreed. She passed away two weeks ago, so I'm sharing with her friends instead. Keep up the fight and public disclosure!
@mikehibbett3301. Sorry for your loss. Hope you're looking after yourself. Sounds like your wife had an interest in healthy eating. So keep yourself strong and healthy.
I have watched this session more than twice. Reading through the comments I see your network is largely your lovely wive’s intelligent friends. Good for you to allow yourself to maintain common interests with them. Please continue to do this …. You and they miss her…more importantly you have a chance to stay involved in your social world through the internet but be sure to see them in person for 30 minutes a week…at least
I particularly liked how he kept using his daughter as reference/example, proving that, no matter what, we are all just human and all susceptible to an almost insurmountable reality. The best we can do is be informed and do what’s in our own best interest if we can - not always easy or even achievable considering the complexity of 21st century life. I read some comments about his book on Amazon and concurred with one reader who observed “if you’re 20, this is an excellent book to read and to live by and if you’re 70 it’s probably too late but good info to share with younger friends & family” (or words to that effect). It is, I fear, too late for me in general but this info will make me more cognizant of trying to keep UPF out of my diet going forward. Dr. van Tulleken is a gifted lecturer - I have the attention span of a gnat but stayed interested (and wide awake, lol) for the entire hour!
It's never too late. My 86 yr old uncle recently got rid of his Type 2 diabetes, just by changing his diet. A low carb, low UPF diet will benefit all ages.
4 months ago I was diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes. My HbA1c (blood glucose) was 73 mmol/mol. Since then I have moved to a mainly wholefoods diet with little processed food and no UPF. I eat many organic things where possible. I eat strictly pumpernickel for bread, no refined carbs, no potatoes, ZERO added sugar and control carb portions to around 50g per meal. I enjoy cheese, fatty natural yoghurt, whole milk and snack on nuts, which keeps my fat intake at a good level. Kimchi, sauerkraut and yoghurt help my microbiome. I have also done a morning workout (exercise bike and weights) 4-5 times a week and have taken 500mg of Metformin twice a day. In 4 months I have lost 17.5Kg/2St 10lbs/38.5lbs and my blood test results today show a HbA1c of 36mmol/mol, which is amazing!
Are you... me?! Seriously though, great work. I'm 2 months into this exact same journey. Down 11kg so far and Hba1C down from 90 to 44. Will you try to reduce (or even potentially eliminate?) the metformin now that your Hba1c is under control?
@@matthewhook3375 90?! wow that was high, well done bringing it down so much though. 36 is on the cusp of normal, so I am aiming to get it lower and come off Metformin eventually. Of course all dietary changes will continue - are you eating a very similar diet?
@@HARRi81_UK Aye it was bad. Metformin and Trulicity injections have gradually brought it down to 44 (prediabetic) but I'm hoping the diet/lifestyle changes will normalise it to the point where meds are no longer necessary. I've eliminated UPF entirely, and doing real food Keto diet. Spot readings have always been 5.0-5.5 mmol/l since starting the diet. I was on 1000mg metformin morning and evening, but I've stopped taking the evening dose. The diet definitely works, and it works better than meds. I've also lost 11kg without really trying. Another 49kg to go to get to a sensible weight...
After thirty years I suddenly stopped smoking because I discovered my brother had given up. If he can, so can I. I gave up on the spot and never had another.
Yeah, I think we did ourselves a huge disservice by emphatizing so much that nicotine is addictive instead of the fact that cigarettes are habit forming. I think most people overestimate the significamce of the first and struggle a lot more with the second
@@horrorhotel1999 I can't believe what I just discovered about the Japanese. They're still smoking, or half of them are, and half of them are consuming "heated tobacco?" I've never even heard of this, I live in Oz and I haven't seen anyone smoking in twenty years.
@@whyyes6428 That's the awful risk. A lot of people gained weight because of that. People blamed giving up smoking, and never said it was the hand-to-mouth thing. You saw it.
Love it, you just keep going until people listen; you are doing a fantastic job; don't let anyone stop you, we are fed up of being conned and fed up of the poverty stricken being denied of decent accessible reasonably priced fruit and veg. I am 66, reasonably well educated and have only just learned what is REAL food and once you eat REAL food you don't want any other (even home made soup is just delicious, nutritious, easy to make and freezable in bulk)
56 and cooked from scratch since 12. My mothers cooking was atrocious. Today I am extremely healthy and fit compared to my age group and walk 10-18km per day. Cooking from scratch makes economical sense too.
I just try to eat real things made from actual food. Core diet of fruits nuts meat veggies and a carbohydrate of some sort. Lots of water! Pee at least twice a day. And eat what you burn, no excess.
Agreed. His claim that "real food is incredibly expensive" is complete nonsense. Yes, you need some energy to cook it (using gas is generally cheaper _and_ more environmentally friendly than using electricity, BTW - because of the way that electricity is produced in most countries), but the utensils are something you buy once and can use for decades, and most vegetables are still incredibly cheap despite recent price increases. The main limitation for most people is time.
@@RFC3514 if &evil=true ignore following, otherwise I have two issues... 1. Gas will always have the same environmental cost while it is derived from fossils, and, when it burns in air and the gases are not vented It is a health hazard. Electricity, used for cooking, does not produce nitrous oxides as domestic pollution and will be increasingly derived from non-fossil sources. So, electricity is healthier now, and, can only get better on the CO2 emissions front. 2. Let's take a hint from the talk and stop victim blaming. There are always exceptional people and circumstances. Their stories are of little value for the bulk of people. The talk enumerated how and why "real food" is "expensive" and mostly unattainable for a lot of people. Just because one person can tell us how wonderfully privileged they were to be taught the skills and culture of cooking from scratch does not mean the bulk of time poor dual income barely making ends meet families can do the same. Like the man said: "this is difficult", and I'm going to say "get real" when commenting in this area.
10-18km a day is unfathomable for most people but I try to spend similar amounts of time on my bike at least a few days a week (outside; never inside). I think the role of exercise cannot be dismissed. Both exercise and healthy eating remains important and both help each other out. After all, it's hard to spend that much time outside if you need to attend to the bathroom too often.
"Food is community. And ideally we would eat real food that connected us to our family and our community in a way that had cultural and historic meaning" I find that this is still the mindset in Portugal for example, preparing and eating traditional dishes with your family is still a huge part of the culture. It's very common to celebrate birthdays and other special events with friends and family by inviting them over for dinner or lunch. The sunday family lunch which is often grilled fish or meat with all sorts of veggies is still fairly common, my family does it almost every week. And I contrast this with my boyfriend who is Czech and doesn't have these traditions. They don't often eat with family, and tend to eat much more ultraprocessed unhealthy food (on average) than the Portuguese does, and perhaps as a consequence they are much more overweight as well. I hope that Portugal, and other countries like it, which are known for their food culture and the communities around it will continue to keep that heritage alive and not succumb to the frightening amounts of ultra-processed food being imported in by food giants.
I believe you're describing the way it was in every country, including the US of A, before the Food Industry took over the minds of the masses. Portugal, unfortunately, will be decimated like all western cultures. Unless they do not comply.
I'm from Slovenia and meals in context of family are very much a tradition here still... Of course the changing economy and work habits influence these, but I think that this is not so much a matter of culture on national level than family habits.
@@spurezurko you will see McDonald's arrive and the children/ teenagers adore the new fast food. This generation will destroy the family tradition of eating together at the table.
Im Czech like you boyfriend, but what I m used to is more like your experience - saturday and sunday homecooked lunch with family. Also I cook almost everyday at home
@Larrasss, thanks for sharing with us about your Portuguese heritage. In North America, we have a tradition of potlucks and family-gatherings. I think that this is one great opportunity to make having good food readily available and very affordable because [a] nobody has to pay the cost for everything and [b] nobody has to do all or most of the work of growing / buying / preparing / cooking / serving food/meals. Everyone gets to enjoy a much bigger variety of foods while savings an enormous amount of time, effort, and money. I think that these kinds of gatherings also offer an opportunity to set better examples: e.g., when my parents choose to bring salads, vegetables, and wholegrain dishes with peas and beans rather than animal-foods . . . or we have pure teas, pure cocoa, and pure coffee with zero carbonated rubbish, no purchased beverages, no manufactured liquids, and no additives such as added sugar, added sweeteners, artificial creamers, or other expensive, non-nutritious processed junk. By doing the right things, our lifestyles and habits speak volumes to those around us . . . even before we say a single word . . .
This is surely one of the most important videos on the internet right now! As a chef of 25+ years and owner of a BMI of around 40, awaiting surgery, and father to a 6y/o boy, this resonates so strongly. This message and all further research must be protected and the truth be heard by all. We must also ensure that Chris VT doesn’t mysteriously disappear!
must be hard as a chef though, to avoid seed oils and the like. once I started (trying to) avoid seedoils I realised just how much it had infiltrated all our foods.
I pretty much removed UPFs from my diet 7 weeks ago and have started cooking nearly everything from scratch. I stopped regularly drinking alcohol, cut out caffeine and I try to follow a whole food plant based diet as best as I can. I have already lost 37 pounds and have never felt better and the best thing is I haven't felt hungry once!
Since COVID happened I've been fortunate enough to be able to work from home most days and this has allowed me to prepare my own food. I wouldn't say it affected my weight at all, but it does feel more satisfying than ready-meals and prefilled sandwiches. I definitely snack a lot less than before. There is no way I could have done this without gaining time back from commutes and being at home during lunch breaks, though.
Of course you could have and can. You were just to lazy and unmotivated to prep food for lunch every day. Jesus. I've had packed lunches my entire life. From. School to uni to work...and work where I'm driving 2-3hours into the country some days. Then also taking healthy snacks to tie me over till dinner. Don't justify yours or anyone else's laziness. People say it's more convenient to buy food at lunch at work than make it. Yet you would spend more time walking down to a cafe, ordering and waiting and walking back that you would prepping lunch at home the night before. Especially if you're simply over cooking dinners and taking some left overs to work the next day.
I am 78 I live on a fixed budget 2 years ago I stopped eating processed food now I only eat the food I make and cook I make in batches and freeze I make my own yoghurt using a heritage culture probiotic I add raw oats to add in the prebiotics I make my own lemon curd to flavour my yoghurt. I grow my own vegetable I batch cook my meals so I always have a meal at hand in the freezer I know I need to have the fridge and the freezer the kitchen etc but because I cook in bulk my fuel costs are lower I have no waste it takes it doesn't take much longer to cook 6 L of chicken and vegetable miso soup than 1or 2 portions. It can be done you may need to reorganise your days but it is well worth the effort
@@beejereeno2 Most 78 year olds that I know couldn't even open a UA-cam video, let alone comment on it... they can use punctuation however they please 😂
I work for McDonald’s, the bun for your burger, just the bun, has over 20 ingredients. Homemade bread has about 5, 5 ingredients you more than likely have in your kitchen right now, half of the 20 in fast food buns, you probably have never heard of. 😬
@@annasmith5216 I also add sugar to feed the yeast, a little salt for taste and some butter to improve the texture. I use wholemeal chapati flour - but I've no idea what's also in it - herbicides? insecticides?
Define need, I'd submit that sodiun chloride is more or less needed as well (taste matters, it is also by far the electrolyt with the lossiest usage in the body) e@@annasmith5216
I recently finished this book (about a month ago). It is an eye-opener, simply shocking how we are manipulated into eating this non-food and believing it is delicious. It has entirely changed how I think about food as compared to the industrial products being marketed to us as food. If you cannot afford to buy it new, try to get a used copy. Many online portals for used books. No I am not affiliated with the author or the publisher. I just wish you well.
This is why I have started to make my own foods. I may use some store-bought stuff, but for the most part, I stick with foods that are prepared from-scratch. It may take longer, but its healthier, and seems to be tastier. Plus, I get more for the money's worth.
@@aegisgfx Do your best with what you have. Eliminate the rubbish convenience foods that do nothing for your purse or your health. Fruit & veg in season, frozen aint too expensive and can save on waste. Batch cook and freeze to save time. Add lentils to stews to bulk it up & reduce the meat. Adding oats to dishes like soups stews lasagne can also add healthy bulk quite cheaply. Potatoes & rice aren't expensive. Theres any number of different beans that are cheap. I don't know where you are, but all supermarkets do special offers on fruit/ veg & other healthy foodstuffs. Always go prepared with shopping list so not tempted by processed stuff. Small changes make a different. Its certainly not easy nowadays with a family. But you owe yourself and them the best you can manage. Dont get overwhelmed by it all, baby steps and you'll get there. You watched this channel so your on your way.
@@aegisgfxIf you have a family, you're wasting money buying fast/ultra processed food. Also, it interferes with your cognition, memory, and health, making your family less likely to do a good job and make money.
@@aegisgfxIt’s rather sad to hear that. In India, at least as of now (things are changing). It is cheaper to make food from scratch than to eat ultra processed food. I personally believe it must stay that way.
Since hearing from this guy months ago I've changed my diet quite drastically. I don't think it's possible to cut these ingredients out entirely in most places now, but I've gone some way to trying to pick the right products. We don't buy ready meals anymore, we buy plain veg, meat etc and cook it ourselves with off the shelf spices and in return we tend not to worry about how much salt, sugar etc we add (within reason) because it's still going to be far better. We make our own pizzas and for the stuff that's still ultra processed, I'm checking the ingredients regularly. If they've got a very long list I put it straight back and go for the one that's slightly better. Noticed how much tastier these foods without the extra stuff are though. Have to pay £2.50 for a small loaf but the bread I pick now without any of these additives tastes so much better, even after freezing and defrosting it and spread with actual butter rather than the fake stuff as well. The switch is definitely expensive though, and it's taking time to make a pizza from scratch or make chips - but I'm at least starting to enjoy cooking now.
@@annupson9518 yeah might be something to consider for the future. It's not the end of the world. I can afford the extra cost, and the bread I get is SOOOOOOO good.
@@annupson9518 Just to point out, you can make bread quite easily without a bread machine too, as long as you have an oven, a mixing bowl and a pair of hands. Not criticizing, and I know a lot of people are making their own bread because of bread machines and that's a good thing - but you can make very good bread without them.
Part of the lecture claimed that ultra processed food is responsible for the loss of Amazon rain forest and loss of biodiversity. Actually, it is animal agriculture. 90% of the soy grown in Brazil is used for farm animal feed. Another cause of deforestation is for cattle grazing. Brazil is a top exporter of beef and soy. "In 2017, Brazil produces 16.3 million tons of soymeal for its domestic market, and more than 90 percent of that became animal feed."-mongabay Title-"Brazilian hunger for meat fattened on soy is deforesting the Cerrado" Jan 16, 2019
An important point to bear in mind is that ultraprocessed food is an acquired taste. If you have ever known the taste of real food it is fairly obvious how bland and soul-less most ultraprocessed food really tastes like, and how their creators attempt to cover that fact with cheap tricks that quickly overwhelm the palate.
I agree actually. I find ultra-processed food to be really bland, untextured and plastic-like. For example a McDonalds burger barely tastes like food to me. What is unfortunate in all of this though, is what happens to the children who eaten mostly ultra-processed food all their lives. It must be very hard to shift their palette and mindset to eat "real food"
Ranch raised beef, as opposed to eating any other "choice" beef which is full of additives, hormones, pesticides and antibiotics, is a world of difference. Most "all natural" foods (like wheat products) taste of chemicals to me, as they are full of pesticides and things like sodium aluminum phosphate, and wood cellulose that is not required to be on the label. People have lost touch both on the production and the consumer end of what tastes good and is healthy. Not even Jello has gelatin anymore, as it was replaced with carrageenan, which has no nutritional value.
