Review of the book Ultra-Processed People, by Chris Van Tulleken

Have you ever struggled to maintain a healthy diet and clean eating? Have you ever tried to eat clean for 1 or 2 meals and then given into your cravings, feeling a complete loss of willpower? I sure have! I don’t know how many times in my life I have started on my “clean eating” lifestyle, only to fail within a few hours to a few days. Likely hundreds of times. Also, what is “clean eating?” Is it Paleo, Keto, plant-based, whole foods, etc???? I have tried most major diets over my lifetime, as I have struggled with my weight and severe gastrointestinal issues since childhood. My functional medicine doctors and nutritionist recommended eating gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, high protein, high fat/low carb, high carb/low fat, low FODMAP, low histamine, vegetarian, vegan, etc…There are so many different fad diets and I have tried most of them, but in the end, I ended up figuring out that to me, “clean eating” means a whole-foods diet with a variety of high quality foods and minimal processing. But what constitutes processed food? What does ultra-processed food mean? I can read all of the ingredients in a bag of chips (corn, oil, salt) and there’s no weird chemicals or dyes, so that’s healthy, right? Believe me, I can figure out a way to justify a lot of things so that they seem healthy in my mind, but my stomach doesn’t lie and often lets me know when I’ve made some bad choices.