How to eat less ultra processed food as a family?

[lil328]

I was brought up on ultra processed food as a child, am overweight but slowly losing weight!
We have a lot of ultra processed food as a family.
Any tips how to have less or what to eat?

We both work full time, 2 young children, so try and do quick dinners which always seem to have something ultra processed in it.

I batch cook chilli/curry/spaghetti bolognaise/Mac cheese and freeze in 1 portion sizes so you always have a 'ready meal' in the freezer and as I have teenagers who come and go I have not defrosted a whole dish and then nobody eats it. Even if I am only cooking for 1 I cook the meal for 4 and then I have extra to freeze. I also batch cook after a big shop so all veg/herbs etc are fresh. It really is going back to basics. Easy quick meals omelettes/soups/ramen/jacket potatoes/poach egg on toast for quick and easy meals, I also use Jackson bread. You can also cook rice/wholemeal pasta and mash potatoes in advance at the beginning of the week this makes it very easy and quick to add extras to it. Go to recipe books I use are Jamie Oliver, Batch Lady, Cardiff Mum or BBC food, Good Food. The only jared food I use for quickness is Pesto - should make my own and coconut milk.

Ham = literally a piece of ham roasted in the oven

Soup = onion, lentils, carrot, stock cube

Ham isn’t (usually) UPF free.

Get Nigellas Express. You can batch cook a few meals from this. All in one tray bakes also good.

Channel 4 has a good series with starting points, search batch cook

Don't try and go cold turkey or super strict on cutting out UPFs, just make simple steady changes.

I'd suggest starting with stopping buying jars of sauce and making your own. Forget the UPFs, the amount of sugar in most of them is unbelievable, you may as well be eating a handful of haribo. Start with basic tomato sauces which are a good base for lots of dishes.

I often make a basic hidden veg one by chopping onions, garlic, peppers, carrots, frying them for a bit and then adding tinned tomatoes/passata, and adding some dried herbs and smoked paprika, black pepper etc. Just experiment with lots of herbs and spices. Let it all cook down and simmer for a while and then blend it. So versatile as a pasta sauce or a sauce for home made 'baked beans' for example (I add a can of mixed beans to the blended sauce and let it simmer for ages. It's so good). I've read that some people think dried herbs count as UPFs but who cares, it's still miles better than a jar of ready made sauce and makes a big difference to the taste of stuff without being too unhealthy.

Other easy thing is swapping your usual loaf of bread for something like Jason's sourdough. It's so tasty too. Also pitta breads tend to be one of the least processed supermarket breads, they are also cheap! We often make pitta bread pizza as an easy lunch. Or speaking of pizza, you can easily make your own base with yoghurt and flour, load with the sauce I mentioned above and then lots of other toppings (just avoid pepperoni, ham etc). It's nicer than a typical supermarket pizza.

Buying ingredients rather than food has helped us, by which I mean only buying single ingredient things that you need to cook from scratch.

For us, UPF is an issue when it comes to things like condiments, sauces and gravy.
We can't give up our condiments but we read the labels on packets or bottles of condiments. For example, Patak's paste pots don't seem to be full of ingredients that aren't recognisable and Kikoman soy sauce has only 4 ingredients rather than millions of additives, I used to quite good at mayonnaise, so that's my next thing to do.
We make our own gravy with home made vegetable or bone stock done in the slow cooker and thicken with cornflour, potato, whisked veg or Bisto, rather than gravy granules. Bisto isn't perfect but it's better than many.

I think you need to build up a personal recipe collection. It will take months, and hours spent planning, searching for recipes etc, but before you know it you'll be cooking fresh everyday. You may also need to prep in the morning/night before, get the chopping done, then finish the cooking quickly in the evening.

Some easy ideas for different types of protein, not all perfect, but a practical start:

Fish:

• Most fish can cook in 20 min in a foil parcel in the oven. Boil some potatoes and other veg to go with it. (Later you can start adding fun flavours to marinade the fish, but it's delicious as is with salt, pepper and lemon)
• Make extra then, that evening, mash the rest of the potatoes with the rest of the fish. Add an egg and some flour. Maybe grate some ginger in there, or add spring onions. Roll into little balls then flatten on a tray. Et voila, fishcakes for tomorrow night. Bake them for 15/20 min until they look done (or freeze and bake another time).

Meat:

• Ground beef, spices, parsley/coriander, grated onion, egg, a bit of flour. Mix. Roll into little balls, flatten a tiny bit. In the pan/oven. Serve with rice/couscous and chopped salad. Or in a pitta with chopped salad, easy homemade hummus, or just a better quality supermarket hummus.
• Beef stew - brown beef chunks in the pan, then add chopped onion, red pepper, butternut squash. Lots of baharat & black pepper (or other warming spices, cinnamon etc). Add water, tomato paste and raisins. Cover on low heat for as long as you can manage. Serve with white rice.