Why do you say things that are obviously not true?? Give a chocolate bar to a tribesman that doesn't eat "UPFs" on a regular basis. You really think he wouldn't like it?
When I was young and my mum always cooked, I was so skinny that my parents were actually worried about it. I didn't exercise very much at all compared with other kids and actually spent huge amounts of time reading, something I've always done sitting down. I was still very skinny at 18, but then I started adding 1 kilo a year every year until I was 40 years old. The only thing that really changed was the food I ate, with less cooking and more convenience as years passed. My weight gain over that 22 year period was almost 40 percent.
@@incandescentwithrage That's not what health research says. Yes, of course I put on weight as I aged, but a gain of almost 40% is not caused by age. In my country, 50% of adults is now overweight. That simply wasn't the case when I was young. The academic consensus that is forming now is that it's ultra-processed food, more than sugar or anything else. Exercise, unless you go extreme, will not help you lose weight long term. Nor is our weight problem mostly caused by any other of the usual suspects. Of course, the major food companies and their puppet scientists talk about exercise, a balanced diet, health education, etc, but they actually know their food is mostly unhealthy and it's not good for their profits if we eat less.
@@diedertspijkerboer I agree with your second post. I was disagreeing with the statement in the first that the only thing that really changed over the years was your diet. To add a bit of personal anecdotal evidence, there seems to be some feedback relationship between exercise and preference for real / unprocessed food. My weight has fluctuated by 40kg over the last 12 years, and while exercising very regularly, my taste for processed foods decreased by a huge amount. I actually got a craving for salads, a first for me. I think ultra processed foods being described as causal may be a bit premature. I think in the future, it'll become clearer that the switch from primarily manual labour to more sedentary employment in the late 70s, and the increased consumption (and perceived "tastiness") of processed foods are closely intertwined.
@@incandescentwithrage I think there might be some truth that exercise changes one's cravings towards healthier foods. Apparently, some research also suggests this. However, I have doubts about whether this is the main factor in the weight gain in countries with a westernised diet. I'm not saying it isn't, I just don't know. After all there's certainly also a lot of evidence that people often choose foods based on what's easily available around them and ultra-processed food is everywhere and is advertised a lot. I've been trying to avoid ultra-processed food recently and it's very hard, because it dominates most food isles in the supermarket.
My observation from my hubby’s siblings is the moment they left the nest and are earning, they can buy whatever they want to eat which includes UPF which increased their weight eventually
Reading Chris' book earlier this year has changed so much about my relationship with food, which I've struggled with all my life. I find myself nodding along with so much of what he says, recognising aspects of it from my own behaviours and feelings around UPF. I'm so grateful that Chris wrote this book (I know lots of scientists and researchers have been onto this topic for years but I only picked up his book because I was a fan of his anyway) because for the first time in my life I feel in control of what I eat and knowledgeable around the best foods to eat to give myself a better chance of good health in future.
This reminds me when I learned how most orange juice works. It put me off anything but fresh squeezed permanently. Theres a reason why orange juice always tastes consistently the same from each brand, no matter the year or season, and why different brands taste different even if they source oranges from the same growers. The process that lets them store massive quantities of juice also results in deflavored juice. So they hire experts from the perfume industry to concoct flavoring that they add just before they want to package it and sell it. The flavor packs are created from chemicals and molecules from orange peels and seeds and whatever else theyd normally throw away, so that way they can still claim its "100% orange" juice, despite it being frankensteinian zombie juice.
Reminds me of when I learned that all fruit juice, whether it is artificial, natural, organic, or freshly squeezed, is nothing more than sugar water. Just don't drink fruit juice or save money and put several teaspoons (and in some cases tablespoons) of sugar into a glass of water and call it freshly squeezed all natural organic fruit juice, because your body will see it in exactly the same way, sans a bit of Vitamin C.
Not to be a party pooper, but even fresh squeezed should be treated as a dessert. Fructose is only good if it's still with its fiber. Pulpy OJ is at least probably not quite as bad. I'll still do a hard pass on 40g+ of sugar with nearly 0 fiber though, maybe for a special occasion cheat day brunch or something.
Thank you for posting this! We already know the dangers, however to present this in a coherent, logical way was easy to digest, follow and hopefully- practice. He admitted about his kids eating UPF, so he is human after all. Not preaching from a pulpit but tying the subject with findings and results of scientific studies. Listener is free to make their decision. Let’s have him back again. 👍🏼
What you say about weight loss is everything I've known was true, but have been told was false, especially around exercise and willpower. I went to the NHS weight loss clinic, and they didn't want to discuss anything except 'Calories in, Calories out'. They told me to "Go away, cut 500 calories a day, find an exercise you like and I guarantee you'll lose weight". Like I was stupid, like I'd never tried that before. Thank you for digging deeper.
If you want to eat healthier, it's worth (pardon the pun) cultivating a community of locals who work together and trade or gift resources. I've made wonderful friends by sharing plant cuttings or excess produce. I do understand that not everyone has time, space, and room. But I guess just about everyone on the internet has access to buy-nothing groups like Freecycle, and many gardeners (even indoor gardeners) are eager to share extra plants and knowledge. Your local library may also have a "seed library" with small packets of seeds free to the home gardener. I really hate buying greens, washing them, and picking over the slimy bits. I don't really LOVE them, but I know I need them for health. I bought a kale plants and planted some chard seeds. I also bought a few heads of lettuce over a period of months, kept the core, trimmed off the bottom, stuck them in water to root, then planted them. SUPER easy, just takes patience, a sunny windowsill, and a jar with an inch of water in the bottom. I now have a small but very useful rotating crop of greens growing in containers. Snip off a few leaves as i need for each meal. They're growing in cheap plastic containers with holes drilled in the bottom, set in a sunny place in my yard. I feed them once in a while, or dress with a little compost. Almost no work. Of course this is all about time and room, but it takes me less time to snip 10 leaves of chard and rinse them, than it takes me to pick through a pound of chard from the store and remove all the wilted or yellowed leaves. I really appreciate this lecture and plan to get the book.
Some of this I find issue with,but one thing I agree with is we need to improve hospital food , -sas part of the treatment ) if only to get patients out of their beds and home sooner .Medics need better training on nutrition so it becomes a part of treatment.Listen the talks on UA-cam by Dr. William Li to find out more on using food as medicine alongside traditional medicine.
Hospitals hardly even care about ensuring there's clean air free of pathogens or keeping sick staff from working. They're all profit-driven - even the government funded ones.
I feel like the biggest problem with ultra processed food is it's so easy. Cooking natural ingredients from scratch always takes more effort than just microwaving or baking something others made, and in the modern environment people are increasingly time poor, even if only from their own perspective, and so they turn to the easy option. As for cooking cheaply, I saw an interesting video on a channel called Atomic Shrimp (don't let the name fool you, it's quite wholesome) where it showed most of the 'cost' of a meal isn't the ingredients, it's the time and effort to make them into something nice to eat. The politicians who are saying it's easy to eat cheaply ignore those costs. For myself, I try to make evening meals 1/2 vegetable/salad, 1/4 protein in the form of (relatively) unprocessed meat or fish, and 1/4 carbs as either bread, pasta, rice or potatos. I'd be surprised if you can go far wrong with that. For breakfast it's wholegrain cereals in one form or another, with minimal sugar and fat content, or toasted multigrain/wholemeal bread, or on cold mornings porridge. A few times a year there's a cooked breakfast with bacon, egg and beans with toast, maybe mushrooms. Lunch is either skipped or its some kind of sandwich or whatever is to hand on crispbread, probably the most processed thing I eat other than the cold meats I have once or twice a week on salad for work or on crispbread as a snack. A long winded way of saying I think I eat reasonably healthy most of the time (which is why I put it out of sight) but it's when I deviate from this that I feel I'm eating unhealthily, and my weight usually reflects it. Eating out always adds a little, as does convienience food like pies or crisps/chips. Mostly I just wish fatty salty things didn't taste so good.
In supermarkets I sometimes find myself looking at people and then contents of their shopping trolleys. I take particular note of healthy looking elderly people, and it's invariably vegetables, meat and relatively unprocessed food...
Food misinformation is endemic. Well done for going some way towards remedying this problem. You correctly identify that a large part of the problem is the financial incentives of the food companies but it also applies to a huge number of other actors in this field. So many who work in food, nutrition, lifestyle and health have a clear incentive to keep us plebs confused and misinformed about nutrition.
But good information IS out there. I find people to be lazy about teaching themselves what is good for their bodies. It’s not a mystery that white crackers, busicuits and potatoe chips are bad for you and that an apple, carrot from the produce department (which you DON’T need to cook) is HEALTHY. I see McDonalds is sooo much busier than the produce department of every supermarket ALL THE TIME. Take some responsibility for your own health and your own actions.
He is a con artist. His take on that calories in and out doesn't matter is pure insanity. I lost 20kg purely on counting calories. Ate ultraprocessed foods as well while doing so. What he wants is that poor people starve to death.
One might question this use of the term, "endemic".AFAI it designates a species in a limited designated place/area, but FOUND NOWHERE ELSE. Were that a definition acceptable to Attenborough?
"Never let anyone tell you that real food can be made cheaply"; that's just not true. In fact, the bowl of porridge he mentioned is fantastically cheap. I will bet you that I can make you the same amount of calories as any fast-food joint or ready-made meal cheaper, even with the energy cost factored in, even when not buying (or cooking) in bulk, and in less than 15 minutes. What you need is knowledge.
Im glad that portugal where i live is one of the countries that consumes the least processed food in europe. Personally, ive been saying this stuff for years to people, and beyond the scientific reasoning, i just prefer the taste of regular cooked food. helps that all our bread here is traditional flour salt water only and theres strong traditions with food too. I mostly just make rice potatoes soups saladas meats and lots of fish. Oh and ridiculous amounts of olive oil to be honest.
@@savage22bolt32 - Similar thing happened to me (in a different country). But when I sobered up I realised there was actually just one of them, and she had a moustache.
@@RFC3514 That's true, but there's also an equal amount of unprocessed bread. And honestly I can tell you that in Portugal most people seem to pick the traditional bread over the ultra-processed, based on my anecdotal experience. So as long as that will continue to be the same, we will be just fine.
glad to see the next gen of professionals are getting the health information that we on YT have been indulging in for years now. Going to the GP did not fix my metabolic syndromes one bit other than the drugs prescribed reduced symptoms a little, my own research, YT and then implementing the knowledge made the difference. On my own.
Very interesting. There is also another aspect, and that is the very recent idea of eating three times a day. This was possibly predicated by large corporates such as Kellogs promoting breakfast back in the 30's. This is the first time we have had three meals a day in human history. In Tudor times for instance, people didn't have time or the resources to eat three times a day, but also they simply never subscribed to such a diet. I spent my entire adult eating once a day, and that allows me to eat pretty much what I want.
Same here, I eat one main meal per day. Never have breakfast to "start the day" or "kickstart my metabolism." An interesting observation back in my army days was the three meals a day and many ultra processed foods. This happened when catering was subcontracted, rather than done in house. Many people in the corps put on weight, quite quickly. The very fit (athletic?) infantry types didn't so much. I.e. a diversion. Both eating the same stuff from the same cookhouse. Our officers mess was no better, just fancier crockery and cutlery! It could be reasonable to assume that the insertion of a subcontractor, incentivised by profit margins, was the cause of this sudden health change in a reasonably controlled group, caused by diet.
23:54 "real food is enormously expensive" .... no it isn't. I routinely cook up rice+corn+peas+protein (kidney beans or chicken or whatever) in the same rice pressure cooker thingy I bought eons ago. It takes all of 2-3 mins to get ready for cooking, makes typically about 8 servings which amongst the 3 adults in my home does at least two suppers and a lunch for 2 of us. All in cost is trivially lower than fast or prepared food and it's loads healthier (until we add cheese or whatever and throw it on a UPF tortilla).
@@JohnnyMotel99 I dunno, I've lived in 3 European countries: Portugal (my home country), Czech Republic and Scotland, and I found veggies to be pretty cheap if you bulk cook them with usual staples (rice, pasta, potatoes and some protein), and then compared the respective portion cost to the portion cost of most UPF meals. Obviously if you add in some meats and especially fish, then the price does increase significantly. But that's the great benefit of eating a lot of vegetarian meals, they are cheap and easy to prepare. Obviously though there is the "time cost" of cooking. But bulk cooking and leftovers are fantastic for that. As for fruit, I will give you that fruit is getting more expensive, but if you buy a package of grapes (1.8£) vs a package of cookies (2£), it's about the same price usually and a lot of times you can make 3 or 4 snacks out of the grapes and maybe 2 out of the cookies because you've mindlessly eaten half the pack in one sitting without realising. Can anyone eat 5 apples in one setting? Unlikely, you get to a point where you don't what it anymore, but who hasn't eaten 5 cookies in one go, you know? So maybe the portion price is also somewhat equivalent or even cheaper for the the fruit because you just eat less.
More so if you live in the med. Sometimes, you live close enough to an olive mill that you can get bright green olive oil. That stuff would be pricey in the US
Only thing I’m not down with is the will power section, he partly says that will power has nothing to do with obesity because weight didn’t start going up until processed food became wide spread. That doesn’t change the fact that if you eat healthy you can control your weight so you need the will power to not eat unhealthy foods. I just don’t like the idea that we as humans don’t have that control. When my wife and I got married are weight shot up during our first year and by our second year we had high blood pressure and were touching pre diabetes (both black from the Caribbean). We had to change our diet if we wanted to be there for one another, it took learning about healthy eating and exercise. Then we needed the will power to overcome our bad habits.
I completely agree with you, sure it's easier to gain weight now but we CAN have the will power to avoid junk foods. Well done to you and your wife! edit: I just have to add that me and my fiancé also became unhealthier, living next to a mcdonald's, it was awful for our bodies.
I don't think he meant that you can not change your diet using your willpower to be healthier, but that the abundance of UPF, as well as the normalization of their consumption, in combination with the lower price, makes it harder. In addition to this you have lacking information in a large proportion of the population as well as multiple levels of advertisement and shady labeling, suggesting healtiness in UPFs.
An excellent lecture, which confirms many of the things I have found in personal experimentation with my own diet and that I intuitively believed but lacked the evidence to make the scientific case for. I've found that the ONLY way to make real unprocessed food affordable was to grow it yourself, but when I was bringing up a family I was too short of time to invest it in the labour required to achieve more than a token effort, then, due to some old injuries, I was too incapacitated to be able to even keep m garden from being a jungle, and now lacking teeth (My dentures broke several years ago and I'm housebound, so can't reach a dentist), I'm unable to cope with most rea food even if I was able to either afford it or grow it. This has resulted in overweight (not quite obese, but close). As a much younger man, I struggled to reach a healthy weight, which I believe (but have no way of proving) was due to diet-related hyperactivity. I'm also firmly of the belief that a need to put additives and flavourings in food is evidence of some deficiency in the food, but I'm in the trap now and have no way to get out.
Today I bought a bag of vegetables which had been sliced to be stir-fried, and several slices of black pudding. Each serving had a similar amount of meat to a McDonald's burger, but was a larger volume overall, and it consisted of fibre rather than carbs. The cost per person was less than half of the cheapest McDonald's burger, and would have been less if I had bought the individual vegetables and sliced them myself. Real food is always cheaper than processed.
So sorry to hear that😢. There must be some way for you to get out of the house, are you positive there isn’t anyone around who can help you? Also you could just throw real food in a blender so you don’t have to chew so much.
Knowing what you know about hpf, I don’t understand how you can let your children eat it. We NEVER had boxes of cereal in our house. We cooked whole food breakfast from scratch for 13 years of school. We still do that for ourselves.
