Ultra-Processed Life is my term for everything that is analogous to ultra-processed snacks: attractively marketed, instantly alluring, easy to consume, addictive by design, tasty in the moment but harmful over time, its origins a black box of unknown processes, the brightly colored product bearing no resemblance to the real-world ingredients, an idealized form of what is inherently imperfect, untethered from the natural world or the future, disconnected not just from the consequences of our consuming the snack but disconnected from the consequences unleashed by those consequences.

This book recounts my journey of discovery of how our everyday realm has drifted away from the foundations of human life and happiness without our noticing: the everyday realm is the river and we’re the fish oblivious of the water. This book charts my exploration of what’s so normal we don’t even see it for what it is.

As with many others, the catalyst for my exploration was a life-threatening medical crisis that did not have a specific cause.
This led me to wonder if our entire way of life is like an ultra-processed snack: tasty but not healthy, edible but stripped of the nutrients we need to be healthy, addictive by design.