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?

Yes absolutely - the way I see it if they’re having mostly whole foods for meals, which they are, save for bread (and I have a bread maker but I’m not making bread for
just two preschoolers!) - and they’re getting the nutrition they need from those a twister or pack of cookies or a dairylea dunker isnt
really going to impact them.

i have no idea if I’m right but I see that if their main source of nutrition is UPF then they probably aren’t meeting their nutritional requirements but if it’s just a supplement as such it’s fine. 80:20.

Thanks @prescribingmum

@Hardbackwriter that first example you gave was me, and since I wrote that I’ve been trying to not be so anxious, as I think whilst awareness and cutting back on UPF- especially the worst ones, is good, it’s also important not to get completely obsessed, especially with children. So now as I’ve said, lots of cut backs and changes but not attempting to cut out everything.

I’m definitely in the camp of trying to reduce rather than eliminate but am struggling with how to navigate it with kids. I don’t want her worrying about UPF, or even giving it a passing thought. But at 9, she’ll definitely be querying why I’m no longer giving her Doritos as a snack for break. And it’s not that I’ll never buy them, but I had definitely got into the habit of buying too much UPF as the easier option, even though I knew really they weren’t great before reading the book.

I’m trying really hard not to feel guilty about it, and make gradual positive steps but it is tricky. And I really recognise the point made up thread about this being another stick women use to beat ourselves up about….

And on that, we’re making pizza for dinner. We were about 50/50 on shop bought v home made pizza but it’s fun to make and we know what’s in it, so daughter and I will make pizzas this evening 😋

@43and I have been brought up (in UK) with parents who were vehemently against ultra-processed food even though it was not a popular opinion at the time. They never purchased low fat food because of the additives and I distinctly remember Sunny Delight being released in the 90s - all my friends were drinking it but my Mum absolutely refused to buy it because (at the time) it contained vegetable oil. I still clearly remember her saying there is no purpose for oil in juice. We also did not get dairylea cheeses, sliced burger cheese etc and desserts were occasional treats

As a result, my gut instinct has always been to avoid these foods and make from scratch at home. This book has confirmed it for me but I don't believe I have a disordered relationship with food from my upbringing. In terms of my children, I also focus on what nourishes our body and makes it work better rather than negatives with other foods. They know why vegetables, fruit and pulses are good food choices. We talk about sugary food tasting great but to be enjoyed in limited quantities and about their impact on teeth and sweet snacks are usually made at home with them.

@prescribingmum your parents sound like they had a great approach based on logic and reason. Rather than fad and diet culture.

For me it's about informed choices.

Some foods I know are as ultra-processed as they come and I'll still eat them because I like them. I had McDonalds yesterday because it was convenient, I was dashing out so needed something quickly and I bloody love a Big Mac. But it's only an occasional thing because I know what's in it and I know it's not good for me so I limit it to small quantities.

The rest of the time I eat pretty healthily - meals made from scratch, no/minimal UPFs - because I feel better when I eat that way.

Knowing which foods are less than ideal means we can make an informed choice about what we eat, particularly when foods are presented to us as healthy and wholesome when they are not.

@BogRollBOGOF put it perfectly:

"Awareness is a good thing and adapting to what is viable for your situation. Time, budget, dietary needs and availability of ingredients 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."

I think that's great, and I'm sorry if you felt attacked. I did feel bad singling posts out, but people were saying that no one at all had said that. My point wasn't to criticize you individually because I think the reason you felt like that was because we're encouraged to and that was what I was criticizing. Individuals trying to cut down on processed food is great, it's the societal message around them being like a poison that I think is guilt-inducing and dangerous. I also think it'll quite quickly be used to sell us a new raft of expensive products that can be priced all the higher if marketed as UPF-free. I saw the crostica mollica bread someone highlighted upthread in Waitrose today. It is £2.35 for literally six small slices of bread.

I've not been too bad this year - highly processed foods in the cupboard or fridge would be baked beans, oat milk, vegan spread and bread (which apparently is highly processed?). I'm vegan, and mostly have brown rice, pulses, veg and fruit. Some tofu now and again, some nuts and seeds.