On UA-cam, the advert following this presentation was for Doritos. I was the fat kid in school when there was only one or perhaps two. Fat has been an obsession all my adult life. I'm a gym user still at 66 and I have dieted and exercised for 50 years. My fat, however much I hate it and hate myself for harbouring it, will be with me until I die. I eat more processed foods these days because I'm only cooking for one. I am addicted to over eating and I recognise that my ability to eat through any natural bodily response to say stop stems from childhood. The feeling of being full quells the fear of hunger. Why would I have a fear of hunger when I have never known hunger?
Your story is my story though things are finally shifting for me. Small steps. Don't lose hope and know that your value as a person has nothing to do with this struggle. I get the cooking thing too though I am beginning to cook again even though it's just for me and it feels great.
Simple answer: Genetics combined with not limiting your portion sizes. You can't overeat if there is not enough (where enough means: weighed properly and calorie-counted) prepared, cooked, and ready to eat food in front of you to allow you to overeat, without having to go through another lengthy weigh, calorie-count, prepare, and cook cycle to be able to eat more than you should.
@andycordy I also cook for myself.i try to freeze up portions when I make good food to grab for dinners. I find salads also nice as it takes lots of bites,you can put your tuna or cottage cheese or blueberries etc.on top and it's like desert.hope this helps.please don't feel lonely just alone.reach out and call someone if lonely ok.
Have you tried mindfulness meditation? Be aware of what you eat, what it tastes like and at what point you feel full. Interval fasting, where you don’t eat anything for 14 -16 hours a day, can also help. Make sure you eat food that makes you feel full, i.e. foods with high fibre content. And you deserve a nice meal, so do cook, even if it is “only“ for yourself.
Ate junk my entire life. Been fat my entire life. Had the entire cycle, ups and downs, fad diets etc. Now I've completely cut off alcohol and UPFs. Intermittent fasting and at weight lifting at least twice a week. Feel better, looking better. It's sustainable and fits very well with my busy lifestyle. Now, I'm working on saving my kids from my fate. We've already cut off processed sugar.
I liked the speech. The only thing I found wrong with it was his claim that eating healthy, nutritious food is more expensive than processed/junk food. Of course, there is a "initial cost" of a slow cooker/microwave but those items are still insanely cheaper than processed/junk food; not only in actual costs (canned/frozen vegetables are so cheap, as are legumes!) but in the health-related costs. Eating cheap and healthy food is **entirely** possible for almost every single person in a developed world. Before people start throwing the term "food desert" around, only a single percentage point of people live in "food deserts".
Yes that was unhelpful and untrue - what was the point of saying ‘real food’ like lentils and porridge is ‘incredibly expensive’ and that you need energy to cook it / and a knife and cutting board to prepare??? Apart from that this was an interesting presentation.
Excellent presentation. It’s going to be a tough row to hoe, changing people’s eating habits. I was fortunate to learn about healthy foods as a teenager from “health food” fanatic parents. We grew orfanic gardens , made whole grain breads, raised chickens…. I had some lapses while business traveling. I could always tell the difference in my health. Now retired, I make all my food from whole food, bake sourdough, brew beer, harvest venison and stay active. I am shocked at condition of people and how it’s changes since 1960s.
Brilliant and thank you so much for helping a lay person like myself to better understand the intricacies of the food industry and hedge fund involvement as well as the many other aspects of your talk.
I lost my job and have been supported by my partner and that is the only reason why I am able to cook home made meals of whole foods for us daily. If I were working as well I would not at all have the time to create whole home made meals, my job was so demanding. Idk how anyone expects parents with multiple jobs to provide whole home cooked meals for themselves and their children consistently, keeping people poor and having to overwork to barely scrape by feeds the UPF industry.
@@majkollalo they’re always marketed that way but for regular folks just chopping some vegetables takes 20 minutes, i dont have any fancy tools or particular skill. cleaning your kitchen before/after can easily take an hour. Cooking time alone is not all that goes into it. Personally if im going to cook im going to use fresh varied ingredients like vegetables meats/fish and legumes, and prepping those never lives up to the “15 min meals” promise.
You're absolutely correct - even if you time it right and have everything cooked, eaten and the kitchen cleaned in the evening it doesn't leave much time free for hobbies or sports or literally anything else. When I lived alone and ate my homecooked healthy meals I felt depressed because there was no time for any enjoyment! It was just work, cook, clean the kitchen, do chores, and then time for bed! And that's if you have the energy left in the evenings.
Completely agree. When I was a stay at home mom I had time and energy to plan, shop and cook healthy meals for my family as well as exercise, socialize with other mums, take my kids to sporting activities while weekends were free for fun. We were all slim and healthy. For financial reasons I had to go back to a full time corporate job and my hubby and I are both now working long hours. Trying to combine hectic jobs and commuting with raising a family is simply exhausting and, despite our best intentions, we now tend to rely on ready meals, take aways and high carb, quick meals and snacks. We also have way less time to exercise or even have fun as weekends are now taken up by household admin and chores. I also find myself comfort eating to release stress and I now struggle with insomnia. Well guess what - I put on 20 pounds and my hubby has developed a fatty liver. Both my kids have also put on weight and my daughter has developed acne that she never had before. It’s no good telling us what we already know about healthy food and exercise when the system is stacked against women and families. I would give up my job in a heartbeat if my husband was able to support us on a single salary but we can’t do it even if we cut back a lot…and no I don’t have a fancy house, car or holidays.
Sorry, but not cooking is a choice, not a requirement. My neighbors next door are just such a family: high rent, low incomes, many mouths to feed. It's a household where both parents work 2 jobs. There's 3 children and 4 grandchildren in the house, all of which are financed by the parents. They still cook every meal from scratch. Of course, they do not own a TV nor smartphones, which gives them the time to take care of their extended family. So no, the time excuse is just an excuse. If you truly look at home much time a day you spend on entertainment of some form you will find 2 hours to cook if you let that go.
Truth goes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is attacked. Third, it is so blindingly obvious that everyone always knew that. Dr Chris Knobbe has been banging this drum for years.
I will try to stop eating UPF although I know that occasionally I would not be strong enough to stand up against, the artificial colouring, the artificial tastes and the perfectly engineered mouth feel. The worst thing is that I know that it is junk and it is not even worthy to be called food.
except for occasional stuff, i stopped eating UPF years ago. it really takes just a couple of months to get used to real food, and after that adjustment, most UPFs seem disgusting
This has been life changing. Has completely change my relationship around food. I thought I was very clued up on health and nutrition being an ultra endurance athlete but how wrong I was. Since changing to a 90% natural diet my performance has gone up and my weight has self maintained. Mood has been so much better as well as recovery. Amazing insights keep up the good work
Real food doesn't take a long time to prepare. Red lentil soup with vegies takes max 10 minutes into pot & boils low heat 30 minutes. I have many quick healthy delicious recipes. Everyone can do this & cheaply.
I moved from South East Asian to UK 30 years ago,I was perplexed by the quantity of food in colourful boxes and I instinctively kept away from that,I think I felt it can't be proper food.My children however follow my ex husband's behaviour of takeaways , UPF,it is a cultural issue.People are followers.I follow the diet of my foundational upbringing and am able to educate myself alongside prioritising my health.People want an easy ,gratifying fix unfortunately even when the alternative isn't actually that much more effort.
My wife is from South East Asia too and tries to stick to the food of her upbringing ( very healthy) which is not really possible because our Asia stores where we live have almost exclusively upf products. She lives very unhealthy with the food she eats. I try to teach my kid to stay away from upf ( very gently, though, as I want them to not be socially isolated) and we live very healthy foodwise.
Excellent presentation. One might ask what effect government subsidization has on food processing. Remove corporate subsidies as they relate to ultra processing these products will become more expensive and if subsidies are needed, they should be applied to basic ingredients.
Would def recommend Chris’ book it’s fantastic!! I have seen many talks & lectures on UPF & I still learnt lots of things from the book!! In the audio version u also get bonus content of Chris & xand talkin together about everything.
Actually, it has been my experience that children raised vegetarian (I say this because it is what I know) who ate veg at every meal, fruit (dried or fresh) for snacks and desserts and chocolate at Easter and Christmas, never over-ate. One child, a real gourmet, when presented with their favourite meal, would eat just enough of it to feel full. They would not finish what was on the plate once they had enough. So, this taught me that children fed real food will naturally eat what they need and no more than what they need. Children fed sweets and UPF's will not be able to feel what is enough. The same goes for adults, I expect, but it's more complicated because adults decide on meals, ingredients and go for what is available and affordable. I think the obesity problem is due first and foremost to what is available to many people and second to a lack of knowledge about food. Most people I know eat what they want. They see something that looks good and they eat it and if they really like it, they eat more of it. They don't pay attention to what it actually is because they trust the sources to provide supermarkets and shops with food that is actually food. When I have tried to explain that we avoid additives, most people react as if I'm one of these fad-followers on an extreme diet.
To be honest, I grew up Vegetarian (still am and to this day easily get in my 5+ of fruits and veggies a day) and know quite some people who were raised be this kind of organic worshipping moms who would look at every ingredient label... and would spare sweets/fast food only for very special occasions)... For some it semmed to work out well, others still overate... and most basically went wild when getting their hands on the "special occasions treats" in other childrens homes and of course would try to get as much in in one sitting as possible since it was so palatable but also wouldn't be available the next day anymore (and you could guess what most of the pocket money was spend on as soon as we got some) btw I was chubby for most of my childhood nonetheless and knew other "healthily raised" children who were as well (came in all sizes basically) ... again, I still eat mostly plant based and don't overdo on ultraporcessed stuff and of course wouldn't argue against nutrient dense foods being healthier than low-nutrient foods, of course But from my experience I dont think, there's this sort of "perfect [most natural]" diet you could just raise your children into as the secret sauce to form them into being perfect eaters, who will always just act absolutely in tune with (and would never long for anything outside) what would be most nourishing/healthy for their body... diet will always be individual and there is not one size fits all (especially if those rules become too rigid and serious, they could do more harm than good sometimes)
@@K1FF33 I think that as parents all we can do is our best. What our children do once they are autonomous is entirely up to them as it should be. Any rigid approach is, imo, going to backfire. We were vegetarian but if a kid ordered meat in a restaurant we would not have had a problem with that and they knew it. I found it strange that they never did, until they got much older. I think adolescence is the age of exploration and no matter how one raises one's children, some will get curious about food. And that's fine. At the end of the day, as parents we make decisions for ourselves and our children, but only up to a point. As for body shape, some people have skinny body type and some have more filled out body type, whatever food approach they have. It is their body type. All this nonsense that has been going around for far too long about being skinny is healthy needs to be corrected. Being healthy is being healthy. Obviously people suffering from obesity or from extreme thinness are not in their natural/normal body shape and tend to have illnesses because of that. A person eating a healthy diet and doing an amount of exercise that fits their personality will be the weight/shape/size they are meant to be. Halloween was interesting. We would go around with the kids, collecting the goodies, bring it all home. They would taste one of each and the idea was they would keep what they liked and we would buy the rest from them and take it to work for people to help themselves to. The kids never kept any of the sweets (they found it all too sweet and too weird-tasting) but loved Halloween because of the costumes, the collection and selling us the sweets.
The three meals a day thing is a modern creation. They looked back a few hundred years and people were eating 5 meals a day. Also they tested the gut flora of tribes around the world free of western diets. They found were missing half of ours in the west. Some of my siblings grew up in a tribe in africa, as toddlers they would be allowed to take milk direct from the goat/cow. No illness ensued only strong health.
@@luminousfractal420 Just because something is a modern creation isn't necessarily a good or a bad thing. Is that the point you're making? Also, a solid eight hour night of sleep is also a modern creation. Up until the 20thC people would go to bed around sunset, get up between 2 and 4am (eat, do some work, read, whatever) then go back to bed until sunrise or until they had to wake up for some reason. Was this better? About the gut flora of tribes, when you say they were missing half of ours, what does that mean? were they healthy/unhealthy? what did the tribal people eat? where were these tribes? did they need the gut flora that we have? Is the gut flora of traditional Inuit populations the same as ours? Why would ill health be a result of toddlers drinking goat or cow milk? I'm not sure what point you're trying to make or if you're just pointing this out as interesting.
I'm 54 ive still got a 34 inch waist with no health problems cholesterol, blood pressure excellent and i'm 6ft 1 inch bloke, i have also had a 4 egg omlette for breakfast every day all my adult life. I,m not a fitness fanatic i just dont eat ready meals fast food etc just fruit, vegetables, Eggs, nuts, meat and wholemeal bread and i only drink water and stella . Every single one of my life long freinds are all a stone over weight or more, some have had cancer heart problems etc and they all eat processed foods ready meals etc. You are what you eat.
23:40 "Real food is fantastically expensive..." But then people are ready to make excuses all the time. I live in a fairly urban area in Japan but you take a step and it's all rice fields. You have make-shift stands selling all kind of vegetables so cheap just because it's a bit damaged or "bad shaped" for high-end places. Really it's like 100 yens (or 70 US cents) a kilo of whatever bundle. And yet none of my latino fellows from my workplace go there because it's uncool but go to a Costco some 50 miles away because it's cool. Oh btw they all (I mean pretty much ALL of them) have serious diabetes and high-blood pressure and such. And cooking? I just eat raw or boil everything and add a little salt and voila. As one famous song in my country goes, "those who know make it happen / don't wait to happen."
I thought his exaggeration 'fantastically expensive' unfortunate and untrue and played into the masses who are the target here.,amongst some other points,rather disappointing .
Even though I'm on the pension and a careful budget I've learned to put my money into organic canned soups and organic Fair Trade coffee. First it's good for my conscience as an old boomer Christian. Second I've done a lot for my health and well being. The difference in starting the day with excellent coffee instead of filler/cheap stuff is worth the money. As usual, the poor are cheated the most at stores.
Good points made but my question would be why are some people on processed foods NOT gaining weight ? Even among members of the same family, offered the same range of foods, there can be great variations in appetite and energy levels. I'm glad he didn't claim to have the whole answer.
Great question. I think it is because things are WAY more complicated than the speaker is implying here in this talk. He glosses over and overly simplifies a lot of things in this talk, and comes to quick and simple conclusions w/o acknowledging that there may likely be relevant complexities and alternative hypotheses. Of all the many Ri talks I've seen to date, this was the most disappointing.
Well MMartin-pt9yv you clearly werent listening. Its not processed food but ULTRA processed food that he's discussing and relating to obesity. Secondly applying conclusions based on population studies cannot be applied to small groups or individuals as your data set would be too small. The same argument can be applied to individuals who smoke but dont die of cancer (maybe they die too soon of something else or never inhaled). The topic is indeed very complex with independent research only just gaining traction. By the way he is presenting an alternative hypothesis. These are novel foods which humans never evolved to digest. I wonder who's paying you?@@alanmeeker2179
I am Dutch, Chris van Tulleken is British. Comparing the two (neighboring) countries they are much alike, if not the same regarding to ultra-processed food. Except in obesity rates. It was always explained by exercise (biking!). But his argument that exercise doesn't really have any major impact, So my question is: what creates this difference? (Google search: 5% of Dutch adults have a BMI of more than 30, vs. Britain 26%)
As I understood, he said that exercise does not have a direct impact by increasing the amount of calories burned in a day. But he mentioned that it has an indirect impact making us less stressful, and stress is a major psychological factor in overeating.
Put a one in the reply if you've NEVER heard this phrase before. "Alcohol causes Cancer" I did over 10 years in the military (and most everybody has heard of the stories of military drinking in ports in foreign countries) I grew up in the inner city where there was a bar or club on every other block. I've been around alcohol my entire life and I've never heard that phrase until last year, and I'm 58 years old. Never heard it once from any military doctor or from my doctor at the VA now.
