Thanks for this and good luck with your FiLiA talk tonight! I'd love to be there.
Your book and mine on women's diet and weight battles as 'the fatter sex' programmed, with a slower metabolism, to store 50% more body fat than our brothers are, have a lot of cross-over material. I look forward to reading yours.
You asked if we know of any other women pushing against Big Food back in the 70s and I immediately thought of Susie Orbach, who was one of the first eating-disorder counsellors and of course the first to see that women have specific and indeed feminist issues around food and fat. In my book I quote the following she wrote on the feeding challenges for mothers from her first edition of 'Fat is a Feminist Issue' (1978):
"[As mothers] women experience particular pressure over food and eating… To the tune of billions of dollars a year, the food industry counsels [a mother] on how, when and what she should feed her charges… [such] that the housewife is presented with a list of ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ so contradictory that it is a wonder that anything gets produced in the kitchen at all. It is not surprising that a woman quickly learns not to trust her own impulses, either in feeding her family or in listening to her own needs when she feeds herself."
I agree women need to get back to cooking (many of us never stopped), ideally with family help with the more tedious bits, in order to avoid the various traps set by Big Food, like the 'sugar free' fruit juices sweetened by fruit juice concentrate that we now know is essentially sugar, with the skins - where all the nutrients and fibre are - removed in the processing.
I totally agree veganism has become a Big Food con, largely based on UPFs wrongly sold as healthy and planet friendly, and I have seen first hand its terrible effects on young women, from ruined hair to, early onset osteoporosis and unnatural breast growth attributed to soya beans mimicking oestrogen in the body. Definitely more research and writing needed there.
It's a bloody big battle to be sure. Bigger than trans, in many ways. I'll drop the link to my book here, if you don't mind. Hopefully we can have a longer chat about the battle at some later time: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0473697769?ref_=mr_referred_us_au_nz
It really is a massive subject! Thank you for all these thoughts, absolutely brilliant! I would really like to read your book, maybe you could write a guest post at some point? Meanwhile here is the UK amazon link for your book if anyone is wanting a copy in this part of the world..
Thank you so much for the book plug Milli! And the link. Silly me not putting the local one in. I do think you would enjoy my book and I yours. Mine is the product of four years of fairly solid writing and researching, and another of publishing. There is quite a lot of memoir in it too, from my eating disorders that made me interfile for several years, to my difficult relationship with my daughter (now 29) around her diet and weight, both underweight and over, as well as eight years of veganism. 🙄Food and fat are huge issues for modern Western women. Women and girls have far more eating disorders than our brothers do, and, as you say, we are much more likely to be extremely obese (regular obesity rates are quite similar between men and women). But as well as having significantly higher rates of extreme obesity, we also have much higher rates of anorexia and underweight, with a number of tragic deaths every year from anorexia - and equally tragic extreme-obesity related deaths of young women too, of course. NZ lost its leading fat activist and lecturer in Fat Studies during Covid. She was 40 and her death was not attributed to Covid directly, rather a heart attack. So very sad and poignant. I also have a section on 'thin privilege' and 'thin shaming' in my book, as they work to complicate and confuse the female body battle in the age of 'body positivity' messaging and the evils of Big Food that push us relentlessly to overeat. The Economist this week has an excellent article on the recently discovered health-giving properties of breast milk, including the ability to fight cancer cells. But Big Food is positively ramming formula down the necks of newborns across the world, more every year. Shame on them! Because prem babies fed formula do less well than those fed breast milk, including being at greater risk of fatality. Breast feeding is also extremely good for managing the mother's weight. In my view the whole economy needs to be reset so that working mums can still feed their babies if they choose to. I look into this a little in my book too.
But yes, a big battle and a massive subject. I'm glad to be in the trenches with you. Sacha XX
Sacha, your book sounds great, and I’ll definitely get a copy.
Interesting about breastfeeding (I was in those trenches for decades as a bfc).
