Why you should give a sh*t about our cheese
It's February on a sunny Bondi rooftop. Tunes, good vibes, and Raina on the grill cooking steak. It's medium rare. We go downstairs to drink some water when Raina says I have a business idea. As someone who is obsessed with startups, I am intrigued. She says 'it's cottage cheese'. I say oh?
Weeks go by. I am doing my millennial Harris Farm stroll and take note of the cottage cheese on grocery shelves. I pick up Bulla and read the ingredient list. I am floored. ITS FULL OF SH*T: thickeners - guar gum, xanthan gum, locust bean gum, processed eucheuma seaweed. Seaweed??? Acidity regulators, preservative 202 - numbers as food???
My personal 'Come to Jesus' moment on the cottage cheese aisle in Australia comes at a time when there is growing blowback to Ultraprocessed Foods (UPFs) globally.
The author of 'Ultra-Processed People' Chris van Tulleken defines UPFs by this rule of thumb: if it's wrapped in plastic and has at least one ingredient you wouldn't find in your kitchen, it's UPF. UPFs include packaged snacks, fizzy drinks, sugary cereals, ready-to-eat or ready meals, protein bars, and foods that undergo multiple industrial processes and often contain colours, emulsifiers, flavours and other additives. UPFs now make up more than half the average diet in countries such as the UK and US.
Now for the real shocka - bowel cancer. Bowel cancer isn't just rising - it's targeting the young. No shit. Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death globally with over 900,000 deaths in 2022, according to the World Health Organization. The highest instances are in Australia/New Zealand. Not only is bowel cancer increasing in every age cohort under 50, the growth rate is highest amongst 20-somethings. UPFs are directly in the frame: a landmark Harvard/Tufts study tracking over 200,000 people for up to 28 years found men in the highest bracket of ultra-processed food consumption had a 29% higher risk of bowel cancer than those eating the least.
Another major study published in the British Medical Journal highlighted emulsifiers, additives and artificial sweeteners commonly found in ultra-processed foods – ALL OF THEM IN BULLA YES IM THROWING SHADE - have been shown in animal studies (sad) to promote intestinal inflammation and tumour growth. I am writing this with emotional language but these are facts.
1964 was the year the world could no longer deny smoking caused cancer but doctors had seen the warning signs three decades earlier.
It's 2026 and ultra-processed food is giving ciggys a run for their money.
Another landmark study (Lane et al., BMJ, 2024), pulled together 45 analyses across nearly 10 million people. Results showed higher exposure to ultra-processed food was linked to an increased risk of 32 separate adverse health outcomes (!!!). Of particular note:
50% increased risk of cardiovascular disease-related death
21% greater risk of death from any cause - or more dramatically worded - 1-in-5 higher chance of dying early tied to high UPF intake.
40 to 66% increased risk of heart disease related death, obesity, type 2 diabetes and sleep problems
22% increased risk of depression, and
44% greater risk of dementia (separate study of 867,316 participants found here)
THIS GOES WAY DEEPER THAN COTTAGE CHEESE.
But Australian cottage cheese is something we could DO something about.
Cultcha™ has just four, whole, clean ingredients: milk, cream, salt, and live cultures. Simple the way food should be.
This is a revolution. Cottage cheese is just the start. Let f*ckn go.
Sources
https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj-2021-068921
https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj-2023-077310
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00415-023-12033-1
