Whether it’s a creamy chocolate bar or readily salted crisps, everyone has a go to unhealthy snack.
However, ultra-processed foods are not only limited to things you eat occasionally.
From sausages to mass-produced bread and fruit-flavoured yoghurts to instant soups, supermarkets are filled with these types of foods.
Worryingly, Dr Chris Van Tulleken warned that ultra-processed foods are linked to more deaths globally than tobacco.
Speaking on a podcast Diary Of A CEO, Dr Van Tulleken explained the impact this type of diet has on your body and just how bad it can be.
He said: “I ate a diet that’s very normal for a British person, and I gained so much weight.
“I got in this vicious cycle of overeating, anxiety and sleeplessness. If I’d continued for a year, I would double my body weight.”
Apart from how unhealthy these foods are, Dr Van Tulleken also explained they are “as addictive as smoking”.
The podcast then went to claim that seventy-five per cent of the calories that are consumed globally come from six companies.
The doctor continued: “We are at this moment where we have to politically treat [these] companies like tobacco companies.”
This isn’t the first time Dr Van Tulleken drew a comparison to tobacco. His book, which was mentioned on the podcast, states: “A high ultra-processed food diet is linked to more deaths globally than tobacco, high blood pressure or any other health risk – and 22 percent of all deaths.
“An increased consumption of ultra-processed foods is linked to the following diseases, which all cause: cardiovascular disease, cancers, high blood pressure, fatty liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease, depression, worse blood fat profile, irritable bowel syndrome, dementia and frailty.”
What’s worse, the doctor added that it’s people on low incomes that are forced to eat this food because it’s cheap.
Dr Van Tulleken added: “If you got rid of poverty, you would get rid of around 60 percent of the problem of diet-related disease.”
