To ask what highly processed food you eat?

[Lifeswhatyoumakeit73]

I haven’t read the Dr Chris book yet about highly processed food but I have read other stuff & it’s made me super conscious of how much HPF we eat. I cook mainly from scratch but as a family of 3 pescatarians & me who is mainly plant based but eats eggs, I realise I need to look at what we eat & make some changes. I cook from scratch as much as I can but I am a busy mum who works full time so we do reply on some HPF. Looking in my cupboards:

We have:

• baked beans
• veggie sausages
• veggie mince
• oat milk
• vegan cheese
• vegan butter
• Tacos
• crackers, crisps, bread sticks
• shop bought houmous
• shreddies, weetabix
• caramel wafers
• yoyos
• couple tins veggie chilli
• peanut butter (whole earth so just peanuts but still bad apparently)
• jam
• seeded bread sliced
• bagels

How bad is that? How does it compare to others? I use veggie mince to make a spag Bol from scratch but will, for example, use lentils instead.

i feel like most of our food is cooked fresh but judging by this list, we have a lot of processed crap that I hadn’t registered.

Aibu to ask you to share so I can compare?

I have a bag of wheat gluten in my kitchen cupboard 🤣

Is olive oil a UPF?!

@TooManyPlatesInMotion I don't think it counts as a UPF. However, extra virgin olive oil is best, as it's the most minimally processed. Extra virgin olive oil, especially uncooked, is one of the healthiest things you can eat!

Thanks @BurbageBrook . I love olives and olive oil.

Honestly, I am trying really hard but UPFS are literally everywhere. Wanted to buy some desiccated coconut- all the ones I could find have sulphur dioxide in which would, I think, make it a UPF? I can buy some organic one online which is pure coconut but at a greater price. I can afford to do that currently- but it’s really depressing that in order to avoid or even seriously cut down on UPFS you need a lot of time to study ingredients and things, and money. Obviously the ‘whole’ ingredients thing is fine, meat, veg, fruit, grains etc but there are times when for whatever reason, it’s not practical to grab some fruit or veg or whatever, or if you want to bake non UPF things for the kids instead of buying a pack of crap biscuits, you have to check ingredients really carefully. It’s definitely been an eye opener!

I would say 99% of my diet is ultra processed, I honestly don't worry about it.

I only have sauces and chutneys loke bbq sauce, red onion chutneys and a box of cheese biscuits for a garden party.

Thats it, everything else is vegetables, fruit or organic meat.

I have zero junk on my house so no biscuits, cakes, chocolate

A lot of classic condiments are relatively ok I think.

Mustard, ketchup, even HP sauce - the ingredient lists are short and mostly made up of familiar stuff.

Most of us live in the UK, we don't use much high fructose corn syrup

it was restricted when we were part of the EU, but you'll find it in hob nobs Jaffa cakes Bakewell slices

ngredientsWheat Flour (with Added Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Sugar, Vegetable Oils (Palm, Rapeseed), Plum and Raspberry Jam (Glucose - Fructose Syrup, Plum Purée, Sugar, Raspberry Purée, Gelling Agent (Pectin), Acid (Citric Acid), Acidity Regulator (Sodium Citrates), Colour (Anthocyanins), Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Flavouring), Glucose Syrup, Water, Soya Flour, Whey Powder (Milk), Ground Rice, Invert Sugar Syrup, Humectant (Vegetable Glycerine), Vegetable Fats (Palm, Rapeseed, Shea, Sunflower in varying proportions), Skimmed Milk Powder, Dried Egg White, Ground Almonds, Salt, Emulsifiers (Sorbitan Monostearate, SoyaLecithin, Polysorbate 60), Raising Agents (Disodium Diphosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder, Milk Proteins, Flavourings, Stabiliser (Sorbitan Tristearate), Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Colour (Lutein)

Its listed as Glucose-Fructose Syrup

Hartleys strawberry jam

• Strawberries, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Sugar, Gelling Agent: Pectins, Acid: Citric Acid, Acidity Regulator: Sodium Citrates, Prepared with 37g of Fruit per 100g, Total Sugar content 61g per 100g

golden shred marmalade

• Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Water, Sugar, Orange Juice from Concentrate, Orange Peel, Oranges, Gelling Agent: Pectin, Acid: Citric Acid, Treacle, Acidity Regulator: Sodium Citrates, Orange Oils, Prepared with 20g of Fruit per 100g, Total Sugar content 63g Per 100g

but kosher products will not have the HFSS, as it contains corn and cannot be eaten on a Friday - https://www.ocado.com/products/mackays-seville-marmalade-229097011?ds_rl=1290929&ds_rl=1291426&gclid=CjwKCAjw04yjBhApEiwAJcvNoSF8vOSX6vfUFAOa0TWefPLzqeTvn3lB110hsXTWxFv_KmUo2jbzyhoCFi4QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
therefore the one linked above - you'll see under dietary information Kosher

Whether coming out of the EU will have an affect on this substance and more of it is used in the products we buy, I don't know.

Being aware its there is useful and knowing kosher products will not contain it is also useful if you want to avoid it

Ice cream is super easy if you include condensed milk in the recipe - stops the ice crystals. Then you don't even need the mid point of freezing whisk as in the lemon ice cream recipe posted by a pp.

Here's vanilla:

Ingredients:

•	2 cups double cream = 473ml
•	397g tin of condensed milk
•	2 tbsps vanilla extract

Method:

•	Whisk heavy cream until it forms peaks
•	Whisk in tin of condensed milk
•	Whisk in vanilla extract
•	Place in loaf tin and smooth with spatula
•	Cover with cling film so that cling film is touching the ice cream
•	Freeze for at least 7 hours.

