What do you eat each day if you are UPF - Free?

[Lifeisinshambles]

I’ve been gluten free and trying to cook from scratch a lot more the last few months. Now I’m at the stage where I want to start prepping some lunches for work, and really take the best care of my diet as possible, whilst also keeping it relatively easy. This is what I’ve got so far;

Breakfast -
Coffee with hazelnut milk
Multivitamin

Lunch -
Homemade soup (Miso tofu & rice, Chicken veg & rice, Chickpea & potato etc, all with lots of veg)
Vegetable egg muffin
Baby bel
Dark chocolate nut clusters (Literally just dark chocolate, coconut oil and lots of nuts mixed together, I always crave something sweet after eating now that I have quit vaping!)

Dinners -
Anything! Thai curry, Spaghetti bolognese, Turkish pasta, Stir fry etc. Homemade, upf free & lots of veg of course. We use gf lentil pasta.

Dessert -
Greek yogurt with Fruit, Nut mix (Walnuts, Pumpkin seeds, Chia seeds & Flax seeds), Honey and Cinnamon
or
Oatmeal with Fruit, Peanut butter, Honey and Cinnamon

I have spent a lot of my childhood and teenage years abusing my health and my body, now that I’m in the start of my 20’s I want to take control of my health again. I’ve quit vaping after being addicted for over 6 years (although still having a cigarette now and then when I need to!!), I have a fairly active job, and I already enjoy cooking. This is the final step!

If you eat upf free, what do you eat on a typical day?

Giving up shop bought sweet treats is still a major struggle though.

Our weekly treat is homemade choc brownies.

75% choc
eggs
butter
reduced sugar ( use 1/3 of recipe amount)
flour or ground almonds

Job done.

My suggestions were going to also be ditch the hazelnut milk and babybell, they are both processed foods

All cheese is a processed food, but it isn't a upf.

But some cheese is more processed than others.

eg Babybel is not just cheese as it's formed into those shapes. Neither are pre-packed cheese slices.

It's not the same as buying a piece of cheddar that's been cut off a whole cheese.

Shaping something doesn't make it an ultra processed food?

No, but they usually have to add ingredients to ensure the eg sliced cheddar can be easily sliced and that it doesn’t stick together when packaged.

Do you mean like potato starch coating ready grated cheese?

Is anything added to babybel?

Babybel is nova score 3, I’m surprised. (Nova score 4 is UPF).

Love this thread, I'm really trying to eat less UPF and seed oils

Typical breakfast here:

Natural yoghurt (Fage) with a sprinkle of flax and chia and some frozen berries or sliced apple

Or

Home made banana pancakes

Or

Sourdough with banana and nut butter

Or

Half papaya if not v hungry

Typical Lunch:

Smoked salmon w/ cream cheese and Cohens bagels

Or

Home made chicken and veggie broth

Or

Eggs cooked any way with spinach, mushrooms, cheese

Dinner will be something like seafood paella, burgers and fries (sliced potatos in air fryer), Roast chicken, salmon poke bowl

Snacks are hummus and carrots, cheese and crackers (Matzos) and pickles (Dawtona), rice cakes with nut butter, olives, popcorn made in coconut oil

However, milk chocalate is a huge vice I can't seem to break :(

Oh, also like to get the Crosta Mollica pizza base and add own toppings. It's a bit small though so we need 2 if everyone eating dinner. Serve with garlic bread or wedges and salad.

A babybell is a upf

In what way?

the processing includes pasteurization, molding into a specific shape, being soaked in brine for flavor, and packaging in a distinct wax coating. It is a upf

the processing includes pasteurization, molding into a specific shape, being soaked in brine for flavor, and packaging in a distinct wax coating. It is a upf

Those are all processing, but it isn't upf.

There's definitely a confusion between processed food and ultra processed. Cheese isn't ultra processed. A product that is heat treated or has salt added is processed, a cheese spread or slice that has starches, emulsifiers and gums added to make it palatable is ultra processed.

I’d ditch the nut milk and babybel if you want to avoid upf, both are borderline bad.

I make my own bread, make own granola, I do buy Greek yogurt (I’m the only one who eats it dh has milk on his), berries and honey, porridge in winter.

leftovers ideally for lunch or homemade soup and bread or sandwiches from leftover roast, cheese or tuna at a pinch.

scratch cook 90% of dinners but do use tinned tomatoes

The Nova classification system is useful in understanding the difference between processed and ultra processed food.
https://world.openfoodfacts.org/nova

Cheese is category 3, cheesey slices, cheese dunkers, cheese spread etc is category 4.

Edited to say babybel isn’t a upf lol. It’s up there on the scale so I’d still ditch it but it’s apparently not a upf

Because it is just cheese 😂it's made of milk, rennet and salt.
It has a Nova classification of 3.
Shaping and packaging food isn't what makes them a upf.

By the way, Cheese Strings are also not a upf.
They are cheese made stringy by heat treating, not chemical processes.

Oh this discussion over Babybels and Cheesestrings just hammers home what a load of nonsense this latest eating fad really is.
Eat sensible, real foods. But honestly listen to yourselves 😂

Avoiding UPF foods is just eating real foods though, but it's become increasingly difficult to tell what a real food is.
Things like bread and yoghurt which should be ancient, real foods are often not real food anymore.
And naturally people are then suspicious of any processed foods.

Nothing is added to babybel other than milk, it is made like edam. All the packaging isn't great for the environment though and it works out pretty expensive for a very uninteresting and bland cheese.

Avoiding rubbish like pot noodles, 'chopped and shaped' meat and meat substitutes maybe, but tying yourselves in knots to avoid a trace of emulsifier or a pinch of potato starch is faddy nonsense, which will pass the way all food fads do.
Brands such as C&M must be coining it in.

If you don't mind eating emsulsifiers, stabilisers, thickeners and gums then that's fine, there are plenty of options out there for you