Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn't Food… and Why Can't We Stop?

by Chris van Tulleken

Another existential threat to human life caused by UPF but not mentioned on the packaging is antibiotic resistance. Suzi Shingler nearly single-handedly runs the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics, an NGO trying to make sure that when you get a urinary tract infection or a skin infection you don’t die because it’s impossible to treat with existing antibiotics. Treating even minor infections in UK hospitals (my day job) is increasingly difficult because there is so much resistance to antibiotics.fn9 This is because antibiotics have become a routine part of animal care, and the microbes in the animals’ guts become resistant to them. We have been worrying about family doctors ‘overprescribing’, or giving antibiotics for viral infections (when they’re needed only for bacterial infections) for a long time. But this accounts for a trivially small amount of antibiotic use. The place we use the most is on industrial farms, typically to compensate for chronic failings in animal welfare.

A worth to remember fact.