Does anyone have a “normal” diet?

Definitely middle here. DH is a bit obsessed with UHPs in theory and listens to the Zoe podcasts in the car but I do all the food shopping and cooking so middle.

Typical day for me:

Weetabix with semi skimmed milk and raisins (technically a UHP food but full of fibre and no added nonsense)

Sandwich (ham or beef with salad), made of good quality but still supermarket ingredients. Tomato cuppa soup (defo a UHP) and an orange

Dinner: Generally home made (spag bol, curry, chicken salad, tagine etc) but use some shortcuts like pre chopped onions, stock cubes, frozen mash, spice tailor spice kits etc.

Generally have fruit as a snack in the week but may also have a mini Kit Kat or some salt and vinegar snackajax. Haribo, ice cream etc a treat a few times a week. My main vice is lovely lovely wine.

I’m a healthy size 10, 2 young DC and work FT

I presume that I do NOT have a 'normal' diet, in that I eat a lot of canned food & most of it has some upf in it. My understanding of antiUPF thinking is that even 0.000000000001% UPF in a meal contaminates the entire meal and makes it entirely unhealthy (according to antiUPF people), that's how horrible UPF is.

But I disagree & feel my diet is pretty healthy, possibly much healthier than average.

I'm on a weird diet. Trying to reduce sugar and refined carbs, easy at home, not so much when eating out. I have food intolerances, not all of which have been identified. I can't have fatty meat or most cheeses. Although I can eat sheep's and goat's cheese in small quantities.

I have a normal diet, although I’m definitely more towards the healthy side. If I have the time and the ingredients then I’ll be steaming veggies, chopping salad, marinating salmon and toasting sourdough. If I don’t have the time or the ingredients, it’ll be a frozen pizza.

Exactly. It’s like the threads where people argue about what household income is ‘average’ as if average is a subjective thing and not something that’s determined mathematically.

I bake my own sourdough and use the starter in a lot of other things like pancakes / crackers / pizza dough etc but other than that I eat a pretty standard mix of frozen food / home made meals / the odd ready meal and takeaway. Some days no fruit. Some days not much veg. Some days very healthy.

I am pretty healthy most of the time, but the few things I’m never giving up:
I will always get full fat milk and cheese. Get that low fat shit away from me. I rebuke it. And I’m gonna have fried chicken when I’m drunk.

I'd say I have a normal diet

Some uof, but lots of stuff cooked from scratch

Eat meat, alcohol, processed bread etc

Most of us are somewhere in the middle and too busy muddling along with work kids and life to be posting here about UPFs..

tonight mid week dinner was make your own wraps - DH grilled some chicken breast with garlic and curry spices, I cut up some veg and made up garlic yoghurt but then stuffed these into wraps (UPFs!) I reckon we shall survive!

Yes. I’m not particularly food motivated and I don’t have a sweet tooth, which keeps me on the straight and narrow in terms of usually eating plain, simple stuff like meat and fish and eggs and vegetables and hummus and nuts a lot; so I don’t sweat the chicken nuggets and tinned spaghetti hoops I also have a penchant for.

I don’t know a single person who’s as militant about UPFs as some of the MN threads I read about it. And I certainly couldn’t invest as much energy into watching every single thing I eat as that.

I think we are normal. We eat lots of veg, homemade spag bol, curry, shepherds pie, pies etc. I like sourdough bread, avocado and Greek yoghurt, nuts, seeds etc so on that side of the spectrum I would day really healthy.

BUT on the other side we get a Chinese takeaway, KFC occasionally, and we love chocolate and usually have it every night after dinner, I have just polished off a wispa.

I think that's pretty normal.

Most people, probably. People on the extreme ends of anything are more likely to post about it, which makes it seem that everyone is like that. I eat a normal diet. Judging by what my friends, family and colleagues eat, so do they.

My diet ranges from spicy cheetos to daily kimchi and kefir, and all in between.

I literally eat everything. Ex-chef though so I probably have a broader than usual interest in food and big/weird flavours.

80/20% split here - during the week, it's all pretty healthy and get our 5 a day - weekends not so much.

First post nails as often does 😂

Yes, I think I have a "normal" diet for a middle class older woman in the UK. I'm still 2 stone overweight though .

I cook from scratch mainly and I buy things to heat up from M&S sometimes.
I eat two meals a day. I use butter, semi skimmed milk, I drink about 3 or 4 coffees/teas per day. I generally get my 5 a day as I have fruit, fresh veg or salad every day.

I don't habitually eat puddings, cakes, pastries, biscuits, sweets or chocolate. They are an occasional treat.

I go out to dinner about once a month and have a takeaway about every 2 or 3 months. Never set foot in Maccies, KFC or any of the other fast food places.

I think I'm absolutely average and the 2 stone additional flab is sadly also probably perfectly average for someone of my age.

Me, I eat somewhere in the middle. Some days are all home cooked and others are whatever’s in the freezer with a few frozen peas for balance!
And once a week I have a Macdonalds breakfast ( that’s a sin on here)

Don't believe everything you read on MN. Smoke and mirrors!

I'd call mine 'privileged normal for 2025 uk'. We eat a lot of fresh stuff, we grow a few veg, but we don't make our own bread, we eat white rice and pasta, we use jar stuff like pesto and a lot of tinned ingredients. We also eat Quorn which must be the ultimate upf.

I think I’m pretty normal, this is what we’ve had since Saturday.
Sat - rump steak, oven chips, salad and shop bought Coleslaw.
Sunday - roast chicken dinner, new potatoes, steamed veg.
Monday - Spag bol, I just used passata and veg as the sauce with added streaky diced bacon.
Tuesday - prawn curry - I used a jar of sauce. Even my rice was a pouch one.
Wednesday - Slow cooker beef/veg stew with frozen mash - I used a Colemans sachet for the sauce.

Our family diet is a mixed intake of non-UPF and cooked from scratch foods/meals, plus plenty of UPF and convenience food mixed in; I love Pepsi Max and protein bars between meals, for example. Works for us! Consistency not perfection is my mantra.

I'm also "normal" in this sense. We cook real food about five nights out of seven, and then maybe two meals with a bit of a cheat. Kids get typical kid snack foods like granola bars at school which I would love to do better on but I am not organized enough to improve. I try and choose a lot of natural healthy foods but I don't religiously avoid anything.

I love how people consider their own diet to be 'normal'!

There's a wide variety of diets that are all normal, ranging from heavily upf and pre-prepared to cook everything from scratch.

Yes, you've pretty much described me and my family.

Me and my DH were also raised on a 'normal' diet, where food was just food.

Nothing was 'good' or 'bad' but we'd try to get an even healthy/not so healthy mix.

Having said that, none of us or our families have ever suffered from weight problems so the word 'diet' wasn't really a much used word.

YANBU. My diet is very average. I eat plenty of fruit and vegetables but too much sugar. We also (gasp) sometimes have ready meals.