Ultra processed foods

[MakeWayMoana]

I know I’m a bit late to the party, but I finally watched ‘what are we feeding our kids’ this weekend. I thought that as a family we eat fairly well, but now I’m looking at the ingredients list on everything and actually a lot of it is ultra processed... or I think it is?!

Some of the things I was surprised about was shop bought houmous (has a preservative in - does this make it upf?), packets of flavoured couscous, shreddies, seeded bread - I thought these were all fairly healthy options??

Some of the things I wasn’t that surprised about but have made me feel pretty guilty are frubes, breakfast biscuits, cheese strings - feeding kids is hard!

What do you actually eat that isn’t ultra processed? Any tips on finding stuff that is still relatively quick but not upf? I work full time and have 2 young kids, so although I could make my own it would be a lot of effort to fit it in.

I think you can drive yourself bonkers with this kind of stuff. There's a world of difference between shreddies and cheese strings. Just use a bit of common sense re levels of sugar and salt and sub out the obvious crap, so cubes of Cheddar instead of cheese strings, pot of low sugar fruit yoghurt instead of frube. But unless you're going to dedicate a lot of time and headspace to knitting your own lentils give yourself a break.

I haven’t watched the show although I’ve heard a lot, as I thought it would make me feel too bad! And I think our diet is not bad. Instinctively for me things like cheese strings are evil but I’m not ready to avoid premade houmous etc. I would love a simpler life where I made my own bread etc. but just not possible.

Immediately after watching, I really felt the mum guilt! I have changed some of the things, and kept some others. I'm trying my best while juggling All The Things and trying to keep tummies full (and not lose my mind in the process).

Hiya, sorry you haven't had more replies but thought I'd bump you a bit, there were quite a few threads about this at the time the programme came out and people had quite useful thoughts so maybe if you search back you'll find something.

My advice is maybe of limited use, my kids are older and were raised at a very different time but I would say moderation in all things. The science behind the programme seems valid in that increased consumption of UPFs does seem problematic and it's done a good job of raising awareness. But population level dietary studies are so hard to get nuanced, like you say the category of UPF is so broad and includes items that in other categorization systems would be counted as healthy, and I think there is much more work to do before we truly understand what is optimal, like comparing people who for instance eat plenty of fruit and veg, wholegrains etc but also moderate UPFs, compared to those who eat the same level of UPFs but very little fruit, veg etc. I guess what I am saying is yes we should try and reduce our reliance on these things but also don't do it at the expense of other healthy habits or by causing yourself a nervous breakdown! It sounds like you are doing great in lots of ways and if your children are happy, eat well, are active and a healthy weight then (unscientifically) they're 99% of the way to perfect health, don't kill yourself worrying about the marginal gains/risks...

In terms of advice, I'd say invest time in batch cooking when you can, as this is the easiest way to avoid UPf shortcuts or worse, ready meals/takeaways. Doesn't have to be elaborate, we have always eaten a lot of chilli/spag bol/curry/stew type meals where it's easy to make large portions and freeze extras for quick weekday meals. We also ate a lot of pasta with quick homemade sauces when the kids were little (cheese or tomato both easy and quick to make) or stir fries which are very quick - albeit we had problems with fussy eaters so getting them to eat at all was a victory some days! Things like bread I probably wouldn't worry too much, although fresh baked bread from a bakery is both nicer and less processed than factory made sliced (albeit if you have fussy eaters sometimes they only go for the soft sugary stuff ), bread freezes well so I'll often pick up a few loaves when at the bakers and freeze some in portions so we only use what we need (reduce food waste, another thing to feel anxious/guilty about ). Breakfasts, hot porridge or overnight oats are a good alternative to cereals (if they'll eat them, of course!) or we'll do hot breakfasts, eggs, omelettes, pancakes kind of thing at the weekend. But like I say, really don't panic too much about the odd slip into processed things occasionally, if it's a choice between say feeding the kids oven chicken nuggets and chips on the odd busy night when you've run out of food, or having to get a mcdonalds because you virtuously won't have the stuff in the house, I know which I'd pick!

I think most of us tend to buy the same things from week to week so once you change a few things it’s not that hard.

I think we all rely on foods that are quick to prepare but it’s very easy to do that without having ultra processed foods.

For example:

• plain couscous, rice, etc instead of flavoured packets (which don’t taste great anyway)
• plain yoghurt with some frozen berries and a drizzle of honey
• look out for ready made houmous without preservatives
• bread that is just bread, rather than full of additives (yes, it does exist)

Avoid anything with a really long list of ingredients!

I stopped buying shit like chicken nuggets, oven chips, fish fingers, cheese strings, crisps and chocolate etc. They do still have those things but only if we specifically go and get them so much less often. No longer A default option!

I still buy houmous and granary bread though, and they still eat bran flakes, rice pops and Cheerios.

I cook from scratch as much as possible (although there are still evenings of beans on toast!) and fruit is always available for snacks.

Packed lunches are things like jam or cheese sandwich (I don’t like the fact ham is processed meat and bad for you, would rather jam tbh!), cucumber, carrots, mixed berries and an organic yoghurt. I know the yoghurt isn’t ideal but I feel like it’s better than biscuits and crisps. My child is the only one with lunches like this and I get told off all the time by DC. I don’t care though.

So, yes. Breakfast is cereal because DC get it themselves and wouldn’t want a cooked breakfast every day. Lunch is better but still contains bread, pitta or a wrap and I deffo buy houmous. And dinner is something homemade, bolognese, chicken curry, stir fry, pasta bake etc. Snacks are fruit 90% of the time or crudités and houmous, boiled eggs etc. Now if only I could eat the same way eh?

Thanks all, good points! I’ll try not to drive myself mad and just start with easy swaps like losing the cheese strings but keeping the shreddies and hummus! We also live pretty close to a bakery so going to start buying bread from there instead of the supermarket.

I do have a tendency to an all or nothing approach to things, but I guess this is one of those things where a few small changes are likely to last longer than trying to go 100% effort and get bored quickly!