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?

Actually sugar is discussed in the book and it says that it rots your teeth and makes you eat more. So not great. I can’t find the quote on fat that I was talking about.

I'm not so sure about "eat only foods your granny would recognise"... the best thing that ever happened to my great-grandma's diet was the M&S ready meal!

I've been trying to improve our diets since new year. The Tim Spector 30 plants a week is an interesting guide to aim for. I've ordered The Glucose Goddess book which focuses on reducing glucose/ insulin spikes. There is a lot of complimentary information emerging looking at nutrition from different angles.

Bread is an awkward one. No fancy artisan bakeries near here. Mainstream supermarket or nothing. I try to work on eating food as close to its natural state as is practical. Low fat/ sugar products have a lot more additives to replicate the missing ingredients. Ribena was naturally thick from its sugar content; taking half of the sugar out meant that it needed thickeners to replicate its original syruppy texture.

It's hard. I've got an autistic child who likes consistency and predictability. Processing is more appealing to him than the variability of home-cooked food. Uneaten food in the bin has no nutritional benefit to him, and it's very demoralising when food you've put effort and expense in to is going to waste.

We use oat milks because of a history of CMPA and intolerances. I would happily swap back to cows milk if it wasn't a powerful laxitive. Fortunately processed dairy such as cheese and yoghurt are avaliable to us. I swerve more processed, low fat versions.

Awareness is a good thing and adapting to what is viable for your situation. Time, budget, dietry needs and avaliability of ingrediants all vary the accessibility of reducing ultra processed foods. Plus there's been a huge misleading culture in the past 50 years based more on advertising and commercial interests than actual science of nutrition. It's not that long ago since eggs were advised against because of cholesterol which is now known to be flawed.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes and if you like it!

Why is soy lecithin UPF and not a culinary processed ingredient ?

I don't cook from scratch, unless you count getting a pack of stewing beef out of the freezer and throwing it in the slow cooker with a jar of curry sauce, as cooking from scratch.
I don't have sweet stuff in the house, such as biscuits, cakes, chocolate, crisps and yoghurts as I dislike them.
Nutella is disgusting stuff so I won't have that in the house either.
I don't have anything like fake meats and plant based stuff, unless it's an actual plant like a vegetable.
What I do have though is butter, I refuse to have anything else.
I do have a lot of red meat, fish and frozen chips in the freezer though. I think there's a pack of fish fingers lurking in the back somewhere.
I eat baked beans a couple of times a week either on toast with a splash of milk in them and grated cheese on top or with a fry up.
I always have those and cheese in the fridge, along with bacon and ham.

All sorts probably. I don't keep track of things like that. I know I've got frankfurter sausages in the fridge, DS loves them.

OpenFoodFacts

I think beans are UPF but aside from that you’ve not mentioned any UPF.

What's wrong with highly processed food?

The poor health outcomes associated with their consumption.

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/B0BL1M9XCL?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=player_overflow

Also free podcasts:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0c98s7r

Numerous other resources throughout the thread.

My home made burgers went down a storm with DH and DD, so I’m taking that win!

Trying to tackle things gradually but I think the trickiest (and also biggest impact) is snacks/lunchbox for DD. I’m trying to explain what I’m doing without making too much of a big thing of it.

After this thread, I have been rethinking small choices! I also ordered the book.

I am making a curry today for a vegan friend (I’m veggie). The recipe calls for cream, so I looked at the ingredients for vegan cream and they were ridiculous. I decided to get Biona coconut cream instead - contains just coconuts and water, and I bet it will taste nicer. Wouldn’t have occurred to me to look at the vegan cream ingredients if it wasn’t for this thread, or to use my imagination to think of an alternative - coconut cream. Nicer for all of us, vegan or veggie!

I reckon little swaps like that all add up! So I’m glad of this thread!

(Although I’m now also tempted to get a bread maker… I sometimes think all my kids eat is bread!)

How old are your children?

Mine are primary age and I use a bento box for them both. I pre-make a few items and freeze (such as flatbreads/savoury muffins). Each morning they get one item with grains - either from freezer or cous cous with veg etc, 1-2 fresh fruits, a sweet item (again baked in bulk and frozen) and plain yoghurt (occasionally sweetened with honey/fruit compote).

Took me a while to get into the swing of it but now I only need about 10 mins in the morning to defrost and prep the boxes. Mine have fairly small appetites at lunch too so I can imagine it being bit harder if they want more food

@RedRosette2023 Thank you!

Just the 1 DD, she’s 9.

Thank you for the ideas!

