I thought this might mildly interest folks here, as Xand is the brother that Chris van Tulleken refers to in Ultra Processed People.

What challenges did you come up against, how did you respond, what do you know now that you didn't know then.

Hello everyone, welcome to the book club discussion post! (More about why we're trialling a book club here)

This month we have read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Share your thoughts on the book below.

You might find the following prompts helpful to start the conversation:

• Takeaways & Critiques: What was your biggest takeaway or "aha!" moment from the book? Was there anything Pollan argued that you strongly disagreed with?
• Nutritionism Today: How do you see "nutritionism" used to market ultra-processed foods?
• Foodlike Substances vs. NOVA 4: How closely aligned is Pollan's concept of "edible foodlike substances" with the NOVA Group 4 definition of ultra-processed food? Where do the concepts differ?
• Evaluating the Rules: Are Pollan's rules useful? Where do they fall short?
• Eating Culture: Do you feel that modern UPFs - specifically hyper-convenient, single-serving "on-the-go" foods - have dismantled shared meal culture, or are they just a symptom of it?
• International Perspective: If you are reading from outside the US, how well did Pollan's observations reflect the food environment in your country?

Looking forward to reading everyone's thoughts in the comments!

By pressure, I mean the force of their face/mouth pushing against yours. I'm trying to work out if I'm the one with weird preferences, as I like basically no pressure, or if I've just kissed mostly outliers.

I've kissed 2 women so far (both on the second date), and about 5 men (my ex boyfriend plus some other randoms in a club). I was blindsided by how forcefully both women kissed - like pushing hard against my face. The kiss with the first woman was like kissing a wood pecker, she was repeatedly pecking with a lot of pressure, but not parting her lips or doing anything differently each time. I thought she was trying to go for a bit of tongue but was hestitant of actually initiating, so I went in with some tongue and ended up licking her lips. Awful. The kiss with the second woman was like a single extended smush, with her arm very firmly around my back, and I found it a bit unpleasant. She texted me after to apologise for it being awkward, which gives me hope that that isn't her usual style.

I really prefer kisses where you can feel your lips moving against each other, but without any feeling of pushing or being pushed on. That's how me and me ex boyfriend kissed and I liked those kisses. For context, the other men I've kissed were also more forceful, but I just assumed that was becuase we were drunk in clubs. But now, I'm wondering what's considered "normal", as the kisses with more pressure seem to be much more common than the soft and gentle kisses I prefer.

Hi everyone,

As a mod team, we’ve been thinking about ways to deepen the discussions here on r/ultraprocessedfood. While the practical advice shared here is great, we know a lot of us are also interested in the politics, history, and psychology behind why our food system looks the way it does.

To tap into that, we are officially launching the r/ultraprocessedfood Book Club!

How it's going to work:

• The Trial: We are running this first one as a pilot to see how much the community enjoys it. If it’s a hit, we'll do it monthly.
• Book Selection: To keep the book club aligned with the spirit of this community, the mod team will be curating the future book choices.
• Timeline: This post is just the heads-up so you have time to read the book. In two weeks' time, we will drop the official discussion thread pinned to the top of the sub, complete with some specific prompts to spark everyone's thoughts. We'll keep it up till the end of the month, to give everyone a chance to participate.

Our First Pick: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

Our first book was actually released in 2008, one year before the NOVA classification system was first proposed by Carlos A. Monteiro and other researchers. Despite that, you will find it has some uncanny similaries with the way we now talk about ultra processed food.

Wikipedia summary:

In the book, Pollan explores the relationship between nutritionism and the Western diet, postulating that the answer to healthy eating is simply to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Pollan argues that nutritionism as an ideology has overcomplicated and harmed American eating habits. He says that rather than focusing on eating nutrients, people should focus on eating the sort of food that their ancestors would recognize, implying that much of what Americans eat today is not real food, but "imitations of food". In the book, he distinguishes between food and "edible foodlike substances".

Potential Future Picks:

• Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson
• The Missing Ingredient: The Curious Role of Time in Food and Flavour by Jenny Linford
• The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor by Mark Schatzker

Are you interested? Have a question? Have an idea for how this could run better? Let us know!

A Martian who landed in Crete,

Had plans for the humans he'd meet.

But once he encountered a toaster,

He just couldn't help but look closer,

And forgot which world leader to unseat.