Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food

The author of Ultra-Processed People, van Tulleken is an infectious diseases doctor at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London and an associate professor in molecular virology at University College London. His research focuses on the impact of corporations on human health, especially in connection with child nutrition, and works with UNICEF and the World Health Organization. Van Tulleken has also been involved in several television programs on the subject of health. Along with his twin brother Xand, he starred in Is Binge Drinking Really That Bad? (2015), testing the effects of moderate regular drinking versus weekly binge drinking. He also starred in The Doctor Who Gave Up Drugs (2016), a television program and experiment in which he took over a general practitioner’s surgery and attempted to treat patients without the use of drugs.

Van Tulleken’s twin brother is obese, which he says gives him empathy and insight into the issues surrounding diet-related disease. Specifically, it allows the author to see that advising or shaming people to lose weight rarely works because the reasons for weight gain are mostly outside of an individual’s conscious control. Van Tulleken observes that Xand’s moving to a “food swamp” in the US and the stress in his life caused him to gain weight despite sharing the same genes as van Tulleken.