Tastes amazing and takes 5 mins.

I've also made rum and raisin with a couple of extra steps:

Ingredients

•	150g raisins
•	50ml dark rum
•	300ml pouring double cream
•	1 × 397g tin of full-fat condensed milk

You will need:

•	1-litre freezer-proof container or eight ramekins

Method

•	Place the raisins in a saucepan. Add the rum and gently heat it until just boiling. Spoon into a bowl, then cover and leave to soak overnight until all the raisins are plump and the rum has been absorbed.
•	Pour the cream into a large bowl and whisk into soft peaks using an electric hand whisk. Carefully fold in the condensed milk, then the raisins and any excess rum and mix well.
•	Spoon into the freezer-proof container or ramekins and freeze for a minimum of 12 hours or overnight. 

And coffee:

INGREDIENTS

Makes: approx. 800ml / 1 1/2 pints

•			300 millilitres double cream
•			175 grams condensed milk
•			2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
•			2 tablespoons espresso liqueur

METHOD

Whisk all the ingredients together until soft peaks form, and you have a gorgeous, caffe-latte-coloured airy mixture, and then fill 2 x 500ml / 2 x 1-pint airtight containers, and freeze for 6 hours or overnight. Serve straight from the freezer. (If using American heavy-cream or whipping cream in other countries, whisk your cream in a bowl first, until it reaches soft peaks, then whisk in the other ingredients and continue whisking until thick again.)

Many people rely on processed for different reasons. It's probably easier as meat eaters to avoid (eg tonight is chicken, mushrooms, green beans, potatoes and a sauce made from cream (minimal processed) onions, garlic and parsley. Tomorrow meatballs (mince, garlic, breadcrumbs but I didn't make the bread, egg, herbs, scratch tomato sauce and pasta which I probably won't make (do sometimes), fish, sweet potato wedges, asparagus and carrots with hollandaise which I didn't make yesterday... we all cheat!

@WishingMyLifeAway condensed milk is https://world.openfoodfacts.org/product/6001068311804/full-cream-sweetened-condensed-milk-nestle ultra processed, so why not just buy the ice cream ready made? That is ultra processed? Rather than make ice cream with ultra processed ingredients?

Just used open foods and my morning yogurt is an A I thought because it was a protein yogurt it might be UPF. Am pleased!

That’s the bread we have.

So it is UPF but good nutritional quality?

Now what???

Is that a bit ok? Ok?

That's the condensed milk sold in South Africa and the addition of lactose powder makes it ultra processed. Nestlé Carnation in the UK only consists of full fat milk and sugar, so it's processed, but not ultra processed.

I think the A refers to nutritional quality - it could still be UPF. It’s such a minefield! I did an online shop last night and it took me ages to read through all the ingredients.
Making burgers tonight instead of buying ready made (for the others, I’m veggie so having a chickpea salad.) The buns are UPF but one step at a time….

It was also minimally processed but I get your point. Then bread I have posted above is a good illustration.

It’s a complete minefield and I think unless you maybe don’t work or work very flexible, and don’t have kids, aiming for 100% non UPF is not achievable- prepared to get flamed for this but I also think you can’t/shouldn’t ban EVERYTHING for kids.

So, my new approach having read the book is to basically:

Cut out all ultra processed snacks at home eg shop bought biscuits, crisps that are not just potatoes, oil and salt, cakes, chocolate, cereal bars, cereal other than weetabix and porridge etc.

Buy bread from the local bakery where possible, if not, go for the least ingredient bread as possible- I usually buy an organic seeded bloomer which isn’t too bad.

Most main meals UPF free and cooked from scratch (do this mostly anyway!) but the odd sauce etc fine.

Bake my own biscuits/cakes etc for kids even if that uses a bit of baking powder.

No processed meat for kids sandwiches, eg no ham. Roast a chicken and use meat from that.

That’s my start. BUT. I am fortunate that I am currently on maternity leave and not working, and that we have enough money to do the above.

Oh and also

once the Diet Coke is finished, not buy any more for the house. Just to have as a treat if out.

change baby yogurts for plain natural yogurt and fruit.

get rid of sweetener for tea and coffee and get used to having it without!

For bread I found some supermarket bakery loaves that aren’t UPF and I by a few extra and freeze for the rest of the week. It tastes so much better too.
Concentrating on the things we buy every week and changing them gradually has made it really easy to stick to without thinking or reading ingredient lists. More things than I expected of the things we were already buying were non-UPF, even crisps. It also means that we can relax about the final 5% of food that is bought spontaneously or by someone else.

Bake my own biscuits/cakes etc for kids even if that uses a bit of baking powder.

my dd makes the cookie dough, rolls it into balls and freezes on a tray, once cold/semi frozen she places the balls in a Tupperware. When she wants a biscuit - she pops 2/3 in the air fryer or oven to bake. This way you. can make the cookie dough, biscuit in a large amount and freeze to have when you require

I’m not cutting it out. We eat very little anyway and our main meals whole foods, we don’t do breakfast cereal it’s wheatabix or porridge and always a home cooked meal in the evening, with few exceptions.

We have some UPF snacks but will start to phase them out, though tbh I can’t see giving them up in the house.

Lunch is often a sandwich though.

I could make my own bread, but I’ll be honest I won’t. I will try and pick better options.

@LysHastighed which bread is that please? Would love to find some and do the same. Thanks!

Why are you all giving up chocolate. Just get the 70% Lindt. Lovely. Only four ingredients:

Cocoa Mass, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Vanilla