1: The military lies to it's own people constantly. 2: Even if they didn't, they don't know everything. 3: by the time you get the cancer, you are no longer of use to the military.
@@gerbenvanderbliek7448 That's what I mean, no one has ever heard of this. At least no one I've ever spoken with. I think next time I see my VA doc I'll ask him about it.
Moved from the uk to puerto rico (usa colony). You get a full medical before you go and when you arrive. I had near perfect health. Very close to. It took 3 years eating the same diet i did in the uk (lots bread) to become borderline diabetic. Bit of research showed they use 6x more sugar in the bread here, which was also causing sugar cravings so id eat more. (Not entirely visible due to a hyper metabolism). I started cooking properly there and then. So now wife and myself are survivng the diabeties issues, step sons collesterol levels are back in control. Came close to falling totally. I feel so sorry for people in the usa being fed that crap, and now with boris.j matching the usa food and agriculture standards i worry for people back home in the uk.
It is unbelievable that crud processed foods like make an cheese (easy to make from scratch an add veg to it but, lazy people) has a different ingredient list then then Europe.. It makes me crazy but I'm in food biz so I'm ok with selling it but I don't eat it.. Colonized lol Wait for the global takeover of food.. 😮
Just to say in US one can find quality breads (etc), in local shops. I choose organic sourdough or pumpernickel, etc, when I buy . . . buy at 63yrs I feel best limiting flour-based food. (I would never buy bread w/added sugar. Unless for “dessert”/a rare sweet treat… and let’s call it cake.)
Slightly off-topic maybe. Many years ago when the first McDonald's " Restaurants" arrived in London. I tried the " Big Mac " and found myself often wanting one , in a rather addictive way. I'm sure you know where I'm going with this.
Strange. I hate MacDonalds food. Tried it many times, especially Big macs , but really don't like the texture, taste or the fact that it's never actually hot, just warm.
Tremendous lecture, really well organized, researched and evidenced and presented in easily accessible language. I think you need to address the low percentage of protein in UPF. Low protein is a contributing driver of overeating.
After reading his book I cooka and make everything fresh. I actually love cooking now, I'm almost obsessed with it and its almost like meditation. I always saw it as a function and now its creation! Its also more love for my family and well worth the extra time preparing. I don't agree that you need to spend a lot more money if you shop correctly. I can make fresh burgers and chips cheaper than McDonald's or Burger King.
The other thing is that it is rarely cheaper to buy fresh food in bulk, so you don't have to buy nearly as much, though it does require more regular visits to the store, which can be a definite problem in some underserved urban or rural areas.
I experienced a difficult time in life and made major life changes. One of them to turn to clean food (inverse UPF). I can only report benefits. And its easier to make as one might think: buy all the good stuff like broccoli, rice, carrots, potatoes, whatever ... pour some water into a deep pan, fire it up on full power ... unpack veggies and rice (or any other clean food) ... chop them into small pieces ... throw into the (now hottish) pan ... put on the lid ... turn down the heat at medium level ... after 30 - 40 min its all cooked slowly ... put it in a big bowl ... throw in some goodies like cheese or whatever ... enjoy. While cooking you could go for a run and a shower. :-) ......the problem with diet induced obesity is: we live a life that is dominated by time-shortage inducing stress. We spent a minimum of 10 hours per day for the work (transport, lunchbreak, nominal worktime). Who has the time and energy to get home and chop some potatoes at 6pm? Very few of us! Its so much more easier to quickly buy plastic wrapped UPF. Modern society is toxic. UPF industry saw a niche and filled it since 1975.
Congratulations, you discovered the British WWII coupon diet. It was first tested well and worked great, except for farting a lot!! It's very healthy. They had to test the protein intake which was fine in larger portions of veggies than normal. The rich could eat in restaurants (unlike in WWI) and ate lots more meat, which made hem less healthy than the little folks.
I'm someone who has bean reading about food for years, from a crazy-scientist-chef perspective, to a type I diabetic nutritional one, and an organic-gardener-animal-husbandry type perspective. This bloke's book was still an eye opener! Would recommend it!
It's an uphill battle trying to get people to eat proper food when junk food companies have such large marketing budgets and are able to promote ultra processed food in such a dishonest way. I admire Chris for trying though. Interesting and informative lecture for the most part, but It's a shame that Chris continues the narrative that eating proper food isn't cheap relative to UPF. In the UK at least the cheapest and healthiest way to eat is to cook from scratch. You can cook a wholesome meal for a family of 4 for the same cost as one portion of takeaway junk food. The real issue is that there are so many people now that lack basic cooking skills and have no clue what a good diet is.
In the words of Vincenzo's Plate as parents, me and my wife love our kids so much that we cook fresh food for them on a daily basis. We never give them process food!
I am fat and nothing I do makes me loose weight. I don’t doubt he is right but I wonder if we could talk about overall health instead of just obesity which is stigmatising. I eat a reasonably good diet due to having a really good income. I exercise possibly less than the idea but more than many of my thinner friends. I get regular blood tests and am so far healthy if well aware of the risks. My family were on the large size and I was not always raised eating great food. But I’d rather just be fat, aware of healthy food and happy with who I am than constantly focussing on weight loss
When in doubt about nutrition go for simple wild foods. There's so much complexity in nutrition, and you get to the point where meat and vegetables can mean an entirely different thing from meat and vegetables. Vast majority of people will never be able to figure out how their food was produced, so unless you have the resources to mostly eat wild meat and home grown vegetables and fruit you are screwed and will suffer the consequences.
He has some great points - but when 95% of items in the "breakfast" isle have black octagons on them - they are just going to be ignored by consumers. It does nothing to address the root of the problem...
I think manufacturers think the same.and by labelling partly lets them feel a little less bad about putting dodgy ingredients into the product in the first place
I lost a lot of weight after switching to non-sugar soda. This is of course just anecdotal, but I am quite surprised that this is not a common experience.
should be taught early on what we had from our parents can not blame them they did not know about the dangers of food in the 70s 80s I am glad they are talking about it now I found out I should not have been eating a lot of food,s could have easily died I have a very rare disease to do with how you get vitamin d and calcium I has took me a good 5 plus years to read about it on my own no doctor understands my condition it is done with the pth hormone gives you vitamin d which regulates our calcium to our bones all connects to what I can eat and drink no processed food I feel load's better now. What our ancestors were eating they had different soil a hundred years ago the cows were different cows nutrients have been taken away from our food even our bread.
I guess I must be doing something right. I'm now in my late 70's with a BMI of 30, but generally in very good health, whilst most of my friends and acquaintances seem to suffer from just about everything going; indeed some are no longer with us. I've often wondered why. After reading Chris's book, I think I now know why. The last time I ate a McDonalds was in 1984; I've never tried a KFC, I don't drink fizzy pop, rarely eat takeaways, I don't snack between meals or eat crisps etc. - in fact such "food" just doesn't interest me, but I do love food and I eat a lot of it - real butter, proper sourdough bread, olive oil to cook with, loads and loads of fruit and vegetables, and reasonable quantities of meat and fish, all washed down with nice wine. However, I do eat loads of cheese and chocolate. I now realise with hindsight, that I probably eat far less UPF than most people and have done so since long before Chris started looking into such "food". So, I guess I'm a one-man example of what happens when you don't base your intake on UPF's.
The only area in which willpower makes any impact is in the willingness to investigate this kind of research and willfully change your food environment. I'm not saying this to be facetious. There is personal responsibility, but where it is it's not obvious. Another level of personal responsibility for those who understand this research is to find ways of sharing it convincingly with people who need to hear it.
I like this talk, except the bit about exercise. You just can't argue against physics, if you significantly increase your energy expenditure a day, obviously you will see results. Instead of handwaving it away, he should have addressed it by saying most people can't realistically be expected to allocate enough time in their day to effect large changes like that.
I know that RI lectures don't necessarily agree with everyone's algorithmically determined preferences, but you'd think that a lecture like this (one that intimately and immediately concerns the vast majority of the human population) would be on the front page of UA-cam. As of right now, about 1 in every 70,000 people on Earth have seen this. That is to say: "The average person is more likely to have seen this video than to have been injured by lighting, but not by much."
Great speech, BUT the only thing I don't agree is the way he lets his own kids eat a lot of UPF. I don't agree that kids should follow people around and eat what they eat just to not look weird, family should be guides in nutrition, not friends and community, and to eat healthy around other people is important for spreading healthy nutrition lifestyle.
But at one point he mentioned that any sort of processing can degrade food and deplete nutrients (even the kind of at home processing). I wonder how much canning and dehydrating takes away.
@@inkoftheworld I'm sure both methods cause some degradation, but I don't have to worry about spoilage. Plus, I always have something quick and easy for meals if I can't get to the store.
I've been trying avoid UPF for a few months. Bread is a nightmare. I don't buy it any more. I thought about making my own but like you said it's time consuming.
Try making whole-grain soda bread (raised with baking powder and baking soda--put it together in about 10 minutes and bake for 50 or so, or cut it into scones and bake for 15). Lots of great recipes around. It can be a bit too crumbly for sandwiches, but it makes terrific toast.
There's no Q&A for this one - but if you liked this lecture, you might enjoy Giles Yeo's talk on the science of weight loss - ua-cam.com/video/GQJ0Z0DRumg/v-deo.html
❤❤❤ Royal Institution ❤❤❤ Lots of love, your lectures are always amazing! You people should so proud of your long standing record of doing all these lectures for well over 100 years! Truly incredible! 💝💝💝💝
@@thevikingwarriorl😊
Thank you for the lecture! Would it be possible to post the Q&A afterwards as well? I'm extremely interested and I suspect many others too. Perhaps if there are any sensitive portions they can be edited out?
I can easily avoid about 90% of ultra processed food, but my one weakness is a good pizza. I must have one good pizza a week!
@@henrythegreatamerican8136 I am sure there are plenty of joints who serve pizza that is non ultra processed. Fresh dough, real mozzarella real meat or vegatables. I think you never go back once you have found a place like that. It took some years but i know two of those places within 10km of my house (the Netherlands) so I argue its common enough. ENJOY YOUR PIZZA
My dad, who had an aggressive cancer, when he was going through chemo was told by the oncology department to eat only ultra processed foods so he could digest it. My dad ignored it and just kept eating like always, whole foods from scratch. He was the healthiest looking guy in the treatment center and lived for an additional 10 years.
It never ceases to amaze me what tosh doctors say about food and diet. My uncle had a similar thing after treatment for prostate cancer. He has become so depressed and weak! Sad 😔
while it probably helped correlation isnt causation. It is just as likely to have been a fluke than miracle food.
How was his diet and lifestyle before cancer? Did he get cancer whilst eating healthfully?
@@Lizzyvallesrodriguez yes, dad always ate like an old fashioned farm boy (mom cooked everything from scratch). He repaired antique engines, etc so was on his feet moving around all the time. He was strong enough that he could walk an engine block across the yard.
While I understand (and would probably follow) that line of reasoning, the doctors aren't always wrong. My best friend's wife was diagnosed with chrones disease which is an auto-immune disorder that causes the immune system to attack the gut when too much foreign material comes through such as plant fibre. She can't eat salads or vegetable heavy dishes without severe discomfort. She has to eat relatively bland, relatively processed foods, as prescribed by her doctors. And it absolutely makes a difference.
I live in the UK for my whole adult life. But I grown up in estern Europe in 80s and 90s. We simply have no money for ultra processed food or it even was unavailable in my country. We could have coca cola twice a year. Nestle cereals were sooo expensive. There were no ready meals at all. But we had own veggies and eggs, real milk and meat. Bread from local shop was amazing. And my mum cooked. When I was older I was one time in mcdonalds only because it was something new in my country 😅. Now I am a mother of british children and try to feed kids similar way I was fed. I cook at home from simple ingredients, I bake my own bread. I make simple cakes at home instead of ultra processed sweets. We do not drink fizzy drinks at all. In the results my children are healthy and they even do not like ultra processed food. They do not claim that we don't go to mac. They even didn't eat their easter chocolate given by freinds this easter. They love homemade food. And they love cooking with me or themself. This is the easiest and most pleasure way to keep heathy and in proper weight. I wish everybody in the UK understand it and want to learn for better future. Don't be like US.
Sorry for my english, still learning 😅
Your english is very good! Quite interesting to hear that given that for me i had the opposite experience. i grew up in a household where we ate ultra processed foods daily. Since moving out, i have gradually learned to cook better myself, and have found the same thing - i dont fancy the taste of ultra processed foods anymore.
I used to have a diet coke daily, as well as health bars, chocolate, and takeaway on the weekends. Now i crave none of that, and on the odd occasion i do have a diet coke, i dont even fancy finishing it!
I think there must be some sort of "acquired taste" of ultra processed food, because i can so easily taste it now.
@@CHINKICHOU My experience has been opposite. I grew up off processed food (in India), but had phases when I was addicted to colas (back when diet colas were considered weird), then switched to the diet cola phase and back, until I cut back and stopped completely. However, after moving to the UK I find processed food very hard to completely eliminate. I tried it for 6 months, and I did get used to it, with great health benefits, but once I would eat even a small amount I'd find it hard to stop.
Born and raised in Europe, my parents grew their own weggies in their garden, everything home cooked. I'll never understand why we need so many aisles full of processed food in the stores.
@@tomatomate45~ I guess it’s mostly needed by the parents who work very long hours outside of the home (10-12 hours a day) and they’re too exhausted to cook from scratch when they get home so late in the evening.
Your English is practically perfect and I like how you give your children real food, I wish my parents had done that instead of giving a lot of sugared breakfast cereals for example.
After being diagnosed with a gallstone 18 months ago, I completely changed my diet. Lost 5 stone in weight eating proper, clean food, including fats. I haven’t had an attack in over 12 months( I didn’t have surgery ) and feel better than I have in 30 years ! ( 5 stone in weight UK =70lbs= 32kg )
that's great tris, but it is also symptomatic for humans in general, we only take action when something really bad had happened. it's the same for other topics like climate change, stress/burnout etc. we know the risks, we know the solutions but do little to nothing until the day comes.
Doesn't surprise me. I noticed the same thing with those highly processed KETO foods. Sure, they do a good job of restricting the carbs, but they add so many other ingredients that will wreck havoc on your digestive system. You don't need all those franken foods to reduce overall carbs.
really good to hear!
Good for you!
I tought you only had 1 stone, now you lost 5.
I have just finished Tulleken's book. it is at first captivating with his scientific explanations of many food experiences in my life but became rather depressing by the end.
i am 70 yrs old now. just 3 days ago i had confirmation of his assertion that UPF is addictive. I bought an "alleged" strudel from the store, went home and ate my usual lunch: a big daily salad, albacore tuna in olive oil sandwich, some yogurt, a banana with a slice of stinky french gruyere. i am now full. but as i brought my dishes to the sink i saw the strudel. i don't need to eat. i actually feel full but i couldn't resist the strudel. i can't remember the last time i had a piece.
so i cut one small slice. i remember besides being sweet as expected, there was no texture. everything just crumbles away. i didn't have to chew, it just melt away. but it left me unsatisfied. i cut a bigger piece and it disappeared just as fast.
52 yrs ago when i first came to Oregon for my college studies i remember eating strudel bought from the supermarket as well. my memory tells me i had to chew, not hard of course, but i just couldn't hold it in my mouth and wait for it to melt away like it does now.
so this stuff feels very addictive and is addictive. right away the whole sheebang goes in the trash in its aluminum container.
oh just like Tulleken said in his book, when i looked up the ingredients lists it has more than 40-50 ingredients listed on it. why ? why not just flour, oil or butter, egg and fruits (apple or rasberry or whatever). i would even take some preservatives. but not 50 ingredients. no way.
its not a strudel, it just looks like one
There are so many products that just mimick actual food but really is just a bunch of chemicals with a tiny bit of actual ingredients.
