Low UPF diet - to think the experts weren’t lying?

Tyrells Naked crisps (no salt) only have two ingredients so surely not UPF.
Not great for a diet but deals with the crisps cravings in the least unhealthy way 😀

Well I found it really useful - I had no idea of the variety of additives that aren’t even food substances added to our food. I haven’t been able to look at ice cream the same way since.

It wasn’t the only thing I read and I haven’t based my life around 1 book, but it sparked an interest in nutrition for me and led to healthy and sustainable life changes.
I make my own bread, mostly sourdough, but use the bread maker too and eat mainly a Mediterranean style diet with loads of olive oil, nuts and seeds and veg and I feel great. So cutting out UPF for me has been great as now I don’t worry about the random shit someone is putting in my food to make it go further, give it shelf life etc. and I have bags of energy - winner!

Your body processes the food differently.

People generally find they eat less 'real' food because it triggers the brain's "I'm full/satisfied" hormone in a way UPFs don't.

If you feel satisfied from your meal, you're less likely to want cake or biscuits afterwards because your body isn't looking for something to satisfy it.

That's the main difference.

Not all wraps. The Crosta and mollina ones are OK.

I started to make my own bread and I can’t stand the weird airy soft texture of supermarket bread anymore.
once you get the hang of baking bread, it’s pretty easy but you need to be at home for a few hrs.
Biscuits and cakes are pretty easy to make too.
Crisps, I love and can’t make at home.

Argh I hear you on keeping kids full. We’ve agreed a split so that it’s no UPF during the week but relax it a bit at weekends.
We make a loaf of homemade bread about every other day, and I batch cook a load of flapjacks, muffins etc once a week. So much more cooking!! But very satisfying.

Most things that are bought as a ready to eat meal.

We rarely ate UPF when my children were children (they're both adults now). I worked full time and was a single parent but everything was cooked from scratch or batch cooked and frozen.

They once complained that our cupboards were full of 'ingredients' rather than food. By which they meant things had to be combined to make a meal. Pasta sauces were passata, garlic and herbs or creme fraiche, mushrooms, garlic and parmesan rather than from a jar.

Curries were made with a spice blend I'd made myself etc.

I made chicken nuggets, pizzas and meatballs myself.

Nothing came from a jar or a packet or a plastic tray or a bag in the freezer that could be put straight into the oven.

It's impossible to list UPFs because it's everything in the supermarket that you can buy in a bag or a packet or a jar or powdered in a bottle that just needs water adding. Cake mixes that only require an egg.

But yes, wraps, pre made sandwiches are all UPF because they contain ingredients you wouldn't find in your kitchen at home and wouldn't include if you were making it yourself.

Quite, yes.

I think having a few UPFs in a diet with lots of veg and food cooked from.scratch is pretty good. Mostly it's the amount you eat which is important. I seem to be an odd person who doesn't find protein very filling unless it comes with a bit of toast at least. Everyone else on MN seems to find meat fish and veg filling. My problem is I need to eat less than 1400 calories to lose weight effectively, whatever those 1400 calories consist of.

Yes they are better for you - you sound like you are in the zone with dieting - I know this feeling - losing weight, feels easy and effortless and it feels impossible to be any other way.

The key is if it lasts - I have put on weight recently and its down to this sort of eating - its engineered to make you want to eat more.

The fact that homemade roast potatoes cooked in goose fat would be no upf makes me think I could easily get fatter by avoiding upfs

Hovis granary wholemeal is my favourite bread. I've never found a fresh bread to match it and there are no bakeries nearby.

The Yuka app is good and eye opening! You scan barcodes and it tells you the good and bad stuff in food.

So can someone list what is upf? Even wraps ??

I could never not eat crisps and chocolate or consume alcohol. Has to be everything in moderation for me. If I cut things out totally I'd crave them.

Yes, it's good nutrition not to have UPFs. If you eat too much to lose weight though you won't lose weight. Avocados, nuts, oily fish etc are really good for you but I could eat them until they come out of my ears, frankly, and I certainly wouldn't be losing weight if I did that.

Yes, since being treated for cancer 4 years ago, I make my own bread, cook from scratch and eat 30 different fruit & veg a week. I am 61, size 10, feel great. Loads of energy, glowing skin.

I can't bear crisps now, horribly salty. Most preprepared food is heavy, nasty and makes me feel sluggish.

It's great 😊

@AusBoundDD can I ask what your diet used to look like? What UPFs did you eat? Which were the hardest to replace?

I haven’t lost weight since I cut it out for the most part, but I feel SO much better. My brain fog is gone. It comes back when I eat it as a “treat”, making me not really want it anymore.

I'm 64 and I recall a lot of well upholstered women, as my grandad called them, from my childhood. Admittedly, I don't remember people being morbidly obese, but I don't remember people being stick thin either.

My grandmother was 5'. She was always a 16/18, probably the equivalent of a 14 now. She always wore a long line bra and a girdle/corset. She was extremely physically fit. She rode and mucked out every day and pitched in on the farm.

@AusBoundDD I agree - I did similar a couple of years ago giving up: refined carbs, sugar, bad fats and wheat (and cutting down red meat). I lost 2.5st and every bit of eczema disappeared along with aching joints.

I was one of those out to play all day and come back before dark children in the seventies - we didn't take snacks and there was always a queue for the water fountain in the park.
When I collect DGC from school it shocks me to see the amount of packaging and part eaten food in their lunchbox.
At least they have fresh cooked food at home

Ok so you've never liked white bread so no change then and nothing to do with a new UPF diet? Strange that is the case when you said "I can't believe how disgusting white bread is now" but perhaps you'd not tried it since the 70s. It's still not great.

I love pot noodles too. Especially the green one.

Yeah, read the ingredients 😄

Here are three healthier supermarket breads:
Sainsbury's Soft Multiseed Farmhouse, 800g, £1.50.
Hovis Granary Wholemeal, 800g, £2.00.
Sainsbury's Wholemeal, 800g, £0.75.

None of them are exactly as you'd make them at home. But ...

• Sainsbury's Multiseed contains absolutely nothing that isn't recognisably food (Ascorbic Acid is Vitamin C).

• The Hovis features three E-numbers, which are two types of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids and calcium propionate. Not items found in any normal kitchen.

• Sainsbury's Wholemeal has the same E-number ingredients as the Hovis, only this time their names are written out in full.

All three are somewhat more processed than home-made bread, mainly because they're made quickly in a factory and have to be very consistent with a decent shelf life. But two of them are made with industrially-processed substances that are not recognisable as basic foodstuffs.

I have the Sainsbury's Multiseed, it's nicer than my home-made and lasts longer.

Bread in some countries can contain cellulose fibre, made from wood pulp. It's not harmful, but neither is it proper food! It's illegal in the EU & UK.

... bugger, I labelled my screenshots wrong! You can work 'em out, though 🙃

Doubtful, babe - I ate a Pot Noodle last week and it was feckin' LUSH 😂

'Factory' bread is defo weird, tho. Just weirdly fake.

Fresh baguettes are still lush.

Nice try tho.

We eat low UPF at home, not perfect but doing well. However, DH is currently in hospital and I can't believe the amount of absolute shite! Not just what he gets offered, but what is for sale in the cafe. An egg and cress sandwich on wholemeal bread surely doesn't need 60 ingredients FFS.