Dr Chris van Tulleken

TV medical doctor and health campaigner Dr Chris van Tulleken, who is being made an Honorary Doctor of the University at this year’s University of Sussex Winter Graduation, talks about the fun of Operation Ouch! and the serious side of ultra-processed food.

Dr Chris van Tulleken is an infectious diseases doctor at University College London Hospital (UCLH) – and is also one of broadcast’s leading and liveliest science presenters.

For more than ten years he and his twin brother, Xand (also a doctor) have presented Operation Ouch!, a BAFTA-winning children’s TV series that explains the workings of the human body – much of which has been filmed at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS).

With the help of the anatomy team – including Professor Claire Smith, who is Head of Anatomy and Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor (Education and Innovation), University of Sussex –  Chris and Xand have demonstrated medical science with madcap experiments and fun explanations, from dissecting body parts to filming a burp.

“I really enoy it," he says. "Claire has become the official Operation Ouch! anatomist and created this incredible anatomy research programme for kids all over the country.”

Claire, whose daughter Hermione was the programme’s first willing ‘sample’ in an experiment that showed children have twice as many taste buds as adults, says: “I was initially contacted by the TV production company to see if I would be an expert and was asked to help them dissect an intestine. 

“BSMS Anatomy has produced all the dissections for Operation Ouch!. Chris and I also co-presented a teenage Operation Ouch! special on the liver. The experiments and dissections have become more adventurous and we have now covered so many bits of the body!”

Ultra-processed food

In tandem with the show, which continues to educate and entertain pre-teens – if not all age ranges – Chris and Xand also host a popular science podcast, A Thorough Examination, and have co-presented documentaries examining health issues and theories.

But they also pursue individual projects. For Chris, it is the harm being caused by ultra-processed foods (UPF) – such as fizzy drinks, ice-cream and burgers – that is currently concerning him the most.

In 2023 he published Ultra-Processed People, an exposé on how ultra-processed foods that contain industrial substances not used in home kitchens now pervade our diet and contribute to obesity and ill health. 

The book followed on from a TV documentary Chris made about children’s diets and has become a highly acclaimed bestseller.

“Our poor diet nationally and globally leads to early death,” he says. “In the UK it’s a catastrophic problem for children. These foods are directly marketed at children and yet we now know they increase your chances of developing diseases such as cancer, type II diabetes, dementia, inflammatory disorders – as well as causing obesity.” 

He wants to see “a very light touch regulation”, such as adding black octagon warning labels to harmful foods that contain substances such as artificial sweeteners.

But he is also calling for an end to governments and charities having a financial interest in the food industry – such as the British Nutrition Foundation receiving funding from multiple UPF manufacturers.

Hold power to account

“I feel the role of government is to protect the population form the predation of different industries,” he says. “We need a cultural change. We need to see these companies the way we see tobacco companies. Their money is dirty, and if we accept their money, we become part of the marketing division of the companies.”

Although Chris and Xand were partly inspired to go into the medical profession through their dad, an industrial designer, introducing them to the anatomy of chicken legs, it was only after studying medicine at the University of Oxford in the 1990s that Chris says he began to understand how external factors really affected people’s health.

“It’s been a long journey to see that the privileged system I came from was wrong.  My subsequent career has been about making amends for that. I am ashamed of my total lack of engagement as to why my patients came to me in the first place. They were poorly because they were born in set of circumstances that leads to ill health.

“Medicine has seemed to be about technical fixes to physiological problems. We need to re-engage with social and political causes.”

In his position, both as a professional scientist and as science communicator, he feels compelled to highlight flaws and misdirection in medical practice, and “to hold power to account”. 

While he believes the public still trusts doctors, his advice to medical graduates is not to be lured into creating science that supports commercial interests or “selling widgets”.

“If you want to change the world there is no more powerful degree than a medical degree,” he says. “The most fun in my life is having a voice and being part of a group of incredible scientists and activist who want to improve everything, from the environment to public health to social justice.”

Chris, who has also delivered lectures at BSMS, collaborated on medical research, and engaged with students in their own studies, has received wide praise from colleagues at the medical school.

Dr Chi Eziefula, Senior Lecturer in Infectious Diseases at BSMS, says: “From his engaging explanations to young generations about how bodies work, through to challenging industry and governments on what should be done to protect global health, Chris is an inspirational science communicator. Working with him is also great fun!”

In reaction to receiving an honorary degree this week, Chris says: “There is no other university medical schooI would rather get an honorary degree from.”