A lot of us have been reading labels for a while, but now it has a whole new meaning. I finished this book last night and couldn't stop thinking about it this morning.

It's a fresh and fun read. A man's experiment is 30 days with zero UPF. Then, 30 days with 80% of calories being UPF. With metabolic tests and brain MRI at test points.

80% of calories from UPF is incredibly common. They lack grocery stores and cooking facilities and money itself. Now the fast food places have apps to reward free food when they purchase.

I've already seen a lot of screaming denial from people who do not have the deep understanding of food we have, those of us who have been working at our health. I saw a review claim the book "doesn't explain anything" but it couldn't be clearer.

A food can be constructed to have a similar nutrition profile, yet at the 80% UPF level a month of it had put enough weight on him. That had he kept eating that way for a year, he would have doubled his body weight. And you do want to know what only 30 days of this diet did to his brain.

A wild twist to this is how he lives in the UK, but has an identical twin living in the US. Who weighs more. The irony is how the way he ate, which kept the excess weight in check, was actually normal/good by our standards. Black coffee for breakfast, a sandwich, crips, and soda lunch, but then a cooked dinner for themselves and two small children. He always added a dessert, which is what he blamed for his excess, though stable, weight.

Most of the time. But being busy and relying on takeaway is also "normal." When it was all added up, his daily was UPF at a 30% of calories range.

I also found a great deal of perspective from reading this book, especially since many have been distressed by the spate of news claiming terrible things about artificial sweeteners. Forget that packet for the morning coffee, people, because it really does seem to be a case of just how much we want to confuse our bodies, and when.

The book concludes with a "why real food really is best" in a way that magnifies our own low carb experience. Remember that realization that so much of what we were eating wasn't food? Not food in a sense that our body could use, and poison in the sense that it was why were were suffering from its effects?

It turns out, we were right. More than we ever thought possible. Spoilers below... because it is a fun read. Go get this book and then give it to someone who needs to know.

This looks like an interesting book. I haven’t read labels in years. That’s because I have been eating only real foods since I discovered paleo over two decades ago, that is foods that don’t need to have a label. It feels like common sense to me to not eat manufactured foods but I am aware that I am in the minority. I just prefer to feed my body foods not poisons.

Thanks for this review, WearBear. It is still "on order" at our library, so I haven’t read it yet, but always take it as good news that another member of our community requested it, or the Library Purchase staff thought is worthwhile.

SPOILERS because this book astonished me, and if you want the same experience, stop reading.

The astonishment was not that we were right about eating actual foods, but how right we are. The shortest version I've run across is also covered here: processing that destroys the matrix is what makes it not-food. The corn kernel I eat doesn't do me much food. But, with real butter and off the cob, it's something most bodies can deal with.

UPF creates a Frankenfood which shows up on the label with an identical nutrition profile to real food. But so much of it is literally dirt cheap ingredients meant to fool the body into thinking it's real food. They tested the taste buds, where this works like a charm. They didn't do these tests, with the MRI. And it turns out, if they had this labeled as a drug, this stuff wouldn't be legal.

This isn't processing like "now it's yogurt" or even JEY's process milk with a profile that works better for her body. We are talking NOVA 4, as the scale goes. This is a concept pioneered by a Brazilian team who studied the radical decline in rural health with the adoption of a Western diet, the infamous pyramid of DEATH.

I feel more empowered than ever before to make the right food choices. This book has given me nuance to the point where I have more possible variety than before, when it comes to whole foods. Adding more fruit carbs, and not experiencing cravings, let me follow guidance about higher carbs while healing from something serious. There is a lot in the Toxic Superfoods book, another success with me, about upping carbs as part of the process. It takes stress off the liver, and it seems to work. I always liked cranberry sauce with my turkey. Every Thanksgiving, we get it from a deli who makes it fresh.

This turns out to be a marker of health I'd like to share from the book. The Brazilian team works their numbers and discover that sugar and oil on the grocery list was a marker of health. Did it mean sugar was healthy? And the oil was not the same kind.

It was important as a marker of behavior. It meant someone was cooking.

In rural Brazil, it meant someone was still eating the traditional diet. As bad as non-fortified flour and sugar devastated indigenous peoples who had never been "civilization sorted before" was, the addition of sugar and vegetable oil was not as bad as the researchers expected. While these things are bad, the presence of UPF overshadows everything.

It's that incredibly bad. In only thirty days of moving his body to 80% UPF, the MRI showed dramatic changes in his brain. Revamping his hormones and activating "known addiction centers." (Hey, you don't have to convince us.)

Low carb worked for Dr. Atkins in 1972, when this was just getting rolling. His heart patients stuffed themselves with real pastry, at least. Now UPF is a giant stone ball like in Indiana Jones. Crushing everything in its path.

To do Atkins, correctly, now? We can't trust the macros. We have to read the whole label because some of that is NOT THAT to our body. It explains how it can be "doing it right" on paper and yet have problems. It's like this should be bundled with Atkins to teach label reading.

Now we can figure things out. UPF is the connector that turbocharged this whole cascade of misery.

