Avoiding Ultra-Processed Foods Thread anyone?

[Treezan82]

I watched the recent documentary on Ultra-Processed foods and just generally would like to improve my health. Anyone else?

We already eat a lot of home-cooked food and make our own pasta sauces etc but def still room for improvement.

Some obvious swaps I plan to make:

Frozen pizza - home made pizza
Frozen nuggets - home made nuggets
Bake cake or biscuits at the weekend and that's it - don't buy any of the packaged stuff

Some things I'm stuck on:

Kids' breakfast. They love toast and cereal and both are full of unpronounceable ingredients. They love fruit too but need something else to fill them up.

Yoghurts - again, kids love them but are there any brands that aren't so full of crap?

Noodles - we just eat plain ones as part of home cooked recipes but even they contain potassium carbonate.

Would love to hear your swaps/alternatives/healthy, veggie-packed recipes!

Breakfast- half a grapefruit and two eggs
Or homemade pancakes or egg muffins
Yogurt- natural yogurt with fruit, jam or honey

For pizza dough - you can make the dough and it lasts fine up to 2 weeks in the fridge. So I tend to make double batch if we have and have pizza one week, then again the next week using same batch of dough.

Muffins/ cookies/ brownies - if you want to have easy supply for when your busy, they all freeze well. Again I always double batch and freeze at least half.

@LuckyWookie

It seems impossible to me. I eat bread every day. What would I eat instead?

If you like sourdough it is very easy to make and not particularly time consuming, with only a few ingredients.

This is a great thread for ideas. I did really well a while back but a lot of stuff has crept back in since I've increased my work hours and we've been much busier in general.

Things I want to work on is my kids used to have porridge for breakfast but they've started having shreddies or rice Krispies most days. Dd loves grapefruit so I could remember to buy those more often but she usually needs something else, she used to like plain yogurt but not sure if she'd go for that now.

Also ds has a packed lunch and I find it difficult to know what to put in it other than sandwiches, I guess some home made cheese straws and then cucumber or cheese cubes might work.

I'm going to try and not get too stressed with it though, just make some changes where I can for now. I want to try and get the kids trying new things too. Veg box is good for that because we get a lot of variety.

Anyway I'll post some other ideas later as there were definitely a a few good swaps I've made before

I make bread, half and half whole meal and white with a handful of seeds added. The technique in the Nigella milk loaf mentioned up thread is easy. Also homemade granola which is easy and delicious.

Would also second proper Greek yoghurt, full fat. If they want sweetness a dash of maple syrup or honey aren't too processed.

@Treezan82

You can make your own yogurt; it is the easiest thing ever. Buy a machine complete with the pots. Take a litre of whole milk, 50g of powered milk (not essential but makes the consistency thick like Greek). Add a pot of plain live yoghurt (Activa for e.g.). Mix, pour, put into machine and turn on overnight. Remove next morning and refrigerate. Voilà!

Seriously, we haven’t looked back.

Love this thread!

Watched the documentary, it was great.

We give the kids (1 & 3) porridge or overnight oats for breakfast.

Plain Greek yoghurt - Yeo organic.

And re noodles we buy the whole wheat ones, think they have slightly less rubbish in them x

@FloconDeNeige I make yoghurt too! I have an Instant Pot (electric pressure cooker) which has a yoghurt setting. Easy and foolproof. Then you can put the yoghurt in a sieve lined with a j cloth and leave it overnight, and end up with labneh, which is a sort of Middle Eastern soft cheese.

@Plumedenom

Toast - bread should contain flour, water, yeast and salt. If you buy a fresh loaf from the bakery section of a supermarket it shouldn't be heavily processed. Or if you don't have a bakery nearby, when you do find one, buy a few sliced loaves and store them in the freezer and then toast them a couple of slices at a time straight from freezer. Kids always prefer processed bread. You have to wean them off!

I used to work in the bakery section of a supermarket. All the “fresh” bread is made in a factory and flash frozen part way through baking- they just finish off the baking in the supermarket. It’s definitely still ultra processed. Same with a lot of chain bakeries, stuff in greggs etc.

For breakfast options, banana egg pancakes are nice (mash one banana, mix in 2 eggs plus cinnamon or whatever else you fancy) and I freeze them too. I believe there is a similar recipe which also includes oats.

You can also find recipes for baked oatmeal, which can be made in advance and kept in the fridge, but I've also frozen it cut into slices.

We've just had omlettes, potatoes and salad for dinner instead of the frozen pizzas and salad I was thinking of having. Very much enjoyed it! I did look at the mayonnaise label though - eek 🤦‍♀️ I think I'll have to look into some home made salad dressing or less processed ones anyway.

fudge that's interesting about supermarket bakery section, I did wonder about that. I guess a non chain bakery would be better but not sure how you'd know for sure. I get fresh bread delivered with my milk once a week so I was hoping that would be less processed, I have added a seeded loaf mid week. Now I'm wondering though 🤔 I'd love to make bread but I already bake cakes / flapjacks etc most weeks for lunch boxes and I struggle to fit that in as it is! Can't afford a bread maker at the moment they seem pretty expensive.

Foxessocks

Home made mayo is actually really easy

I used to work in the bakery section of a supermarket. All the “fresh” bread is made in a factory and flash frozen part way through baking- they just finish off the baking in the supermarket. It’s definitely still ultra processed. Same with a lot of chain bakeries, stuff in greggs etc

@FudgeSundae our local Tesco makes it from scratch. The bakery guys will even give you a little bit of their fresh yeast if you ask them nicely.

