UPF.... WTF - I knew it was addictive but didn't realise...

Surely if you live that life of indulgence your health will just fail at an earlier age?
I have relatives (parents generation) in their 80s who are still enjoying life and they are the ones who've stayed active and looked after their health.
Up to you though, you pay your money & take your choice!

I work with old people and it’s utterly shit seeing them age and struggle with their health. Honestly I would rather drink wine every day and eat what I want than live past 80.

Not all processed foods are 'UPFs' though, @Packetofcrispsplease - I wouldn't have thought all curry pastes would be, nor coconut milk.

Gosh some people have really gone crazy about this 'UPF' nonsense haven't they. I suspect it's people who spend too much time online. The rest of the world are just cracking on eating a bit of whatever they fancy and living normal lives.

I don’t eat junk food and takeaway food is rare in our house .
I also don’t like fizzy drinks , and don’t drink alcohol.
I like the odd chocolate and homemade cake ( not necessarily made by me 😆)
But I do think it’s really tricky to completely avoid all UPFs if you’re short of time and you're the only person who cooks and cleans up .
Eg I might make risotto but I’d use one of those stock pots , i might make a curry but use a bought paste + tin of coconut milk

Are you for real?
there is everything wrong with UPFs!! Loads of research coming out to support this and take a look around you at the state of every country with a westernised high UPF diet

What a lot of weird replies on this thread!

I'm similar to you OP and avoid UPF and try to look after myself in general. It's about staying well long term for myself and family, and I just feel better when I eat proper food and move a bit. No idea why that upsets people! I hope I'm as active as you at age 70.

I live abroad in a country where eating well is a bit easier and more affordable. UPF exists but it's not ubiquitous/default. Whenever I visit family in the UK I also end up adopting some of their eating (and lack of exercise) habits - that's the food they buy and I'm hardly going to refuse it. At first I always find the UPF bread and biscuits etc taste pretty weird. But after a week or so I develop a real appetite for it, and then find normal food a bit bland for a while when I go back.

This type of industrially produced food is pumped full of salt and sugar and additives designed intentionally to get us eating more of it, so it's nothing to do with willpower sadly, for you or for the millions of people who eat it day in and day out.

Consider it an experiment and I hope you enjoy getting back to your normal routine.

That does depend on the sort of holidays you have, of course!

There's stupid, and then there's verging on suicidally stupid. This UPF is just really really desperately unhealthy. There's no reason to eat it.

I agree that it’s really, really hard and that’s why I agree with the op. It is awful. Before all this processed and sugary food existed we didn’t have this problem. I’m not blaming you I think the op’s point was that she’s lucky not to have got into that previously.

Re fruit being too sweet. Not sure I buy that. There’s a huge natural variety in fruit. Like berries out of season aren’t sweet at all, but British berries are sooo sweet and tasty.

I hear you .Also holidays ….you loose fitness so quickly

Dramatic much!

It’s a bit of bloat that’s all. Get a bloody grip.

There’s a book Ultra Processed People by Chris van Tulleken.

Well they are not great, tbf

Ultra processed food. Also see book Ultra Processed People.

Nothing wrong with UPFs?

Are you having a laugh???

It’s about your microbiome. You now now have bacteria craving that crap. Candida albicans. Starve the bacteria in your gut for a couple of weeks and they will die off. You’ll be back to normal soon enough

I buy Braeburn apples but it’s difficult to find pineapples that are not “supersweet”

The trademarked fruit is sweeter. The standard priced out of season fruit tastes like potatoes. There is nothing uniform about it. If you don't want the super sweet just don't buy pink ladies or sundowners or whatever equivalent in other fruits.

Bananas haven't changed for over 70 years. They don't feed them to monkeys because of increased understanding of their natural diet rather than them becoming sweeter in that time period. The original commercial banana available until the 50s or so was significantly sweeter and we've had the same cultivar ever since

YABU self righteous and judgemental. Nobody has forced you to do anything.

Personally I prefer sharper and less ripe fruit.

I notice on the packets it says “supersweet” pineapple, cherries bred for “maximum” sweetness and you think why is that better?

Fruit is definitely WAY uniformly sweeter these days than when I was young (and I'm only a young adult). I like it but my family and I have noticed it too, at least in my home country.

From Google: "At the Melbourne Zoo, the monkeys are no longer allowed to eat bananas. And the pandas are getting pellets instead of plums. In fact, fruit has been phased out completely. That's because the fruit that humans have selectively bred over the years has become so full of sugar the zoo's fruitarian animals were becoming obese and losing teeth."

I find fruit too sweet, it’s just the way my tastebuds are and not a judgement on anyone else’s!

I have a bottomless appetite for salt and fat though.