We weren't just eating too much of foods that weren't good for us. More and more, even the things we thought were good for us weren't actually food.

Another angle with my autoimmune, which comprises 50% of the drug ads I see on Youtube (the only place I see ads because they want waaaay too much for their streaming) is how UPF figures in to its dramatic rise.



Pollution doesn't help, but I think they are ignoring the UPF elephant in the room. When my commercial protein shake experience degraded my recovery, (and led to a plumber's visit!) I had already eliminated much of what remained in my diet.

It explains ALL the health epidemics that suddenly started rising at the same time, and pace each other.

This is such a dramatic book the author goes out of their way to make it feel gentle. They issue no instructions, or even guidelines.

He goes out of his way to say things like "Eat as much of this stuff as you want," and even, "Please, do eat your favorite foods as you read."

I think it's an eye-opener for anyone, because I'm probably 90th percentile aware of food and I thought I knew already.

THIS would be a book I would get in paperback to make it my own lending copy to friends and family. I think it's that much of a gamechanger for people who know nothing about food or cooking.

And we know how many people that is.

Sounds like an interesting read. I'm now 170th on my library's hold list; there are 5 copies, which is promising.

Back in 1972 there wasn't any UPF on Atkins' diet except for D-Zerta (artificially sweetened gelatin dessert), which I didn't like anyways. It was and still is amazing how fast the original diet nipped in the bud cravings & food obsessions.

I rarely eat any UPF so when I do, I always notice the effects on me. Sugar/starch causes sleepiness & brain fog, sugar & wheat cause excruciating plantar fasciitis (& equivalent in hands), processed plant proteins cause extreme joint pain. I never have ANY problems when I avoid these foods. I'm starting to wonder if people are having hip & knee replacements because of pain caused by what they eat (including things like too many oxalates). A colleague with fibromyalgia is given a high-carb diet and wonders why it doesn't help. Peripheral neuropathy is considered common with aging (or is it the result of continually eating crap, including what is fed in assisted living facilites?).

For the past 30 years, even before I went LC/real food, I solved the problem of no time to cook by cooking large batches infrequently & freezing individual portions of meat, poultry, stews.

Werebear et al, you may find this interview with Dr Chris van Tulleken of interest:

Demi, thank you so much for posting this video interview! Interesting way to start my Sunday morning. I have a few ultra process foods left in my diet, but now will even been looking askance at those… a great introduction to the book.

When I finally figured out that a number of commonly eaten foods were making me sick I realized that the label food did not really apply to something that was in fact harming me rather than fueling my body. I relabeled them poisons which certainly helped me to avoid them. These ultra processed substances should not even be given the name food since they are doing the opposite of what foods are supposed to do, that is they poison our bodies rather than fuel them.

Good to see that the book is currently the #1 general hardback book on the Sunday Times bestseller list!

Eating whole real foods is much easier than reading labels in fine print. I rarely buy packaged foods, but even plain yogurt and cottage cheese requires a label look

An excellent point, as someone on the board knew they had an issue with carrageenan, and she didn't find it easy to avoid in dairy products. But in the interests of not leaving any stone unturned, and my health history, I'm going to have to look -- again -- at stuff I previously thought was safe.

The whole GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe) list is an ASSUMPTION. Especially for those, like me, who likely had leaky gut. I can always try something new.

It has worked for me so far.

Preliminary exploration reveals unadulterated cream cheese is a rare thing...

Now that I've gone on more of a treasure hunt than I ever expected, I can't find it in rural USA. Though I am more fortunate than most, as we have a popular resort town near enough, and they add some crucial variety to local options.

Here's the ingredients for the one I was getting, a store brand: Pasteurized Milk And Cream, Cheese Culture, Salt, Guar Gum, Carob Bean Gum

Or the even cheaper other store brand: Pasteurized milk and cream, Cheese culture, Salt, Stabilizers (carob bean and/or xanthan and/or guar gums)

However, the organic store brand was only 50% more: Organic Pasteurized Milk And Cream, Salt, Organic Carob Bean Gum, Cheese Culture.

At the health food store, it was 250% more, and these were the ingredients: Organic Pasteurized Milk And Cream, Organic Whey, Cheese Culture, Salt, Organic Locust Bean Gum.

I get to upgrade to the organic store brand, and feel grateful for the fancy store

Carob/locust bean gums are the same thing. And being from plants means they can be considered an organic ingredient, it seems. Because, according to this useful article on "Food GUMS":



And there's THIS:

And manufacturers don't tell you what medium is used to make it.

Which is welcome news and I'm going to roll with it. Since cream cheese is a staple of my diet, as the only fermented animal fat I can find, this is greatly reassuring. Against all odds, I have found a GUM I can feel soothed by consuming:



It seems that safer gums have been substituted in some products, thanks to studies. The only warnings seems to be from over-consuming any "gum" as a diet trick, using fiber to give them volume. Which does sound like a terrible idea.

"cheese cultures" are defined as groups of bacteria, but now I wonder - what are/were they grown on?