Best summer books of 2023: Health and wellness
Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food . . . and Why Can’t We Stop? by Chris van Tulleken (Cornerstone Press)
The bestselling polemic by doctor and television presenter van Tulleken argues that rising obesity rates are not down to a failure of willpower but instead the consequence of food corporations marketing “industrially produced edible substance”. These ultra-processed foods are tasty and cheap — but seem to bypass the body’s ability to regulate intake. Warning: may trigger the compulsive checking of ingredients on food packaging.
Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise Healthcare by Annabel Sowemimo (Wellcome Collection)
Racism is still rife in a health system weighed down by a legacy of eugenics, unethical experimentation and egregious inequality, writes black doctor Sowemimo in this important plea to decolonise modern medicine. Whether it is childbirth, depression, skin cancer or sexual health, black patients are treated differently from their white peers. Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing.
Tell us what you think
What are your favourites from this list — and what books have we missed? Tell us in the comments below
Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children by Hannah Barnes (Swift Press)
Also deservedly shortlisted for the same accolade is this forensic and disturbing account of the rise and fall of London’s Tavistock clinic, a flagship NHS centre for children questioning their gender identity. Using extensive interviews and documentary evidence, investigative journalist Barnes pieces together how concerns about puberty blockers were sidelined and internal disquiet ignored. Patient stories punctuate a tale of catastrophic institutional failure.
Summer Books 2023
All this week, FT writers and critics share their favourites. Some highlights are:
Monday: Environment by Pilita Clark
Tuesday: Economics by Martin Wolf
Wednesday: Fiction by Laura Battle
Thursday: Critics’ picks
Friday: Politics by Gideon Rachman
Saturday: History by Tony Barber
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