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

@VictoriaLudorum

None at all. I grew up only eating fresh, unprocessed food, so that is what I do. I won't say I have never had a Mcdonalds, but the last one was in 2004 ;-) To be honest the smell and taste of ready meals put me off. They smell so "dead" and not the kind of thing you want to put in your mouth, let alone swallow.

I know what you mean as once you eat a clean diet like paleo etc then you can really taste processed foods. They do have a different taste.

I grew up in Central America in a “blue zone” country. Blue zones are places in the world where people routinely live to a hundred in good health.

Back in the 80s there were few supermarkets. They sold expensive, imported processed foods. They were small, most people only bought a few special ingredients there a few times a month.

Everyone ate out of the central markets or from roadside stalls. The diet of was palatable, but repetitive. French stick bought at the corner bakery every morning with coffee for breakfast for office workers. Leftover rice and beans fried up with an egg on top for people doing heavy work. Lunch was cooked, always with rice, beans, salad (lettuce or cabbage with tomatoes) and some sort of pan fried or grilled meat (oven cooking in the tropics is rare) salad might be replaced or augmented with a cooked vegetable. Meat was all grass fed and tough compared to what we are used to, seafood options were delicious. Homemade tortillas on the side. Dinner is a repetition of lunch. Snacks are fresh fruit. Sweets were not as tempting as they are here. Cakes were terrible, pastry not worth the bother. Ice cream was a nice treat.
If you were given a snack at a bar it wouldn’t be crisps or nuts or pretzels. It would be fresh cooked. Maybe homemade pork scratchings or mealy fruits off a palm tree served with Mayo. No one worried about fat.

There was little obesity.
A lot of women did not work outside the home which made all this scratch cooking possible.

I go back now. It is modern and developed. The Central Valley looks like Southern California now. The population has doubled and people are more prosperous. The roads are clogged, supermarkets are everywhere, women are more visible in the professions now. People eat traditional foods like tortillas and tamales that come in premade, frozen form, there are many more choices from global brands for sweets and biscuits that are much more appealing. All the good seafood is flash frozen and sent away to the world market. There are a lot more young people lumbering around now looking heavy. I don’t know if the younger generation will routinely live to 100.

Everything has sped up, families are working harder, there is less time for cooking, and less time for togetherness. There are now more people and less farm land. Globalisation has scooped up some of the best produce and replaced it with highly processed, palatable, low nutrition snack food.

I think it is a microcosm of what is happening to us all. It’s really hard to fight as an individual with individual choices when the whole system and environment around you has shifted.

We eat tonnes. I think most people do and Mn is not representative of this.

I cook from scratch, other times I use a jar. Baked beans on jacket potatoes is a common meal for us.

I marinate meat and make kebabs.
But I also buy packs of ham, pork pies, sausage rolls, all sorts. I think most people I know do.

Great post @Empressofthemundane!

Fascinating post @Empressofthemundane - spot on, especially

“Globalisation has scooped up some of the best produce and replaced it with highly processed, palatable, low nutrition snack food.”

I live near the sea in the UK and yet battered frozen fish processed in the Far East is easier to find in the shops than locally caught fish or seafood.

@ElephantsNest I feel the same. There are flavours from childhood of good wholesome food that I won't ever taste again. Even the people who buy this stuff in NYC or London are only getting it after it's been frozen and shipped. Very few people get to taste sea bass caught, landed and cooked the same day. To think it was considered a common, cheap restaurant meal!

Thank you for that post Empress ❤️

As a vegetarian, I think it's healthier for me to continue to eat Quorn and cheese, as they're a really good source of protein, and I need protein.

I do make my own soup, but no way am I am spending hours making vegetable stock from scratch when I can buy a pack of stock cubes for a quid.

I've had a look at a typical week and I can't see any way of cutting out the processed stuff without giving up my job and spending all week cooking things from scratch. Which I wouldn't be able to afford if I was unemployed...

@Empressofthemundane Very interesting, thanks.

Similar change has happened in many parts of East and Southeast Asia.

I have no answers. How do we keep prosperity, women’s liberation and health? The ever growing population is another big pressure.

I eat none, not because I'm holier-than-thou but because I live abroad in a country where everyone cooks from scratch, a lot of fresh herbs and spices, a lot of pride about their cooking and jarred sauces/frozen meals just aren't sold as nobody would buy them. Even snack foods are freshly made in the traditional way. If I lived in the UK I'd probably eat more

Empress, please write a recipe book/guide to life! That was so interesting to read.

I went on a wee Google search for peach palms.

You're right that the gains for women's equality have happened at the same time as massive change to our diets.

I wonder if it was similar in Scotland. I remember we used to eat a lot more locally grown food - a common meal was mince with carrots, peas and onions, served with mashed potato.

