Ultra-Processed People: Why We Can't Stop Eating Food That Isn't Food

by Chris van Tulleken

‘Food, not nutrients, is the fundamental unit in nutrition’, and it pointed out an as-yet unexplained phenomenon: that a number of good studies had identified foods, such as whole grains, nuts, olives and oily fish, that seemed to reduce chronic disease risk, but that the benefit of the relevant nutrient – beta-carotene, fish oil, vitamin B, etc – vanished as soon as they were extracted from the food and taken instead as a supplement.

It’s not clear how much or even how many additives we eat. In the EU, there are more than 2,000 permitted for use. In the US, the number is (terrifyingly) unknown, but is thought to be higher than 10,000.