A Health Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight (Part 2 of 5)
Ever noticed how you can’t eat just one crisp?
It’s not an accident - there’s a reason it happens and it’s not a lack of willpower.
Remember when you could buy a small packet of sweets?
Now it seems like everything comes in ‘share size’...but who actually shares?
In my previous post (here) I told you about the International Food Addiction Consensus Conference (IFACC) and in this follow-up post I am going to summarise the talks of the first three speakers.
Broadly speaking, the theme of their talks was how Ultra-Processed Food Addiction impacts public health and the role that the food industry is playing in this health crisis.
I think these three speakers provided some really eye-opening insights, which were at times quite shocking. Particularly when it comes to the role that the food industry has!
I have written about each presentation in the same order that they were given on the day.
In this post I cover the first three talks of the day and you can click on any title in the list below to jump straight down to a particular talk, if you don’t want to read all of them.
The first presentation of the day, set the stage for the critical discussions to follow.
Dr Chris van Tulleken provided a compelling overview of the Ultra-Processed Food landscape, examining the impact of these products on public health.
In doing so, he laid the groundwork for understanding the complex relationship between Ultra-Processed Foods, addictions, and public health policy.
Dr Chris van Tulleken – Ultra-Processed Food: Addiction, Policy and the Need for this Conference.
You may recognise Chris van Tulleken from the television. He and his identical twin brother, Xand, have presented quite a few health-related shows over the years.
They are both medical doctors, and Chris’s keen interest in public health manifests in his research into how corporations affect human health (particularly in relation to childhood nutrition).
This has led him to write his best-selling book ‘Ultra-Processed People’ which investigates the science, economics, history, and production of Ultra-Processed Foods (UPF’s).
He is keenly aware of the impact that Ultra-Processed Food has on each and every one of us, and is working hard to get the message out there through mainstream media.
The Global Impact of Ultra-Processed Foods on Public Health
It was shocking to hear that, globally, poor diet has now surpassed tobacco as the leading cause of early death!
Obesity rates are rising dramatically around the world, particularly in one of the most vulnerable populations, our children.
The Rise of 'Commerciogenic' Health Issues
Chris talked about so-called ‘commerciogenic’ health issues (i.e. obesity & diet related diseases), that are being driven by profit-seeking industries marketing energy dense food products.
It can be easy to forget that the companies selling us our food are primarily in the business of making money for their shareholders - they are not motivated by an altruistic desire to nourish the nation with the most health-giving foods.
The marketing on some products may tell us that they're healthy, but how much truth is there in the claims?
From Tobacco to Food: Industry Tactics
Another shock came in hearing that when the tobacco industry was curtailed, many of the businesses bought into the food industry, seeing their opportunity to recoup revenue now lost from tobacco.
They have been using the same marketing techniques to promote Ultra-Processed Foods as they used to promote tobacco products...and it's worked!
The food industry has a heavy influence on both the research into, and the public messaging about, Ultra-Processed Foods - this is a big conflict of interests!!
But despite this, there is now a strong, and growing, body of evidence showing that Ultra-Processed Food is harmful to human health and this just can't be ignored.
There is a significant overlap between food addiction and other diet-related diseases, (they can share the same drivers) but despite the harm that is being caused to people, the food industry’s self-regulation is inadequate (similar story to the tobacco industry, ehh?).
Recommendations for Regulatory Change
Chris made some recommendations for regulatory requirements which he thinks would help:
Warning labels on harmful foods
Ending conflicts of interest in industry-funded research and advisory committees;
Taxing harmful foods;
Restricting marketing to children; and
Removing misleading health claims from marketing.
There is a clear message here: a multi-faceted approach is needed to create a healthier global food system.
However, the medical community needs to address with empathy the stigma surrounding obesity, and food addiction, to make progress in this area.
Ultra-Processed People
I have read Chris’s book, Ultra-Processed People, and also listened to the podcast series ‘A Thorough Examination’ (which preceded the book).
I can really recommend both if you want to find out more, as there is so much more to be discussed on this topic!
Look out for a future blog post from me where I will go into more depth of Chris’s work, particularly through the lens of mental health and wellbeing.
While Chris focused on the broader impact of Ultra-Processed Foods, our next speaker delved deeper into the debate surrounding food addiction itself.
Dr Robert Lustig – The Battle Over Food Addiction
I first came across Dr Robert Lustig more than a decade ago when I watched a University of California YouTube video of his talk ‘Sugar: The Bitter Truth’.
Dr Lustig is a paediatric endocrinologist who has focused his research, and clinical practice, on childhood obesity, and diabetes.
Food Addiction vs. Food Additive Addiction: Unravelling the Debate
He started his talk by highlighting that there is an ongoing debate about whether or not food addiction is real, and that this has been going on since the 1950’s.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) will not currently recognise food addiction because they say there is insufficient data to support it as a diagnosis.
