Dr Chris van Tulleken tries to understand the effects of ultra-processed foods on our bodies through his new documentary. By Christy Varghese

Against the backdrop of the pandemic, when most of us were restricted to our homes, everyone suddenly emerged as being health-conscious. And when we say health-conscious, what we mean is the rise in home-workouts and the likes. However, not many focussed on what we permit to enter our systems. Simply put — food. Do you ever check the benefits, or drawbacks, of what you eat?

The documentary, What Are We Feeding Our Kids? follows doctor and medical researcher Dr Chris van Tulleken on his month-long experiment of eating ultra-processed food and seeing the impact that it has on children’s developing bodies. It is not the firs time he has undertaken on such a journey. Back in 2017, Chris, along with his twin brother, Dr Xand van Tulleken, had examined the effects of binge-drinking, with some first-hand experience.

Ultra-processed food makes up majority of calories for children and teens compared to the general population because it is cheap and convenient. However, it has to be said that scientists know very little about exactly how it affects children’s bodies. At the end of his experiment, Chris found that consuming ultra-processed foods could alter the way the body and brain works, potentially explaining the rising global trend of childhood obesity.

Provided below are the excerpts from our conversation:

What are the effects of ultra-processed foods on our bodies?

The most obvious effect is that they drive weight gain because they are specifically designed to do that, food companies want to sell as much food as they possibly can. The food is very carefully designed, and I've seen it being designed in order to promote weight gain.

The second effect is that children become malnourished because the food is very low in nutrition.

The third effect is that, because of the additives like emulsifiers and preservatives and humectants and all the other additives that go in, they cause a range of diverse effects which include, but are not limited to, inflammatory problems, cancer, depression, anxiety along with affecting our mental health and sleep.

There are other effects, which are not limited to our bodies — they damage the planet because the base ingredients, soy corn, beef, palm oil, sugar, are grown in the tropics where, you know, we cut down tropical forests to grow these crops. The food supply system is a massive contributor to climate change. And in the end, that is what will harm us the most. That's what will kill hundreds of millions of people. So, if we could remove ultra-processed foods from our diet, it would help our bodies, in addition to helping the planet.

Testing out theories on yourself and your brother, has that ever gone wrong?

Yes. I didn't think this would be a very big deal, but this was probably the worst thing I've done to my body in a long time. I still have the weight that I put on during the experiment, I would say I am several kilos heavier.

We did a programme about alcohol, where I had to drink a little bit of alcohol every day and my brother, Xand, drank all his alcohol on one day of the week. So, one day a week he got very, very drunk and that was very bad for his body. But it did exactly what we expected. So, I guess it worked, anything that works well for television always is very horrible to actually do it to yourself.

How do you cope up with the damage that it's doing to your body?

Well, for me, it's okay because I have an income, I have a job. I can go back to a healthy diet fairly easily and recover. I have access to a park, I can accordingly walk longer.

The problem is that for many people, ultra-processed food is the only food they can afford. It's the only food they know how to cook, and this is the only food that is in their shops. It is very unfortunate how those people, especially children, eat it their entire lives. I'm in a very privileged position because I'm lucky that I can recover from the diet.

Granted, binging on ultra-processed foods is no good, but are GMOs any better?

I think, in India particularly, there have been some really important advances with genetically modified crops that have fed lots of people. And that was important. I think, around the world, all communities are losing touch with their traditional diets, with the rise in diversity of the food we eat.

As Asia in particular, which is wealthy, starts moving to an American diet, the number of foods that everyone eats reduces. The carbohydrates that people in England  eat are wheat and a little bit of rice, and that's about it.

If we look at a traditional Indian diet, there's a huge range of different rices, different pulses, different plants that provide carbohydrates. There are many different fats, there's many different sources of vegetables. And if you consider an American-style diet — it is really just a few ingredients and that causes problems for the body while making our food supply system very vulnerable to pests and disease. And so that's why we need to engineer these crops that are pest resistant, for example. Whereas if we were able to reorganize our food supply, and this would be complicated for a more traditional system, we could still feed the same number of people, but it would be a much more resilient system when it comes to climate change, pests and so on.

The doctors who give up drugs, what do they recommend and practise themselves?

There are no really good drugs for children with obesity. So, as you know, if someone could develop a pill that promoted weight loss, and there are companies doing this, and there are promising trials, that would be very beneficial, but it doesn't really solve all the other problems caused by eating the food, right?

So, you don't need medicine if you are able to eat a diet of ‘real’ food. And so that, that would always be the medicine I would try and prescribe. I mean, all of us should use as few drugs as possible. Most of the time, drugs are not a very good way of treating diseases.

How can the issue of child obesity be changed? Are there any tips that you could share?

I'm optimistic that in the next 10 years, people will start to see ultra-processed food like cigarettes. They will see that it is addictive. They will see it is harming their children and themselves, and that, hopefully, things will change. But, in all probability, it will take a very, very long time.

We discovered that cigarettes cause lung cancer in the 50s, it took about 50 to 60 years for regulations to come in that significantly reduced the number of people who were smoking.

So, the companies are very powerful, and it will be a huge fight to try and reduce their influence.

Against the backdrop of the lockdown, many health issues have come to the fore. What is your advice to someone who wants to lead a healthy lifestyle?

I would say to everyone, be easy on yourself.

This has been a very, very difficult year, especially in India. And some people have managed to use lockdown to become fit, learn a language or take up a hobby. Most of us have just tried to survive.

And so, if, at the end of whenever this pandemic ends, if you are alive and you have your family, you've got through it, I'd say you've done a great job and just be kind to yourself.

(The repeat telecast of What Are We Feeding Our Kids?, which premiered yesterday, will air on October 4, 8 pm, only on Sony BBC Earth.)