The ‘fat positivity’ movement is like the Fed is Best stuff (which aims to counter breastfeeding promotion). I think both highlight the way mainstream ideas of health (being fat has health risks; breastfeeding is good for mother & baby) seem impossible to support, promote & protect without the drawback that women/mothers will feel personally criticised & belittled.
We need, of course, environmental change so it’s easy to eat moderately, to prepare food healthily…and to breastfeed freely & comfortably.
Hi Heather. I appreciate the comment and interest in my book, and yes, breast-feeding has been entirely underrated and under-studied until very recently. As a breast feeding counsellor you will be much more aware of this and of the frustrations too of having to compete with Big Formula's marketing reach and cunning. I know a bit about the 'fed is best' promotion, and yes, it is rather like the 'body positivity' movement that markets the illusion of a freedom based on freeing women from the pressure to consider what is healthy, even selling us the idea that weight doesn't matter to health. But it is a short-term 'freedom' won with increasingly serious longer term costs and all mercilessly exploited by Big Food. Formula is not free like breastmilk, after all. But today, after such aggressive formula marketing, and despite the best efforts of La Leche League, only one in four US babies are exclusively breastfed for the first six months, the recommended minimum. The negative health effects on the mothers of missing this natural weight control and general health benefit is almost more regrettable than the reduced health for their babies. The lack of research on the benefits of breastmilk and breastfeeding for mother and baby is described in that Economist article I mentioned as 'one of the great embarrassments of scientific history'. Indeed. But few mothers in the US where they don't really have any paid maternity leave are able to feed their babies for the first six months, with a quarter of mothers being financially forced to return to work when their babies are just two weeks old. I also wonder if this Economist article (female editor in chief) is in some part in response to the absurd claims recently made that the chemically induced 'milk' men produce is just as nutritious for babies as mother's milk is, a claim the BBC published. That's what happens when men are allowed to run the show, even to the extent that breastmilk was assumed to be 'largely sterile' until just 15 years ago, when it is in fact packed with good bacteria that may now prove valuable for treating a variety of conditions, including cancer. Anyway, I could go on and on - and do in my book! I think I will sub on this, so I'll leave it there for now. Thanks again for the feedback. I hope you enjoy the book. XX
The first thing that struck me is that in just four stages we go from "food" to something that barely resembles the thing it derives from in either the way it looks or what it provides our bodies!
I was raised very much in a "you are what you eat" and preparing food takes from 2-4 hours of my day depending on what I'm cooking/preparing for - I do this because my health and that of my family is important to me and was ingrained in me from a young age to eat "real food". I can see how my life would be easier with packaged foods but having lived on variations of processed food when I was at university or on work trips or similar I know I quickly feel "sluggish" and tired and like I need a massive salad to get myself moving.
The illusion that upf is "easier" is one the patriarchy has easily convinced women of... Removing the skills passed from mother to child (usually girls but also boys) of "how" to cook even the simplest things, so many women I know just don't have the confidence to cook let alone teach their children! "Home economics" as a subject is no longer taught at school - the GCSE food technology classes I had in the late 90's involved more "designing" packaging for food products than actual cooking and I was marked on the presentation of my drawings (and I am crap at art!) rather than my ability to create an edible healthy meal! The only subject I got a C in despite being so confident the teacher never came near me in practical lessons simply because I couldn't draw food 🤦🏻♀️ but I could cook a full weeks worth of meals for my family if I wanted age 16 because my parents taught me!
I'm so lucky to have had my upbringing and avoiding these foods.
A good rant. The school thing is spot on. That is a vital piece of this puzzle and the problem is UPF companies get their claws into all such ventures and use them to normalise the shite they make!! Arghhhh!!!
Also made me think about the link between pcos and diabetes that I've recently come across - if a woman is eating UPF which will definitely effect blood sugar then ovulation becomes irregular and in turn PCOS is an indicator for future diabetes according to one study I found... So if it was diagnosed sooner and managed with diet then the woman could avoid diabetes... Feels a bit like upf companies and pharma are hand in hand here tho!
