If you and your children eat a low- UPF diet, what does a typical day or week of meals and snacks look like?

[Uffadoo]

I'm watching a documentary about UPFs (ultra processed foods) and it's made me realise that I think we have far too many in our home. I would really like to cut this down, we have a 9month old, 2 year old, 7 year old and 12 year old. The baby, 7 and 12 year old will eat absolutely anything but the 2 year old can be picky to the point of having lost weight in the past and was referred to a dietician and paediatrician (she has now put on weight and generally eats much better but not always great). I do make a lot of things from scratch but a couple of nights a week, after clubs, I might stick on frozen pizzas or chicken nuggets. Snacks in particular tend to be UPFs (we do have yoghurt and fruit often as snacks too though).

I would love to hear what a day or week of meals and snacks looks like for you and your family to get some inspiration. Is there any tips for foods that you can get that wouldn't be UPFs if you get them elsewhere? For example DD2 loves sausages, if I get sausages made by the butcher would that be better or are they a no go?

Mayo is easy to make yourself but personally I wouldn’t stress about a small amount of mayo…

humous, pesto are fillings my kids like.

Sadly bakeries/butchers and farm shops etc can be just as bad for UPF and you really do just have to check the labels.

I agree.
You can get mayo with minimal ingredients but personally I would probably just focus on getting good quality bread and fillings (ham or salami are processed but don’t have to be ultra processed) and bung in plenty of salad and not worry about the spoonful of UPF mayonnaise. But you do what works best for you bearing in mind reducing UPFs is good but you don’t need to be perfect.

@Cuwins - we make scones a fair bit with fussy 3 year old. Either plain and served with mascarpone and jam ( he’s also underweight), or savoury cheese ones for lunch. They are pretty quick to make with young children and it’s basically all ingredients chucked in at once so they can help. Cheap also as regular cupboard ingredients (as long as you have eggs in)

Thanks. I will have to see if I can find a dairy free recipe

We don’t eat a great deal of UPF, mainly due to allergies and dietary needs. We do use things like stock cubes etc.

This weeks meals

Monday
breakfast banana pancakes with mixed berries
Tea hot and sour thai soup with veg (we make our own paste, but do use ready made tamarind paste)

Tuesday
breakfast roti with honey and dates
Tea potato wedges, mixed bean chilli and guac

Wednesday
Breakfast porridge made with water and some dates mix through
Tea fritta and salad

Today
Breakfast shakskuka (if that is how you spell it)
Tea cauliflower malai curry with roti

Roti, wedges etc are home made. Lunches for adults are left overs, the small people eat nursery/school dinners.

For me it's a matter of reducing not necessarily banning and if I buy it, I ttry to buy the best version I can afford.

We got a breadmaker and it reduces the amount of packed bread.
Sausages are nearly always organic.
I try not to buy breaded chicken but make chicken nuggets/goujons myself.
Pizza is also mostly made from scratch.

But - there are things I just don't have the time or space to make. I buy tomato paste/passata. I buy wraps and naan. I buy ketchup, majonnaise and mustard.

We have curry sauce packs for emergencies.

I only have a normal size under the counter freezer, I can't batch cook tons of soup, sauces, bakery goods and freeze them. I don't have space to can my own vegetables.

For me it's about knowing what I eat and trying to reduce as much as possible without bending backwards.

Same here, it was much easier when they were younger. Now they are teens they definitely eat more UPF.

Things I cave on and have in the house: crisps, yoghurt (I try to buy expensive brands without too much shite in them), fizzy pop and biscuits (those last two are quite limited).

Things I do to limit UPF consumption:
-Spend most Sunday afternoons batch cooking for the week ahead
-make bread (easy with a Panasonic, I put it on a timed setting and it's ready in the morning)
-eggs or porridge for breakfast, sometimes toast with butter
-homemade sweet snacks for packed lunches. They will eat any type of nutty/datey/flapjacky type bar if it has a bit of milk chocolate drizzled over the top.
-takeaway type meals on a Friday or Saturday so they feel like they have a treat. Eg I'll make burgers with all the trimmings like at five guys, or do DIY donor kebabs.

@Cuwins absorbic acid is a form of vitamin c. As I understand it, compared to the long list of random ingredients in many food, it’s not as bad. Probably still not as good as products without it.

I have a dairy free recipe for scones I can send you. Will remember when I see my threads I am on tomorrow. It’s my mothers recipe and very easy.

Downside… it uses margarine which is processed or possibly UHP.

@Meadowfinch I would love your recipe for apple bread if possible?

Thank you

I'm not sure there is really an alternative to margarine when you are dairy free. I would only be looking to reduce anyway to eliminate as there are some where eliminating just wouldn't work for our family- margarine would be one.

We are not a family of snackers and rarely have them but if we do it is something like corn cakes or breadsticks so still UPF.

