Rethinking food
Reading the horror story of ultra-processed food has changed how I eat on walks and bike rides.
Shortly after I joined the Scouts, my troop went on a hike in Bannau Brycheiniog. Along with the kit list the leaders issued were instructions that we should bring snacks for the traditional 'Mars bar stops' along the walk. My 11-year-old self took this literally, brought a whole pack of Mars bars and duly ate one every time we stopped for a breather.
My snack-often approach to fuelling a ride or walk has changed little since that time, but now I am increasingly focused on avoiding ultra-processed food (UPF). Essentially, this is stuff – it doesn't really deserve to be called food – that's sold in bright packaging and contains ingredients you wouldn't find in your kitchen at home.
Take Mars bars, for example. Mars Wrigley markets its eponymous bar as 'a delicious fusion of chocolate, caramel and nougat'. But what this actually means is that you're eating things like glucose syrup, whey powder, palm fat and soya lecithin. As Chris van Tulleken explores in his book Ultra-Processed People, these sorts of ingredients combine to trick our brains. They disrupt the normal regulation of appetite and cause us to over-consume unhealthy products.