Books Worth Reading #25: 'Ultra-Processed People' by Dr Chris van Tulleken

I mentioned this book a few blogposts ago in connection with my current weight-loss programme. As a book, it's a game-changer.

So much of the food on our supermarket shelves and in our takeaway fast foods is ultra-processed. In other words, natural ingredients have been stripped of some of their naturalproperties and wholly unfamiliar chemicals and substances have been added in replacement for more natural (and expensive) ingredients.

It's not about improving taste. It's not about making food healthier (such as the Fat-Free Lie - I will explain in a moment). It's all about increasing profits.

The so-called 'Fat-Free Lie' is a good example. Fat has always had a bad press. It's a foodstuff and it's an outcome. We have been taught that there is nothing positive about the word. But fats are important to our health and we need them. We just need to control how much we take in. So, clever manufacturers decided that they'd capitalise on this by making low fat or zero fat products.

But we all kept on getting bigger.

The thing is ... fats and oils are what make food feel fabulous in our mouths. Remove them and a meal is far less satisfying. So manufacturers had to replace them with something to simulate the mouth-feel. Enter stabilisers, emiulsifiers and modified starches and sugars. They do the job instead. BUT they have around the same calories as the fats and they trigger your brain's dopamine receptors so that you want to eat more of it. Don't believe me? Go into any shop and compare a pot of full fat yoghurt to the same sized pot of low fat yoghurt. They contain around the same number of calories.

I'm not picking on Tesco here - they all do it. As you can see, there's around 100kcals difference per pot (the average man needs around 2500 per day to maintain weight and an average woman around 2000). But the low fat version has more salts and sugars. In fact it has 7g of carbohydrate content per 100g of yoghurt compared to the full fat version which has 3.4g. And it's the sugars/carbs that your body turns into fat. 

It's just one of the many things discussed in this important book. The reviews say it all:

'A wonderful and fascinating exposé of ultra-processed food, edible substances with strange sounding ingredients which are manufactured by some of the wealthiest companies on the planet and which, worryingly, form an increasing part of our diet. As Chris shows, not only have these foods been formulated to ensure that we eat them constantly and without thought, but they hijack our ability to regulate what we eat, primarily by affecting our brains. And he backs up his claims with a powerful self-experiment, along with lots of rigorous and often shocking research. Reading this book will make you question what you eat and how it was produced' - Dr Michael Mosley (BBC presenter and bestselling author of The Fast Diet).

'A devastating, witty and scholarly destruction of the shit food we eat and why -- Adam Rutherford Everyone needs to know this stuff' - Prof Tim Spector (author of Spoon Fed and Food for Life).

'Incendiary and infuriating, this book is a diet grenade, the bold and brutal truth about how we are fed deadly delights by very greedy, evil giants' - Chris Packham 

Did you know that McDonald's fries contain 19 ingredients? 

Nineteen. including a silicon-based anti-foaming agent (dimethylpolysiloxane), hydrolised milk, 'beef flavouring' (that may or may not be meat-based - McDonald's is cagey on the subject), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate, trans fats and something called TBHQ - an antioxidant food additive that is used to extend shelf life. 

TBHQ has been declared food safe in small amounts. However, experiuments by the Centers for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), found that it increased the incidence of tumors in rats and, according to the National Library of Medicine (NLM), cases of vision disturbances have been reported when humans consume TBHQ. This organisation also cites studies that have found TBHQ to cause liver enlargement, neurotoxic effects, convulsions, and paralysis in laboratory animals. 

Some believe TBHQ may also affect human behaviour. It’s this belief that has landed the ingredients on the 'do not consume' list of the Feingold Diet, a dietary approach to managing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Advocates of this diet say that those who struggle with their behaviour should avoid TBHQ. 

So, bad news for Hindus, vegetarians,vegans and kids with ADHD then. 

And why are we allowing people to put this stuff in our food? What's wrong with potatoes, oil and a little salt? 

It's a scandal.

Fridge Fungus

It occured to me the other day that I have no idea what species these are:

White mushrooms, closed-cup, flat, chestnut, button, champignon, portabello, portabella, portabellini ... these are the common mushrooms found in supermarkets (and fridges) all over the UK. But what are they? And do they exist in the wild? 

Surprisingly, it turns out that they are all one species - Agaricus bisporus. 

What we call closed-cup or button mushrooms are the immature stage of the mushroom, which commonly grows white or brown. The Portabello or flat mushroom is the mature fungus. 

And yes, it does grow wild in grasslands across Eurasia and North America although it is not a common mushroom at all. It grows in rich soils, usually near horse manure or compost piles. As such, it's most commonly found in pasture where cows and other cattle feed. The fact that you so rarely see it in the wild means that it's easily confused with the Field or Meadow Mushroom (Agaricus campestris) which is also edible and tastes pretty much the same. In fact, they are so similar that A. bisporus ws only recognised as a separate species in 1923. 

A. bisporus is cultivated in more than 70 countries and is one of the most commonly and widely consumed mushrooms in the world. In the USA, the white button form alone accounts for about 90% of all mushrooms sold. 

So now you know.

Arils by any other name ...

The Yew trees are now in fruit and are producng these beautiful bright red arils.

Note that I say arils rather than berries or pomes. They're a specific type of fruit shaped like a cup with a seed at the base of each hollow.