You should always read ingredient list first before you buy anything.
☝️😌
I feel validated as I've had the same experience where I'm full but want a piece of sweet. Then I eat the UPF item and I go from full to hungry!
@@Dimarious.G”chemicals” being all molecules… including “ingredients”. You have no scientific literacy
Just as explained in that same book, making a product using real ingredients is hugely expensive. Therefore they use stabiliser, emulsifiers, fake sugar etc, it is all about making money rather than making people eat healthy and nutritious (although naughty) food. I am very much like you, I can’t just eat a piece.
Thank you so much for this. My wife Shivaun would have loved to watch it, and would have completely agreed. She passed away two weeks ago, so I'm sharing with her friends instead. Keep up the fight and public disclosure!
@mikehibbett3301. Sorry for your loss. Hope you're looking after yourself. Sounds like your wife had an interest in healthy eating. So keep yourself strong and healthy.
I have watched this session more than twice. Reading through the comments I see your network is largely your lovely wive’s intelligent friends. Good for you to allow yourself to maintain common interests with them. Please continue to do this …. You and they miss her…more importantly you have a chance to stay involved in your social world through the internet but be sure to see them in person for 30 minutes a week…at least
Hope you’re keeping okay. Yes it’s great we have people brave and intelligent to speak up and out for us all.
My deepest condolences 💕
I particularly liked how he kept using his daughter as reference/example, proving that, no matter what, we are all just human and all susceptible to an almost insurmountable reality. The best we can do is be informed and do what’s in our own best interest if we can - not always easy or even achievable considering the complexity of 21st century life. I read some comments about his book on Amazon and concurred with one reader who observed “if you’re 20, this is an excellent book to read and to live by and if you’re 70 it’s probably too late but good info to share with younger friends & family” (or words to that effect). It is, I fear, too late for me in general but this info will make me more cognizant of trying to keep UPF out of my diet going forward. Dr. van Tulleken is a gifted lecturer - I have the attention span of a gnat but stayed interested (and wide awake, lol) for the entire hour!
It's never too late. My 86 yr old uncle recently got rid of his Type 2 diabetes, just by changing his diet. A low carb, low UPF diet will benefit all ages.
I have gone to great lengths*not* to share pics of my daughters on the internet
I’m 63 and have been eating real foods for over 8 years now and feel so much better. It’s never too late.
Also if you’re 70, much of your early life was not UPFs because they weren’t so available. It’s never too late to learn and change.
It is never too late to make changes.
4 months ago I was diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes. My HbA1c (blood glucose) was 73 mmol/mol. Since then I have moved to a mainly wholefoods diet with little processed food and no UPF. I eat many organic things where possible. I eat strictly pumpernickel for bread, no refined carbs, no potatoes, ZERO added sugar and control carb portions to around 50g per meal. I enjoy cheese, fatty natural yoghurt, whole milk and snack on nuts, which keeps my fat intake at a good level. Kimchi, sauerkraut and yoghurt help my microbiome. I have also done a morning workout (exercise bike and weights) 4-5 times a week and have taken 500mg of Metformin twice a day. In 4 months I have lost 17.5Kg/2St 10lbs/38.5lbs and my blood test results today show a HbA1c of 36mmol/mol, which is amazing!
Are you... me?! Seriously though, great work. I'm 2 months into this exact same journey. Down 11kg so far and Hba1C down from 90 to 44. Will you try to reduce (or even potentially eliminate?) the metformin now that your Hba1c is under control?
@@matthewhook3375 90?! wow that was high, well done bringing it down so much though. 36 is on the cusp of normal, so I am aiming to get it lower and come off Metformin eventually. Of course all dietary changes will continue - are you eating a very similar diet?
@@HARRi81_UK Aye it was bad. Metformin and Trulicity injections have gradually brought it down to 44 (prediabetic) but I'm hoping the diet/lifestyle changes will normalise it to the point where meds are no longer necessary. I've eliminated UPF entirely, and doing real food Keto diet. Spot readings have always been 5.0-5.5 mmol/l since starting the diet. I was on 1000mg metformin morning and evening, but I've stopped taking the evening dose. The diet definitely works, and it works better than meds. I've also lost 11kg without really trying. Another 49kg to go to get to a sensible weight...
Well done you 👍🙂
@@luminousfractal420 thanks 👍, just wanted to share my experience and show that such a change can be made and it yields results!
This kind of videos is what makes UA-cam worth it. Thank you so much!
After thirty years I suddenly stopped smoking because I discovered my brother had given up. If he can, so can I. I gave up on the spot and never had another.
Stay strong, I've just got 4 months with no tobacco. Happy days!
Yeah, I think we did ourselves a huge disservice by emphatizing so much that nicotine is addictive instead of the fact that cigarettes are habit forming. I think most people overestimate the significamce of the first and struggle a lot more with the second
@@horrorhotel1999 I can't believe what I just discovered about the Japanese. They're still smoking, or half of them are, and half of them are consuming "heated tobacco?" I've never even heard of this, I live in Oz and I haven't seen anyone smoking in twenty years.
I did the same, ironically, I started eating a lot of biscuits for 3 months after quitting and found that harder to stop than smoking.
@@whyyes6428 That's the awful risk. A lot of people gained weight because of that. People blamed giving up smoking, and never said it was the hand-to-mouth thing. You saw it.
Love it, you just keep going until people listen; you are doing a fantastic job; don't let anyone stop you, we are fed up of being conned and fed up of the poverty stricken being denied of decent accessible reasonably priced fruit and veg. I am 66, reasonably well educated and have only just learned what is REAL food and once you eat REAL food you don't want any other (even home made soup is just delicious, nutritious, easy to make and freezable in bulk)
Denied? You mean noone did work for u that ur entitled to? Jfc get it yourself
56 and cooked from scratch since 12. My mothers cooking was atrocious. Today I am extremely healthy and fit compared to my age group and walk 10-18km per day. Cooking from scratch makes economical sense too.
Absolutely! If you have the time and energy to spend on cooking it is by far the best way to make your diet more healthy.
I just try to eat real things made from actual food. Core diet of fruits nuts meat veggies and a carbohydrate of some sort. Lots of water! Pee at least twice a day.
And eat what you burn, no excess.
Agreed. His claim that "real food is incredibly expensive" is complete nonsense. Yes, you need some energy to cook it (using gas is generally cheaper _and_ more environmentally friendly than using electricity, BTW - because of the way that electricity is produced in most countries), but the utensils are something you buy once and can use for decades, and most vegetables are still incredibly cheap despite recent price increases. The main limitation for most people is time.
@@RFC3514 if &evil=true ignore following, otherwise I have two issues...
1. Gas will always have the same environmental cost while it is derived from fossils, and, when it burns in air and the gases are not vented It is a health hazard. Electricity, used for cooking, does not produce nitrous oxides as domestic pollution and will be increasingly derived from non-fossil sources. So, electricity is healthier now, and, can only get better on the CO2 emissions front.
2. Let's take a hint from the talk and stop victim blaming. There are always exceptional people and circumstances. Their stories are of little value for the bulk of people. The talk enumerated how and why "real food" is "expensive" and mostly unattainable for a lot of people. Just because one person can tell us how wonderfully privileged they were to be taught the skills and culture of cooking from scratch does not mean the bulk of time poor dual income barely making ends meet families can do the same. Like the man said: "this is difficult", and I'm going to say "get real" when commenting in this area.
10-18km a day is unfathomable for most people but I try to spend similar amounts of time on my bike at least a few days a week (outside; never inside). I think the role of exercise cannot be dismissed. Both exercise and healthy eating remains important and both help each other out. After all, it's hard to spend that much time outside if you need to attend to the bathroom too often.
"Food is community. And ideally we would eat real food that connected us to our family and our community in a way that had cultural and historic meaning" I find that this is still the mindset in Portugal for example, preparing and eating traditional dishes with your family is still a huge part of the culture. It's very common to celebrate birthdays and other special events with friends and family by inviting them over for dinner or lunch. The sunday family lunch which is often grilled fish or meat with all sorts of veggies is still fairly common, my family does it almost every week. And I contrast this with my boyfriend who is Czech and doesn't have these traditions. They don't often eat with family, and tend to eat much more ultraprocessed unhealthy food (on average) than the Portuguese does, and perhaps as a consequence they are much more overweight as well. I hope that Portugal, and other countries like it, which are known for their food culture and the communities around it will continue to keep that heritage alive and not succumb to the frightening amounts of ultra-processed food being imported in by food giants.
I believe you're describing the way it was in every country, including the US of A, before the Food Industry took over the minds of the masses. Portugal, unfortunately, will be decimated like all western cultures. Unless they do not comply.
I'm from Slovenia and meals in context of family are very much a tradition here still... Of course the changing economy and work habits influence these, but I think that this is not so much a matter of culture on national level than family habits.
@@spurezurko you will see McDonald's arrive and the children/ teenagers adore the new fast food. This generation will destroy the family tradition of eating together at the table.
Im Czech like you boyfriend, but what I m used to is more like your experience - saturday and sunday homecooked lunch with family. Also I cook almost everyday at home
@Larrasss, thanks for sharing with us about your Portuguese heritage. In North America, we have a tradition of potlucks and family-gatherings. I think that this is one great opportunity to make having good food readily available and very affordable because [a] nobody has to pay the cost for everything and [b] nobody has to do all or most of the work of growing / buying / preparing / cooking / serving food/meals. Everyone gets to enjoy a much bigger variety of foods while savings an enormous amount of time, effort, and money. I think that these kinds of gatherings also offer an opportunity to set better examples: e.g., when my parents choose to bring salads, vegetables, and wholegrain dishes with peas and beans rather than animal-foods . . . or we have pure teas, pure cocoa, and pure coffee with zero carbonated rubbish, no purchased beverages, no manufactured liquids, and no additives such as added sugar, added sweeteners, artificial creamers, or other expensive, non-nutritious processed junk. By doing the right things, our lifestyles and habits speak volumes to those around us . . . even before we say a single word . . .
This is surely one of the most important videos on the internet right now!
As a chef of 25+ years and owner of a BMI of around 40, awaiting surgery, and father to a 6y/o boy, this resonates so strongly.
This message and all further research must be protected and the truth be heard by all.
We must also ensure that Chris VT doesn’t mysteriously disappear!
must be hard as a chef though, to avoid seed oils and the like. once I started (trying to) avoid seedoils I realised just how much it had infiltrated all our foods.
I pretty much removed UPFs from my diet 7 weeks ago and have started cooking nearly everything from scratch. I stopped regularly drinking alcohol, cut out caffeine and I try to follow a whole food plant based diet as best as I can. I have already lost 37 pounds and have never felt better and the best thing is I haven't felt hungry once!
Since COVID happened I've been fortunate enough to be able to work from home most days and this has allowed me to prepare my own food. I wouldn't say it affected my weight at all, but it does feel more satisfying than ready-meals and prefilled sandwiches. I definitely snack a lot less than before. There is no way I could have done this without gaining time back from commutes and being at home during lunch breaks, though.
A silver lining from COVID. Hope you are able to continue preparing your own food.
Of course you could have and can. You were just to lazy and unmotivated to prep food for lunch every day. Jesus. I've had packed lunches my entire life. From. School to uni to work...and work where I'm driving 2-3hours into the country some days. Then also taking healthy snacks to tie me over till dinner. Don't justify yours or anyone else's laziness. People say it's more convenient to buy food at lunch at work than make it. Yet you would spend more time walking down to a cafe, ordering and waiting and walking back that you would prepping lunch at home the night before. Especially if you're simply over cooking dinners and taking some left overs to work the next day.
So you prepare your own food now but it hasn’t affected your weight at all? What about overall health indicators and body composition? Seems odd
I am 78 I live on a fixed budget 2 years ago I stopped eating processed food now I only eat the food I make and cook I make in batches and freeze I make my own yoghurt using a heritage culture probiotic I add raw oats to add in the prebiotics I make my own lemon curd to flavour my yoghurt. I grow my own vegetable I batch cook my meals so I always have a meal at hand in the freezer I know I need to have the fridge and the freezer the kitchen etc but because I cook in bulk my fuel costs are lower I have no waste it takes it doesn't take much longer to cook 6 L of chicken and vegetable miso soup than 1or 2 portions. It can be done you may need to reorganise your days but it is well worth the effort
Another great thing you can do is start using punctuation.
@@beejereeno2how rude 😮
@@beejereeno2 Most 78 year olds that I know couldn't even open a UA-cam video, let alone comment on it... they can use punctuation however they please 😂
@@beejereeno2twit
I work for McDonald’s, the bun for your burger, just the bun, has over 20 ingredients. Homemade bread has about 5, 5 ingredients you more than likely have in your kitchen right now, half of the 20 in fast food buns, you probably have never heard of. 😬
@dz5598You mean Vitamin B3? Horribly stuff really...
At least they chose not to put dihydrogen monoxide into the buns.
😆@@horrorhotel1999 Chemistry was a long time ago for me, but even I got that joke....
flour water yeast is all u really need
@@annasmith5216 I also add sugar to feed the yeast, a little salt for taste and some butter to improve the texture. I use wholemeal chapati flour - but I've no idea what's also in it - herbicides? insecticides?
Define need, I'd submit that sodiun chloride is more or less needed as well (taste matters, it is also by far the electrolyt with the lossiest usage in the body) e@@annasmith5216
I recently finished this book (about a month ago). It is an eye-opener, simply shocking how we are manipulated into eating this non-food and believing it is delicious. It has entirely changed how I think about food as compared to the industrial products being marketed to us as food.
If you cannot afford to buy it new, try to get a used copy. Many online portals for used books.
No I am not affiliated with the author or the publisher. I just wish you well.
This is why I have started to make my own foods. I may use some store-bought stuff, but for the most part, I stick with foods that are prepared from-scratch. It may take longer, but its healthier, and seems to be tastier. Plus, I get more for the money's worth.
literally no one can afford to eat like that, if you have kids of a mortgage, you'll know what I mean
@@aegisgfx Do your best with what you have. Eliminate the rubbish convenience foods that do nothing for your purse or your health. Fruit & veg in season, frozen aint too expensive and can save on waste. Batch cook and freeze to save time. Add lentils to stews to bulk it up & reduce the meat. Adding oats to dishes like soups stews lasagne can also add healthy bulk quite cheaply. Potatoes & rice aren't expensive. Theres any number of different beans that are cheap. I don't know where you are, but all supermarkets do special offers on fruit/ veg & other healthy foodstuffs. Always go prepared with shopping list so not tempted by processed stuff. Small changes make a different. Its certainly not easy nowadays with a family. But you owe yourself and them the best you can manage. Dont get overwhelmed by it all, baby steps and you'll get there. You watched this channel so your on your way.
@@aegisgfxIf you have a family, you're wasting money buying fast/ultra processed food. Also, it interferes with your cognition, memory, and health, making your family less likely to do a good job and make money.
@@aegisgfxIt’s rather sad to hear that. In India, at least as of now (things are changing). It is cheaper to make food from scratch than to eat ultra processed food. I personally believe it must stay that way.
@@watamatafoyu spoken by someone without kids and without bills to pay. None of you live in reality.
Since hearing from this guy months ago I've changed my diet quite drastically. I don't think it's possible to cut these ingredients out entirely in most places now, but I've gone some way to trying to pick the right products. We don't buy ready meals anymore, we buy plain veg, meat etc and cook it ourselves with off the shelf spices and in return we tend not to worry about how much salt, sugar etc we add (within reason) because it's still going to be far better. We make our own pizzas and for the stuff that's still ultra processed, I'm checking the ingredients regularly. If they've got a very long list I put it straight back and go for the one that's slightly better.
