This week on Cooking the Books, we’re all about the broken food system in the run up to the General Election in the UK. Chris Van Tulleken has an extra episode, squeezed into a Wednesday, while Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall takes up the baton on Thursday, CTB’s usual Podcast Day.
Here he introduces us to Lyra, star of his book, Ultra Processed People, which exposes the way ultra processed food ‘‘hacks” our brains, and why the next government MUST take action to secure the health of the nation.
Let me take you back in time to the moment when a much younger Lyra was totally underwhelmed by the tub of pistachio ice cream which became her father’s second food moment in today’s episode of Cooking the Books.
The first weekend of my 80% UPF diet was one of those freakish autumn days when summer briefly returns we had to the park, and I bought myself and the rest of the family ice cream diner. My wife had a Freeze Pop, a tube of frozen bright blue liquid made by a brand called Swizzles, and I had a Wall’s Twister.
Three-year-old, Lyra had a giant scoop of pistachio ice cream for a brand called Hackney gelato. Her one year old sister, Sasha managed to scrounge licks off the rest of us.
Lyra met two friends and sat around in the blazing sunshine with her ice cream talking about whatever three-year-olds talk about before going to play on the swings. She handed me her tub of ice cream as she ran off. It was more or less untouched, a perfect listening green ball of pistachio.
It took me a moment to realise that this was peculiar. How is it still a ball? The outside of the tub was actually warm to the touch why hasn’t the ice cream melted? I tried a spoonful. It was a tepid gelatinous foam. Something had stopped the ice cream from melting.
From Ultra Processed People by Chris Van Tulleken.