Book Surgeon No. 10

Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn’t Food by British physician Chris Van Tulleken has been one of my favorite books of the year. I am sure you have heard the phrase “you are what you eat.” Similarly, Warren Buffet, in his biography, writes about the importance of taking care of our mind and body using a genie fable:

“Let's say that when I turned sixteen, a genie had appeared to me. And that genie said, ‘Warren, I'm going to give you the car of your choice. It'll be here tomorrow morning with a big bow tied on it. Brand-new. And it's all yours.’

Having heard all the genie stories, I would say, ‘What's the catch?’ And the genie would answer, ‘There's only one catch. This is the last car you're ever going to get in your life. So it's got to last a lifetime.’

If that had happened, I would have picked out that car. But, can you imagine, knowing it had to last a lifetime, what I would do with it?

I would read the manual about five times. I would always keep it garaged. If there was the least little dent or scratch, I'd have it fixed right away because I wouldn't want it rusting. I would baby that car, because it would have to last a lifetime.

That's exactly the position you are in concerning your mind and body. You only get one mind and one body. And it's got to last a lifetime. Now, it's very easy to let them ride for many years. But if you don't take care of that mind and that body, they'll be a wreck forty years later, just like the car would be.

It's what you do right now, today, that determines how your mind and body will operate ten, twenty, and thirty years from now.”

Warren Buffet, 83 years old, is arguably the greatest investor of all time and still sits as the current chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway–one of the largest firms in the world with a valuation of over $850 billion. Buffet is one of the most successful people in our country, so when he offers advice, I like to listen. When I need motivation to invest in my mind or body, I often think of his genie fable. Just like I would always be aware of who or what is entering my car, I believe it is important to have an awareness of what we are putting into our body. Most of the foods I eat and where they come from are easy to understand–an apple comes from an apple tree, milk comes from a cow, chicken comes from a chicken, etc. However, recently, I have seen an influx of chemicals, preservatives, and additives that I have no understanding or knowledge about. I started to notice ingredients like xanthan gum, high fructose corn syrup, monoglycerides, erythritol, etc. in many of my foods. To this day, I do not have a good understanding of where these chemical compounds come from, and just like the chemists that invented them, I do not know how they interact with the body and our health in the long term. What I do know is that foods found in nature and from animals have been consumed by countless generations of our ancestors, all the way to our hunter-gatherer roots. Thus, there is almost infinitely more data on the effects of food from nature on our health compared to “food” that is genetically engineered in a laboratory.

For the reasons discussed above, Ultra-Processed People is a book of critical importance and practical value. If we are what we eat, should we not be questioning the ingredients of the foods we eat every day? Van Tulleken writes, “over billions of years our bodies have superbly adapted to using a wide range of food [to derive energy]. But over the past 150 years food has become … not food. We’ve started eating substances constructed from novel molecules and using processes never previously encountered in our evolutionary history, substances that can’t really even be called ‘food’. Our calories increasingly come from modified starches, from invert sugars, / protein isolates and seed oils that have been refined, bleached, deodorised, hydrogenated – and interesterified. And these calories have been assembled into concoctions using other molecules that our senses have never been exposed to either: synthetic emulsifiers, low-calorie sweeteners, stabilising gums, humectants, flavor compounds, dyes, color stabilisers, carbonating agents, firming agents and bulking – and anti-bulking – agents.” Before reading this book, I had never heard of most of these chemicals and additives, and the complexity is large enough to warrant an entire book for each individual compound.

In third grade, I made ice cream with my class. We used four ingredients: milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla extract. Making ice cream–and more importantly eating ice cream–was one of my favorite memories from elementary school. It showed me how combining a few simple ingredients can yield such a tasty and enjoyable treat. Yet, as a comparison, when we look at the ingredients of Ben & Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream, a different picture of cooking emerges:

“CREAM, SKIM MILK, LIQUID SUGAR (SUGAR, WATER), WATER, WHEAT FLOUR, SUGAR, BROWN SUGAR, EGG YOLKS, BUTTER (CREAM, SALT), EXPELLER PRESSED SOYBEAN OIL, EGGS, COCONUT OIL, CHOCOLATE LIQUOR, COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), COCOA, MOLASSES, GUAR GUM, SALT, VANILLA EXTRACT, NATURAL FLAVOR, COCOA BUTTER, INVERT SUGAR, CARRAGEENAN, MILK FAT, TAPIOCA FLOUR, SOY LECITHIN, ANNATTO EXTRACT (FOR COLOR), TURMERIC EXTRACT (FOR COLOR), MILK.”

Eating ice cream makes sense to me; sugar and cream please my taste buds, and ice cream has been a cultural treat for thousands of years. Eating a laboratory mixture of expeller pressed soybean oil, guar gum, carrageenan, and invert sugar makes much less sense to me; I have no knowledge about the industrial production of these chemicals, and there is scant historical evidence to support safe consumption. At the very least, if I am to eat Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, I want to understand its ingredients, so I can have a better idea of the risks and benefits of eating them rather than ice cream made solely from its core ingredients: milk, sugar, cream, and vanilla. Ultra-Processed People can be a dense read and may not be the ideal read for a beach vacation, but I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in learning about the foods we eat every day. Ultimately, you will learn to pay more attention to what you are letting into your body, the only one you are blessed with, and your decisions will be better informed, whether they remain the same or change.

Thanks for reading! See you next week!