It's not surprising that there is a lot of push-back, and resistance, to recognising food addiction because food is necessary for survival - this is why it is so important to have the right definition of the problem.
A New Perspective: Food Additive Addiction
Dr Lustig is of the opinion that it is actually a ‘food additive addiction’, as he reckons that the biggest culprits are sugar (particularly fructose) and caffeine, which are added ingredients in many processed food products.
He explained that these substances stimulate the brain’s reward centre, in a similar way to addictive substances like drugs, so he thinks that these are the addictive elements in the food products.
The Vehicle and Payload Analogy
To make sense of this, he uses an analogy where Ultra-Processed Foods are a ‘vehicle’, and the sugar (or caffeine) is the ‘payload’ that is being delivered.
It is the payload, rather than the vehicle, that creates the addiction due to its impact on biochemical processes in the body.
If this is the case, then the food products could perhaps be reformulated so that they don’t contain addictive elements, but what would they be replaced with?
Since sugar taxes have been introduced, many soft drinks have replaced sugar with non-nutritive sweeteners but are these any less harmful for us?
Clearly there is still a lot of research to be done!
Dr Lustig recognises that there are alternative views to his own, and he did highlight some of these to us.
Contrasting Views: Food vs. Eating Addiction
For example, the European based NeuroFAST group argues that the addiction isn’t about specific foods, or food ingredients, but is actually an ‘eating addiction’.
They believe that no single food substance accounts for overeating and obesity.
Call For Action
Dr Lustig echoed Dr van Tulleken’s call for policy changes, including the regulation of added sugar in foods, and educating the public on the addictive potential of food additives.
Look out for a future blog post where I will go into more depth, particularly through the lens of brain health which of course has a knock-on impact on mental health.
Having looked at the scientific perspective on food addiction, the talks then turned focus to how the food industry plays a role in this issue.
Michael Moss – The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food
Michael Moss is a Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist who has been investigating the processed food industry for the last 15 years.
I was thrilled when I discovered that he would be speaking, as I really enjoyed reading his books, the most recent of which is:
‘Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions’
And yes, I did get him to sign my book as an excuse to say hello!
The blurb from the back of the book says:
‘a powerful exposé of how the processed food industry exploits our evolutionary instincts, the emotions we associate with food, and legal loopholes in the pursuit of profit over public health’.
Psychology of Junk Food: How the Food Industry Exploits Our Brains
Michael explained that initially, he was hesitant to use the term ‘addiction’ in respect of food, but that as he investigated the industry in more depth (including interviewing industry executives) he started to change his position.
Inside Track on Food Industry Tactics
This is because his research gave him insight into the deep psychological tactics that the food industry uses aggressively in their marketing.
Remember, the tobacco industry moved into this field and brought their marketing playbook with them.
The hugely successful marketing ploys couldn’t have made the transition any more successfully, bringing amazing commercial results, and growth, to the food industry.
Children are particularly vulnerable to food marketing, especially when it specifically targets them, so Michael echoed the calls of the previous two speakers for regulatory intervention.
Designer Food?
Another thing that he learned from the executives is that processed foods are designed in laboratories with the goal of making them so delicious and appetising that we will consume them as fast as possible.
Why would they do that?
Well, it gives us a quicker hit to the brain meaning that we get a quicker feel good factor, and this is likely to drive us to want to consume more…resulting in more money in the bank for the shareholders.
Some companies have been transparent about this - Pringles for many years had the marketing slogan:
‘Once You Pop, You Just Can’t Stop’
An interesting discovery that Michael made was high-ranking food industry executives avoid consuming their own products.
They know the products can be addictive, even though the industry continues to argue that food addiction doesn't exist.
Doesn't that just speak volumes!!
Economics and the Food Environment
A key theme of the talk was the importance of addressing the economic factors that make processed foods so prevalent.
Addressing this would help healthier options to be more accessible - in some places there simply aren't any alternatives to purchasing Ultra-Processed Foods.
As flagged by the previous speakers, the regulation of marketing, particularly to children, is also vital.
Look out for a future blog post where I will go into more depth, particularly through the lens of our own psychology being leveraged against us in a way that is damaging to our well-being.
These compelling presentations underscore the complexity of Ultra-Processed Foods in our diets, while simultaneously highlighting the urgent health and addiction concerns that demand immediate attention.
All of the talks on the day were recorded, and the Collaborative Health Community (CHC) is making them available to be watched on-demand.
You can gain access here: https://the-chc.org/fas/conference
They are only asking for £25 to access all 12 talks, which is really good value for all those hours of content.
The proceeds will go towards next year’s event and funding the research - the experts give their time freely but it is still a huge financial undertaking to run this project.
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