How much of your diet do you think is UPF?

[Neverenoughbiscuits]

Listening to the Zoe podcast tonight and it estimates that the average diet is 50% UPF. I actually think that might be quite conservative but that is only based on my anecdotal observations.

I do try really hard to minimise UPF but it is so easy for it to creep in. Today I have had barely any - probably only some cream cheese with the toast, smoked salmon and spinach I had for lunch. I make my own bread but if I hadn't then 50% of my meal would have been UPF without even thinking about it. Yesterday I ate on the run so probably 85% of my diet was UPF; sandwich and packet of crisps from M & S at lunch and Ramona houmous and crackers for dinner along with some fruit and greek yoghurt.

Working in an office, I'd say the majority of my colleagues have a mostly UPF diet during the day. The office is near a Tesco and so many have a meal deal from there. There is always a constant supply of biscuits or cake around. I find it really scary that actually it's far easier to find and eat "non-foods" than it is to have real food.

What percentage of UPF do you think you have on your diet?

Op Zoe is not based on any scientific evidence, nor is the UPF nonsense. There is no consensus on what constitutes UPF and non of the research they quote is unbiased.

I cook from.scratch (child with food allergies and intolerances) but reckon it's higher than 50%.

I'm never sure what would be - is the golden syrup I used in flapjacks be included? Is the tin tomatoes I used to make the pasta sauce? Is the stock cube? Is the Hemdersons Relish?

Tonight making curry but bought poppadoms and naan bread and mango chutney to go with it - guess they are UPF...

Actually there is extremely good evidence that UPF causes obesity and other harms, both on a population level (the work of Carlos Monterio and others spanning decades) and on an individual level (the work of Kevin Hall, Giles Yeo etc). And there is a growing body of very robust peer reviewed published research that backing these studies up.
I do agree with you that Zoe with all its commercial interests is not a transparent credible source of information, however the evidence on the impact of UPF on our health is very sound.

About 5%.

I consciously try to reduce my intake of UPFs, I feel better when I do. But I have weaknesses - Dairy Milk (well any chocolate, but 'good' dark chocolate just doesn't do it for me), and a normal Coke. The chocolate I struggle to give up, the Coke I try to limit (I don't have it in the house, but if I'm having a bad day at work, I will be tempted to grab a Coke with my lunch, and it would be my drink of choice when eating out/at the pub if I'm not drinking alcohol).

I only buy the Jason's sourdough now, but my DH and DS have no qualms whatsoever about their UPF intake, and DS in particular (ASD, and eats a fairly restricted diet). I live a pretty busy lifestyle, and struggle to fit in the time to cook from scratch, but again, I try to plan out meals, batch cook when I do have time to try and maximise our lower UPF intake when at home.

None of us have weight issues, we're all slim, DH and I are also pretty active, but to me it just makes good sense to try and eat well nutritionally. I do listen to the Zoe podcasts, and personally think most of what they say is just common sense.

I love that Kevin Hall originally started his research because he thought it was all nonsense and that it didn’t matter how processed the food was if the nutrients were identical, so he did his study to prove the theory wrong and then went ‘Oh, I’ve made a discovery’

https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-presentation-on-ultra-processed-foods-global-diets-and-policy-implications-press-released-from-and-being-presented-at-the-international-congress-on-obesity-ico-2024/

As I said there is no real consensus on what constitutes UPF

As I said there is no real consensus on what constitutes UPF

Actually, there is.

Nova classification - Wikipedia

This is what is generally used to differentiate processed foods vs UPFs.

Grey areas exist around the margins of definition for sure ie baked beans etc... however the underlying science is very robust. The concept of UPF and the harm it's doing is not 'nonsense' as you indicated in your original post. It is backed up by very impressive and credible evidence.

I would be very interested to know the credentials of people on this thread. I may be wrong, but I believe @bruffin is a scientist. I would back a trained scientist to evaluate research in nutrition over others who have read a bestseller or a few posts on social media.

When I read all the posts from people agonising over using tinned tomatoes or stock cubes I think of my 92yo Mum, who has used all the convenience foods going for decades now. My Dad lived to 89, my Mum is still hanging on, my brother and I are now in our 60s and in reasonably good health. If the anti-UPF people looked at our diet back in the 1970s they'd have conniptions. I know somebody will say 'Yes, but UPFs didn't exist back then'. This may be so, but there were lots and lots of other additives in our food and very few people pushing back. Additives and convenience foods were up to date and modern. Cooking from scratch was boring and old-fashioned, and associated with poverty in many people's eyes. Elizabeth David was fighting a rearguard action but not many people were persuaded. Delia Smith tried to pick up the baton in the 1970s (if we ignore the odd book she did about using convenience foods) and taught a lot of people to cook who didn't learn at home or school. I did learn to cook both from my Mum and to an extent at school, but I learned a lot more from my various cookery books after I left home.