Thank you for this. I have noticed that when I am traveling in places where UPF is not the usual, I only eat twice a day. I have no interest in more, which I figure is because I'm getting more micronutrients, plus the real sensory experience rather than an artificial one. A similar study has been done with infants, and if they drink formula, they will eat more calories than if they get human milk in the bottle. We do what we have to as moms, but it's a good reason to provide better support to those who want to breastfeed.
I didn't know that about formula, how interesting! I breastfed my daughter's on demand, I had no idea how much they had as pumping was far too much effort for me but they thrived so I carried on! I wish more women could do it and be supported too!
There was a big wholefoods movement in 1970s and 80s. Hippy not specifically feminist but with crossover. Lots of shops selling stuff like brown rice that was then hard to get hold of. Pre Holland & Barrett and huge supermarkets. Some of these wholefood/healthfood shops still survive but supplements etc seem to be main income now. Which I guess we need as UPF doesn't have the nutrients
The rise of ready meals I think is more due to increase in women working so lack of time. Only very indirectly a result of feminism. Women were pushed into work by rise of consumerism and increasing house prices so 2 incomes needed.
Yes although a lot of the first ready meals etc eg Swanson were marketed during the 'housewife' era. But I guess there's an overlap as a lot of women at that time were working, in spite of the image we have of the 1950s. xx
Not heard of Swanson - is that USA? As a kid in UK in early 1970s the only ready meals I can remember (apart from fish fingers and baked beans!) were Vesta - packets with dried ‘curry’ or ‘chow mein’. Felt like sophistication to then. Then as freezers became more common there were frozen shepherds pie, lasagne etc. But much less than we have now
I read somewhere once that that you shouldn't eat anything your Grandma wouldn't recognize as food and think that's not a bad generalization.
Milli have you looked at the work of Marion Nestle (yeah, I know, unfortunate surname!)? https://www.foodpolitics.com/about/ She has been on this for many years now.
And I am happy to learn that one of the topics your book is covering is the environmental impact of food choices, especially in regard to breastfeeding (or not). In addition to all the known risks of formula feeding (o both maternal and infant health), another important factor is the huge climate footprint that formula feeding generates. Starting with dairy cows and ending with cans/plastic scoops, etc., in landfills, formula costs the planet are overwhelming. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9180168/
Hi Millie, great , informative article as always! I would love to pre-order your book but have been boycotting Amazon for a while. Is there another online site I can buy it from? Or from you directly? Book sounds really fab!
thanks for this excellent summary which I can pass on to other women (and men, thus all in all - people) when the subjects pops up more and more in the Netherlands and Belgium :-)
One question about Nova 1 foods: you list under "minimally processed" food "milk". However, literally all store-bought milk has been substantially altered through pasteurization and homogenization. I link to an article here that shows that allergies (when people say they are allergic against milk) typically comes from the altered proteins through pasteurization, and homogenization atomizes the fat particles in milk so much that they can pass through the gut wall and enter the blood stream, which also causes allergenic reactions.
For me, all milk treated like that should be classified at least as "processed".
Similar for eggs - it depends hugely what the chickens eat - soy, grains and added sh....? Or are they free to roam in grass and mainly eat insects and get fed rests from whole food meals, and other things like pieces of liver?
So my question mainly is - the way even the Nova 1 foods are produced matters hugely to what is inside.
Thanks for this and good luck with your FiLiA talk tonight! I'd love to be there.
Your book and mine on women's diet and weight battles as 'the fatter sex' programmed, with a slower metabolism, to store 50% more body fat than our brothers are, have a lot of cross-over material. I look forward to reading yours.
