Book recommendation: Ultra-Processed Women, book written by Milli Hill
I've been listening to this audiobook this week and it has opened my eyes about UPFs even more than before. UPFs stands for Ultra-Processed Foods, but once you’ve read this book you understand why we can’t call them UPFs. They’re not food. As Milli Hill calls them, they are ‘industrially produced food-like items in plastic packets’ and once you realise how bad they are for you, it’s easier to switch towards a healthier and cleaner way of eating.
From period pain and weight gain to depression, hormone imbalances, autoimmune conditions and even Alzheimer’s, Mill Hill reveals the hidden dangers that lurk in our daily food choices and how to improve every day symptoms by changing our approach to food.
I thoroughly enjoyed the way it's written, often even funny, and how it explores the way the modern food industry has exploited people in their advertising for decades.
I discovered a few facts I didn’t know:
Women have better sensory abilities, that’s why there are many more women ‘noses’ than men - maybe due to our ancestors when the women were the ones making sure foraged foods were edible.
Shops ‘smelling’ nice when you enter (that nice smell of warm bread or perfumes) is very often just a manufactured smell to lure you to consume ‘that smell’
The flavourings, sweeteners and emulsifiers that are common in UPFs (e.g. xantham gum, carrageenan, guar gum, lecithins…) are often also used in cosmetics, cleaning products, i.e. the same thing that you eat may also be what you use to clean your floor or lather on your face...!! I don’t know who said ‘if your grandmother doesn’t know an ingredient that’s listed on foods, then you probably shouldn’t be eating it’, but I realise how true that is now.
Menopausal brain fog is not the same as Alzheimer’s - and both can potentially be helped by the right diet.
This is not only a great book for women. It's a book that anybody/everybody could/should read in my opinion, if we want to improve the state of our health and planet. It's a gold mine for anyone going through pregnancy, motherhood, period pain, obesity, cancer, menopause, and let’s face it, for everyone else as at some point in our lives, we’ll all be experiencing some of those symptoms or illnesses.
By knowing what to eat, or at least by being more aware of what’s in the foods we eat, we have the keys to making better decisions and taking control of our lives, rather than leaving it to big companies making a huge profit on our backs/ill-health…
Free to listen to if you have a Spotify premium plan or between £10-£15 online. Give it a go, you/your health won't regret it!
Ultra-Processed Women: The Lies We’re Fed About What We Eat and How To Break Free - by Milli Hill (click to open on Spotify)