Ultra processed food - help!

[Ossoduro2]

Just looking for some guidance on ultra processed foods. I’ve been feeding my kids whole meal seeded bread from tescos for years thinking it’s healthy but looking at the list of ingredients I now think it’s probably in the ultra processed category - can anyone advise on this and what to look out for. I don’t have the time or the will to bake my own bread so what’s the best option for me?

Also, for breakfast I’ve been feeding them shreddies and weetabix (Tesco’s own brand version) and again these seem to have more ingredients than I expected as well as added iron and vitamins. I assume being fortified doesn’t make these foods ‘ultra processed’ but perhaps the other ingredients does. Are these cereals all that bad or are they OK? It’s so confusing!

final point, I saw reference / link to a talk or podcast on ultra processed food on here a week or so ago but I can’t find the thread. If anyone remembers that and can point me in the direction of the link, I really wanted to listen to that.

I don't know if it's the podcast that you saw discussed on here but the Van Tulleken twins have a podcast 'A Thorough Examination" which is about ultra-processed food. It's definitely worth a listen.

I think that might be the one! Thanks @SpaghettiSquash

I knew this would be about that bloody podcast, my mother has been banging on about it for weeks, visibly wincing when I drank some lemonade the other day.

OP, you sound very anxious about this. I would see if you can speak with a dietician if you are able. They are trained in this area and I’ve found they are often pragmatic and sensible when it comes to food suggestions. I wouldn’t be radically changing your children’s diet over 1 podcast,

As for the Van Tullekan’s, as far as I am aware their speciality was in infectious diseases, does anyone know if that’s right? They seem to present themselves as experts in everything on TV.

A mass produced bread is an ultra processed food, same for those cereals you've mentioned
Oats/porridge isn't. Have you ever tried Vogel bread?
Older thread with some ideas here: www.mumsnet.com/talk/food_and_recipes/4345506-Not-eating-processed-foods
Here is a list of ultra processed foods:

Fizzy drinks (sugary or sweetened);
crisps and packaged snacks;
chocolate, confectionery;
ice-cream;
mass-produced packaged breads and buns;
margarines and other spreads;
biscuits, pastries, cakes;
breakfast ‘cereals’, ‘cereal’ and ‘energy’ bars;
milk drinks, ‘fruit’ yoghurts and drinks; ‘instant’ sauces.

Many preprepared ready-to-heat products including:
pies and pasta and pizza dishes;
poultry and fish ‘nuggets’ and ‘sticks’,
sausages,
burgers,
hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products;
powdered and packaged ‘instant’ soups,
noodles and desserts.
health’ and ‘slimming’ products such as meal replacement shakes and powders.

as per www.soilassociation.org/media/21669/ultra-processed-foods_soil-association-report.pdf

So the bread probably is ultra processed. If you check the ingredients and it has things in that you wouldn’t see in a regular kitchen such as emulsifiers, dextrose, preservatives etc. then it is regarded as ultra processed. Likewise the cereals. But like all things, it’s about balance. Weetabix has relatively few additional ingredients so is still going to be a better choice than chocolate or sugar coated, flavoured cereals. Brown seeded bread is going to contain more fibre than white etc. Going hardcore no ultra processed foods at all puts you under a lot of pressure and might be more likely to lead to just giving up. Aiming for 20% or less ultra processed foods allows for the shortcuts and treats that stop it being just a chore. It’s great that you’re thinking about feeding your kids a healthy diet, but don’t let it become something to beat yourself up about.

Is Vogel bread better? Ours looks like Vogel but looks mean very little.

@WellThatsGrim I think Vogel Soya and Linseed has sensible list of ingredients.

Just off the top of my head, my kitchen has containers of xanthan gum, citric acid, ascorbic acid, sodium bicarbonate, erythritol, xylitol, monosodium glutamate, potassium bitartrate, Prague powder (a mix of sodium chloride and sodium nitrite)… whose kitchen are we using as a yardstick for a "regular kitchen"?

Tiny trace ingredients don't turn the whole loaf of bread into UPF.

Download the NoVA App to see that for yourself.

It's fab

I remember reading somewhere that shreddies is better than most ultra proceeded cereal as the grain is only shredded and not completely purified and combined with other ingredients. Wheetabix is similar in terms of being whole grain but not as good becuase of the addition of malted barley extract.

I try to give shreddies on rotation with porridge oats, Greek yoghurt and honey.

I don't think there is an easy solution to the bread unless you make your own but some supermarket breads do seem to have more ingredients and processing than others. Where possible I try to buy the fresh bakery bread which I suspect is a bit better although I realise must still by their dough in and just cook on site.

