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!

For things like curry, if your buying fresh ingredients like ginger or lime leaves and finding they go off, try making a much larger portion and freezing. Means you effectively have a healthy ready meal in freezer for another few nights and ingredients all used straight away

Any ideas for non UPF snacks for hungry teens? I buy a lot of Nature Valley bars and the like

Just checked these, presume these are no good? ☹️

We are not bad but don’t have any extra time to put into this- genuinely. I’m also a bit confused about what is upf! Our tomato sauce is tomatoes sugar salt food acid onions spice extract. That doesn’t sound bad but surely supermarket tomato sauce is ultra processed? Ditto our bread, it’s just packaged multigrain slice and the ingredients list is reasonable (pic attached) , do those 3 emulsifiers really tip it over into upf?

@bendmeoverbackwards

Any ideas for non UPF snacks for hungry teens? I buy a lot of Nature Valley bars and the like

For at home, roast a tray of chickpeas with some salt and cumin.

For hungry teen snacks - hard boiled eggs pretty easy. You can boil a few days worth and leave in fridge. Just mark with permanent pen so they know which ones already boiled

One of my dds won't eat eggs sadly.

@timeisnotaline thank you, might try that. What sort of texture do they have when roasted?

@bendmeoverbackwards I just roast till brown and crispy - they are pretty crispy! I had them on the brain as we had them for easy dinner tonight - my 3 & 5 year olds gobble them up. I use canned chickpeas…. Rinse and toss in pan with oil and seasoning and in oven. They never last long, we all eat them.

I also used to do left over baked potato pizza as a snack - slice baked potatoes spread with tomato paste and cheese, grill. It was amazing. About 10 times the calories I need from snacks these days but but that’s teenagers!

For younger kids I think the Bear dried fruit snacks are quite good, just seems to be fruit? My kids love them. Not good for teeth though!
My son loves dried apricots (could also be a good snack for teens?) Again, not good for teeth.
The kids had tinned pineapple for pudding last night.

It's definitely taking a lot of extra time just reading labels!

I found surprisingly that my favourite cereal, Country Crisp, seems to be weird-ingredient free! It’s full of sugar but there we go.

Some great ideas on here

What’s emulsifier does anyone know?

@bendmeoverbackwards

What’s emulsifier does anyone know?

It makes watery things and fatty things blend. E.g egg yolks in mayo. Mustard, tomato paste and soy are also “normal ingredient” examples but obviously there are chemically ones. Otherwise the fatty thing would just sit on top of the watery thing.

@foxessocks

For younger kids I think the Bear dried fruit snacks are quite good, just seems to be fruit? My kids love them. Not good for teeth though! My son loves dried apricots (could also be a good snack for teens?) Again, not good for teeth. The kids had tinned pineapple for pudding last night.

It's definitely taking a lot of extra time just reading labels!

It takes about 1 minute to slice up a pineapple and it tastes better!

@Shelddd really? I am so bad at cutting pineapple and always end up with hard bits!

@timeisnotaline

We are not bad but don’t have any extra time to put into this- genuinely. I’m also a bit confused about what is upf! Our tomato sauce is tomatoes sugar salt food acid onions spice extract. That doesn’t sound bad but surely supermarket tomato sauce is ultra processed? Ditto our bread, it’s just packaged multigrain slice and the ingredients list is reasonable (pic attached) , do those 3 emulsifiers really tip it over into upf?

Have found this bread in co-op. It doesn’t seem as bad as some others. Vogel’s Soya and Linseed Bread

[quote FudgeSundae]@Shelddd really? I am so bad at cutting pineapple and always end up with hard bits![/quote]
Top and tail.
Stand upright.
Cut in half lengthways. Then again .
So quarters.
Then stand the quarter upright and slice the middle hard stick like bit in the middle off and then slice the skin off the other side.
Do it with all quarters. Then you have nice long finger food wedges

Ok. So I’m making the flapjacks with a can of condensed milk and 250g oats tonight. It’s not UP.

Thanks for all the info re bread/flour. I’m going to have a go at making sourdough.

For lunch today I had lentil, spinach and chickpea curry made from scratch.

Dinner is chicken and pea curry with mango chutney and shop bought naan so not fully processed free!

Flapjacks with condensed milk are a hit. I added extra oats as it felt mega sticky. So added 300g to 1 can. They are lush. And are hard with a bit of a chew. Just right.

@Vickles20

Flapjacks with condensed milk are a hit. I added extra oats as it felt mega sticky. So added 300g to 1 can. They are lush. And are hard with a bit of a chew. Just right.

Can you share the recipe? I’d like to give these abhor this week

Hi of course
I found it on here
It’s says
250g oats (I used 300g as it seemed too wet)
I can condensed milk

Combine. Bung in oven in oven until they look done. (Sorry. No timings were stated)

Wait until cool to cut up

They’re good. And definitely just whole milk and sugar in the condensed milk. No nasties

I’ve been buying these thinking they were relatively healthy but they contain additives