@Howmanychangesdoiget

I used to work in the bakery section of a supermarket. All the “fresh” bread is made in a factory and flash frozen part way through baking- they just finish off the baking in the supermarket. It’s definitely still ultra processed. Same with a lot of chain bakeries, stuff in greggs etc

@FudgeSundae our local Tesco makes it from scratch. The bakery guys will even give you a little bit of their fresh yeast if you ask them nicely.

Oh I had no idea! I’m surprised and pleased! Worth asking I think though... sometimes certain breads are a bit too uniform

@Howmanychangesdoiget

I used to work in the bakery section of a supermarket. All the “fresh” bread is made in a factory and flash frozen part way through baking- they just finish off the baking in the supermarket. It’s definitely still ultra processed. Same with a lot of chain bakeries, stuff in greggs etc

@FudgeSundae our local Tesco makes it from scratch. The bakery guys will even give you a little bit of their fresh yeast if you ask them nicely.

Yeah I just checked Tesco's website and checked ingredients in one of their bakery breads (Tesco Brown Sourdough Bloomer) and it looks like it's real bread not factory made.

INGREDIENTS: Water, Wheat Flour, Wholemeal Wheat Flour, Salt, Malted Barley Flour.

I think cost is a barrier here. I've been looking up lots of the things we buy on the Tesco app, and am struggling to find versions without at least one ingredient that doesn't sound like food. I opened the Abel and Cole app and virtually everything on there is fine, but it is so much more expensive. E.g. Tesco 3 bean salad 65p, Abel and Cole mixed beans £1.30; Tesco noodles £1.00, Abel and Cole £2.65; Tesco garlic bread 2 for £1.60, Abel and Cole 1 for £3.00. I could probably afford to make all these swaps but I would have to cut back elsewhere.

@bluechameleon but isn’t that all stuff you could theoretically make yourself? Garlic bread is just bread butter and garlic, all v cheap.

@bluechameleon

I think cost is a barrier here. I've been looking up lots of the things we buy on the Tesco app, and am struggling to find versions without at least one ingredient that doesn't sound like food. I opened the Abel and Cole app and virtually everything on there is fine, but it is so much more expensive. E.g. Tesco 3 bean salad 65p, Abel and Cole mixed beans £1.30; Tesco noodles £1.00, Abel and Cole £2.65; Tesco garlic bread 2 for £1.60, Abel and Cole 1 for £3.00. I could probably afford to make all these swaps but I would have to cut back elsewhere.

You need to make more foods at home.

Healthier less processed processed foods are very expensive... But raw ingredients are not.

Flour is very cheap, even expensive flour is cheaper than store bought cheap bread. You can make your own pasta or use courgette or other vegetable noodles (or combination of real pasta and vegetable noodles as I often do)

Dried beans are very cheap, even organic dried beans are super cheap.

Rice is really cheap.

Just buy the cheapest fresh vegetables, you don't need to buy fancy ones. You can buy conventionally grown too you don't need to buy organic. There are thousands of studies done showing people who eat more vegetables live longer and have less disease. All of those studies were done on populations consuming largely conventionally grown vegetables. I actually haven't seen a study done on organic vegetables.

Eating well doesn't have to be expensive.

[quote FudgeSundae]@bluechameleon but isn’t that all stuff you could theoretically make yourself? Garlic bread is just bread butter and garlic, all v cheap.[/quote]
Well yes, garlic bread isn't a good example because it is easy to make (although the DC don't really like my homemade garlic bread, I'm sure they'd get used to it). But I use tinned beans and dried noodles because the alternative is far more time consuming, surely that's not unreasonable or unusual? I really doubt many people make all their own noodles and use only dried pulses.

Dried lentils are super easy to use cause you don't need to pre soak them... So I tend to use them a lot more than beans.

Beans aren't that bad though just give them a quick rinse then soak them overnight, takes 2 mins of time. They're not an impromptu meal yes you're right but that's okay, not everything needs to be.

@bluechameleon tinned beans and dried noodles are not ultra processed though? I’ve just checked Tesco black beans (ingredients: beans, water) and sharwood dried noodles (ingredients: flour, egg, salt). I assumed you meant a flavoured version of both which is where the processing comes in.

[quote FudgeSundae]@bluechameleon tinned beans and dried noodles are not ultra processed though? I’ve just checked Tesco black beans (ingredients: beans, water) and sharwood dried noodles (ingredients: flour, egg, salt). I assumed you meant a flavoured version of both which is where the processing comes in.[/quote]
No, not flavoured versions. I usually buy Tesco noodles, which include colour, 2 firming agents and acidity regulator. Even the Sharwoods I looked at have acidity regulators. Not all the beans have additives but the mixed beans I had for lunch today have a firming agent. I accept the points raised above that it is possible to make all these things from scratch, but it isn't always easy to find the time when you both work full time. For instance, I might spend 30-45 minutes on preparing the evening meal, but when I'm packing my lunch I just need something quick, which is where the tinned beans come in.

@MackenCheese

It was an interesting programme, but I struggle with my ds13 who has autism and if it doesn't come out if a packet, he won't eat it! He'll have homemade brownies, but anything savoury I cook from scratch he will avoid. My daughter otoh has taken the message of the programme and is trying to cut down on junk foods.

Anyone else with autistic /picky eaters who won't eat eggs, fish, meat, rice, beans but only 'beige ' and fried food?

Might be wrong but I think its about getting the kids involved in the cooking. I bought a knife set on amazon (search kids knives), they are literally impossible to cut yourself but cut cucumber etc.

Sliced apples cooked on 30 degrees in the oven for four hours is not unclose to crisps. Mixed them in cinnamon and black pepper.

White beans- mash them up with olive oil and they make a houmous like dip.

Home made baked beans are the easiest thing ever, white beans, passata, some parsley, a cinammon stick.