I think the best most people can do is be aware of our food ingredients and cut down on ultra processed food where it is easy to do so.

I found this article quite enlightening.
www.theguardian.com/food/2020/feb/13/how-ultra-processed-food-took-over-your-shopping-basket-brazil-carlos-monteiro.

It is so worrying how a quarter of UK primary school leavers are now obese and type 2 diabetes in children has increased by 50% in 2 years.

DH’s dietitian told him, she could not really recommend breakfast cereals as they have no nutritional value, but Shreddies and Weetabix are the best of the lot!

We eat rye bread, when we can get it, which came number 2 in a list of most healthy breads; but I can see children might well not like it, because it’s an acquired taste! The most healthy bread was one from Waitrose - brown, seeded…

This article

www.goodto.com/wellbeing/breads-best-and-worst-loaves-revealed-35931

Not brown, seeded but white!

That is a strange article @TheSummerPalace - they don't seem to have considered whether the bread is ultra processed but put a lot of emphasis on fat and calories - they've given Warburtons white 7/10!

We buy bread from our local bakery. They do proper sourdough at the weekends and during the week we top up with a wholegrain loaf. I appreciate it's not as convenient as just getting bread with the weekly shop but the taste and quality is so much better. Maybe not possible for everyone but don't most high streets have a half decent bakery nowadays with a real baker who bakes from scratch? We're in a village in the Northwest next to a large town and have two to choose from in the village with a dozen or so of them in the town.

Have you thought about a breadmaker? A lot of them have timers, so you just dump in the ingredients before bed, press a button and wake up to a freshly baked loaf. They're really easy to use. But, I don't think a slice of supermarket bread a day is a huge problem.

Buy unsliced supermarket bread could be a better option as the ingredient list is just about quartered & the unsliced doesn’t have unrecognisable ingredients

Also, Jools Oliver has a few breakfast recipes that her kids love, if you Google it.

For speed and efficiency I used to buy chicken drum sticks & roast then ( marinade or plain) and put two in my dds lunch box instead of sandwiches- they lived this and it was quicker than making sandwiches

id pop cherry tomatoes and cucumber in with olives, chopped melon & strawberries, blueberries

be careful with yogurts, most supermarket yogurts are ULtra processed

Not yours, clearly.

That article is garbage. Far too much emphasis on calories which is irrelevant. They appear to have written a whole article without mentioning what is in the bread that is actually good for you. Clearly there is no nutritional benefit to processed white sliced bread.

Supermarket bread is never 'real' bread. It's highly processed. Likewise cereal.
However, I really wouldn't worry about this type of UPF - ie, the type with some roughage and not much sugar in it.
Instead, avoid the obvious grim stuff - breaded formed meat products like chicken kievs, frozen pizzas, high-sugar cereals like Frosties, crap confectionary, cheap pies and pastries and so on.

Everything in moderation?

I bought a bread maker and 2 weeks later got a diabetes diagnosis.

The two are not related but obviously I'm looking at being healthier.

I get a multiseed bread mix from Sainsbury's.

www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-golden-multiseed-bread-mix--taste-the-difference-500g

I've been experimenting, I use half a packet with 200ml water and 15 ml olive oil.

How old are your children? Bread makers are easy to use and a child who is tall enough to see into the maker could make bread.

I'm lactose intolerant so cereal is a no no for me, and no I don't like it with juice. I can manage cheese as the lactose is lower than milk. I'm experimenting with 'low carb and protein for breakfast' so my breakfasts are:

Bacon and egg
Scrambled egg (sometimes with cheese)
slices of ham sometimes with tomatoes
Yoghurt with fruit

In just over a month I have lost 3 Kg on my bathroom scales, the nurse at my GP measured me as 6kg lower but I think that's the difference between my Dr's and her's scales and I have not lost that much.

Was just going to say this. I would look for the low hanging fruit first.
That podcast got me thinking too.
Im not going to start baking my own bread, but I am now making a conscious effort to eat more fresh food. You can get stuck in a rut making bad choices.

I listened to the podcast and was quite anxious for a few days ! It's an eye opener. However I still don't think all UPF is equally bad. I mean there's wholemeal bread and there's a frozen pizza, chicken nuggets and bom bears, all in the same category.

If you are really concerned a bread maker might be a good shout but I don't know how baking your own would be feasible option to most of us. It takes time to make and prove the dough and then £ to bake in the oven. Also without the extra ingredients it gets stale quicker than shop bought so that's quite a lot of baking. Or look for options, do you eat bread every day? Could you eat something else instead?