Ultra Processed Food- how much do you eat?

[pigeonpies]

Reading an article about ultra processed foods (UPF) and the link to poor health. Not rocket science I suppose, we all know the risks. But today is for me thinking because a lot of food typically targeted at kids ( sugary cereals ex)

I want to change the way my family eat. AIBU to think this will be more difficult than I imagine?

I thought we were doing ok but then saw how much stuff in my kitchen is ultra professed!

In theory cooking from natural foods feels great but not always practical!

If you are already followed a low UPF way of living I'd like to hear the sort of things you eat!

Thanks

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/27/tin-food-cans-linings-bpa-plastic-ask-experts
BPA

I suspect the people who are suffering the worst ill-effects from processed food aren’t those whose worst sin is putting a tin of kidney beans into their homemade chilli once a week or occasionally barbecuing a vegetarian sausage.

Few years ago I gained a few pounds and my blood test showed high cholesterol and some other results were on the border.
I changed my diet to follow NHS advice e.g.:

• at least 5 portions of fruits and vegetables
• eating enough fibre (I think that was a real game changer), e.g. swapping bread, rice and pasta to wholemeal, eating more nuts.
• looking at nutrition labels and avoiding things with high sugar, salt and saturated fat.

So I don't avoid highly processed food as such, but eating healthily probably mean I eat less of it. My blood results are excellent now (GP's words, not mine) and I lost the extra weight. I'm happy with that and I enjoy my diet now. So I don't want to do more and eliminate processed foods that I like or that are convenient. I cook quite a lot but use shortcuts too.

I think we generally eat fairly well and don’t have a huge amount of processed foods. But We do eat some stuff I’m sure.

Things like beans and lentils from a tin, we don’t eat baked beans, but lentils, black beans, chickpeas, butter beans etc I use from a tin 90% of the time. They are usually rinsed before use so I didn’t think they were that bad. Just saves a lot of time. With a baby, I haven’t the extra time to pre soak and boil black beans etc.

Breakfast is the easier meal to change I think. Cereal is go to for many, but porridge, Greek yogurt, fruit, boiled eggs, toast all fairly quick yet healthier I think.

We tend to buy bakery bread. Not in uk, so bakeries are on every corner and really good quality. Rye bread is the most common. I can bake, but again it’s a time thing so don’t do daily.
Do tend to bake any cake at home though as we mainly have for events/ birthdays/ guests visiting so that’s not as often

With a small child, I am more aware now of salt content in items

Snacks for myself I'm pretty good these days, fruit, nuts etc. My downfall is crisps, just can't seem to give them up. Our family meals are mostly from scratch but a couple of times a week it will be shop bought pizza, dough balls or pie that kind of thing but served with fresh salad or potatoes etc.
The DC, apart from dinner, I find a little more difficult to manage. Only sandwich bread they will eat is white, despite only being introduced to wholemeal, granary etc as babies. Thankfully they eat lots of fruit and veg.

I have the Richmond Meat Free sausages about once a week and you'd have to fight me to get me to stop. I love them

Lol only on MM would lentils from a tin count as ultra processed

I also have Quorn slices and I have literally no idea what is in them.

No UP foods, which amazes me, though I suspect the bread might be be more UP than they let on.

Not liking cereals, biscuits and cakes and chocolate probably helps.

Now wine....... that's another thing.

We only eat home made (breadmaker ) bread, by day 4 it's getting really stale

MN is so divorced from reality sometimes. What are you ashamed of using a bloody bread maker?? You're fine. It's all fine. Everything's fine!

These threads about food always get so competitive. Someone up thread felt the need to point out that the goat farm she gets her cheese from only has 30 goats, presumably to not risk losing points for an assumption of industrial scale goat farming.

If it helps everyone calm down about their goat to farmer ratio, I'll lower the bar a bit and simultaneously reinforce the MN stereotype about Vegans eating loads of processed shite, shall I?

Things I sometimes eat, in addition to the Richmond sausages and Quorn slices:

• KFC
• fake chicken pieces (no idea, seatin maybe?
• those lovely pies that are often only a quid in Morrisons that come in the orange box
• pasties (I live in Cornwall)
• those dragonfly spicey bean burger things
• if the sliced white is reduced to 8p I sometimes buy that
• pre-made pastry
• canned everything
• Jammie Dodgers
• Oreos
• Oatly Ice cream
• tofu X a lot
• pre made stir fry sauce
• actually sauces generally I suppose? Vegan mayo (all four flavours), vegan salad cream, mustard, ketchup, BBQ, siracha
• oat milk
• Gu Free From mini lemon cheesecakes (fight me)
• chocolate coconut milkshakes
• pre made gravy
• flora spread
• bournville orange flavour
• pre-made garlic bread
• alpro soya cream replacement
• miso paste
• naan bread
• chutneys, jams, dips and salsas
• oven chips
• hashbrowns
• supermarket babaganush
• take away Currys
• take away pizzas

I also eat about 8 of my five a day and am in good shape, so can't get worked up about it (although the glass recycling box does tell the tale of the slightly shaming Gu habit once a fortnight )

Quite a bit. I've never made pasta from scratch and we eat a lot of bread.
I'm not a bad cook and like to cook using basic ingredients but there are a few things I'd buy rather than make such as lasagne, pies, burgers, chicken nuggets etc.
Today I'm making pizza from scratch but usually we'd buy frozen ones.

@HangingOver

These threads about food always get so competitive. Someone up thread felt the need to point out that the goat farm she gets her cheese from only has 30 goats, presumably to not risk losing points for an assumption of industrial scale goat farming.

