Exclusive: health experts warn increasing popularity of industrially-made food will lead to negative effects such as obesity and poor health

Half of all the food bought by families in the UK is now “ultra-processed”, made in a factory with industrial ingredients and additives invented by food technologists and bearing little resemblance to the fruit, vegetables, meat or fish used to cook a fresh meal at home.

Research by global nutrition experts reveals the scale of our food evolution, from farm-fresh to factory-manufactured. “Real food” has been replaced by salty snacks and sugary cereals, industrially-made bread and desserts, ready-meals and reconstituted meats alongside sweetened soft drinks.

The study of 19 European countries is published this month in a special issue of the journal Public Health Nutrition. It shows that UK families buy more ultra-processed food than any others in Europe, amounting to 50.7% of the diet. Germany comes second, on 46.2% and then Ireland on 45.9%. While the figures are not directly comparable, extracted from national surveys carried out differently and from different years, the trend is clear.

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Eating leafy greens may help slow mental decline.

Researchers studied 960 men and women ages 58 to 99 who completed food frequency questionnaires and had two or more cognitive assessments over an average of almost five years of follow-up.

Among many other foods, the researchers recorded the number of servings of lettuce, spinach, kale and collard greens. At least twice over the course of the study they administered cognitive tests covering memory, spatial ability and perceptual speed.

Those who ate the most leafy vegetables – one to two servings a day – scored the equivalent of 11 years younger on tests of mental ability than those who ate little or none. Greens contain lutein, folate, beta carotene and other nutrients known to affect aging.

Could the same effect be obtained with supplements containing these nutrients? Probably not. “The evidence for supplements is not positive, either from observational studies or clinical trials,” said the lead author, Martha Clare Morris, a professor of epidemiology at Rush University in Chicago. “The nutrients in food have many different forms and interactions. A specific formulation put in a pill with the same effect? That’s wishful thinking.”

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Some of the most important lessons had nothing to do with cooking.

Sure, I spent most of my time learning the fundamentals of cooking, but I also learned a ton of valuable stuff that helped me become a better professional (and person).

The first thing you should know about working in kitchens (and attending culinary school) is that the dishwasher has a lot of control over your success. Everybody should be treated like a chef — it’s simply a sign of respect. Anthony Bourdain actually talked about being a dishwasher and said it taught him “every important lesson of my life.” Treat every coworker like they’re your superior, and never overlook the people underneath you.

In culinary school, there’s always something productive to do — and they’ve even got a saying: “If you’ve got time to lean, you’ve got time to clean.” Teachers set up classes like a real job, and you’ve gotta learn how to organize your tasks in order to accomplish everything. Map out your days, and think about what takes the longest — if a braise (or an expense report, if that’s more your style) takes two hours to complete, then knock that out first and go from there.

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Val Olson (from left), Rick Kamm, Steve David and Dee Haskins play up to the net during a pickleball game at Monument Valley Park in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2011. Colorado Springs Gazette/MCT via Getty Images hide caption

It’s a bright fall morning in Santa Cruz County, Calif., and the tennis area at Brommer Street Park is overrun with dozens of people. But they aren’t here for tennis. Instead, cadences of pick-pock sounds fill the air as doubles players — many in their 50s and older — whack yellow Wiffle-like balls back and forth on eight minicourts.

This recreational craze, which has an estimated 2.8 million players nationally, has a quirky name: pickleball.

I stumbled across the game last summer, when I started coming to this park to hit the tennis balls around with my dad, who’s still nimble at 87.

Could this upstart racket sport, I wondered, be something my elderly father and I could enjoy together?

My dad has played tennis for fun, for most of his life, but he’s out of practice and slowing down. And with my bum knee and elbow tendinitis, I haven’t played much tennis since high school. He’s still better at the game, though I’m quicker on my feet; we both spend a lot of time trudging around to retrieve wayward balls.

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