Ultra-Processed People The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food

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And a third book that I really enjoyed was UltraProcessed People by Chris van Tulleken. And this is really a polemic and much more than where I ended up coming down in my book. But I thought that was a really illuminating and fascinating book on ultraprocessed foods.

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I know from firsthand experience that writing books is a painful experience. It takes a long, long time to do it.

for many of us ultra-processed food isn't just harmful it is addictive and it makes all the criteria for addiction and it has so much evidence that for some people these products are as addictive as tobacco products, drugs of abuse, alcohol, gambling

at the core of the book was this sort of moment of understanding where there are several sort of fulcrums in the book I suppose but two of the key elements are first of all for many of us ultra-processed food isn't just harmful it is addictive

the only diet that we've studied that really seems to bring health harms is an ultra-processed diet so that is the American financialized industrial diet

a really good way of telling if a food is ultra processed is if there is any health claim on the packet it's almost certainly ultra processed

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Tim joined me for a conversation with Chris Van Tilakum, a medical doctor, broadcaster, and the author of the new book Ultra Processed People.

So there's this long formal scientific definition because it's a category of food that was developed to do research with, to study diet and its effects on health.

But it boils down to if it's wrapped in plastic and it contains at least one ingredient that you don't typically find in a domestic kitchen, then it's ultra-processed food.

So that's the shorthand way of figuring it out.

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A U.S. senator destroyed by blackmail. He was not bound by the truth or by facts. The country's most outrageous political demagogue ascending toward the peak of American power. Millions upon millions of devoted followers. This is a story of heroes willing to face down tyranny and the risk to the country if they fail.

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I've been gobbling up every episode of that.

Rachel, just your thoughts. I remember talking to you the day of oral arguments when we did a special, and I think everyone's reaction to that was, whoa, this is... Are they going to do this? Yeah. We got our answer today.

I remember talking to you about this, Chris, the day they chose to take it up. I mean, the decision to take it up itself was so gobsmacking.

I always see the cloud before I see the silver lining. But even when they took it up, I remember you and I talking about the radicalism of that decision in itself, because when the district court, the first level federal court ruled on this issue, basically the rule was, you know, duh, of course the president isn't immune.

I mean, the joke I made today was like John Roberts pulled down the American flag, turned it upside down and hoisted it back up on the Supreme Court.

A U.S. senator destroyed by blackmail. He was not bound by the truth or by facts. The country's most outrageous political demagogue ascending toward the peak of American power. Millions upon millions of devoted followers. This is a story of heroes willing to face down tyranny and the risk to the country if they fail. Rachel Maddow presents Ultra, season two of the chart-topping original podcast.

A U.S. senator destroyed by blackmail. He was not bound by the truth or by facts. The country's most outrageous political demagogue ascending toward the peak of American power. Millions upon millions of devoted followers. This is a story of heroes willing to face down tyranny and the risk to the country if they fail. Rachel Maddow presents Ultra, season two of the chart-topping original podcast. Listen now on Amazon Music.