Chicken:

• Long cooking time (1hr 10min), but super easy prep. Slice potatoes in big rounds, lay on bottom of baking tray. Lay chicken thighs on top. Chop other veg (onions, carrots, whatever you want, I like adding some dried fruit too) and dot around. Drizzle olive oil, whatever herbs & spices you want, and squeeze a good dollop of honey/silan on each thigh. Cover tightly with foil. Bake at 200 for an hr, then uncover and give it a blast for 10min. Make enough for leftovers.
• Skinless, boneless thighs, brown thoroughly in big pan with spices (cumin, paprika, salt & pepper, turmeric). Remove to plate. Add chopped onions in the same oil until soft. Add rice, grate a couple of carrots in there, add more spices. Add double the amount of boiling water to rice. Place chicken thighs (and the juice they released onto the plate) on top. Cover, give it 30min on low heat.

Eggs:

• Shakshuka. You can make sauce ahead of time then reheat, but it's really quick if not: chopped onions & peppers in the pan, add spices if you want, stir until soft. Add tin of tomatoes or fresh chopped tomatoes. A little sugar if you want. When all looking saucy, crack eggs into pan, cover and cook until eggs are how you like them. You can add feta/parsley on top for some beauty and flavour. Serve with better quality bread (eg. Jason's)

Lentils:

• Fry onions, grated ginger, garlic, curry powder. Add any leftover veg, red lentils, tin of tomatoes or fresh tomatoes, a little hot water. Cook for 25 min or longer. Add more water to keep consistency if lentils absorb it all. Before serving, stir in some coconut milk/shaved coconut block and squeeze over lime.

Obviously you need to stock up on basics such as rice, tomatoes, eggs, lentils, plenty of herbs & spices. But gradually you fall into a routine and a full running kitchen. Good luck!

Cook from scratch, buy fresh or frozen veg and keep it simple.

Grilled chicken breasts with home made garlic butter, sweetcorn and jacket potatoes.

Decent butchers sausages with mustard mash, broccoli & peas.

Chilli made with beef mince, onion, garlic, tins of tomatoes &kidney beans, and some rice.

Pork chop with a fried egg, served with leeks and jacket potatoes

You have to actually cook real fresh food. You can do that quickly. Fresh food actually takes no longer than a ready meal if you think ahead.

For example, tonight we’re having baked salmon, egg noodles and green veg in a miso broth. Don’t get hung up on noodles and miso. Some people seem to think they need to ferment their own bloody soybeans. Both are relatively low in processing. Accompanied by salmon (really good protein source), maybe a boiled egg, and green veg (purple sprouting and kale from the garden, but you use whatever you like), it’s a really healthy meal. Takes 20 minutes, just long enough for salmon to bake in oven. The miso broth is just miso paste, soy sauce, sesame oil, chillies, dump it in, boil water from kettle, done.

Another night this week we’re having ratatouille, which does take time, but it’s healthy and all whole foods. We’re having it with fried eggs and sourdough. If you want to cut the carbs, fried eggs only or a white fish.

Next night, roasted chicken drumsticks, new potatoes, sautéed leeks, kale and peas. No UPFs there. Takes 30 minutes to do the chicken.

One thing: it would help if you started to see food prep and cooking as a worthwhile family activity - not as something to get ‘done’ as quickly as possible.

Presumably both adults cook? Have the children with you in the kitchen from as early as possible - and once they’re capable, give them easy preparation jobs, and involve them in tasting as you cook. This will really stand you in good stead by the time they’re in senior school - they’ll know how to make good food choices and be able to fend for themselves a little.

there was an interesting article in The Times last week - I dont' have a share token so can't share it - but it was by one of the Zoe nutritionists who basically was saying that really, we need to be a bit smarter about what we consider "bad" UPF vs perfectly ok UPF. eg she was saying things like weetabix are fine - they're fortified, dont' have any dodgy ingredients, lots of fibre, low sugar. Heinz tomato ketchup was another surprising one!

I like this approach because it means if you make the effort to cook 90% of your food from scratch, the small amount of more processed foods can be carefully chosen so that it's not really a huge issue.

You don't say what kind of food you eat, but if you're eating food you're cooking from scratch, you honestly are a large part of the way there.

A few things we try to do:

Swap out the supermarket super white bread as much as possible. We like the Jasons loaves which have no additives that are dodgy. Or we buy other sourdough. I dont' manage this 100% of the time, but about 90%. And I occassionally also haul out my breadmaker and make bread myself.