Noticed how much tastier these foods without the extra stuff are though. Have to pay £2.50 for a small loaf but the bread I pick now without any of these additives tastes so much better, even after freezing and defrosting it and spread with actual butter rather than the fake stuff as well.
The switch is definitely expensive though, and it's taking time to make a pizza from scratch or make chips - but I'm at least starting to enjoy cooking now.
Yes, just buy things with as short as possible ingredients lists. It's more expensive, but you'll save on hospital bills later.
A bread machine might be a good investment for you.
Just to add, a bread machine would allow to bake full loaves of bread or just make dough for your pizzas, flatbreads etc
@@annupson9518 yeah might be something to consider for the future. It's not the end of the world. I can afford the extra cost, and the bread I get is SOOOOOOO good.
@@annupson9518 Just to point out, you can make bread quite easily without a bread machine too, as long as you have an oven, a mixing bowl and a pair of hands. Not criticizing, and I know a lot of people are making their own bread because of bread machines and that's a good thing - but you can make very good bread without them.
very informative and compassionate, which is a rarity but incredibly refreshing. thanks for sharing it!
Part of the lecture claimed that ultra processed food is responsible for the loss of Amazon rain forest and loss of biodiversity. Actually, it is animal agriculture. 90% of the soy grown in Brazil is used for farm animal feed. Another cause of deforestation is for cattle grazing. Brazil is a top exporter of beef and soy.
"In 2017, Brazil produces 16.3 million tons of soymeal for its domestic market, and more than 90 percent of that became animal feed."-mongabay
Title-"Brazilian hunger for meat fattened on soy is deforesting the Cerrado" Jan 16, 2019
An important point to bear in mind is that ultraprocessed food is an acquired taste.
If you have ever known the taste of real food it is fairly obvious how bland and soul-less most ultraprocessed food really tastes like, and how their creators attempt to cover that fact with cheap tricks that quickly overwhelm the palate.
I agree actually. I find ultra-processed food to be really bland, untextured and plastic-like. For example a McDonalds burger barely tastes like food to me. What is unfortunate in all of this though, is what happens to the children who eaten mostly ultra-processed food all their lives. It must be very hard to shift their palette and mindset to eat "real food"
Ranch raised beef, as opposed to eating any other "choice" beef which is full of additives, hormones, pesticides and antibiotics, is a world of difference. Most "all natural" foods (like wheat products) taste of chemicals to me, as they are full of pesticides and things like sodium aluminum phosphate, and wood cellulose that is not required to be on the label. People have lost touch both on the production and the consumer end of what tastes good and is healthy. Not even Jello has gelatin anymore, as it was replaced with carrageenan, which has no nutritional value.
Lots of things can be an acquired taste, however.
Why do you say things that are obviously not true?? Give a chocolate bar to a tribesman that doesn't eat "UPFs" on a regular basis. You really think he wouldn't like it?
I grew up in Texas in the 50s on tomatoes that were from very heaven....
When I was young and my mum always cooked, I was so skinny that my parents were actually worried about it. I didn't exercise very much at all compared with other kids and actually spent huge amounts of time reading, something I've always done sitting down.
I was still very skinny at 18, but then I started adding 1 kilo a year every year until I was 40 years old. The only thing that really changed was the food I ate, with less cooking and more convenience as years passed.
My weight gain over that 22 year period was almost 40 percent.
No, your age changed.
Eat the same as you did at 18 (with the same low activity level) at 25, 30, 35 and you will have put on significant weight.
@@incandescentwithrage That's not what health research says.
Yes, of course I put on weight as I aged, but a gain of almost 40% is not caused by age.
In my country, 50% of adults is now overweight. That simply wasn't the case when I was young. The academic consensus that is forming now is that it's ultra-processed food, more than sugar or anything else. Exercise, unless you go extreme, will not help you lose weight long term. Nor is our weight problem mostly caused by any other of the usual suspects.
Of course, the major food companies and their puppet scientists talk about exercise, a balanced diet, health education, etc, but they actually know their food is mostly unhealthy and it's not good for their profits if we eat less.
@@diedertspijkerboer I agree with your second post.
I was disagreeing with the statement in the first that the only thing that really changed over the years was your diet.
To add a bit of personal anecdotal evidence, there seems to be some feedback relationship between exercise and preference for real / unprocessed food.
My weight has fluctuated by 40kg over the last 12 years, and while exercising very regularly, my taste for processed foods decreased by a huge amount.
I actually got a craving for salads, a first for me.
I think ultra processed foods being described as causal may be a bit premature.
I think in the future, it'll become clearer that the switch from primarily manual labour to more sedentary employment in the late 70s, and the increased consumption (and perceived "tastiness") of processed foods are closely intertwined.
@@incandescentwithrage I think there might be some truth that exercise changes one's cravings towards healthier foods. Apparently, some research also suggests this. However, I have doubts about whether this is the main factor in the weight gain in countries with a westernised diet. I'm not saying it isn't, I just don't know. After all there's certainly also a lot of evidence that people often choose foods based on what's easily available around them and ultra-processed food is everywhere and is advertised a lot.
I've been trying to avoid ultra-processed food recently and it's very hard, because it dominates most food isles in the supermarket.
My observation from my hubby’s siblings is the moment they left the nest and are earning, they can buy whatever they want to eat which includes UPF which increased their weight eventually
Reading Chris' book earlier this year has changed so much about my relationship with food, which I've struggled with all my life. I find myself nodding along with so much of what he says, recognising aspects of it from my own behaviours and feelings around UPF. I'm so grateful that Chris wrote this book (I know lots of scientists and researchers have been onto this topic for years but I only picked up his book because I was a fan of his anyway) because for the first time in my life I feel in control of what I eat and knowledgeable around the best foods to eat to give myself a better chance of good health in future.
What things are you eating now? I'm really struggling with food again
This reminds me when I learned how most orange juice works. It put me off anything but fresh squeezed permanently. Theres a reason why orange juice always tastes consistently the same from each brand, no matter the year or season, and why different brands taste different even if they source oranges from the same growers. The process that lets them store massive quantities of juice also results in deflavored juice. So they hire experts from the perfume industry to concoct flavoring that they add just before they want to package it and sell it. The flavor packs are created from chemicals and molecules from orange peels and seeds and whatever else theyd normally throw away, so that way they can still claim its "100% orange" juice, despite it being frankensteinian zombie juice.
It is criminal.
Those"fresh squeezed" oranges might have spent months on the shelf.
Also it just has huge amounts of sugar.
Reminds me of when I learned that all fruit juice, whether it is artificial, natural, organic, or freshly squeezed, is nothing more than sugar water. Just don't drink fruit juice or save money and put several teaspoons (and in some cases tablespoons) of sugar into a glass of water and call it freshly squeezed all natural organic fruit juice, because your body will see it in exactly the same way, sans a bit of Vitamin C.
Not to be a party pooper, but even fresh squeezed should be treated as a dessert. Fructose is only good if it's still with its fiber. Pulpy OJ is at least probably not quite as bad. I'll still do a hard pass on 40g+ of sugar with nearly 0 fiber though, maybe for a special occasion cheat day brunch or something.
Thank you for posting this! We already know the dangers, however to present this in a coherent, logical way was easy to digest, follow and hopefully- practice. He admitted about his kids eating UPF, so he is human after all. Not preaching from a pulpit but tying the subject with findings and results of scientific studies. Listener is free to make their decision. Let’s have him back again. 👍🏼
This is THE BEST talk on nutrition and diet and upf ever! It's so well considered and researched. Very insightful
What you say about weight loss is everything I've known was true, but have been told was false, especially around exercise and willpower. I went to the NHS weight loss clinic, and they didn't want to discuss anything except 'Calories in, Calories out'. They told me to "Go away, cut 500 calories a day, find an exercise you like and I guarantee you'll lose weight". Like I was stupid, like I'd never tried that before. Thank you for digging deeper.
If you want to eat healthier, it's worth (pardon the pun) cultivating a community of locals who work together and trade or gift resources. I've made wonderful friends by sharing plant cuttings or excess produce. I do understand that not everyone has time, space, and room. But I guess just about everyone on the internet has access to buy-nothing groups like Freecycle, and many gardeners (even indoor gardeners) are eager to share extra plants and knowledge. Your local library may also have a "seed library" with small packets of seeds free to the home gardener.
I really hate buying greens, washing them, and picking over the slimy bits. I don't really LOVE them, but I know I need them for health. I bought a kale plants and planted some chard seeds. I also bought a few heads of lettuce over a period of months, kept the core, trimmed off the bottom, stuck them in water to root, then planted them. SUPER easy, just takes patience, a sunny windowsill, and a jar with an inch of water in the bottom. I now have a small but very useful rotating crop of greens growing in containers. Snip off a few leaves as i need for each meal. They're growing in cheap plastic containers with holes drilled in the bottom, set in a sunny place in my yard. I feed them once in a while, or dress with a little compost. Almost no work.
Of course this is all about time and room, but it takes me less time to snip 10 leaves of chard and rinse them, than it takes me to pick through a pound of chard from the store and remove all the wilted or yellowed leaves.
I really appreciate this lecture and plan to get the book.
Some of this I find issue with,but one thing I agree with is we need to improve hospital food , -sas part of the treatment ) if only to get patients out of their beds and home sooner .Medics need better training on nutrition so it becomes a part of treatment.Listen the talks on UA-cam by Dr. William Li to find out more on using food as medicine alongside traditional medicine.
Hospitals hardly even care about ensuring there's clean air free of pathogens or keeping sick staff from working. They're all profit-driven - even the government funded ones.
excellent delivery of very informative and revealing content.
That was incredibly well put and informative.
I feel like the biggest problem with ultra processed food is it's so easy. Cooking natural ingredients from scratch always takes more effort than just microwaving or baking something others made, and in the modern environment people are increasingly time poor, even if only from their own perspective, and so they turn to the easy option.
As for cooking cheaply, I saw an interesting video on a channel called Atomic Shrimp (don't let the name fool you, it's quite wholesome) where it showed most of the 'cost' of a meal isn't the ingredients, it's the time and effort to make them into something nice to eat. The politicians who are saying it's easy to eat cheaply ignore those costs.
For myself, I try to make evening meals 1/2 vegetable/salad, 1/4 protein in the form of (relatively) unprocessed meat or fish, and 1/4 carbs as either bread, pasta, rice or potatos. I'd be surprised if you can go far wrong with that. For breakfast it's wholegrain cereals in one form or another, with minimal sugar and fat content, or toasted multigrain/wholemeal bread, or on cold mornings porridge. A few times a year there's a cooked breakfast with bacon, egg and beans with toast, maybe mushrooms. Lunch is either skipped or its some kind of sandwich or whatever is to hand on crispbread, probably the most processed thing I eat other than the cold meats I have once or twice a week on salad for work or on crispbread as a snack. A long winded way of saying I think I eat reasonably healthy most of the time (which is why I put it out of sight) but it's when I deviate from this that I feel I'm eating unhealthily, and my weight usually reflects it. Eating out always adds a little, as does convienience food like pies or crisps/chips. Mostly I just wish fatty salty things didn't taste so good.
I wasn’t expecting to see someone talking about atomic shrimp in a topic like this, I used to watch his scam baiting videos!
In supermarkets I sometimes find myself looking at people and then contents of their shopping trolleys. I take particular note of healthy looking elderly people, and it's invariably vegetables, meat and relatively unprocessed food...
Food misinformation is endemic. Well done for going some way towards remedying this problem.
You correctly identify that a large part of the problem is the financial incentives of the food companies but it also applies to a huge number of other actors in this field. So many who work in food, nutrition, lifestyle and health have a clear incentive to keep us plebs confused and misinformed about nutrition.
But good information IS out there. I find people to be lazy about teaching themselves what is good for their bodies. It’s not a mystery that white crackers, busicuits and potatoe chips are bad for you and that an apple, carrot from the produce department (which you DON’T need to cook) is HEALTHY. I see McDonalds is sooo much busier than the produce department of every supermarket ALL THE TIME. Take some responsibility for your own health and your own actions.
He is a con artist. His take on that calories in and out doesn't matter is pure insanity. I lost 20kg purely on counting calories. Ate ultraprocessed foods as well while doing so. What he wants is that poor people starve to death.
One might question this use of the term, "endemic".AFAI it designates a species in a limited designated place/area, but FOUND NOWHERE ELSE.
Were that a definition acceptable to Attenborough?
@@philipb2134 You are quite right - my bad. I should have said ubiquitous :)
No unhealthy food just unhealthy diets.
"Never let anyone tell you that real food can be made cheaply"; that's just not true. In fact, the bowl of porridge he mentioned is fantastically cheap. I will bet you that I can make you the same amount of calories as any fast-food joint or ready-made meal cheaper, even with the energy cost factored in, even when not buying (or cooking) in bulk, and in less than 15 minutes. What you need is knowledge.
Im glad that portugal where i live is one of the countries that consumes the least processed food in europe. Personally, ive been saying this stuff for years to people, and beyond the scientific reasoning, i just prefer the taste of regular cooked food. helps that all our bread here is traditional flour salt water only and theres strong traditions with food too. I mostly just make rice potatoes soups saladas meats and lots of fish. Oh and ridiculous amounts of olive oil to be honest.
I met a Portuguese gal & her twin sister back in the late 70's. They were the most beautiful gals I have ever met.
There's "ultraprocessed" bread in every Portuguese supermarket, same as anywhere else in the northern hemisphere.
@@savage22bolt32 - Similar thing happened to me (in a different country). But when I sobered up I realised there was actually just one of them, and she had a moustache.
@@RFC3514 😆 🤣
@@RFC3514 That's true, but there's also an equal amount of unprocessed bread. And honestly I can tell you that in Portugal most people seem to pick the traditional bread over the ultra-processed, based on my anecdotal experience. So as long as that will continue to be the same, we will be just fine.
A very sensible, wide-ranging, and informative lecture. Thank you, RI
glad to see the next gen of professionals are getting the health information that we on YT have been indulging in for years now. Going to the GP did not fix my metabolic syndromes one bit other than the drugs prescribed reduced symptoms a little, my own research, YT and then implementing the knowledge made the difference. On my own.
Very interesting. There is also another aspect, and that is the very recent idea of eating three times a day. This was possibly predicated by large corporates such as Kellogs promoting breakfast back in the 30's. This is the first time we have had three meals a day in human history. In Tudor times for instance, people didn't have time or the resources to eat three times a day, but also they simply never subscribed to such a diet. I spent my entire adult eating once a day, and that allows me to eat pretty much what I want.
Same here, I eat one main meal per day. Never have breakfast to "start the day" or "kickstart my metabolism."
An interesting observation back in my army days was the three meals a day and many ultra processed foods. This happened when catering was subcontracted, rather than done in house. Many people in the corps put on weight, quite quickly. The very fit (athletic?) infantry types didn't so much. I.e. a diversion. Both eating the same stuff from the same cookhouse. Our officers mess was no better, just fancier crockery and cutlery!
It could be reasonable to assume that the insertion of a subcontractor, incentivised by profit margins, was the cause of this sudden health change in a reasonably controlled group, caused by diet.
Left wing politics love it though because they can say this persons only eaten once today.
23:54 "real food is enormously expensive" .... no it isn't. I routinely cook up rice+corn+peas+protein (kidney beans or chicken or whatever) in the same rice pressure cooker thingy I bought eons ago. It takes all of 2-3 mins to get ready for cooking, makes typically about 8 servings which amongst the 3 adults in my home does at least two suppers and a lunch for 2 of us. All in cost is trivially lower than fast or prepared food and it's loads healthier (until we add cheese or whatever and throw it on a UPF tortilla).
This is true but then if you want to include fresh veg/fruit, then the cost does go up.
