Two Years On and Nothing Has Changed

On 29 February 2024, my phone went berserk.

Messages from doctor friends flooding in. "We are winning." "Our voices are finally getting heard." "Down with UPFs."

The reason? The BMJ had just published the largest study of its kind. Ten million participants. The conclusion was devastating: ultra-processed foods were linked to over 30 diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, anxiety and early death.

Every major newspaper ran it. The Telegraph. The Daily Mail. The Guardian. The Sun. Sky News. The Daily Mirror called for junk food to be "treated like cigarettes."

That same week, the CEO of Kellogg’s went on CNBC and said they were now advertising cereal for dinner. Not a joke. A strategy. Yet the evidence against cereals is as clear as the evidence against smoking, and they want us eating it twice a day.

That was two years ago today.

So what’s changed? Have ultra-processed foods been regulated? Have warning labels appeared on packaging? Has the government acted on the BMJ’s findings?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

The same products sit on the same shelves. The same companies run the same adverts. The same children eat the same school meals. The study that was supposed to change everything changed precisely nothing.

This is why Clubwell exists. Because waiting for the food industry or the government to protect your health is like waiting for the fox to guard the henhouse. The change has to come from you, from understanding what’s in your food and making different choices.

Your action today: Open your Clubwell app and log everything you eat today. Look at how many items contain ultra-processed ingredients.