If anyone has reduced UPFs, can you tell me your easy swaps?

[ThreeRingCircus]

After doing some research into ultra processed food recently I was pretty shocked and decided to trial cutting it out as much as possible for a couple of weeks. I have been genuinely surprised at how much better I have felt, mainly in terms of energy levels and it's something I want to continue. I'm not looking to completely eliminate UPFs from my diet but am looking to cut them out as far as possible at home and then won't worry so much about eating out.

What I have noticed is it's clearly more time consuming, and also requires more though around buying food. I work and have young DCs and am generally pretty busy so realistically I am not going to make everything from scratch and need some easy swaps.

Things we've done already and will continue as young DDs have liked the swaps:

Buying plain greek yoghurt and flavouring it with honey and fruit rather than flavoured yogurts.

Bread is now Jason's sourdough or Crosta & Mollica wraps. This has been a revelation to be honest as it's so much tastier and more filling than the standard squashy loaves we were buying.

All butter shortbread to replace other biscuits. There seem to be a few shop bought brands that are UPF free.

Some varieties of ready salted crisps are UPF free so swapping to those.

Porridge or overnight oats for breakfast.

Cheese, eggs or tuna for sandwiches instead of ham.

Real butter instead of spread (we'd been doing this for years anyway.)

Then obviously cooking from scratch a lot more with a variety of fruit and veg. I've been trying to batch cook some things so I've got homemade chilli for example in the freezer for quick dinners.

I suppose overall we seem to be eating more simply. DDs never had beige freezer food at home anyway but their school dinners are another story!

If you have tried to cut out UPFs from your diet, are there easy swaps that you've made that you've found sustainable? Or any products you'd recommend?

We've had a bread machine for many many years and use it probably 3x a week - and now we get to feel smug cos homemade bread is UPF free! (Although I've read that instant yeast might be UPF but I don't care cos our bread definitely doesn't have anything else weird in it).

Can I ask where you get the Crosta & Mollica from, OP? Have been on the lookout for it since reading about it on the MN UPF threads but never been able to find it.

Ocado have a big selection of Crosta and Mollica products.

Edited, because autocorrect decided I wanted to say crostata.

If you haven't already got one then I recommend getting a good blender. I've can now make homemade pesto, hummus, oat milk etc in 5 mins. It tastes a lot nicer than the supermarket stuff anyway (apart from the oat milk - still working on that one!)

We abandoned the almond milk (sugar, emulsifiers, thickeners) for organic cow’s milk.

And also pretty much did what you’ve written, OP.

except when we eat out, all’s fair in love and dinners out.

We were using nuttelex because of DS's dairy intolerance. I am now using coconut oil as a sub. It works well for most recipes.

I highly recommend Khoury's A New Way of Baking if you are dealing with intolerances or allergies and want to be as low UPF as possible.

yy to the bread maker. Once you get into a routine it is no faff at all. Top tip, don’t use a timer to have it fresh in the morning - each slice will be half the loaf as it is tricky to cut when warm. Ours also has a jam setting which is similarly no hassle. It makes two jars at a time which I keep in the fridge.

Also, slow cooker. I make cordial in ours (instead of buying squash). I bought a funnel with an integral strainer which makes it much simpler to strain bits and pour into bottles. Slow cooker is also great for hm ketchup and chutney. It makes me feel like some domestic goddess with very little input. I have a food processor for blending soups, hummus etc - gave up with a stick one as too much effort.

I've been trying to reduce very processed foods, particularly meat replacement products. I have Ultra Processed People in my to-be-read pile.

I've found batch cooking helps a lot. If I'm making e.g. a cottage pie or lasagne or whatever for dinner, I'll make an extra one or two for the freezer, straight into the pyrex dish or whatever. Take it out the morning required, chuck in the oven that evening.

I've also been making and eating a lot more soups for lunch, hearty ones like minestrone with beans and pasta.

I’ve tried making oat milk, and it tasted like thin uncooked porridge. I thought maybe some sweetener would help, and then it tasted like thin uncooked porridge with maple syrup.

Ricemilk is also horrible homemade.

Our local Tesco stock them. They're really nice!

I'm thinking of getting a breadmaker but I'm not sure I have the countertop space for one!

I think you can get some UPF free brands of yeast but I agree with you to be honest that the tiny, tiny amount of emsulsifer you'll be consuming per slice of homemade bread probably isn't worth worrying about.

I don't drink oat milk but this one looks ok if it's of use to anyone!

Plentish Oat Milk

A blender is a good idea, so far I've replaced pesto in pasta by just doing a deconstructed version e.g. just tossing pasta with olive oil, basil, garlic, hard cheese, pine nuts etc but I think I probably do need a proper blender.

Soda bread is really simple to make and delicious. Freshly baked soda bread, cheese and jams is a lovely weekend breakfast treat.

If you have a magimix, or similar food processor, that is excellent for making the likes of pesto or hommous. (I am always amazed that anyone buys hommous. It takes about 5 minutes, if you have precooked chickpeas.) I have had mine for about 30 years (although I have had to replace the bowls and lids from time to time) so it’s not been a bad investment!