Meal wise , DC eat the following:

Breakfast - porridge occasionally eggs on toast or Weetabix
Lunch - sandwich made with homemade bread (generally prawn, cheese, egg, tuna). Some UPf in the mayo
Frozen berries with full fat greek yoghurt, honey and non UPf museli
Fruit
They will generally have either a cereal bar, packet of crisps or homemade flapjack/cake.
Dinner - 90% from scratch.This week bean and halloumi stew, chicken curry, chilli and minestrone type soup.

This is good advice

I go for minimally processed food (tinned / frozen veg etc) and have a policy that if I don’t know what all the ingrediants are I don’t buy it.

For me personally I give DS Ryvita crispbreads or home made pitta bread with Ricotta / marscapone or pureed sweet potato a lot. I make a batch of tomato and marscapone sauce and use it as a base for pastas and curries and even gravies to add calories. I always have cooked chicken and Cauldron tofu in the fridge for protein.

I try and follow low UPF at home for the kids, and although I personally feel very relaxed about food, I think I am probably quite strict compared to some.

Breakfast:

-Yoghurt (Greek high fat or kefir) with fruit/muesli/nuts/seeds/sometimes some dark choc
-Peanut butter toast, sometimes with banana on top. Maybe with some berries on the side.
-Porridge
-Weetabix with fruit
-Eggs….with avo if we have it
I haven’t bought cereal for years and kids don’t know any different now.

Packed lunch (school menu is high UPF and kids aren’t fussy)
-Roll with cheese, cucumber and mayo (I use Jason’s rolls, minimal ingredients)
Portion of different berries
Portion of tomatoes or cucumber/peppers etc
A yoghurt pouch (collective or Yeo valley)
Sometimes an extra such as breadsticks/babybel

Apple or banana for school, school also provide one fruit or veg snack on top of this. After school snack is normally a piece of fruit or maybe the extra snack like a babybel if not in lunchbox. Hummus and breadsticks etc.

Sadly we don’t often get to eat as a family in the week, so can tailor meals to kids.
-Pesto pasta with added veg (courgette, mushrooms etc) or mushroom pasta
-Bean chilli with rice
-Fish goujons or whatever protein in the fridge with veg (we mainly do combos of peas/corn on the cob/broccoli/carrots/raw peppers/tomatoes)
-Cheese and veg omelette
-Leftover of our adult meals with veg
Scrambled eggs/beans on toast/cheese on toast etc etc

Kids don’t get pudding at home, unless having a roast.

We drink Clipper hot choc quite regularly, and choc snacks are always the Montezumas dark choc buttons, normally mixed in with popcorn and blueberries. Sweets only at birthday parties. No squash but sometimes buy Belvoir if they want it, doesn’t taste as nice as Robinsons.

I worry about their teeth rotting as much as I think about their health when choosing what they eat. No fruit juice is a big one for me. I let my kids eat freely when out of the house if in a restaurant/on holiday etc.

2 primary DC:

Breakfast - porridge with blueberries, banana and chia seeds.
Lunch - soup or a plate of bits (veggie sticks, boiled egg, Greek yogurt pot, drumstick, fruit etc.), or a sour dough bread sandwich.
Dinner - loads of different things, just takes longer to make them from scratch. Batch cooked curries, bolognaise, chilli etc, or some kind of meat/fish with some veg and rice or potato.

I can imagine things going easily awry with teenagers though.

@Cuwins - you can make scones replacing butter with coconut oil and the milk with coconut milk. Then using normal egg is you just need dairy free, not vegan.

Dairy free is trickier, but can reduce the amount of plant based butter sometimes buy using oil olive, coconut oil, avocado oil when cooking, or on toast swapping ‘butter’ out for houmous/ nut butters/ seed butters/ mashed avocado.

We have drastically reduced UPF intake and loving it. We cook curries from scratch using a great Dishoom recipe book. Also chicken wings and egg fried rice, roasts, meat and veg, Greek skewers and rice...
We've found some good brands for staple items, e.g Crista and Molljca for pizza bases and breadsticks, Jason's for Sourdough loaves and rolls, Stokes for mayo and condiments.
We feel a LOT better having made these changes.

Which Collective or Yeovalley yoghurt pouch do you use please as the ones I saw contain natural flavours. Thank you!

I feel exhausted just reading this!

Really interested how much this falls on women’s shoulders?

All on mine but I am home 80% of the week and he works full time. Also it was me who wanted to change our diet and not his so it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t done anything different. I just want me and my kids to have the best health they can do I do what I can to ensure that really. (I don’t completely eliminate UPF though). Finally, I have always done to food shop/cooking as I enjoy it luckily! Also, I think once you get into a routine it’s not that much more work personally as I’ve always cooked mostly from scratch anyway. I imagine to some it would be an overwhelming change.

How many hours a week do you work out of the home. That is an impressive amount of cooking and preping there.....

Yep.

I'd also be interested to know how many people have teenagers, or work long hours in physically exhausting jobs, or have both parents not getting home from work until 6pm at the earliest.

A lot of this is about having time and money and energy.