Avoiding UPFs at breakfast

In addition to getting a toaster, I’d cook up some sausage and bacon the night before and refrigerate it so that the 9 year-old can just pop it in the microwave for them.

Or breakfast casserole, as someone said. I had a fantastic one a few weeks ago. She cut potatoes into cubes and put them in a casserole dish, then whisked a bunch of eggs and poured it in. Then sliced sausage and shredded cheese on top. Once it was baked the bottom layer was the potatoes held together with scrambled eggs and the top was the sausage held together with cheese.

This thread has encouraged me to order a glass container and make some homemade granola.

I used to like the supermarket stuff but increasingly don’t like most of them them whereas I’ve dry roasted oats and almonds and thrown in some honey for a very simple one portion granola and it tasted so good.

So I think I’ll sit and have a proper go of making granola and make a large enough proton to last a week.

I have liked one or two supermarkets granolas though, I just wish I could remember which ones they were 😂

I once knew a family whose children weren’t allowed out of bed until the parents got up. They had to lie there quietly, sometimes for hours.
I knew another family whose children got up far earlier than their parents and at ages 6, 8 & 10 made a gigantic mess in the kitchen making pancakes or waffles or French toast. How they managed to not burn themselves is beyond me, but that kitchen looked like a tornado tore through, with batter dripping off cabinets and in puddles on the floor and syrup everywhere.

Jordans do a really nice no added sugar granola and Lidl do a nut granola, not no added sugar, which is nice a chewy and really fills me up but is naturally lower in sugar than most cereals.

After staying in a nice hotel in the alps that had a muesli bar, I decided to be decadent and make my own for home. I bought several glass jars and have filled them with homemade granola base (basically just toasted rye, wheat, oats, barley flakes), different nuts, seeds and some dried fruits. I add fresh fruit and either kefir or Greek yoghurt. I don’t eat breakfast, but I like the novelty of having a sort of pick n mix snack. I also take it as a packed lunch when I can’t be bothered making anything more time consuming. My current homemade granola has tons of honey baked into it, so quite a sugar fest, but it’s so tasty, full of fibre and no UPFs.

Yes, Chris van Tulleken is making quite a career out of the whole UPF thing. But maybe that's part of what PP was referring to as the grift.

I recommend this podcast, by a respected scientist and science writer, for some sober evaluation of UPFs: www.thestudiesshowpod.com/p/episode-6-ultra-processed-foods

Back when mine were children cereals were full of sugar, and yet in their 30s now and have never had any work on their teeth , they are ultra healthy and so are any other person from that time I know.

Most adults are overwheight so the people you know are actually in the minority. So a lot of people might not look unhealthy they still might be.
While most of the children 30 years ago were a normal weight most adults aren't so something most have gone wrong somewhere.
I reckon the healthy eating habits we install in children will lead them to healthy eating habits as an adult. Kids who grow up with UPF, oversized portions and snacking will likely become adults who do the same.

Or, to flip that around, be mindful of people sat behind a screen slagging others for being 'obsessed' for trying to minimise unhealthy food when in reality they are obese and unhealthy themselves.

Which bit of them exactly is non-UPF???

My mum is a dietitian and I used to have oats, dairy free milk & yoghurt & mum used to stew apples and cinnamon and keep in a Tupperware in the fridge. (Allergic to dairy)

all cold as mum still thinks microwaves encourage lazy eating (plus kitchen was small.)

it’s alright. Still eat it now but not every morning. Sometimes the stewed fruit would run out and we’d have jam. Homemade jam but still it had to be sweet to keep in jars.

Hard boiled eggs?

If it makes you better OP, one of mine eats virtually all beige food. So on a bad day, white toast and butter for breakfast, a ham and cheese toastie or egg and bacon sandwich for lunch and nuggets and chips for supper.
They'd starve if I banned UPFs.

Please take a look at anything Dr Chris Van Tullekan has published or his TV clips. You don’t know what you don’t know. Once you DO know about the huge range of unecessary additives (chemicals) added in to our food (UPF), I think most would change their minds.

Yoghurt, weetabix and get a toaster.

Buy better bread, better cereals, yoghurt and fruit
Do you have an air fryer so they can warm up rolls
But seriously you might be overthinking, it depends what they eat the rest of the time
If they are troughing half a box of frosties and 2 pain au chocolat each day that's different
Also, monkeys (and hobbits) have second breakfasts. If they are up at the crack they might need two however nutritious.

Muesli and milk. I've got some Dorset Cereals muesli at the moment and the ingredients are what you'd put in if you made it yourself.

My kids love bircher muesli. It's a bit like overnight oats but nicer.

Rude Health sell loads of non upfront cereals but they don't go down the same as rice krispies etc.

Many supermarkets I've found sell non or minimal UPF bread ready sliced. You don't need to make your own. Tesco does a sourdough loaf with no emulsifier or preservative, Sainsburys does ciabatta, pitta and a few loaves along the same lines - they might contain some ascorbic acid or barley malt. Lots sell Jason's bread (but it needs toasting).

Obviously your own bread may taste better and be slightly less processed but you don't need to go to a hipster bakery and spend 6 quid on a loaf to get something half decent. Just read the labels.

@Ayechinnyreckon why do you/your family buy breakfast cereals and other processed stuff if you don't want the children eating it?

https://www.themediterraneandish.com/spanish-tortilla-recipe/

make ahead Spanish omelette

Or do like the rest of Europe, where children have cakes and biscuits dipped in milk. We are so obsessive about food in this country, and still never get it right.

simple-veganista.com/banana-chia-pudding/

so Good to hear this - I was about to ask about this brand as it’s the only one I buy but haven’t really looked at the ingredients. I just prefer the way it tastes compared to other ones I’ve tried to far.

I’m no expert but anecdotally UPFs made me unwell in my 20s, or at least contributed to my feelings of extreme fatigue and painful gut /digestive issues. I was living in a flatshare with selfish flatmates who would hog the kitchen with their boyfriends and I resorted to eating all frozen pizza, microwave food etc just so I’d be in and out quickly.

I think there were other contributing factors to my feelings of illness, but it’s likely this played a large part. I went to Thailand for a month and only ate freshly cooked pad Thai, rice dishes smoothies, banana pancakes and didn’t touch any crisps, chocolate or highly processed foods and immediately felt better. Like a lot better! No fatigue, I was walking about 20k steps a day and the guy issues had vanished too. Again it was probably the weather and getting away from work too, but I think the relative lack of UPFs in my diet was a key factor.

My own home baking doesn’t leave me feeling as sluggish as when I buy supermarket stuff.

chia puddings, again some interesting recipes and batch make them in glass jars for 3/4 days