THE #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NONFICTION • The bestselling and eye-opening investigation into the science, economics, history and impact of ultra-processed food.

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR • The Economist • The Times • The New Yorker • Smithsonian • Daily Mail • The Guardian • Financial Times • and more!

It's not you, it's the food.

How much of our daily caloric intake comes from ingesting substances that, technically speaking, do not meet traditional definitions of “food”? Chances are, if you’re eating something that came wrapped in plastic and contains a funky ingredient you don’t have in your kitchen, it's most likely—almost definitely—ultra-processed food, or UPF. More than the principal obstacle to “eating right,” UPF has been linked to metabolic disease, depression, inflammation, anxiety, and cancer, while the production, distribution, and disposal of UPF and related products globally is known to cause devastating environmental damage. At the same time, UPF represents the dominant, nigh-unavoidable food culture for millions upon millions of eaters.

Medical doctor and broadcaster Chris van Tulleken has spent his career trying to reframe the conversation around eating right, balancing the hard (and sometimes shocking) facts about what we're putting into our bodies with empathy for the natural desire to keep eating what we like, have time for, and can afford. As he argues in this book, we are all participants in an experiment we didn't consent to, one to determine how to get us to buy as much ultra-processed food as possible. It’s not as simple as stumbling across the right diet trend, finding time to meal plan, or avoiding over-indulging in sugar, fat, or carbs or any other culprit. Nor is it a matter of individual will. It’s about learning to live in “the third age of eating”—defined by the overwhelming abundance of ultra-processed eating options—and arming yourself with the simple and not-so-simple facts that will help you make the choices that are right for you.

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
New York Times Bestseller
Longlisted for the 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction
A New Yorker Best Books of 2023 So Far
An Economist Best Book of 2023
One of Smithsonian's Ten Best Books About Food of 2023
 A Goodreads Choice Awards 2023 Nominee
An NPR 2023 "Books We Love" Pick

“Unsettling and deeply important. . . . [Ultra-Processed People] integrate[s] concepts of detailed food science and global market forces, showing how these affect individual humans. Tulleken weaves these threads together in a way that is evidence-based, compelling and humane. . . . A tremendously important book that will help readers choose less processed, better food.”—Vincent Lam, Toronto Star

“Deeply researched and persuasive.” —New Statesman (UK)

“Chris van Tulleken bravely turns himself into a guinea pig to explore the ins and outs of ultra-processed food. . . . His account of what happens to our food during its trip to our gut, and the connection that bad food has to the epidemics of obesity and diabetes . . . is persuasive and scary.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker

“A fearless investigation into how we have become hooked on ultra-processed food. . . . [van Tulleken’s] key message will have you scurrying to your cupboards. . . . And, if there is any justice, this gripping, well-evidenced exposé will shame policymakers and shake the food industry to its money-driven core. . . . [Ultra-Processed People] is more than just a great science book: it breaks down a complex issue of cultural, social, economic and political importance with clarity and sensitivity but without moralising; it competently evaluates the scientific literature; and it roams the globe in search of answers.” —Financial Times

“Fascinating. . . . An unsettling exanimation of the food we eat and the industrial system that makes it” —The Sunday Times

“Highly readable . . . van Tulleken writes with the confidence of a doctor who has a reassuring bedside manner. . . .  A scientist at heart, [he] isn’t afraid to take sides on some of the most controversial topics surrounding nutrition. . . . Charming. . . . You’ll never read a food label quite the same way again.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

"A tour of how the science of processing has allowed companies to produce goods that are no longer even faint echoes of the real food of which they are copies. . . . Van Tulleken is at his best when using his own scientific expertise to help readers through otherwise unnavigable science, data and history, explaining with precision what we are actually eating." —The New York Times Book Review

“[A] compelling examination of ultra-processed food—or UPF—as a public health issue. . . . [van Tulleken] details how UPF companies are destroying traditional diets and critiques industrial food arguments around inefficiency. . . .  [H]is advice is matter-of-fact . . . [his] scope and approach . . . unique.” —Civil Eats

“Before reading van Tulleken’s work, I felt pretty confident that junk food was bad. That didn’t stop me from eating it, however. Learning about UPF is a different experience—you begin to realize that some of this stuff is barely food at all.” —The Atlantic

“There is much to cheer about calories being cheap and abundant, when for most of human history they were neither. But as Chris van Tulleken’s new book, Ultra-Processed People, explains, that cheapness and abundance come at a cost.” —Economist

“Persuasive.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Engrossing. . . . [Ultra-processed food] makes most fictional villains look quaint. You’ve got a diabolical product that scientists and capitalists have literally got into our bodies (even mine?!) profoundly affecting our health and even our thoughts. Chris van Tulleken has written an astonishingly well-researched book on a plague that most of us aren’t even thinking about, but one whose architects are most certainly thinking about us, with ill intent. Read it and fight back!” —Rob Delaney, New York Times bestselling author of A Heart That Works

"[Ultra-Processed People] advocates for our right to understand the impact of what we eat and access affordable, healthy food in an environment that makes it nearly impossible. . . . A lucidly written, grimly fascinating and essential read.” —Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction jury citation

“Packed with ‘I never knew that’ moments, Ultra-Processed People is a wonderfully playful book that changed forever how I think about what I eat and why.” —Hannah Fry, author of Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms

“Mindblowing. You’ll never see food—or your body—the same way again.” —Alice Roberts, author of Anatomical Oddities

“A wonderful and fascinating exposé. . . . [Chris van Tulleken] backs up his claims with a powerful self-experiment, along with lots of rigorous and often shocking research. Reading this book will make you question what you eat and how it was produced.” —Dr. Michael Mosley, bestselling author of The Clever Gut Diet

“A devastating, witty and scholarly destruction of the shit food we eat and why.” —Adam Rutherford, bestselling author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

“If you only read one diet or nutrition book in your life, make it this one. . . . Without a hint of finger-wagging or body shaming . . . Chris van Tulleken lays out what ultra-processed food is and why it is the single greatest problem with modern diets.” —Bee Wilson, award-winning author of The Way We Eat Now and Consider the Fork

“Everyone needs to know this stuff.” —Tim Spector, bestselling author of Spoon-Fed: why Almost Everything We’ve Been Told about Food is Wrong

“The past ten years has seen an inflection point in human history, where more people in the world are now dying of eating too much, than of eating too little. This urgent and captivating read digs deep into one of the huge reasons, the rise and rise of ultra-processed food.” —Dr. Giles Yeo, author of Gene Eating: The Science of Obesity and the Truth about Diets

“This book is a diet grenade, the bold and brutal truth about how we are fed deadly delights by very greedy evil giants.” —Chris Packham

“van Tulleken . . . reveals the distressing details behind many of the organic, ultra-processed foods . . . that tout their relative healthiness. . . . Eye-opening.” —Kirkus Reviews