大象传媒

Obsessed with UPF

Dinah and I were intrigued. By ultra-processed food or UPF we knew that he was referring to a new scientific category of food with which he had recently become obsessed. UPF can be roughly defined as edible products, made in factories with processes and ingredients that you don’t find in a normal home kitchen. And his behaviour did seem to have changed: Chris didn’t normally turn down a bowl of cinnamon frosted squares.

Chris and Xand as toddlers

The food became horrific... it all started to taste the same to me.

Chris van Tulleken

He said that he owed this conversion to the 大象传媒 who had asked him to eat a diet high in UPF for a programme called He had eaten vast amounts of the stuff for several weeks: chicken nuggets, crisps, chocolate and frozen pizza. And as he became obsessed with reading labels, he found many apparently healthier options from the high street were all laced with flavour enhancers, emulsifiers, colourings, preservatives and other chemicals. While he ate this diet, he interviewed scientists about the health effects of UPF. Chris said that the whole filming process was like the famous scene in A Clockwork Orange where the main character, Alex, has his eyes held open and is forced to watch depraved videos to cure his criminal tendencies. “The food became horrific,” he said: “It all started to taste the same to me.”

An epiphany

Dinah and I were very interested in this as we continued to eat our respective bowls of chocolate-filled wheat bites. We were looking at a man who had undergone an epiphany. He had become immune to temptation: totally inoculated against the blandishments of the food companies even as we were tipping UPF down our throats like geese force-feeding themselves.

I asked him if this life-change was covered in the documentary. He said no, it wasn’t relevant to the program. Dinah said, “make a podcast!” and it was then that Chris had his brainwave. “We’ll make a programme where I put you through the same process Xandie” he said (he calls me Xandie), “we’ll make you thin!”

I didn’t like the sound of this. My weight (I am about 20kg heavier than Chris) is a difficult topic for us. We love each other very much and he means well but any comment from Chris about my weight makes my blood boil. Most people can relate to how annoying family opinions can be. Whether it’s mild disapproval over a haircut, or opinions about your choice of partner or lifestyle... it is infuriating.

Behaviour change

Nevertheless, I was interested in the possibility of curing my UPF addiction so started making the show. What happened? We got lucky. Our producer, Hester Cant, immediately took charge and explained that having Chris harangue me about my weight while force-feeding me junk food was not the way that any serious professional who works in this area would approach things. Fortunately, her father, Alasdair, was a serious professional who is an expert in behaviour change, specialising in addiction, and Hester persuaded him to speak to us.

Over the next few months, we created A Thorough Examination: Addicted to Food. My diet is now far healthier, and my weight is plummeting, thanks to Alasdair, Chris and a group of incredible scientists from around the world. But this was not the most extraordinary transformation. Chris and I had to completely change our relationship – not easy when you consider that we started life literally as the same person. Chris has managed to give up on changing me, and I’ve given up my sense of victimhood and martyrdom (both useful and comforting strategies for life that I didn't give up lightly). Whether or not you want to change your breakfast table I hope the podcast will help you enjoy relationships with the people you love regardless of your – or more importantly, their – flaws.