Cereals - we do stick to the "basic" ones like weetabix etc as much as possible.

Breakfast - I never buy pre-made waffles/pancakes etc. they're actually very easy to make yourself if that's your child's preference. And cheaper too!

I do still rely on oven chips more than I like, but I do try to do wedges in the oven a lot more - it's quite easy just to quickly chop them into the right size and toss in the oven without peeling etc.

I use cold pressed rapeseed and extra virgil olove oil. The rapeseed is cheaper so I save the olive oil for dressings etc and the rapeseed for everything else. Theheavily procssed sunflower oils etc are now only very very rarely used - mostly for the odd roast potato dish or similar.

Cheese is "proper" cheese vs the sort of cheese that its often easier to use for kids - no dunkers, cheese staws etc here.

MOst of the yoghurt we buy is basic greek yoghurt. I do occassionally buy fruit flavoured yeo valley yoghurts as well but as little as possible.

@lil328 if 30 mins from start to finish is doable

then these recipes could work for your family, just adjust your shopping list.

There’s a series of books by Rukmini Iyer which I think are excellent. Plan your recipes and shop accordingly.

Literally anything cooked from scratch is non upf. Spag bol, chilli, curries, cottage/shepherds/fish pie etc etc etc.

The difficult thing is cutting out supermarket bread and either replacing it with real bread (difficult to get to a bakery and much more expensive) or replace it with other food (lunches pretty much become salad or pasta).

Get a handbag sized magnifying glass with built in light for reading the minuscule print listing the ingredients when you are shopping.

Another vote for using a breadmaker and ordering from Hodmedods.

Check the ingredients in different cereals and baked goods when shopping online so you are able to pick out the ones that are UPF free and know which ones to avoid next time you are in the shop.

I make my own bread, I started when our Waitrose stopped stocking Heyford wholemeal. It's ridiculously easy.

I start the yeast in warm water while making my early morning coffee on Sundays. Drink my coffee then mix and knead the dough, which takes 15 mins. Put it in a warm oven to rise while I shower & dress. Knead the dough again which takes 5 mins, then in a loaf tin to rise for an hour before baking for 45 mins.

By 9.30, we have decent bread for the week. I freeze half. £1.50 for an 800gm wholemeal loaf.

Get a slow cooker and batch cooker. Aldi often has slow cookers in the middle aisle. Things like Shepard’s Pie, Chicken Casserole, beef stew, any type of soup, are all a doddle. Freeze in family sized portions, get it out in the morning to defrost, bung in the oven at night and serve with veg (frozen is a good option) and potatoes. Or grill some pork chops, takes 20 minutes. I also marinade chicken breast in Greek yoghurt, tomato purée and curry powder. Takes 5 minutes to whack it all together in the mornings, then stick it in the oven for 35 minutes at night and serve with salad and rice.
Bread maker (also from Aldi middle aisle) sorts bread out.

I think food nowadays has a lot of salt, spice added so food will taste bland if that is what youre used to so take your time. I sometimes buy m and s fish or crisp bakes but am going to stop as the crusty outer layer is full of upfs to make them tasty and crunchy. What seems healthy sometimes isn’t.
Baked potatoes are a great filler - move away from oven chips and crisps. Then whatever with the potato - sausages,tuna and salad,ham and salad.

Always have fresh fruit available for snacks. Buy extra vegetables and salads and put more of these into your meals. Make your own ready meals for the freezer. If for example you make a lasagna, put plenty of chopped up vegetables into your sauce. It’s surprisingly easy to throw in carrots, peppers, tomatoes, celery and no one even notices.

Some really good advice here. We did this about a year ago and I’ve found it much easier to do if I dedicate some time to it over the weekend. So time spent meal planning and sorting online shop ahead of the weekend and then a few hours of prep/batch cooking on a Saturday means I can work full time and feed us all a minimally processed diet. It mostly falls on me as my DH doesn’t give a shit but he does packed lunches as has got on board with using the bread maker so that makes a difference too. It’s doable once you get into the swing of it but can feel overwhelming at the start

i would say don’t aim for perfection, just make gradual changes. The bread was key for us as we eat loads of it as a family.

This cookbook is fab and has been really helpful for me. Quick recipes, minimally processed and all stuff that the kids will eat: https://amzn.eu/d/2YxY5tV

Look up the Batch Lady. She’s got her own series on C4 and helps lots of families in similar situations.

Yes I keep thinking I must make my own. I've never tried it but like pottering, so would probably enjoy it.

I don't get how sausages are seen as ok?just figuring it out,we are veggie so assumed Quorn ones were pretty upf?
For me I need suggestions for lunch boxes/after school treat.think I need to make my own buns.popcorn is a good idea.

Placemarking!