Around eight months ago I set out on a quest to improve my dry, tired-looking skin, that also would often flare up with redness. Because I’ve always had sensitive skin, though, a lot of the things I tried would actually make things worse.
Google and Instagram would throw up contradictory and sometimes downright bizarre advice, and I just felt deflated after endlessly scrolling to no avail. By coincidence a few weeks in, my dad recommended I read Dr Chris Van Tulleken’s Ultra-Processed People, after he had read it, ditched ultra-processed foods, and began feeling significantly better overall.
Fascinating and terrifying, the book really opened my eyes to what we are actually eating on a daily basis. UPFs have been all over the news, TV and social media of late.
Many medical studies show eating them in high quantities cause increases a person’s risk of developing a number of diseases – so an obvious one to avoid if you can, then. While there isn’t a single definition for an ultra-processed food, they often contain things like emulsifiers, stabilisers, colourings, flavourings and preservatives.
Dr Van Tulleken says “a good working definition would be that, if a food is wrapped in plastic, and has at least one ingredient that you do not typically find in a domestic kitchen … then it is probably an ultra-processed food.” I couldn’t unsee what I had been shown, and it was time for me to quit UPFs too.
I hoped it might improve my skin, but I thought even if it didn’t, it might make me feel better in some capacity. I felt a bit overwhelmed at first, like I’d have to spend every spare minute baking and creating everything from scratch.
But this wasn’t the case at all and after some trial and error I have managed to make it work for me, largely by making a note of the foods I was already eating and making better swaps, and by preparing meals in advance. There are tons of ultra-processed-free recipes online, and as I learned more about what to include and what to avoid, it has almost become second nature.
After a few months, my skin looked drastically better, but more than that I had a lot more energy and even my mood had improved. There was also another unexpected effect.
I rarely weigh myself as I don’t find the number on the scales to be a very accurate indicator of health, though I think I was around 9 and a half stone before I cut out UPFs. After six months I had a medical appointment, where I was weighed by a doctor.
I was 8 stone 13lbs – more than half a stone lighter – and I hadn’t actually set out to lose any weight.