I can certainly see the benefit in cooking using raw ingredients because that would almost always mean having a higher intake of fibre. I believe there is a consensus that most people in the UK would benefit from having more fibre in their diet as it improves bowel health a lot by speeding up the transit of food through the gut. However, I am not going to start beating myself up for adding a dash of Lea & Perrin's or not checking the ingredients on a tin of tomatoes. Life is too short.

Mines probably a good 95% if not more.

Yep too much. I've been wanting to change for years but it seems to be an unachievable goal for some reason.

Even if I have a good week or two, I soon slip back to old habits.

Breakfast can be a croissant (certainly not home made), cereal, toast or pancakes. The pancakes would be home made and the toast would be sourdough, so those are good.

Lunch usually a Tesco sandwich/wrap but some days I'll do an omelette or a melted cheese and tomato on sourdough.

Dinner from scratch, so that's good - chicken with potato or seafood pasta or spag bol.

But then the snacks :/ Probably a piece of fruit, packet of crisps or rice cakes, 3 x biscuits and some chocolate every day.

I'd say 50% sounds about right for me but I'd love to get it to 10%.

Congratulations on your weight loss and your duet sounds very healthy but I'm struggling think how you make a nice curry with that list.

Very little at the moment. I'm on an unprocessed food diet atm so everything is fresh and homemade. Except coffee, but I refuse to stop drinking it until my current canister has run out.

I'm yet to see any changes. I'm 2 weeks in, lost no weight and still feel like crap. But following the advice of my GP so we'll see how it goes I guess.

Meat, onions, spices and tomatoes or yougurt or coconut milk. Just how you’d make any other Indian or Thai curry! I make Mexican food too. It’s all just meat and/or vegetables/lentils and spices. It’s not different to how anyone else would make one.

Thank you @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
Im not a scientist just someone who doesnt fall for the latest fad in diets and realised a long time ago books about common sense approach to diets etc dont sell, just the ones that want to scaremonger

My problem is a large appetite. I eat a lot of weetabix and every evening need a tin of diet rice pudding.

Even these are upf!

I wd struggle to know what to eat to fill me up without it costing a small fortune. Also I am loathe to cook every day. Twice a week I eat Indian readymade meals.

You have to be highly motivated to avoid upf completely.

You sound very similar to me. Mornings are always a rush, and I’m usually at work at lunchtime so reach for convenience foods for both breakfast and lunch. But in the evenings I find it easier to cook more healthily.

I think you and I are the norm though and there are lots more like us, I do find this really difficult. I remind myself that on most fronts I’m doing ok (not overweight, don’t smoke, exercise regularly, don’t drink much etc…) so trying not to beat myself up and just keep taking small steps to improve.

Nowhere near 50%. I cook almost all meals from scratch and don't eat bread most days; even if I do it's from a local baker (mind you no ingredients listed so I have no idea if it's UPF). Crisps and sweets are my downfall. I probably eat crisps most days. Oh and breakfast cereal a few times a week but no way am I going to beat myself up over a bowl of All Bran or no added sugar Alpen.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g I was a research scientist with a multinational agri food company for 15 years with a degree and masters in food science. I have a further degree in physics. I know junk science when I see it and this isn't it. The research carried out by Montiero's team and by Kevin Hall is robust and credible. I can also recognise the food industry funded rebuttal based on half truths and obfuscation when I see it...

Coconut milk, spices and tomatoes were all not in your original list. Makes sense now!

Thank you, @LemonVerbeena, I appreciate your extra information there. Which posts do you regard as a food industry funded rebuttal? I can assure you I've got nothing to do with the food industry.

It’s hard to think of absolutely everything when listing it, even if it does sound quite limited!

I never mention herbs and spices, I always assume they are just a given when people cook from scratch.

I was diagnosed as coeliac 4 years ago which helps immensely. Everything I miss (looking at you, Greggs), I can’t have now anyway for medical reasons, and the GF alternatives, bread, pasta etc are all horrible anyway, So it’s not really as limited or as difficult as it looks.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-presentation-on-ultra-processed-foods-global-diets-and-policy-implications-press-released-from-and-being-presented-at-the-international-congress-on-obesity-ico-2024/
This link was posted upthread. One example - in the first article 3rd or 4th paragraph Prof Gunther Kuhnle of Reading University argues that Kevin Hall's study compared UPF with minimally processed foods and not processed foods. This is incorrect. Minimally processed foods are things like cooking oil, flour, sugar etc (NOVA 2). The subjects in the study ate lots of processed food such as cheese, plain yoghurt and bread (NOVA 3). So if Prof Kuhnle can't even get the basic facts right one would have to ask why? Who's funding him now and in the past? Does Reading University have very close links with the food industry (spoiler - yes it does...). And so on, I haven't got the time to take apart every article in the link but they are deliberately obfuscating the difference between processed and ultra processed food and misrepresenting some extremely robust science.

Sounds like an amazing turnaround. Do you feel good? I eat pretty well I think but maybe I need to really simplify things!