If it helps everyone calm down about their goat to farmer ratio, I'll lower the bar a bit and simultaneously reinforce the MN stereotype about Vegans eating loads of processed shite, shall I?

Things I sometimes eat, in addition to the Richmond sausages and Quorn slices:

• KFC
• fake chicken pieces (no idea, seatin maybe?
• those lovely pies that are often only a quid in Morrisons that come in the orange box
• pasties (I live in Cornwall)
• those dragonfly spicey bean burger things
• if the sliced white is reduced to 8p I sometimes buy that
• pre-made pastry
• canned everything
• Jammie Dodgers
• Oreos
• Oatly Ice cream
• tofu X a lot
• pre made stir fry sauce
• actually sauces generally I suppose? Vegan mayo (all four flavours), vegan salad cream, mustard, ketchup, BBQ, siracha
• oat milk
• Gu Free From mini lemon cheesecakes (fight me)
• chocolate coconut milkshakes
• pre made gravy
• flora spread
• bournville orange flavour
• pre-made garlic bread
• alpro soya cream replacement
• miso paste
• naan bread
• chutneys, jams, dips and salsas
• oven chips
• hashbrowns
• supermarket babaganush
• take away Currys
• take away pizzas

I also eat about 8 of my five a day and am in good shape, so can't get worked up about it (although the glass recycling box does tell the tale of the slightly shaming Gu habit once a fortnight )

You recycle your Gu ramekins? Don't you know you're supposed to hoard them forever for rainy day craft-based activities with the DCs. You've not only let yourself down, you've let Mumsnet down....

We grow most of our own veg, fruit etc so all meals pretty much without exception are cooked from scratch, a 'ready meal' in one I batch cooked earlier and got the extra portions out of the freezer.
DH wants to do an area of oats next year as he has porridge for breakfast. , in mitigation he has bought us a potato harvester, as it's jolly hard work digging row upon row of potatoes. (we have land as our 'allotment')

You recycle your Gu ramekins? Don't you know you're supposed to hoard them forever for rainy day craft-based activities with the DC

The shame. I mean I don't have DC, but rest assured I feel the required amount of shame.

I did actually save them to begin with because they FEEL like they should be useful iyswim but they quickly became too numerous to store The lemon ones are just TOO good.

@HangingOver

You recycle your Gu ramekins? Don't you know you're supposed to hoard them forever for rainy day craft-based activities with the DC

The shame. I mean I don't have DC, but rest assured I feel the required amount of shame.

I did actually save them to begin with because they FEEL like they should be useful iyswim but they quickly became too numerous to store The lemon ones are just TOO good.

[quote pigeonpies]@BigWoollyJumpers the average life expectancy for Italy is 82 years, the UK is 81 so not that great!

[/quote]
Agreed, but there are pockets like Sardinia, where there are more centenarians than elsewhere - so called blue zones. The article below is a case in point. We never read about the ACTUAL diets of these Mediterranean islands, because it doesn't fit the current narrative. They don't just eat fish and vegetables. They are heavily focused on processed pork, cheese, pasta, etc etc. The key is how it is eaten, fresh and simple, and what it is eaten along with it, and of course outdoors life, sun, etc etc. So, back to the everything in moderation argument, along with a eat simple basic diet.

jenncampusauthor.medium.com/live-like-a-sardinian-the-key-to-longevity-9b004f9fe389

Not sure if anyone asked, are pulses from cartons bad too? I did read about someone boiling up driers beans in bulk and sticking them in the freezer to cook when needed.

They form a mass part of my diet.

I have recently cut out all processed food and it’s been quite hard to do. A lot of things I quite enjoy are processed (bread being a key one) so it’s tricky. Also, things I had previously thought were ok, like tinned tuna, are actually classed as processed. I guess it’s case of how far do you want to go?

Another thing to make us all feel anxious and stressed.

I eat a lot of tray bakes, so chopped veggies, whatever you like/is in season and say chicken breasts, all tossed in oil and seasoning (loving smoked paprika and salt at the moment) and baked in the oven for 30-45 mins depending on the chosen veggies/meat. I always make enough for leftovers the next day. In warmer weather it’s a lot of salads and meat on the BBQ. There is quite a lot variation allowed and not a huge amount of work. I do also make more complicated things, but find it more sustainable if you have plenty of just-bung-it-together ideas, which are easy to adapt and experiment with.

They are telling you what the manufacturer won't.
The impetus comes from scientists.

The businesses push the "everything in moderation" ,"part of a balanced diet" messages because that sounds very reasonable. Meanwhile they are designing food like substances to be compulsively eaten with little end satisfaction.🤷

Like I said earlier alot is to do with ingredients
Try eating food that has the least amount of ingredients and ones that you know what they are.
Most foods are processed in some way! But unless you are eating food that resembles how it grows then its processed!
It's not necessarily a bad thing
It's when they start adding all the additives preservatives and shit like that

@HangingOver

Lol only on MM would lentils from a tin count as ultra processed

I also have Quorn slices and I have literally no idea what is in them.

Agree - I cannot see the problem with canned pulses. The problem with ultra-processed food is high-salt-fat-and-sugar-low-fibre-and-protein axis of foods, like biscuits, margarines and long shelf life white bread. Canned pulses are not ultra-processed. The difference between canned and dried is that the canned ones are rehydrated in a big factory boiler instead of on your hob!

I found an interesting report on a UPF classification system called NOVA (available online as a pdf). This basically gas four tiers where ultra processed is a) something that includes ingrediants of no nutritional value and b) would usually be eaten by themselves.

I found this more helpful in understanding the categories and how they are applied, if anyone is interested!