@@JohnnyMotel99 I dunno, I've lived in 3 European countries: Portugal (my home country), Czech Republic and Scotland, and I found veggies to be pretty cheap if you bulk cook them with usual staples (rice, pasta, potatoes and some protein), and then compared the respective portion cost to the portion cost of most UPF meals. Obviously if you add in some meats and especially fish, then the price does increase significantly. But that's the great benefit of eating a lot of vegetarian meals, they are cheap and easy to prepare. Obviously though there is the "time cost" of cooking. But bulk cooking and leftovers are fantastic for that.
As for fruit, I will give you that fruit is getting more expensive, but if you buy a package of grapes (1.8£) vs a package of cookies (2£), it's about the same price usually and a lot of times you can make 3 or 4 snacks out of the grapes and maybe 2 out of the cookies because you've mindlessly eaten half the pack in one sitting without realising. Can anyone eat 5 apples in one setting? Unlikely, you get to a point where you don't what it anymore, but who hasn't eaten 5 cookies in one go, you know? So maybe the portion price is also somewhat equivalent or even cheaper for the the fruit because you just eat less.
@@JohnnyMotel99 but you don't _need_ fresh fruit or vegetables; frozen is perfectly fine and not that expensive
@@alquinn8576 I will not give up chopping vegetables!
More so if you live in the med. Sometimes, you live close enough to an olive mill that you can get bright green olive oil. That stuff would be pricey in the US
Only thing I’m not down with is the will power section, he partly says that will power has nothing to do with obesity because weight didn’t start going up until processed food became wide spread. That doesn’t change the fact that if you eat healthy you can control your weight so you need the will power to not eat unhealthy foods. I just don’t like the idea that we as humans don’t have that control. When my wife and I got married are weight shot up during our first year and by our second year we had high blood pressure and were touching pre diabetes (both black from the Caribbean). We had to change our diet if we wanted to be there for one another, it took learning about healthy eating and exercise. Then we needed the will power to overcome our bad habits.
I completely agree with you, sure it's easier to gain weight now but we CAN have the will power to avoid junk foods. Well done to you and your wife! edit: I just have to add that me and my fiancé also became unhealthier, living next to a mcdonald's, it was awful for our bodies.
I don't think he meant that you can not change your diet using your willpower to be healthier, but that the abundance of UPF, as well as the normalization of their consumption, in combination with the lower price, makes it harder. In addition to this you have lacking information in a large proportion of the population as well as multiple levels of advertisement and shady labeling, suggesting healtiness in UPFs.
An excellent lecture, which confirms many of the things I have found in personal experimentation with my own diet and that I intuitively believed but lacked the evidence to make the scientific case for.
I've found that the ONLY way to make real unprocessed food affordable was to grow it yourself, but when I was bringing up a family I was too short of time to invest it in the labour required to achieve more than a token effort, then, due to some old injuries, I was too incapacitated to be able to even keep m garden from being a jungle, and now lacking teeth (My dentures broke several years ago and I'm housebound, so can't reach a dentist), I'm unable to cope with most rea food even if I was able to either afford it or grow it. This has resulted in overweight (not quite obese, but close). As a much younger man, I struggled to reach a healthy weight, which I believe (but have no way of proving) was due to diet-related hyperactivity. I'm also firmly of the belief that a need to put additives and flavourings in food is evidence of some deficiency in the food, but I'm in the trap now and have no way to get out.
I agree, but a lot of people don't have the option to grow their own even if they have the time.🙂
Today I bought a bag of vegetables which had been sliced to be stir-fried, and several slices of black pudding. Each serving had a similar amount of meat to a McDonald's burger, but was a larger volume overall, and it consisted of fibre rather than carbs. The cost per person was less than half of the cheapest McDonald's burger, and would have been less if I had bought the individual vegetables and sliced them myself. Real food is always cheaper than processed.
So sorry to hear that😢. There must be some way for you to get out of the house, are you positive there isn’t anyone around who can help you?
Also you could just throw real food in a blender so you don’t have to chew so much.
Knowing what you know about hpf, I don’t understand how you can let your children eat it. We NEVER had boxes of cereal in our house. We cooked whole food breakfast from scratch for 13 years of school. We still do that for ourselves.
He literally explains this in the video.
On UA-cam, the advert following this presentation was for Doritos.
I was the fat kid in school when there was only one or perhaps two. Fat has been an obsession all my adult life. I'm a gym user still at 66 and I have dieted and exercised for 50 years. My fat, however much I hate it and hate myself for harbouring it, will be with me until I die.
I eat more processed foods these days because I'm only cooking for one. I am addicted to over eating and I recognise that my ability to eat through any natural bodily response to say stop stems from childhood. The feeling of being full quells the fear of hunger. Why would I have a fear of hunger when I have never known hunger?
Your story is my story though things are finally shifting for me. Small steps. Don't lose hope and know that your value as a person has nothing to do with this struggle. I get the cooking thing too though I am beginning to cook again even though it's just for me and it feels great.
Simple answer: Genetics combined with not limiting your portion sizes. You can't overeat if there is not enough (where enough means: weighed properly and calorie-counted) prepared, cooked, and ready to eat food in front of you to allow you to overeat, without having to go through another lengthy weigh, calorie-count, prepare, and cook cycle to be able to eat more than you should.
@andycordy I also cook for myself.i try to freeze up portions when I make good food to grab for dinners. I find salads also nice as it takes lots of bites,you can put your tuna or cottage cheese or blueberries etc.on top and it's like desert.hope this helps.please don't feel lonely just alone.reach out and call someone if lonely ok.
Have you tried mindfulness meditation? Be aware of what you eat, what it tastes like and at what point you feel full. Interval fasting, where you don’t eat anything for 14 -16 hours a day, can also help. Make sure you eat food that makes you feel full, i.e. foods with high fibre content. And you deserve a nice meal, so do cook, even if it is “only“ for yourself.
Great presentation, I was aware of most of the nutrition atrocities, but not in that detail and consequence. Thank you.
One of the best lecture that i ever seen, congratulations mr Tulleken!
I’m 45, and I’ve been saving this for the past 30 years of my life coming from a background of home grown food & horticulture as a profession.
Ate junk my entire life. Been fat my entire life.
Had the entire cycle, ups and downs, fad diets etc.
Now I've completely cut off alcohol and UPFs.
Intermittent fasting and at weight lifting at least twice a week.
Feel better, looking better. It's sustainable and fits very well with my busy lifestyle.
Now, I'm working on saving my kids from my fate. We've already cut off processed sugar.
Make a list of what you don't eat to help me
I liked the speech. The only thing I found wrong with it was his claim that eating healthy, nutritious food is more expensive than processed/junk food. Of course, there is a "initial cost" of a slow cooker/microwave but those items are still insanely cheaper than processed/junk food; not only in actual costs (canned/frozen vegetables are so cheap, as are legumes!) but in the health-related costs.
Eating cheap and healthy food is **entirely** possible for almost every single person in a developed world. Before people start throwing the term "food desert" around, only a single percentage point of people live in "food deserts".
Yes, takeaways cost a lot of money.
Yes that was unhelpful and untrue - what was the point of saying ‘real food’ like lentils and porridge is ‘incredibly expensive’ and that you need energy to cook it / and a knife and cutting board to prepare??? Apart from that this was an interesting presentation.
@@jennyedwards2775 He's coming from a left wing agenda.
Excellent presentation. It’s going to be a tough row to hoe, changing people’s eating habits. I was fortunate to learn about healthy foods as a teenager from “health food” fanatic parents. We grew orfanic gardens , made whole grain breads, raised chickens…. I had some lapses while business traveling. I could always tell the difference in my health. Now retired, I make all my food from whole food, bake sourdough, brew beer, harvest venison and stay active. I am shocked at condition of people and how it’s changes since 1960s.
This video needs far more views, more people need to see this.
Everyone should hear this man speak. Great research from an excellent communicator.
Brilliant and thank you so much for helping a lay person like myself to better understand the intricacies of the food industry and hedge fund involvement as well as the many other aspects of your talk.
Fascinating. I wonder what my diet would look like if I shopped with the rule "there needs to be moisture in everything I buy".
The best presentation I have seen about the adulteration of our food.
I lost my job and have been supported by my partner and that is the only reason why I am able to cook home made meals of whole foods for us daily. If I were working as well I would not at all have the time to create whole home made meals, my job was so demanding. Idk how anyone expects parents with multiple jobs to provide whole home cooked meals for themselves and their children consistently, keeping people poor and having to overwork to barely scrape by feeds the UPF industry.
@@majkollalo they’re always marketed that way but for regular folks just chopping some vegetables takes 20 minutes, i dont have any fancy tools or particular skill. cleaning your kitchen before/after can easily take an hour. Cooking time alone is not all that goes into it. Personally if im going to cook im going to use fresh varied ingredients like vegetables meats/fish and legumes, and prepping those never lives up to the “15 min meals” promise.
You're absolutely correct - even if you time it right and have everything cooked, eaten and the kitchen cleaned in the evening it doesn't leave much time free for hobbies or sports or literally anything else. When I lived alone and ate my homecooked healthy meals I felt depressed because there was no time for any enjoyment! It was just work, cook, clean the kitchen, do chores, and then time for bed! And that's if you have the energy left in the evenings.
@@Cel-xq6pp that’s exactly how it feels!!
Completely agree. When I was a stay at home mom I had time and energy to plan, shop and cook healthy meals for my family as well as exercise, socialize with other mums, take my kids to sporting activities while weekends were free for fun. We were all slim and healthy. For financial reasons I had to go back to a full time corporate job and my hubby and I are both now working long hours. Trying to combine hectic jobs and commuting with raising a family is simply exhausting and, despite our best intentions, we now tend to rely on ready meals, take aways and high carb, quick meals and snacks. We also have way less time to exercise or even have fun as weekends are now taken up by household admin and chores. I also find myself comfort eating to release stress and I now struggle with insomnia. Well guess what - I put on 20 pounds and my hubby has developed a fatty liver. Both my kids have also put on weight and my daughter has developed acne that she never had before. It’s no good telling us what we already know about healthy food and exercise when the system is stacked against women and families. I would give up my job in a heartbeat if my husband was able to support us on a single salary but we can’t do it even if we cut back a lot…and no I don’t have a fancy house, car or holidays.
Sorry, but not cooking is a choice, not a requirement. My neighbors next door are just such a family: high rent, low incomes, many mouths to feed. It's a household where both parents work 2 jobs. There's 3 children and 4 grandchildren in the house, all of which are financed by the parents. They still cook every meal from scratch. Of course, they do not own a TV nor smartphones, which gives them the time to take care of their extended family. So no, the time excuse is just an excuse. If you truly look at home much time a day you spend on entertainment of some form you will find 2 hours to cook if you let that go.
Truth goes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is attacked. Third, it is so blindingly obvious that everyone always knew that.
Dr Chris Knobbe has been banging this drum for years.
I will try to stop eating UPF although I know that occasionally I would not be strong enough to stand up against, the artificial colouring, the artificial tastes and the perfectly engineered mouth feel. The worst thing is that I know that it is junk and it is not even worthy to be called food.
except for occasional stuff, i stopped eating UPF years ago. it really takes just a couple of months to get used to real food, and after that adjustment, most UPFs seem disgusting
This has been life changing. Has completely change my relationship around food. I thought I was very clued up on health and nutrition being an ultra endurance athlete but how wrong I was. Since changing to a 90% natural diet my performance has gone up and my weight has self maintained. Mood has been so much better as well as recovery. Amazing insights keep up the good work
Real food doesn't take a long time to prepare. Red lentil soup with vegies takes max 10 minutes into pot & boils low heat 30 minutes. I have many quick healthy delicious recipes. Everyone can do this & cheaply.
I moved from South East Asian to UK 30 years ago,I was perplexed by the quantity of food in colourful boxes and I instinctively kept away from that,I think I felt it can't be proper food.My children however follow my ex husband's behaviour of takeaways , UPF,it is a cultural issue.People are followers.I follow the diet of my foundational upbringing and am able to educate myself alongside prioritising my health.People want an easy ,gratifying fix unfortunately even when the alternative isn't actually that much more effort.
My wife is from South East Asia too and tries to stick to the food of her upbringing ( very healthy) which is not really possible because our Asia stores where we live have almost exclusively upf products. She lives very unhealthy with the food she eats. I try to teach my kid to stay away from upf ( very gently, though, as I want them to not be socially isolated) and we live very healthy foodwise.
Excellent presentation. One might ask what effect government subsidization has on food processing. Remove corporate subsidies as they relate to ultra processing these products will become more expensive and if subsidies are needed, they should be applied to basic ingredients.
Would def recommend Chris’ book it’s fantastic!! I have seen many talks & lectures on UPF & I still learnt lots of things from the book!! In the audio version u also get bonus content of Chris & xand talkin together about everything.
Actually, it has been my experience that children raised vegetarian (I say this because it is what I know) who ate veg at every meal, fruit (dried or fresh) for snacks and desserts and chocolate at Easter and Christmas, never over-ate. One child, a real gourmet, when presented with their favourite meal, would eat just enough of it to feel full. They would not finish what was on the plate once they had enough. So, this taught me that children fed real food will naturally eat what they need and no more than what they need. Children fed sweets and UPF's will not be able to feel what is enough. The same goes for adults, I expect, but it's more complicated because adults decide on meals, ingredients and go for what is available and affordable. I think the obesity problem is due first and foremost to what is available to many people and second to a lack of knowledge about food. Most people I know eat what they want. They see something that looks good and they eat it and if they really like it, they eat more of it. They don't pay attention to what it actually is because they trust the sources to provide supermarkets and shops with food that is actually food. When I have tried to explain that we avoid additives, most people react as if I'm one of these fad-followers on an extreme diet.
Dunno why you open with “actually” as though this contradicts anything Chris says!
To be honest, I grew up Vegetarian (still am and to this day easily get in my 5+ of fruits and veggies a day) and know quite some people who were raised be this kind of organic worshipping moms who would look at every ingredient label... and would spare sweets/fast food only for very special occasions)...
For some it semmed to work out well, others still overate... and most basically went wild when getting their hands on the "special occasions treats" in other childrens homes and of course would try to get as much in in one sitting as possible since it was so palatable but also wouldn't be available the next day anymore
(and you could guess what most of the pocket money was spend on as soon as we got some)
btw I was chubby for most of my childhood nonetheless and knew other "healthily raised" children who were as well (came in all sizes basically) ... again, I still eat mostly plant based and don't overdo on ultraporcessed stuff and of course wouldn't argue against nutrient dense foods being healthier than low-nutrient foods, of course
But from my experience I dont think, there's this sort of "perfect [most natural]" diet you could just raise your children into as the secret sauce to form them into being perfect eaters, who will always just act absolutely in tune with (and would never long for anything outside) what would be most nourishing/healthy for their body... diet will always be individual and there is not one size fits all
(especially if those rules become too rigid and serious, they could do more harm than good sometimes)
@@K1FF33 I think that as parents all we can do is our best. What our children do once they are autonomous is entirely up to them as it should be. Any rigid approach is, imo, going to backfire. We were vegetarian but if a kid ordered meat in a restaurant we would not have had a problem with that and they knew it. I found it strange that they never did, until they got much older. I think adolescence is the age of exploration and no matter how one raises one's children, some will get curious about food. And that's fine. At the end of the day, as parents we make decisions for ourselves and our children, but only up to a point.
As for body shape, some people have skinny body type and some have more filled out body type, whatever food approach they have. It is their body type. All this nonsense that has been going around for far too long about being skinny is healthy needs to be corrected. Being healthy is being healthy. Obviously people suffering from obesity or from extreme thinness are not in their natural/normal body shape and tend to have illnesses because of that. A person eating a healthy diet and doing an amount of exercise that fits their personality will be the weight/shape/size they are meant to be.
