The world around us has a limited, finite amount of energy available for use. Obviously, we need that energy to function. How do we get it? Through food. All life on Earth is engaged in competing for food in one way or another. Predators compete for prey, prey compete for plants, and plants compete for sunlight and nutrient-rich soil. And we humans also feel the need to eat. However, in the past century and a half, the food we consume has become something that’s not really food anymore.

Over time, food production became more and more industrial. This meant that big corporations competed for ways to make food as cheaply as possible. Slowly but surely, they began introducing novel substances into our food. A big part of the calories we consume now comes from bleached and refined oils, invert sugars, modified starches, and hydrolyzed protein isolates. All of that is topped up with dyes, sweeteners, artificial flavorings, and stabilizers. Most foods we consume are ultra-processed, constituting approximately 60% of an average person's diet in the USA and the UK.

There are a lot of studies suggesting that UPF can heighten the risk of medical conditions such as heart disease, strokes, dementia, and inflammatory bowel disease. A lot of the talk about UPF risks is also related to obesity. However, obesity is different from the previously mentioned conditions, because, unlike those, people are blamed for being obese.

Many believe that obesity is a failure of willpower or a sign of laziness. But we can easily disprove this with data—since the 1960s, there has been a steep increase in the nation’s weight in the US. This is true for men, women, and children of all ages and nationalities. So, can we really blame people for being unhealthy when all that’s available and affordable is UPF?

Childhood obesity has also become a big problem. In the last 30 years, rates of obesity have grown by 700% in the UK. Kids in the UK and the USA, which are the countries with the highest UPF consumption in the world, are not just heavier than their peers from other countries but also shorter. This stunning growth goes hand in hand with obesity.