Her lunchbox today has a cheese sandwich (butter and cheese fine, hoping to make own bread soon), satsuma, carrot sticks, wee pot of natural yogurt (used to be a frube) and 3 chocolate fingers (baking at weekend so will get rid of those), so not dreadful and much better than it used to be.

I’m running down the snack box just now so am trying to cut myself some slack on it’s contents - won’t be replacing the worst offenders.

I’m still struggling to understand why cold pressed rapeseed oil is a UPF while olive oils is not. Rapeseed - They take the seeds, squash them and get an oil. Olive - they take the olives squash them and get an oil. The difference for me is that I can buy cold pressed rapeseed with less than 2 food miles from a local farm while the olive is flown from Greece or Italy.

Jam - make my own, fruit and sugar, (maybe pectin but can use apples instead).

peanut butter - it’s pretty easy to find one that is literally just peanuts squashed up nothing else. Can’t see how this could be an UPF or how it’s any better to make it at home.

bread - I can’t be the only person to add citric acid (vit c tablet) to my homemade bread to help rise - is this now an UPF? Is it an UPF if you make it at home.

my store cupboard contains: wheat gluten (for setian) citric acid (for bread and elderflower cordial) and Gum Tragacanth (for sugar paste) - maybe my kitchen is an UPF factory? Does it count if it’s homemade upfs?

@NoAprilFool we are similar. I try make and freeze as much as possible but we do use shop bought snacks when particularly busy but aim to avoid the worst stuff.

@Qazwsxefv as far as I am aware there are two types of rapeseed: one is the highly processed form often known as Canola oil (where they run it through lots of different heat treatments etc) - often seen in processed foods and more used in the USA, and the other is the cold pressed form available often in the UK which as you say is just cold pressed. I don't think they are the same and certainly the latter would be a lot healthier. Would love to know if this is the case for sure though if anyone knows??

I’m pretty sure cold pressed rapeseed oil is fine. It’s the processed stuff (which pops up in everything!) which is problematic.

As for bread, you can detach my French Baguette from my cold dead hands. I will not live without it (and it only contains four ingredients). So there.

Absolutely agree with this.

HardbackWriter

I completely agree. While it’s been pretty self-evident for decades that wholesome foods are better than crap cooked up in a factory, it is looking like becoming the new food fad. All this talk of food being ‘fine’, ‘getting away with eating x’ or no longer being able to eat y and z any more makes me really uncomfortable. Another gateway to disorders eating and unnecessary guilt. Especially when it’s said by busy women, raising families and working, and means a sacrifice of time and money.

I eat hardly any UPF, mostly because I have a Provençal mother. Also because I live near great food shops and have money to spend on this stuff ( a privilege at the moment). I eat instinctively this way, it was my upbringing.

However, the other thing having a Southern French mother taught me is not to associate the food and drink you enjoy with guilt or shame. Eat and be happy!

@WishingMyLifeAway thank you for sharing the Tiptree site - one of the few condiments I wasn't able to replace when I went through our cupboards a while back to get rid of UPFs was the spicy mango chutney. Tiptree have ones well as the one you linked - thanks for that!

You asked about recommendations for condiments, and I've found health food shops to be good sources for these, as well as other non UPF versions of things like icing sugar. Are there any specific things you were looking for? I've managed to replace most of ours without too much hassle.

Anyone who wants emulsifier-free milk chocolate, there are a few versions available so it doesn't have to be dark chocolate or nothing. Waitrose No.1 plain milk chocolate, Divine plain milk choc, Montezuma milk choc buttons, and Seed & Bean sea salt and lime milk chocolate are all lovely, not too ££, fairly widely available, and have only natural ingredients.

It's the way it's talked about like a contamination that sets off my eating disorder sirens. People are talking like if you have a squirt of mayonnaise on an otherwise homemade and healthy meal then none of it 'counts' because you've contaminated it all with UPF. Of course eating more whole good is better for you but that kind of black and white thinking is dangerous.

@Hardbackwriter I totally agree. Although the book was really eye opening for me, a few people have talked about ‘scale of risk’ ie sugary cereal with an oil laced plant mylk for breakfast, a sausage roll for snack, ham sandwich on mass produced white bread and crisps for lunch etc etc not so great at all, a diet that is 80% ish non UPF with some UPD things you enjoy, fine. My kids love the Nandos perinaise sauce- it’s most definitely an UPF- but I am still letting them put a small amount on their meal when it’s a meal they would use that condiment- so maybe once a week. I don’t feel they’ve ‘ruined’ anything! Equally, I’ve stopped buying ham and roast a chicken x 2 a week for sandwiches which was an easy (if not particularly cheap) swap for our family. No way we’ll be able to go totally UPF free.