The Dr. Hyman Show
Ultra-Processed People: How Big Food Is Rewiring Our Brains | Chris Van Tulleken
Wed, 16 Apr 2025
Ultra-processed food is the new cigarette—and it's fueling a global health crisis hiding in plain sight. In today’s episode, I’m joined by Dr. Chris van Tulleken—infectious disease physician, BBC broadcaster, and author of Ultra-Processed People—to expose the truth behind ultra-processed foods and the industries driving their consumption. To find out what this food is really doing to us, Dr. van Tulleken became the first subject in a groundbreaking clinical trial—eating 80% of his calories from ultra-processed food for a full month. We unpack what makes ultra-processed food fundamentally different from real food—even when the ingredients look similar, and why its impact on your brain, metabolism, and long-term health is far worse than anyone thought… You’ll learn: How ultra-processed food hijacks your brain’s reward system The science behind food addiction and satiety hormones Why food labels and front-of-package claims are designed to mislead you What the latest data says about UPFs and 32 chronic diseases The global policy movements and lawsuits now underway to fight back This episode is part science, part exposé, and a wake-up call for anyone who thinks food is just about calories and willpower. If you care about your health, your kids, or the future of our food system, you need to hear this. This episode is brought to you by Seed, Fatty15, PerfectAmino, BON CHARGE, and Pique. Visit seed.com/hyman and use code 25HYMAN for 25% off your first month of Seed's DS-01® Daily Synbiotic. Head to fatty15.com/hyman and use code HYMAN for 15% off your 90-day subscription Starter Kit. Get pure essential amino acids today. Go to bodyhealth.com and use HYMAN20 to get 20% off your first order. Go to boncharge.com and use code DRMARK to save 15% on your PEMF mat today. Head to piquelife.com/hyman to get 20% off + a free beaker and frother today. https://linktr.ee/ultraprocessedpeople View Show Notes From This Episode Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman https://drhyman.com/pages/picks?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Sign Up for Dr. Hyman’s Weekly Longevity Journal https://drhyman.com/pages/longevity?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast
Who is Dr. Chris van Tulleken and what is Ultra-Processed People about?
You know, I'm not making this up. Well, I know McDonald's paid a friend of mine who was sort of a healthy eating proponent a million dollars to be their advisor. A year. That's so painful.
A million dollars. It's so much money to me. But anyway, I did say no. I didn't want them to have an email from me going, how much are we talking here? So we used to think that cigarettes was an exceptional industry. The tobacco industry made things they know kill people and are addictive, and they do it anyway.
Then in the mid-1980s, the cigarette industry bought the food industry, so the biggest food companies in the world, and it was Michael Moss, again, I think, who did some of the work exposing this. Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds bought General Foods, Cross, Nabisco. They used their molecules and their product development techniques and the supply chain, to make the addictive foods.
And now we see the same is true in automotive. We see it in fossil fuels, a perversion of academic interest, corruption of science, manipulation of policy. So exposing all this is important because it helps you re-see that Super Bowl ad where you're like, oh, it's some f... I don't know what some farmer in his kitchen stirring a pot of, you know, vegetable oil with hand chopping the potatoes.
It's it's not like that. And I I think the public I feel the US public are. I mean, look, why are you popular? You know, you're not you're saying all this and people are up for this, that you have an asymmetry of power. You aren't as powerful as Nestle, Mondelez, and Kraft Heinz, but I think truth gives you enormous power.
I think you're right. I mean, just speaking truth to power is key, and I think exposing the nefarious ways in which the food industry acts often can help people understand that this is not their fault. And the big talking points of big food has been essentially, it's your fault you're fat. Number one, all calories are the same. It's all about moderation. Eat less, exercise more.
And implicit in those talking points, which, by the way, have been used by government leaders, by scientists, by doctors that have bought it, is that all food is the same. You could have 1,000 calories of Coca-Cola or 1,000 calories of almonds, and it's exactly the same. Now, that's true in a laboratory. If you burn them, they release a certain amount of energy. which is what a calorie is, right?
It's the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one liter of water, one degree centigrade. It's just a scientific term. But when you consume them, it's very different. A calorie burn is a calorie burn, but a calorie eaten is not a calorie eaten, to quote my friend Robert Lustig.
And when you actually get that, it's like, wow, well, when you eat a food, it has to go through your microbiome, the molecules that regulate your hormones, the immune system, neurotransmitters, all are affected by the kind of food you're eating. And then people don't realize that.
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