Yew trees contain highly poisonous taxane alkaloids that have been developed into anti-cancer drugs. Eating just a few leaves can make a small child severely ill and there have been some deaths linked to yew poisoning. All parts of the tree are poisonous .. except for the arils. They are, in fact, edible and taste something like grapes. However, if you leave any part of the seed inside the aril, it could give you a very upset tummy if you chew or swallow it. Experienced foragers will tell you that the best way to eat them is to pop the whole thing in your moyth and then tease the flesh away from the seed using your tongue ... as long as you remember to spit out the seed. But are you willing to take the risk? I did once but, to be frank, it wasn't interesting or tasty enough for me to bother again. 

Mature yew trees can grow to up to 20m high and can live for thopusands of years - you might recall that I visited the 5000 year old Fortingall Yew in Scotland a couple of months ago (see here). They are associated with churchyards and there are at least 500 churchyards in England which contain yew trees older than the buildings themselves. It is not clear why, but it is thought that yew trees were planted on the graves of plague victims to protect and purify the dead, and also in churchyards to stop 'commoners' from grazing their cattle on church ground as yew is extremely poisonous to livestock. Yew trees were used as symbols of immortality, but also seen as omens of doom. For many centuries it was the custom for yew branches to be carried on Palm Sunday and at funerals. In Ireland it was said that yew was ‘the coffin of the vine’, as wine barrels were made of yew staves.

Yew timber is incredibly strong and durable. Traditionally, the wood was used in turnery and to make long bows and tool handles. One of the World's oldest surviving wooden artefacts is a yew spear head estimated to be around 450,000 years old. 

Even more galls!

I spotted a whole bunch of cherry galls and artichoke galls all on one oak tree yesterday. I will keep an eye on them as they ripen and develop.

And here's a new miscellaneous meander:

The Joy of Tat

I love tat. I love things that are unintentionally hilarious. This includes ornaments and memorabilia that, despite their creators' best efforts, fall short of what they undoubtedly envisioned.

I'm not art-shaming here. I take umbrage when people say that art is 'bad'. What they mean is that they don't like it. Or that it doesn't conform to their personal definition of 'good'. For instance, I'm a huge fan of so-called Outsider Art or Art Brut (I wrote about it here and here). This is art made by people outside of the art world. They are often people with difficulties in their lives such as mental illness or they are serving a long term in prison. I delight in their naivety and honesty. They are what art should be - created from the heart and with no consideration for commercial worth or whether anyone will like them. Other people would probably see it as childlike and 'unprofessional'.

What I call 'tat' is altogether different. It's generally mass-produced and cheaply made. Here are some examples I bought in charity shops. I find such things irresistable and they usually cost under a quid each.

Who doesn't love poorly-painted matryoshkas? 

The first is decorated with what I suspect are meant to be monkeys but look like a collection of bears and maybe a seal? The second has cats - but cats with very wonky eyes.

Now check out these guys - a goofy teapot, a Queen Victoria milk jug, and three cats - one with an eye-shredding pattern on it, and two with ridiculously long tails and no eyes.

I have so much more I could show you but I'll end with this appalling Dachshund-shaped schnapps dispenser. Its nose is the stopper and small tipple cups hang from its oddly distended ribs.

I don't actually own this piece any more because, in an effort to de-clutter my study/studio, I volunteered it and some other tat as prizes to be given to the panellists on the 2015 'Mix and Match' episode of QI.

Most of the pannellists left them behind in the studio. But James Acaster took home the Schnapps hound.

I wonder if he still has it?

More tat soon.

Oh the Horror!

Cartoonist Mark Stafford posted this on Facebook yesterday ...

'Aw damn. For years I've been meaning to scan a little book of puppets that I found in a charity shop. A thing I was reminded to do whenever I came across it, just needed to put time aside to do the task. I needed to do this because the whole book was chock full of hideous nightmare fuel that just had to be shared with the world. Well I just found it again, but it had, unbeknownst to me, fallen to the floor and gotten soaked when the fridge defrosted a while back. Its glossy pages are now set into a solid block of card, its pages never to be opened again. I can only show you a scan of the back cover as an indication of what was within. And regret. (shakes fist at sky).'

Well, it just so happens that I have a copy of the book - Puppets, published in 1969 by Leisure Crafts.

And here's some of that 'Nightmare Fuel' that Mark mentioned. Enjoy!

More Galls

I spotted a couple of different galls today. We've seen knopper, marble, artichoke and cherry galls recently but today I found two new ones.

The first photo shows Spangle Galls. There are four types of Spangle Gall in the UK, caused by four different gall wasps. Unless you’re really interested in galls, it’s fine to just call what you’ve found a Spangle Gall and leave it at that. All four look very similar, although if you look very closely they have different surface structures. They are found throughout the UK on both our native oak species, although they also like other oak species. The galls appear in spring when the wasp lays their eggs on the new leaves, and the larvae emerge during the summer.

The second photo is a Robin's pincushion (also known as the 'Bedeguar Gall') is a gall caused by the larvae of a tiny gall wasp, Dipoloepis rosae. The gall is widespread and common, and can be found developing on the stems of dog-roses during late summer; it acquires its reddish colour as it matures in autumn. Each gall holds many grubs, which feed on the gall tissues throughout the winter and emerge in spring as adults. The adults reproduce asexually and only a tiny number are male.

Two more to add to the tally but there are so many more to go!

Like the Oak Apple ...

And the Lime Nail Gall ...

And the Ram's Horn Gall ...

And the Tongues of Fire Gall...

And the Sputnik Gall ... 

And Witches' Brooms (caused by a fungus) ...

... and there are many more.

So I still have quite a few to tick off my list yet.