Halloween was interesting. We would go around with the kids, collecting the goodies, bring it all home. They would taste one of each and the idea was they would keep what they liked and we would buy the rest from them and take it to work for people to help themselves to. The kids never kept any of the sweets (they found it all too sweet and too weird-tasting) but loved Halloween because of the costumes, the collection and selling us the sweets.
The three meals a day thing is a modern creation. They looked back a few hundred years and people were eating 5 meals a day.
Also they tested the gut flora of tribes around the world free of western diets. They found were missing half of ours in the west.
Some of my siblings grew up in a tribe in africa, as toddlers they would be allowed to take milk direct from the goat/cow. No illness ensued only strong health.
@@luminousfractal420 Just because something is a modern creation isn't necessarily a good or a bad thing. Is that the point you're making? Also, a solid eight hour night of sleep is also a modern creation. Up until the 20thC people would go to bed around sunset, get up between 2 and 4am (eat, do some work, read, whatever) then go back to bed until sunrise or until they had to wake up for some reason. Was this better?
About the gut flora of tribes, when you say they were missing half of ours, what does that mean? were they healthy/unhealthy? what did the tribal people eat? where were these tribes? did they need the gut flora that we have? Is the gut flora of traditional Inuit populations the same as ours?
Why would ill health be a result of toddlers drinking goat or cow milk? I'm not sure what point you're trying to make or if you're just pointing this out as interesting.
That's how i stopped eating proccesed food and started cooking for myself! Thank you!
I'm 54 ive still got a 34 inch waist with no health problems cholesterol, blood pressure excellent and i'm 6ft 1 inch bloke, i have also had a 4 egg omlette for breakfast every day all my adult life.
I,m not a fitness fanatic i just dont eat ready meals fast food etc just fruit, vegetables, Eggs, nuts, meat and wholemeal bread and i only drink water and stella . Every single one of my life long freinds are all a stone over weight or more, some have had cancer heart problems etc and they all eat processed foods ready meals etc. You are what you eat.
23:40 "Real food is fantastically expensive..." But then people are ready to make excuses all the time. I live in a fairly urban area in Japan but you take a step and it's all rice fields. You have make-shift stands selling all kind of vegetables so cheap just because it's a bit damaged or "bad shaped" for high-end places. Really it's like 100 yens (or 70 US cents) a kilo of whatever bundle. And yet none of my latino fellows from my workplace go there because it's uncool but go to a Costco some 50 miles away because it's cool. Oh btw they all (I mean pretty much ALL of them) have serious diabetes and high-blood pressure and such. And cooking? I just eat raw or boil everything and add a little salt and voila. As one famous song in my country goes, "those who know make it happen / don't wait to happen."
I thought his exaggeration 'fantastically expensive' unfortunate and untrue and played into the masses who are the target here.,amongst some other points,rather disappointing .
Even though I'm on the pension and a careful budget I've learned to put my money into organic canned soups and organic Fair Trade coffee. First it's good for my conscience as an old boomer Christian. Second I've done a lot for my health and well being. The difference in starting the day with excellent coffee instead of filler/cheap stuff is worth the money. As usual, the poor are cheated the most at stores.
Thank you Chrsi for this talk. Well delivered and explained.
Good points made but my question would be why are some people on processed foods NOT gaining weight ? Even among members of the same family, offered the same range of foods, there can be great variations in appetite and energy levels. I'm glad he didn't claim to have the whole answer.
Great question. I think it is because things are WAY more complicated than the speaker is implying here in this talk. He glosses over and overly simplifies a lot of things in this talk, and comes to quick and simple conclusions w/o acknowledging that there may likely be relevant complexities and alternative hypotheses. Of all the many Ri talks I've seen to date, this was the most disappointing.
Well MMartin-pt9yv you clearly werent listening. Its not processed food but ULTRA processed food that he's discussing and relating to obesity. Secondly applying conclusions based on population studies cannot be applied to small groups or individuals as your data set would be too small. The same argument can be applied to individuals who smoke but dont die of cancer (maybe they die too soon of something else or never inhaled). The topic is indeed very complex with independent research only just gaining traction. By the way he is presenting an alternative hypothesis. These are novel foods which humans never evolved to digest. I wonder who's paying you?@@alanmeeker2179
I am Dutch, Chris van Tulleken is British. Comparing the two (neighboring) countries they are much alike, if not the same regarding to ultra-processed food. Except in obesity rates. It was always explained by exercise (biking!). But his argument that exercise doesn't really have any major impact, So my question is: what creates this difference? (Google search: 5% of Dutch adults have a BMI of more than 30, vs. Britain 26%)
As I understood, he said that exercise does not have a direct impact by increasing the amount of calories burned in a day. But he mentioned that it has an indirect impact making us less stressful, and stress is a major psychological factor in overeating.
Put a one in the reply if you've NEVER heard this phrase before. "Alcohol causes Cancer" I did over 10 years in the military (and most everybody has heard of the stories of military drinking in ports in foreign countries) I grew up in the inner city where there was a bar or club on every other block. I've been around alcohol my entire life and I've never heard that phrase until last year, and I'm 58 years old. Never heard it once from any military doctor or from my doctor at the VA now.
1: The military lies to it's own people constantly.
2: Even if they didn't, they don't know everything.
3: by the time you get the cancer, you are no longer of use to the military.
In the clinical world it's very well known as a rick factor for many cancers . Sounds like we are not doing a good enough job getting the word out...
I thought everyone knew that. It's poison, it's ethanol, goes in our gas tank.
Not a one but something i found out only months ago, im 42
@@gerbenvanderbliek7448 That's what I mean, no one has ever heard of this. At least no one I've ever spoken with. I think next time I see my VA doc I'll ask him about it.
Moved from the uk to puerto rico (usa colony). You get a full medical before you go and when you arrive. I had near perfect health. Very close to.
It took 3 years eating the same diet i did in the uk (lots bread) to become borderline diabetic.
Bit of research showed they use 6x more sugar in the bread here, which was also causing sugar cravings so id eat more.
(Not entirely visible due to a hyper metabolism).
I started cooking properly there and then.
So now wife and myself are survivng the diabeties issues, step sons collesterol levels are back in control.
Came close to falling totally. I feel so sorry for people in the usa being fed that crap, and now with boris.j matching the usa food and agriculture standards i worry for people back home in the uk.
It is unbelievable that crud processed foods like make an cheese (easy to make from scratch an add veg to it but, lazy people) has a different ingredient list then then Europe..
It makes me crazy but I'm in food biz so I'm ok with selling it but I don't eat it..
Colonized lol
Wait for the global takeover of food.. 😮
Ah yes...yet another Brexit benefit. smh
Just to say in US one can find quality breads (etc), in local shops. I choose organic sourdough or pumpernickel, etc, when I buy . . . buy at 63yrs I feel best limiting flour-based food.
(I would never buy bread w/added sugar. Unless for “dessert”/a rare sweet treat… and let’s call it cake.)
Glad you turned it around mate, well done you
Slightly off-topic maybe. Many years ago when the first McDonald's " Restaurants" arrived in London. I tried the " Big Mac " and found myself often wanting one , in a rather addictive way. I'm sure you know where I'm going with this.
Strange. I hate MacDonalds food. Tried it many times, especially Big macs , but really don't like the texture, taste or the fact that it's never actually hot, just warm.
Tremendous lecture, really well organized, researched and evidenced and presented in easily accessible language. I think you need to address the low percentage of protein in UPF. Low protein is a contributing driver of overeating.
What is ufp?
@@cynthiafortier2540you tell us!
Useless food produce?
After reading his book I cooka and make everything fresh. I actually love cooking now, I'm almost obsessed with it and its almost like meditation. I always saw it as a function and now its creation! Its also more love for my family and well worth the extra time preparing. I don't agree that you need to spend a lot more money if you shop correctly. I can make fresh burgers and chips cheaper than McDonald's or Burger King.
Agree! I save a ton of money using fresh ingredients and make most everything from scratch. Disclaimer… I truly enjoy cooking. Many blessings.
The other thing is that it is rarely cheaper to buy fresh food in bulk, so you don't have to buy nearly as much, though it does require more regular visits to the store, which can be a definite problem in some underserved urban or rural areas.
I experienced a difficult time in life and made major life changes. One of them to turn to clean food (inverse UPF). I can only report benefits. And its easier to make as one might think: buy all the good stuff like broccoli, rice, carrots, potatoes, whatever ... pour some water into a deep pan, fire it up on full power ... unpack veggies and rice (or any other clean food) ... chop them into small pieces ... throw into the (now hottish) pan ... put on the lid ... turn down the heat at medium level ... after 30 - 40 min its all cooked slowly ... put it in a big bowl ... throw in some goodies like cheese or whatever ... enjoy. While cooking you could go for a run and a shower. :-) ......the problem with diet induced obesity is: we live a life that is dominated by time-shortage inducing stress. We spent a minimum of 10 hours per day for the work (transport, lunchbreak, nominal worktime). Who has the time and energy to get home and chop some potatoes at 6pm? Very few of us! Its so much more easier to quickly buy plastic wrapped UPF. Modern society is toxic. UPF industry saw a niche and filled it since 1975.
Congratulations, you discovered the British WWII coupon diet. It was first tested well and worked great, except for farting a lot!! It's very healthy. They had to test the protein intake which was fine in larger portions of veggies than normal. The rich could eat in restaurants (unlike in WWI) and ate lots more meat, which made hem less healthy than the little folks.
A different reason to live in a walkable city, preferably affordable like I don't know, Tokyo or Osaka. Exercise when getting your food or work
Stealing that recipe lol...
I'm someone who has bean reading about food for years, from a crazy-scientist-chef perspective, to a type I diabetic nutritional one, and an organic-gardener-animal-husbandry type perspective. This bloke's book was still an eye opener! Would recommend it!
It's an uphill battle trying to get people to eat proper food when junk food companies have such large marketing budgets and are able to promote ultra processed food in such a dishonest way. I admire Chris for trying though.
Interesting and informative lecture for the most part, but It's a shame that Chris continues the narrative that eating proper food isn't cheap relative to UPF. In the UK at least the cheapest and healthiest way to eat is to cook from scratch. You can cook a wholesome meal for a family of 4 for the same cost as one portion of takeaway junk food. The real issue is that there are so many people now that lack basic cooking skills and have no clue what a good diet is.
In the words of Vincenzo's Plate as parents, me and my wife love our kids so much that we cook fresh food for them on a daily basis. We never give them process food!
I am fat and nothing I do makes me loose weight. I don’t doubt he is right but I wonder if we could talk about overall health instead of just obesity which is stigmatising. I eat a reasonably good diet due to having a really good income. I exercise possibly less than the idea but more than many of my thinner friends. I get regular blood tests and am so far healthy if well aware of the risks. My family were on the large size and I was not always raised eating great food. But I’d rather just be fat, aware of healthy food and happy with who I am than constantly focussing on weight loss
Brilliant, very informative
When in doubt about nutrition go for simple wild foods. There's so much complexity in nutrition, and you get to the point where meat and vegetables can mean an entirely different thing from meat and vegetables. Vast majority of people will never be able to figure out how their food was produced, so unless you have the resources to mostly eat wild meat and home grown vegetables and fruit you are screwed and will suffer the consequences.
He has some great points - but when 95% of items in the "breakfast" isle have black octagons on them - they are just going to be ignored by consumers. It does nothing to address the root of the problem...
I think manufacturers think the same.and by labelling partly lets them feel a little less bad about putting dodgy ingredients into the product in the first place
“The number one thing we need is a cultural change” agreed!
Oh that's certainly happening in Britain, believe you me!
I lost a lot of weight after switching to non-sugar soda. This is of course just anecdotal, but I am quite surprised that this is not a common experience.
It is not an uncommon experience. This is why soda consumption is a target in a lot of health campaigns.
From what I can gather, most of the negative effects from artificial sweeteners we know of, don't really apply to type 1 diabetics
I wish there were more people like you in the public forum.
Teachings that should be compulsory to kid's education...! ❤
should be taught early on what we had from our parents can not blame them they did not know about the dangers of food in the 70s 80s I am glad they are talking about it now I found out I should not have been eating a lot of food,s could have easily died I have a very rare disease to do with how you get vitamin d and calcium I has took me a good 5 plus years to read about it on my own no doctor understands my condition it is done with the pth hormone gives you vitamin d which regulates our calcium to our bones all connects to what I can eat and drink no processed food I feel load's better now. What our ancestors were eating they had different soil a hundred years ago the cows were different cows nutrients have been taken away from our food even our bread.
I guess I must be doing something right. I'm now in my late 70's with a BMI of 30, but generally in very good health, whilst most of my friends and acquaintances seem to suffer from just about everything going; indeed some are no longer with us. I've often wondered why. After reading Chris's book, I think I now know why. The last time I ate a McDonalds was in 1984; I've never tried a KFC, I don't drink fizzy pop, rarely eat takeaways, I don't snack between meals or eat crisps etc. - in fact such "food" just doesn't interest me, but I do love food and I eat a lot of it - real butter, proper sourdough bread, olive oil to cook with, loads and loads of fruit and vegetables, and reasonable quantities of meat and fish, all washed down with nice wine. However, I do eat loads of cheese and chocolate. I now realise with hindsight, that I probably eat far less UPF than most people and have done so since long before Chris started looking into such "food". So, I guess I'm a one-man example of what happens when you don't base your intake on UPF's.
The only area in which willpower makes any impact is in the willingness to investigate this kind of research and willfully change your food environment. I'm not saying this to be facetious. There is personal responsibility, but where it is it's not obvious. Another level of personal responsibility for those who understand this research is to find ways of sharing it convincingly with people who need to hear it.
I like this talk, except the bit about exercise. You just can't argue against physics, if you significantly increase your energy expenditure a day, obviously you will see results. Instead of handwaving it away, he should have addressed it by saying most people can't realistically be expected to allocate enough time in their day to effect large changes like that.
I know that RI lectures don't necessarily agree with everyone's algorithmically determined preferences, but you'd think that a lecture like this (one that intimately and immediately concerns the vast majority of the human population) would be on the front page of UA-cam.
As of right now, about 1 in every 70,000 people on Earth have seen this. That is to say: "The average person is more likely to have seen this video than to have been injured by lighting, but not by much."
Should be part of every high school curriculum.
Great speech, BUT the only thing I don't agree is the way he lets his own kids eat a lot of UPF. I don't agree that kids should follow people around and eat what they eat just to not look weird, family should be guides in nutrition, not friends and community, and to eat healthy around other people is important for spreading healthy nutrition lifestyle.
One of the best talks on food ever!
Great book, changed my life.
i am so glad that I have learned to dehydrate and can foods. I know exactly what goes into 90% of the food I eat.
Dehydration is tough. Did you manage to make it practical somehow?
But at one point he mentioned that any sort of processing can degrade food and deplete nutrients (even the kind of at home processing). I wonder how much canning and dehydrating takes away.
@@inkoftheworld I'm sure both methods cause some degradation, but I don't have to worry about spoilage. Plus, I always have something quick and easy for meals if I can't get to the store.
I've been trying avoid UPF for a few months. Bread is a nightmare. I don't buy it any more. I thought about making my own but like you said it's time consuming.
Try making whole-grain soda bread (raised with baking powder and baking soda--put it together in about 10 minutes and bake for 50 or so, or cut it into scones and bake for 15). Lots of great recipes around. It can be a bit too crumbly for sandwiches, but it makes terrific toast.
This is utterly brilliant. I just read Metabolical by Dr Robert Lustig this is great ‘companion’ to that lecture and little less ‘political’