If you're trying to cut out ultra processed foods...

[mibid]

What do you tend to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

Live alone with DS4 and trying to cut them out. We usually eat a lot of pasta.

Breakfast is usually eggs or some variation of oats with fruit, nuts, natural yoghurt etc.

Try to buy organic fruit but it's so expensive.

Going to buy a bread maker and hopefully start making my own mayo too.

I'd love to hear what others are doing.

What happened I missed it, is that the Dr Chris bloke?

Yes. Saw loads of promoted posts with little engagement and now suddenly....this, and more!

Oh I see, no I doubt its because of that, there are constant threads about UPFs, all misunderstanding what they are and being all puritan as another poster mentions.

You can set your watch by them

I read his book recently and it was pretty interesting. Definitely made me think a bit more about what I put in my body.

I haven't seen that.

There's going to be a condition renamed UPFexia at this rate.

No, three Sardines sealed in a tin with salt water and cooked is not UPF/intrinsically bad for you.

No, ground durum wheat mixed with water and then dried again is not UPF/intrinsically bad for you.

No, fermented and clarified grape juice is not UPF/intrinsically bad for you.

Bacon is not a UPF.

Fried eggs aren't UPFs.

A Portion of chips from the chip shop isn't a UPF. A piece of cod from the chip shop isn't, either.

Sorry, I wasn't more clear.

We eat a lot of pasta, so I meant for some suggestions of pasta based dishes.

I'd prefer to make my own mayo, as well as other things as homemade if I can.

Apparently two upf aren't inherently bad, wholemeal bread and baked beans.

@WeWereInParis I have a teenager with an EpiPen (not for wheat for peanuts which is a lot easier)

We make cakes, and popcorn nowadays because they are cheaper and nicer.

I was just trying to point out for general day to day if you cook a bit, eat plain simple stuff like a banana etc. To try not to stress.

Make small changes that stick

But to get to a stage of "I've eaten a packet of crisps I am going to get ill" is more damaging than accepting that some modern food you can't avoid that is classed as UPF.

Cavemen lived, at best, to 35.
We have modern medicine
Modern medicine is effectively poison.
Good poison.

Pasta (wheat allergy aside) isn't going to kill you or contribute to a shorter life.

We could all get into a further discussion about brain health, humans can keep bodies alive a lot longer but brains are still medically complicated, do you want to be alive for 30 years when you can't recognise your children? It's not just about length of life, it's about length of healthy life, healthy compos mentis life.

Food obsession, omitting allergies, never seems to end well.

But never trust the food industry that sells you a complete dish. It's full of addictive fat and sugar which our biological caveman life expectancy 35 years bodies crave and adore.

The rest is crazy fads

It still remains, as it has for many generations, unless you have super genes, wealth and health and longevity run side by side. It's not all about food. It's much more complicated than that.

I don’t each breakfast but the kids have - homemade bread (breadmaker) and nut butters, cereal - NOVA 3 varities eg wheatabix, porridge and with fruit and nuts.

Lunch - Cheesy quesadilla and salad, egg mayo sandwiches (Dr Wills mayo), baked potato various fillings, scrambled eggs or omelette.

Dinner - anything I can either do in the slow cooker or cook in 30 mins, chilli, spag bol, fish fish with breadcrumb topping potatoes and veg, pizza and salad, curries (kids especially like paneer), various pasta dishes. In autumn we will have more hearty stews, shepherd pie like of things.

I aim for very low UPF at home so I don’t have worry about it out and about. The kids asked for peshwari naan the other day, I’m not about to start making them myself but everything else in the meal was UPF.

I’m also not concerned myself about different oil types yet. I may look into that later.

I think baked beans are ok but cheap processed wholemeal bread is not great.

It’s not as simple as baked beans are UPF or not UPF.

Going by the ingredients list, some organic baked beans aren’t technically aren’t UPF. Your bog standard Heinz is UPF - but the additional troublesome ingredients are so small that it’s prob not that important. The low/no sugar/salt version is also UPF and has a more, and a wider variety of, the additional flavourings, extracts, dyes etc that are the markers of UPF.

Same with cheese. Not UPF, but there are exceptions. Cheese strings, highly flavoured soft cheese spreads. It’s not as simple as saying a food is (or isn’t) UPF.