And the odd doughnut to ensure a balanced diet, of course.

My partner is living on ultra processed food but that's because he has to live on a prescription liquid diet, which is a pain for so many reasons, but does mean I get to eat a mainly wholefood diet.

@Hardbackwriter oh no I didn’t feel attacked at all, I agree with you. I made a point on the ready meals thread (or maybe it was on here I can’t remember!) about how making these changes has cost me a lot of time and money, which right now I’m fortunate to have (not loads of money but comfortable) but there is no denying that trying to work out if a food is UPF or not and if it is, attempting to make a healthy alternative is time consuming and expensive. I think it’s really important that people don’t feel guilty- and I think my reaction to that book was a bit knee jerk- but actually there’s a balance to be had. I think I used the example of cheap biscuits- a pack of custard creams- highly UPF but cheap and the kids love them- if you’re struggling for money and even if you’re not tbh- I used to buy them regularly. A nice cheap easy thing to put in a lunchbox. It’s a minefield and I think moderation and not judging people’s circumstances is so important- plus at least part of the blame needs to lie with the food companies!

Plus at least part of the blame needs to lie with the food companies!

This. How are they allowed to have ingredients in their produce that aren't good? Isn't there some sort of food safety authority to assess the ingredients listed?!

Question about seed oils - are the bog standard rapeseed and sunflower oils that you buy in litre bottles in the supermarket ultra processed? I can’t imagine that they’re cold-pressed. Also olive oil for cooking - not the extra virgin - is presumably ultra processed.

All the blame needs to lie with them! They are callous.

He talks about the food companies in the book. Their purpose is to make a profit and the way to make a profit is to make cheaper food that stores well and people will eat more of, so market forces create more UPF that is addictive. The food companies are not there to keep the population healthy.

One of his podcasts explains really well how companies make yoghurt (for example) low fat by extracting the fat and substituting with cheap filler... then use the valuable fat (which is also rich in other things) in making something else therefore maximising profits.

There is never an interest in studying these things because of impact on profit margins and shareholders plus government have no interest in addressing it either.

While I have concerns re low fat yoghurt - I just checked the ingredients on the low fat yoghurt we buy and it says just milk. As I understood it, they use some kind of machine to extract the fat. It's also why the sugar ratios are higher - 100 ml of yoghurt with fat turns into 90mls of yoghurt without fat and so ratio of sugar is higher.

@SavBlancTonight it doesn’t apply to all yoghurts but I would guess the cheaper/flavoured ones. He was using it as an example to demonstrate how companies use the processing to maximise their profits (in addition to the addictive properties of the food)

Yes and it’s the food companies who fund the research!

Of course. If people want low fat yogurt it would simply be stupid to waste the extracted fat.
And of course they want profit. They are not charities (eho actually often run profit too, but that's different story). UPF has not only allowed them to lower costs of production and transport but it also worked for customers who just want everything to last longer than it naturally would. Both sides are an issue. One is greedy and one thinks bread should be soft like new even after 6 days....

Are weetbix really upf? I refuse to believe mince and yoghurt are. We eat:
weetbix
bread
soy sauce etc
the occasional stir fry sauce
tomato pasta sauce
ravioli
sometimes pies
biscuits, not a whole lot of them.
I feel like this could be better but really is pretty good.

@Codlingmoths

Theyre processed but not UPF.

My children have a choice of those or porridge in the mornings. Nothing in the ingredients concerns me.

I refuse to believe mince and yoghurt are.

You refuse correctly, unless people yltalk about these with added ingredients. Like mince + shite fro pre made burgers or yogurt+flavourings for flavoured yogurts.

We buy natural Greek yoghurt, except for once or twice a year when Dh accidentally buys sweetened yoghurt- it will say something like creamy vanilla flavour! And he won’t realise that means sweetened… so I take a mouthful and nearly spit it out again and he says the labelling is unfairly misleading (true, but doesn’t happen to me)

It's a shame they can't be made to stamp UPF on the packaging.