Chris van Tulleken

Chris van Tulleken is a British infectious disease doctor and broadcaster whose Ultra-Processed People delivers a rigorous, alarming investigation into modern food and health.

Chris van Tulleken is an infectious disease doctor at University College London and a well-known presence in British broadcasting. Ultra-Processed People, published in 2023, channels his clinical expertise into a thorough, accessible investigation into what ultra-processed food is, how it affects the body and brain, and why the food industry has worked hard to ensure we eat so much of it. The book draws on his own experience eating a UPF-heavy diet for a month — to measurable and alarming effect — alongside a comprehensive review of the scientific literature.

Van Tulleken is particularly effective at explaining why ultra-processed food is not simply a synonym for unhealthy food, but a specific category defined by industrial formulation: products assembled from ingredients and additives not found in a home kitchen, engineered to be maximally appealing and difficult to stop eating. His analysis of how the food industry funds and shapes research is incisive, and his treatment of addiction and overeating is compassionate rather than moralistic. He is careful to acknowledge the systemic and economic factors that make UPF unavoidable for much of the population.

Some critics have argued that the book’s rhetoric occasionally outpaces its evidence, and that the category of “ultra-processed” is not uniformly damaging in the ways implied. But as a well-evidenced, readable account of how the modern food supply shapes human health — and why policy matters as much as individual choice — Ultra-Processed People is one of the more important popular science books of recent years.