You asked if we know of any other women pushing against Big Food back in the 70s and I immediately thought of Susie Orbach, who was one of the first eating-disorder counsellors and of course the first to see that women have specific and indeed feminist issues around food and fat. In my book I quote the following she wrote on the feeding challenges for mothers from her first edition of 'Fat is a Feminist Issue' (1978):
"[As mothers] women experience particular pressure over food and eating… To the tune of billions of dollars a year, the food industry counsels [a mother] on how, when and what she should feed her charges… [such] that the housewife is presented with a list of ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ so contradictory that it is a wonder that anything gets produced in the kitchen at all. It is not surprising that a woman quickly learns not to trust her own impulses, either in feeding her family or in listening to her own needs when she feeds herself."
I agree women need to get back to cooking (many of us never stopped), ideally with family help with the more tedious bits, in order to avoid the various traps set by Big Food, like the 'sugar free' fruit juices sweetened by fruit juice concentrate that we now know is essentially sugar, with the skins - where all the nutrients and fibre are - removed in the processing.
I totally agree veganism has become a Big Food con, largely based on UPFs wrongly sold as healthy and planet friendly, and I have seen first hand its terrible effects on young women, from ruined hair to, early onset osteoporosis and unnatural breast growth attributed to soya beans mimicking oestrogen in the body. Definitely more research and writing needed there.
It's a bloody big battle to be sure. Bigger than trans, in many ways. I'll drop the link to my book here, if you don't mind. Hopefully we can have a longer chat about the battle at some later time: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0473697769?ref_=mr_referred_us_au_nz
Cheers, SJ :-)
It really is a massive subject! Thank you for all these thoughts, absolutely brilliant! I would really like to read your book, maybe you could write a guest post at some point? Meanwhile here is the UK amazon link for your book if anyone is wanting a copy in this part of the world..
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fatter-Sex-Battle-Womens-Weight/dp/0473697769
xxx
Thank you so much for the book plug Milli! And the link. Silly me not putting the local one in. I do think you would enjoy my book and I yours. Mine is the product of four years of fairly solid writing and researching, and another of publishing. There is quite a lot of memoir in it too, from my eating disorders that made me interfile for several years, to my difficult relationship with my daughter (now 29) around her diet and weight, both underweight and over, as well as eight years of veganism. 🙄Food and fat are huge issues for modern Western women. Women and girls have far more eating disorders than our brothers do, and, as you say, we are much more likely to be extremely obese (regular obesity rates are quite similar between men and women). But as well as having significantly higher rates of extreme obesity, we also have much higher rates of anorexia and underweight, with a number of tragic deaths every year from anorexia - and equally tragic extreme-obesity related deaths of young women too, of course. NZ lost its leading fat activist and lecturer in Fat Studies during Covid. She was 40 and her death was not attributed to Covid directly, rather a heart attack. So very sad and poignant. I also have a section on 'thin privilege' and 'thin shaming' in my book, as they work to complicate and confuse the female body battle in the age of 'body positivity' messaging and the evils of Big Food that push us relentlessly to overeat. The Economist this week has an excellent article on the recently discovered health-giving properties of breast milk, including the ability to fight cancer cells. But Big Food is positively ramming formula down the necks of newborns across the world, more every year. Shame on them! Because prem babies fed formula do less well than those fed breast milk, including being at greater risk of fatality. Breast feeding is also extremely good for managing the mother's weight. In my view the whole economy needs to be reset so that working mums can still feed their babies if they choose to. I look into this a little in my book too.
But yes, a big battle and a massive subject. I'm glad to be in the trenches with you. Sacha XX
Sacha, your book sounds great, and I’ll definitely get a copy.
Interesting about breastfeeding (I was in those trenches for decades as a bfc).
The ‘fat positivity’ movement is like the Fed is Best stuff (which aims to counter breastfeeding promotion). I think both highlight the way mainstream ideas of health (being fat has health risks; breastfeeding is good for mother & baby) seem impossible to support, promote & protect without the drawback that women/mothers will feel personally criticised & belittled.
