An unlikely public health superhero has surfaced via social media. Eddie Abbew, a 60-year-old personal trainer, wanders about supermarkets and food service pointing at high fat, high sugar, nutrient-poor products and declaring “this is f-ing sh*t” and asking people to #WTFU or Wake the F*@k up. He has over 2 million followers on Instagram and about over 750k on TikTok. As someone who has been closely watching the debate around Ultra-Processed food, it made me think about the challenges with making change happen.
Pic: Fan girling Eddie Abbew, his talented chef daughter Selina Abbew took the photo at the Conduit event.
UPFs have been around for decades but Dr Chris Van Tulleken’s book Ultra-Processed People brought them to the top of the national conversation around the food we eat and the policy governing it. Processed food isn’t necessarily all bad. But UPFs are usually ready-to-heat and eat, of low nutritional value and involving ingredients and processes that you wouldn’t use at home. The Nova Classification sets out the difference between the different levels of processing. And yet, there is much confusion about what these foods actually are.
I attended a lively event on UPFs organised by Food, Farming and Countryside Commission and The Conduit, as part of their "Fix Food, Fix the Planet" event series. The panel comprised Tulleken himself, Baroness Rosie Boycott, Tim Benton, Eddie Abbew, Rob Percival, Head of Food Policy Soil Association and author of "The Meat Paradox" with opening and closing remarks by FFCC’s CEO Sue Pritchard.
Here's what they said:
1️⃣ UPFs are engineered for profit rather than nutrition. Reformulating doesn't work - things are getting worse rather than better. Some 57% of the UK diet now comprises UPFs
2️⃣ Unhealthy food and farming emissions is costing the global economy $12.7 trillion according to Nov 2023 estimates by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation
3️⃣ The link between UPFs and the environment hasn't been established in people's minds yet. The same eight high-yield food crops that have increased monocultural agriculture practices (and are having a terrible effect on soil, nature etc) form the foundation of UPFs
4️⃣ Conflicts of interest abound in resolving the challenge: 96% of advertising depends on junk food so media companies have huge vested interest. Scientific advisors, charities etc are often directly or indirectly involved with the corporates making and marketing UPFs
5️⃣ UPFs are like tobacco. We need to learn lessons from tobacco. There was much love for warning labels on packs to aid consumer choice
6️⃣ People are often blamed for wanting cheap, unhealthy, nutritionally poor food but there is consumer appetite (sorry) for government intervention, as the Citizens project by Food, Farming and Countryside Commission shows
7️⃣ Grassroots change is needed with education. Money is involved at the top and complex trade exists in a global food system. Perversely, there is not much hope for government intervention
If this is the case, then how will this much-needed change happen? Here are some thoughts, and I would love to hear yours:
We need clarity on what Ultra-Processed Foods are: The Nova Classification that explains them isn’t widely known or understood. This is what makes Eddie’s approach so appealing. He’s a former nurse turned personal trainer who was writing academically-backed posts on Facebook that no one was reading before he took to TikTok and Instagram with his special brand of prose. And it’s working.
We can talk all we like, but it's the grassroots work that will shift behaviour: This was Eddie’s line which I 100% agree with. But the corporates have a big role to play in this, and they need to be in the room and on the panel discussions. They are part of the problem and the solution, and have teams of people, stakehholders and shareholders who want them to do/be better. Talking in echo chambers of the converted isn’t going to deliver the change we need
Food education, and specifically, cooking skills are key: Experts broadly agree that UPFs at low levels are not the problem and we mustn’t forget that they had a role to play in the emancipation of women. But unless we learn to cook and use produce effectively, we’ll always reach for UPFs for convenience. Sheila Dillon, presenter of Radio 4's The Food Programme raised the valid point about our increasing inability to cook at the event. If we learn to cook, we can use fresh and storecupboard, unprocessed and minimally-processed ingredients way better.
Whatever the conversations, they must be rooted in reality and empathetic to the lives and needs of people today. Ironically, I dashed to the event late after work without a chance to cook a fresh meal for my two teens. I left them with three packs of instant noodles, a bag of carrots and a box of little plum tomatoes. You can guess what they ate for dinner. (The UPF noodles, in bed and on the sofa, much to my complete fury.)
More encouragingly, I had to do a dash to the shops after work to pick up ingredients for a fresh fruit salad for my 13 year old’s Food Tech assignment the following day. The use of the word “fresh” is deeply sus, as the kids would say but they are learning to cut, use and eat fruit which is hope no matter what way you look at it. My son who was too ill and tired to go shopping for fruit managed to miraculously recover in time for his school day the following morning and went to school excited about the assignment .
Pics: My son’s assignment. He attends a state secondary school in south London
There is a link between social inequity, poverty and UPFs in the diet. Our love for convenience also has a lot to answer for. Dr Emily Leeming outlines one of the key factors underlining our love of UPFs as identified by a recent study as softer texture in a piece. I know convenience is one of the fundamental needs of a modern lifestyle, but are we now too lazy to chew?
Fundamentally, and despite all the confusion, as Tim said we need to go back to how our grandparents ate. My addition to this would be that we need to do that in a world that looks very different to the one our grandparents lived in. And that’s not easy. If you need some motivation I’ll leave you with something Rosie said: “Our bodies are the most sophisticated engines. We wouldn't put junk in a sportscar and expect it to run smoothly. Why do we do that to our bodies?”
This article caught my attention immediately, as UPFs and basic food education is a major issue I’ve been thinking on for some time — I attended culinary school long ago, and now look around in horror as the rift widens between food-nutrient knowledge and the people who truly, truly need it.
I believe wholeheartedly this stuff doesn’t have to be complicated, but it also seems as though people are unwilling to learn... Or, more hopefully that they just don’t know what they don’t know, I suppose. Limited time and attention leads many to simply, “trust the message”. 😟
I’m overjoyed to see that someone else is using the metaphor about sports cars and fuel re: how much of society is fueling their bodies in 2024. I really want to help people help themselves, but am unsure how to proceed with such a large-scale issue.
This brought me a glimmer of hope in the fight against UPFs. Such an important topic. Thank you for writing about it!