AIBU to think some weekly shops contain far too many snacks?and this is not grocery shopping!?

This was the sort of thing I was warning about.

Most supermarket cereals are highly processed, including processes to reshape them and make them look like "flakes" or "puffs" after the process, because that natural appearance has long since been processed out of them.

Ha ha! My teenagers constantly bemoan that we are an ingredients house and not a food house 🤣 I take it as a compliment and remind them that they’re very good at making flapjack/cake/omelette/pizza/pasta and there’s yoghurt/fruit/cheese/bread/crisps if they can’t possibly wait long enough to cook.

They’re actually pretty good at cooking, so I see it as a win.

@Finsku , shredded wheat isn't a UPF, and it isn't pure starch.

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size
1 1/3 cups (60g) (60g)
Calories 210
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 1.5g 2%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 0mg 0%
Total Carbohydrate 49g 18%
Dietary Fiber 8g 29%
Total Sugars 0g 0%
Includes g Added Sugars %
Protein 7g 14%
Vitamin C mg %
Vitamin D 0mcg 0%
Iron 2mg 11%
Calcium 19.8mg 2%
Potassium 250.2mg 5%
Phosphorus 199.8mg 16%

Ultra‑processed foods are industrially formulated products containing ingredients not used in home cooking—such as preservatives, emulsifiers, artificial colors, flavor enhancers, and added sugars like high‑fructose corn syrup—created through extensive processing methods like extrusion, molding, and chemical modification.

If you had seen my shopping a couple of weeks ago you’d have been horrified at the snacks. But that’s because my three late primary school / early secondary aged kids were at an outward bound style holiday club for the week and running around outside 8.30-4.30 every single day so needed lots of snacks. And the running around outside all day meant that I relaxed my standards around crisps, biscuits and processed packaged cheese for a week. Summer holiday shopping isn’t typical shopping in my experience.

I do wonder how people manage to ever have a shit when they just eat stuff out of packets all the time. I’d be permanently constipated. Maybe I’ve just got a much slower digestive system than everyone else!

Shredded Wheat is UPF I'm afraid. I used to eat it almost daily, fooled by the label that says "100% wholewheat". It doesn't have added sugar but it's just pure starch, and quickly converts to sugar when eaten, which is then rapidly absorbed. It will give you a sugar rush, followed by a significant dip. Basically, it won't sustain you for very long and you'll be hungry again in a couple of hours.

No. You can’t.

I must admit I'm sometimes a bit shocked by the contents of some other people's trolleys in Sainsbury's. Yes, it's all highly processed stuff - multipacks of crisps, multipacks of kitkats, tubs of ice-cream, ready meals, pizzas, pot noodles, fizzy drinks, flavoured yogurts, chocolate desserts, cereal bars, jars of ready-made pasta sauces and so on. Hidden beneath it all there might be some actual food!

I don't blame people for choosing convenience. Many people just don't have the time any more to cook from scratch. Sainsbury's stocks what its customers want to buy - and my local store has a whole aisle dedicated to ready-meals and pizzas, another aisle full of crisps and snacks, another full of sugary cereals.

It is said that 60% of the average UK diet is ultra processed foods. That's just an average, so for many people it will be much more than that. It is quite worrying, as these UPFs can lead to all sorts of health problems a few years down the line.

I'm not the expert on them: shredded wheat, shreddies, it's all the same to me.

Trying to think who does eat them ...🤔😁

I'm not being unpleasant. DH was cooking with his leg in plaster (he wanted to).
You must have just eaten some.

Actually, now you say it, I think I heard something like that too. But perhaps it was the scoliosis.

I suppose in fairness to Gillian, living with that pain might have made her more aware if what we CAN do to support out health, which may be how and why she got so incredibly taken up with it all. There is usually a fairly innocent explanation for these things.

For some reason I thought Gillian McKeith had died of cancer, but just googled and she is alive and well (apart from having scoliosis and being in pain a lot of the time 😔 )

Shredded wheat is indeed minging. I hear eating it can put you in a foul mood ...

And you talk about nit-picking!

Why are you here just being unpleasant to posters?

If @AlmostAJillSandwich her disability makes it hard for her to cook, it isn't really your place to push back on that.

You have to be pretty pathetic to share weekly shopping lists on instagram and equally pathetic to follow it and pay it any attention.
In the words of Reacher society has gone to shit.

You can cook sitting on something.

Some of us have health conditions that prevent us being able to stand and cook a meal, and nobody else in the household who can either. We rely on "quick" things to be able to eat.

Shredded wheat is minging though 😂

My kids mostly eat Weetabix with fruit, with the occasional cheesy crumpet thrown in, and that's good enough for me.

I don't eat breakfast, but if I had time to make shakshuka every day...

No, I deliberately said shredded wheat. Shreddies are not shredded wheat.
You weren't being helpful.

You’re seeing a snapshot of someone’s life. It may not be indicative of how they shop every time.

Not that it has anything to do with you either way.

Yes, she was also the most sanctimonious joy-sponge when it came to food. I mean, the woman lived on three sprouts and a handful of quinoa per week and you could tell. You could also tell that the woman had never put something in her gob that brought one second of full fat, full sugar bliss.

I thought you meant Shreddies which has invert sugar syrup among other things, and actually was genuinely trying to be helpful, as loads of parents give their dc box cereal thinking it is healthy and it really often isn't.

I can’t imagine watching reels of people opening shopping, but I might try it. Could be soothing as long as I’m not judging, better than all the news I watch. In any case I’m no better, I’m here scrolling MN which is no healthier for me.

Im sure that cooking from scratch would be cheaper and healthier for me, but think I’ll only do it once this week and every meal will have UPF (the meal I cook has cooking chorizo and tomato puree that has additives). I’m not proud of it, at the moment depression seems to be just there. I’m buying snacks I know I don’t need. Mostly fruit but crisps as well. Multipack helps me control because the portion is smaller in each packet and I stop at one.

Another perspective and I might have commented to a friend or colleague how shopping is more expensive now.

I said 'shredded wheat' not cereal. It is just wheat.
I said the bread was UPF but overall the meal would be low in UPF.
You were nitpicking.

I remember Gillian! Didn't she pile all the food on the table then show a sample of how it would look as poo, or something?