We need, of course, environmental change so it’s easy to eat moderately, to prepare food healthily…and to breastfeed freely & comfortably.
Hi Heather. I appreciate the comment and interest in my book, and yes, breast-feeding has been entirely underrated and under-studied until very recently. As a breast feeding counsellor you will be much more aware of this and of the frustrations too of having to compete with Big Formula's marketing reach and cunning. I know a bit about the 'fed is best' promotion, and yes, it is rather like the 'body positivity' movement that markets the illusion of a freedom based on freeing women from the pressure to consider what is healthy, even selling us the idea that weight doesn't matter to health. But it is a short-term 'freedom' won with increasingly serious longer term costs and all mercilessly exploited by Big Food. Formula is not free like breastmilk, after all. But today, after such aggressive formula marketing, and despite the best efforts of La Leche League, only one in four US babies are exclusively breastfed for the first six months, the recommended minimum. The negative health effects on the mothers of missing this natural weight control and general health benefit is almost more regrettable than the reduced health for their babies. The lack of research on the benefits of breastmilk and breastfeeding for mother and baby is described in that Economist article I mentioned as 'one of the great embarrassments of scientific history'. Indeed. But few mothers in the US where they don't really have any paid maternity leave are able to feed their babies for the first six months, with a quarter of mothers being financially forced to return to work when their babies are just two weeks old. I also wonder if this Economist article (female editor in chief) is in some part in response to the absurd claims recently made that the chemically induced 'milk' men produce is just as nutritious for babies as mother's milk is, a claim the BBC published. That's what happens when men are allowed to run the show, even to the extent that breastmilk was assumed to be 'largely sterile' until just 15 years ago, when it is in fact packed with good bacteria that may now prove valuable for treating a variety of conditions, including cancer. Anyway, I could go on and on - and do in my book! I think I will sub on this, so I'll leave it there for now. Thanks again for the feedback. I hope you enjoy the book. XX
The first thing that struck me is that in just four stages we go from "food" to something that barely resembles the thing it derives from in either the way it looks or what it provides our bodies!
I was raised very much in a "you are what you eat" and preparing food takes from 2-4 hours of my day depending on what I'm cooking/preparing for - I do this because my health and that of my family is important to me and was ingrained in me from a young age to eat "real food". I can see how my life would be easier with packaged foods but having lived on variations of processed food when I was at university or on work trips or similar I know I quickly feel "sluggish" and tired and like I need a massive salad to get myself moving.
The illusion that upf is "easier" is one the patriarchy has easily convinced women of... Removing the skills passed from mother to child (usually girls but also boys) of "how" to cook even the simplest things, so many women I know just don't have the confidence to cook let alone teach their children! "Home economics" as a subject is no longer taught at school - the GCSE food technology classes I had in the late 90's involved more "designing" packaging for food products than actual cooking and I was marked on the presentation of my drawings (and I am crap at art!) rather than my ability to create an edible healthy meal! The only subject I got a C in despite being so confident the teacher never came near me in practical lessons simply because I couldn't draw food 🤦🏻♀️ but I could cook a full weeks worth of meals for my family if I wanted age 16 because my parents taught me!
I'm so lucky to have had my upbringing and avoiding these foods.
Rant over! This made me super emotional!
A good rant. The school thing is spot on. That is a vital piece of this puzzle and the problem is UPF companies get their claws into all such ventures and use them to normalise the shite they make!! Arghhhh!!!