Would you mind sharing the recipe for the soda bread please?

Flour, yogurt, whole milk, bicarb, pinch of salt.

Mix them together, cut a cross on the top and put it in the oven until cooked.

There was plenty of engagement. Unfortunately, Chris was filming that day and it overran. The AMA is going to be re-scheduled for another time. Thread (currently locked) is here: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/AMA/4863785-ama-with-dr-chris-van-tulleken-expert-on-ultra-processed-food-and-award-winning-broadcaster?latest=1

OP, I think I have a breadmaker you could have. Happy to send it on. Pls pm me if you’d like it. I’ll cover postage etc.

Cavemen lived, at best, to 35.

I doubt that. Life expectancy stats get skewed by very high infant mortality in the past. Those who survived the first year or two of life had a good chance of reaching 60 or 70.

Were there 'stats' during cave times??!!!!

You're right if you're talking about medieval times onward but I think prior to that we didnt have great medical and legal records of the general population!!

Archaeology? I'd be really surprised to learn that there were very few older people around in the distant past. Elephants manage to live to old age, why wouldn't humans?

But the point still stands. Average lifespan isn’t a useful figure. If you survived the first five years, you were likely to live to a good age.

Before you buy the breadmaker just be aware that most fast action yeast is UPF - very annoying!

some bread machines have programs for live yeast therefore you don't have to use fast action yeast

for breakfast I have lentil pancakes with tomato and cucumber, a little mayonnaise or homemade red onion pickle

And yet the average, average because that is how statistics works, in ancient Greece or Rome was 20-35.

So yes our biology and food cravings are still stuck at us living much shorter lives.

Our brain health still, on average, declines aged 75, and no amount of organic lettuce can cure this. Exercise, clean water, genetic luck, maybe, organic lettuce not so much.

I have Schneider Brot rye bread instead of the usual brown bread, it's easily found in a lot of supermarkets and is quite cheap

Great for ideas

Our breakfasts are similar to yours, but I did buy a pancake pan and some crumpet rings so planning to put those to use for breakfasts too. We have bought some shredded wheat too.

Lunch: leftovers or soup with ryvita or sandwiches (cheese sandwiches and I've been cooking pork loin/chicken and having it with chutney) we've still been using mayo for tuna sandwiches, I would like to try and make Mayo myself though it's meant to be easy.

My partner takes a packed lunch to work, I've been making him granola bars and buying him nuts & seeds as an alternative to crisps, fruit obviously.

My daughter (who is 2.5) I've been giving her Greek yoghurt in reusable Squeezy pouches, various fruit, homemade porridge bars, homemade biscuits, breadsticks, raisins

I've also been making one cake in a loaf tin a week; banana bread recipe from sneaky veg, carrot cake minus the cream cheese and I tried out a pumpkin cake today (another sneaky veg recipe). Try to use things like dates to reduce the use of refined sugar. It lasts really well, can be used as a snack for DD or part of a lunchbox for DP and still tastes nice seven days later.

I would like to make more savoury snacks but it's a bit difficult because DD doesn't like cheese and so many seem to be cheese based.

Dinner isn't too dissimilar to before except I've been trying to have one vegetarian meal a week and eat more fish. We've had the usual mince based dishes; chilli/cottage pie/spag bol all made from scratch, but also a piece of fish with new potatoes veg and a creme fraiche based sauce. Have also had roast chicken meal and leftovers used to make risotto and chicken soup, made my own stock out of the bones.

We are still having some UPFs such as marmite, baked beans, Mayo but have cut out crisps, cordial (we have a slice of lemon and invested in a filter), supermarket bread, chocolate, processed yoghurts just Greek yoghurt now, cereal bars, cereal (other than shredded wheat), sausages, bacon.

It can sometimes be a bit awkward with DD as she's at a fussy stage, she won't eat eggs and she can be fussy about meat and fish unless it's mixed up as part of a meal. But for the most part she's quite happy and DP seems happy too.

I'm batch cooking and freezing. Chilli's, lasagne, risotto, pies etc, using fresh ingredients. Saving a small fortune

For breakfast I usually have omelette, or avocado and eggs on Sourdough (which I buy from a local bakery as I have IBS and their's is much better than processed shop bought)