https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13205949/ultra-processed-foods-obesit...They're linked to cancer, heart disease, diabetes - and our shocking obesity crisis.
But what exactly are they and how can you avoid them?
Britain's top experts provide the definitive guide to cutting ultra-processed food from your diet
By
Dr Michael Mosley for the Daily Mail
Published: 13:31 AEDT, 17 March 2024
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It is a scary thought that in 1980, when I went to medical school, only one in every 14 British adults was obese. Now it is close to one in four.
We didn't see a lot of overweight patients when I was a medical student. These days, the NHS spends millions every year reinforcing beds, building bigger scanners and even designing larger mortuary fridges.
And this is only a fraction of the many billions spent treating and managing diseases caused by obesity, such as type 2 diabetes, arthritis and some types of cancer. So why, over the past 40 years, have we Brits become so fat?
I firmly believe the main culprit is our increasing reliance on unhealthy takeaways and ultra-processed junk food, which now makes up more than half of most people's daily calories. Ultra-processed foods are the sort of brightly packaged, aggressively marketed food and drinks that fill our supermarket shelves.
If you look at the ingredients, they will typically be high in salt, fat and sugar, along with a list of mysterious ingredients you have almost certainly never heard of.