It’s hard to look at a packet of Monster Munch or a chocolate biscuit now without the words “ultra-processed food” (UPF) flashing through your brain.
It’s almost enough to put you off, but then you get sucked in by the nostalgia factor of Frazzles or a desperate need to dunk a Hobnob in a cup of tea.
Or maybe not. If you’ve read Ultra-Processed People by TV doctor Chris van Tulleken, you might already be religiously checking the labels on your favourite snacks, pasta sauces, cereals, yoghurt, sausages, vegan meat alternatives and – worst of all – bread.
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Growing up in Canada has also had a major impact on her understanding of food. “The way people eat here is quite different,” she says of Britain. “[In Canada] people’s main meals would be more unhealthy, but here, people’s meals are generally pretty healthy, but then they’re eating a lot of the high fat, high sugar, high salt snack foods. People don’t really eat crisps or chocolate every single day [in Canada], and then I moved here, and that’s what people were eating in their packed lunch.”
Compared to other countries, Britain is something of a UPF stronghold. “When we’re comparing ourselves to every European country, and especially Mediterranean countries, they’re still consuming some UPFs, but it’s only about 10 to 20 per cent [of their diet] whereas here, it’s closer to 60 per cent,” says Bale. A study in 2019 found it was a whopping 57 per cent, and for teenagers, closer to 80 per cent.