Also made me think about the link between pcos and diabetes that I've recently come across - if a woman is eating UPF which will definitely effect blood sugar then ovulation becomes irregular and in turn PCOS is an indicator for future diabetes according to one study I found... So if it was diagnosed sooner and managed with diet then the woman could avoid diabetes... Feels a bit like upf companies and pharma are hand in hand here tho!
there's a lot about PCOS in the book, here's a study about PCOS and UPF.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364224910_Association_between_ultra-processed_foods_and_polycystic_ovary_syndrome_a_case-control_study
Thank you for this. I have noticed that when I am traveling in places where UPF is not the usual, I only eat twice a day. I have no interest in more, which I figure is because I'm getting more micronutrients, plus the real sensory experience rather than an artificial one. A similar study has been done with infants, and if they drink formula, they will eat more calories than if they get human milk in the bottle. We do what we have to as moms, but it's a good reason to provide better support to those who want to breastfeed.
I didn't know that about formula, how interesting! I breastfed my daughter's on demand, I had no idea how much they had as pumping was far too much effort for me but they thrived so I carried on! I wish more women could do it and be supported too!
There was a big wholefoods movement in 1970s and 80s. Hippy not specifically feminist but with crossover. Lots of shops selling stuff like brown rice that was then hard to get hold of. Pre Holland & Barrett and huge supermarkets. Some of these wholefood/healthfood shops still survive but supplements etc seem to be main income now. Which I guess we need as UPF doesn't have the nutrients
The rise of ready meals I think is more due to increase in women working so lack of time. Only very indirectly a result of feminism. Women were pushed into work by rise of consumerism and increasing house prices so 2 incomes needed.
Yes although a lot of the first ready meals etc eg Swanson were marketed during the 'housewife' era. But I guess there's an overlap as a lot of women at that time were working, in spite of the image we have of the 1950s. xx
Not heard of Swanson - is that USA? As a kid in UK in early 1970s the only ready meals I can remember (apart from fish fingers and baked beans!) were Vesta - packets with dried ‘curry’ or ‘chow mein’. Felt like sophistication to then. Then as freezers became more common there were frozen shepherds pie, lasagne etc. But much less than we have now
I read somewhere once that that you shouldn't eat anything your Grandma wouldn't recognize as food and think that's not a bad generalization.
Milli have you looked at the work of Marion Nestle (yeah, I know, unfortunate surname!)? https://www.foodpolitics.com/about/ She has been on this for many years now.
And I am happy to learn that one of the topics your book is covering is the environmental impact of food choices, especially in regard to breastfeeding (or not). In addition to all the known risks of formula feeding (o both maternal and infant health), another important factor is the huge climate footprint that formula feeding generates. Starting with dairy cows and ending with cans/plastic scoops, etc., in landfills, formula costs the planet are overwhelming. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9180168/
thanks I will check that out xx
Hi Millie, great , informative article as always! I would love to pre-order your book but have been boycotting Amazon for a while. Is there another online site I can buy it from? Or from you directly? Book sounds really fab!
Thanks Irene. You should be able to preorder it from whereever you get your books usually. And FiLiA have it in their feminist library here: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/ultra-processed-women-milli-hill/7673977?ean=9780008721794
Thank you for supporting it! xx
Hi Milli, thanks so much for the link. Just pre-ordered your book :) Hope your daughter is feeling better and you managed to get some rest. X
Hello Milli,
thanks for this excellent summary which I can pass on to other women (and men, thus all in all - people) when the subjects pops up more and more in the Netherlands and Belgium :-)
One question about Nova 1 foods: you list under "minimally processed" food "milk". However, literally all store-bought milk has been substantially altered through pasteurization and homogenization. I link to an article here that shows that allergies (when people say they are allergic against milk) typically comes from the altered proteins through pasteurization, and homogenization atomizes the fat particles in milk so much that they can pass through the gut wall and enter the blood stream, which also causes allergenic reactions.
For me, all milk treated like that should be classified at least as "processed".
https://www.realmilk.com/good-news-for-allergies/
Similar for eggs - it depends hugely what the chickens eat - soy, grains and added sh....? Or are they free to roam in grass and mainly eat insects and get fed rests from whole food meals, and other things like pieces of liver?
So my question mainly is - the way even the Nova 1 foods are produced matters hugely to what is inside.
Looking forward to reading your book!