Porridge was a very common breakfast. Fruit was likely to be local - apples mainly. Or raspberries and strawberries in the summer.

I feel like it changed a lot during my childhood.

When I went to live in Germany aged 18 it seemed like there was a lot less convenience food on the shelves than there was in Scotland. It was more or less impossible to buy sliced white bread. I bet that's changed now too.
Food was very seasonal in Germany. Asparagus at a certain time, onion cake at a different time.

I'm wondering, I make an effort to reduce UPF but what about vitamin tablets? I'm assuming these are megaly UPF and I take a fair few!

I’ve never been so well received on a thread! Usually, I am … annoying.

I’m not a good cook, I’m meh.
I’m also overweight. I gained it quickly when I moved to England. The baked goods here are amazing. And it is acceptable to eat them at 11am and again in the afternoon.
Sure, I cut back when I realised what was happening, but I’ve screwed up my appetite/ metabolism now.

I’ve had time to reflect on how I got to the state I am in. I can analyse the problem. I really haven’t found the answers.

I think people were thinner in the UK 30 years ago too. So maybe meat and two veg works too. It’s all the processed carbs gobbled up in between regular meals that does it.

@KaleSlayer

I try to eat healthily. I’m vegan so eat lots of fruit, veg, nuts, seeds etc.

I don’t eat chocolate, sweets, cake.

I have vegan pizza most weeks and maybe a ready meal once a week. And I use Diet Coke as a mixer for alcohol.

Hopefully pretty unprocessed overall. 😬

I think your Diet Coke is blowing it out but hey ho

I think your Diet Coke is blowing it out but hey ho

I know, and the ready meal and the pizza! That’s why I wrote it and put a stupid face emoji. I also drink oat milk which is processed.

I made homemade oat milk during a snowmaggedon incident living up north a
few years back. Worked ok for an emergency coffee!

@Empressofthemundane

I have no answers. How do we keep prosperity, women’s liberation and health? The ever growing population is another big pressure.

Well that's it in a nutshell, isn't it? I used to be a food writer and worked with two men - 'be careful you're not doing a sexist there' was one of my most common pieces of feedback because while it's all very well to point out the differences in our diets now compared to 50 years ago, the solution can't be that women have to 'get back in the kitchen' to make that happen.

A poster mentioned Scotland and I think that's another really interesting case study. The problem in Scotland used to be lack of food - the period from Christmas to round about now was called 'the hungry time' because there was no fresh produce. We still don't eat enough fruit and veg and that's not just because of the influence of the supermarkets and manufacturers (although of course that plays a part) - our 'native' seasons were short and our native produce was limited.

I tried the Fife diet once (only eating stuff that is grown within a 10 mile radius of where you live) and while it was fine in summer it was grim in the winter. There's only so many neeps a girl can take!

I'm just old enough to remember that in my Granny's house, calories went to the men because they all worked manual jobs. Mince was a staple because it was cheap, not because it was nutritious. When people started talking about the Mediterranean diet we were starry-eyed because it sounded so exotic. I didn't see a croissant in real life till I was 13.

It's not surprising then that we embraced convenience and I can't find it in my heart to blame anyone for it. We've been the victim of the market forces @Empressofthemundane so eloquently describes but in a completely different way because what we gave up wasn't that good in the first place.

Anyone watch the BBC programme just on about ultra processed foods?

Can't believe being on that diet for a month changed his brain. Scary stuff

Yes, I just watched it. I found it frightening.
To think that people eat like that and feed their children that kind of food every single day is really scary .
Trouble is.. these foods are really cheap and families on limited incomes have little choice.

It almost explains some of the mental/health issues that we now have.
It will be interesting to see what the health problems are in 30 years or so.

Quite depressing programme.

I was going to carry on the way we were but after watching that programme I think I'll start tweaking a few things. For eg switching the sugary yoghurts that the kids devour to Greek yoghurt with honey and maybe make my own biscuits, that kind of thing.

We've got more consistent about making soup here, so that's avoiding tinned soup. We don't eat a lot of bread either, but have decided on buying an occasional loaf from the baker that I go past every day and never go into

Don't eat much UPF. School lunches make it harder to avoid, though.

I cook my own bread (sourdough) and most of what we eat is made from scratch, wholemeal, unprocessed etc. That said I still eat chocolate every day and snacks like crisps etc quite often.

What's the saying?

'Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants'.

We make bread and cook most meals from raw ingredients, but so use pasta, tinned tomatoes and beans. I have however, boughtota of dried beans which I'll boil up and stick in batches in the freezer.

Worst thin for us is snack food. Think likely to look at making cookie dough, cakes, granola bars and freezing etc which leaves us just with chocolate and crisps.