In a warning that has sparked global discussion, NHS doctor and University College London associate professor Dr Chris van Tulleken has raised concerns that modern diets dominated by ultra-processed foods may be doing damage comparable to smoking, and in some cases may even be contributing to a greater share of early deaths worldwide.
Speaking in widely reported podcast discussion in the Youtube channel The Diary of a CEO, the doctor suggested that ultra-processed foods, commonly found in everyday shopping baskets, are not just unhealthy but may represent what he describes as a “pandemic of diet-related disease,” driven by industrial food systems that have reshaped what millions of people consume daily. His core argument is not that food and cigarettes are identical, but that the scale of health harm linked to ultra-processed diets is now so significant that it demands similar public health attention.
