How did you reduce your Ultra Processed Food consumption

[RollingInTheCreek]

Have just listened to the 'A Thorough Examination' podcast and was horrified. I thought we ate well, we cook a lot from scratch but especially with the kids foods etc. We use the odd packet (e.g old el paso), they love ham and sausages although I have really tried to reduce this due to the carcinogen risk, and they love ice lollies etc.
We are going to use up obviously any cereal, fishfingers etc so it doesn't go to waste but then I am really going to try and make some changes to our eating habbits. As I said we do eat fairly well and have an allotment so lots of homegrown fruit and veg but we can do better!
My plans are:

• Make fingers/chicken goujons myself with breadcrumbs


• Less bread/crumpets etc overall and buy from local bakery instead of supermarket


• More fresh produce, eggs, etc


• Dippy egg, porridge/overnight oats or yogurt and fruit for breakfast


• Less processed kids snacks e.g malt loaf (would appreciate ideas for alternatives! Cucumber sticks and hummous etc.?)


• Eat less meat generally and more veg based meals and fish

If you have tried this do you keep using things like marmite? I know its processed but we all love it and I feel like making big changes will mean small things like that should be fine.
Appreciate anyones experiences!

joinzoe.com/learn/what-is-ultra-processed-food

Weetabix has been through a fair bit of processing and includes barley extract which isn't something you'd have in your kitchen. But on the other hand it does have a fair amount of fibre and while it has sugar it's a lot better than other cereals. So if it comes down to what you'd eat instead of weetabix, it's better than most other breakfast cereals, but there are healthier things you could choose for breakfast.

Thanks for the link. I've seen it crop up on MN a few times - thought they must have discovered something new about processed food given the attention / people changing ways so wondered what it was! (But it just seems to reiterate that it's not healthy...?)

@RollingInTheCreek wraps you say?
May I present this one:
www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/crosta-mollica-piadina-organic-wholeblend-italian-flatbreads-300g-x4-300g]]

(Unpopular opinion) but this topic reminds me of the ‘clean eating’ trend from like 2014/5. I used to have orthorexia back then, but thankfully have since overcome it.

Of course healthy eating should be encouraged but just hope it doesn’t become too obsessive. We shouldn’t feel guilty for having some UPF’s imo.

Also, I know a pp mentioned Glucose Goddess. A consultant cardiologist I follow has debunked some of her claims, and mentions some of the advice she recommends lacks evidence.

sorry to derail…

But is there enough evidence to suggest non-diabetics need to avoid spiking our blood sugar?

Don’t think it’s bad for blood glucose to rise - its more an issue when blood glucose stays high (e.g., over time high hba1c). Blood glucose temporarily rising but then returning to normal shouldn’t be harmful to us.

Exercise and fruit (not an UPF) spike our blood glucose too - is that a bad thing as well?

I don't think it is equivalent. Clean eating often involves restricting the consumption of regular foods (although the term 'clean eating' is quite vague and open to interpretation). UPFs are not even food, really, in nutritional terms.

It isn't about feeling guilty eating them, it is about the fact that eating them has been scientifically shown to be really unhealthy.

Veja it's more about the insulin that is released to counteract raised blood sugar. This drives hunger and can cause us to crave yet more sugar and carbs.

You don't need to be diabetic for this to be a bad thing.

These are lovely. I’m glad to see they’re not UPF!

This is fascinating. I'm going to listen to the podcast. Sadly the open source site doesn't seem to find any results for anything I put in, I need to try on a different device.
What about adding vitamins? For instance both the bran flakes and Ready Brek in my cupboard list riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid all of which are fortifying B vitamins. Definitely not standard ingredients in my kitchen though so that makes them UPF I suppose? Even though the sole reason the manufacturer adds them is to make product healthier?

I know what you mean- to my mind it’s more about avoiding where practical the chemicals and emulsifiers etc and eating more ‘normal’ food. So no radical cutting out of whole food groups but a change in approach and perhaps more cooking from scratch and avoiding pre packaged things that you can easily replace. Those that can’t be- fair enough use the UPF when needed.
It’s made me more aware of what’s in food really- having kids over after school and picked up a sourdough pizza base (the jus-rol one has very few ingredients and all ‘natural’ stuff) and got ham from the deli to top it instead of a pre packaged pizza. Still pizza but I feel better about it!

It’s not like clean eating fad. There are fully peer reviewed studies on this, and many scientists, including the Zoe project are saying upf are bad.

Brazil has put warnings on all upf products, like we have on cigarettes!

From my recollection of the podcast (which I will again heartily recommend to anyone who's not heard it yet) a diet high in UPFs is unhealthy, which is a different statement to make from "eating them has been shown to be scientifically unhealthy".

I think they advocated 80% of your intake comprising minimally processed foods as a healthy approach. So for me it's about cooking from scratch wherever possible, watching out for less obvious UPFs (in my case reducing bought bread intake), and then not fretting about have a spot of ketchup on my wedges and eating the odd cornetto when it's hot.

@Veja can you share a link to that? I've been reading stuff the glucose goddess with interest but some scepticism!