To ask for your recipes which reduce or don't use ultra processed foods?

[nutbrownhare15]

The recent coverage of UPFs has been a bit of a wake up call for me in terms of the family diet. Read this report today https://www.firststepsnutrition.org/upfs-marketed-for-infants-and-young-children 😱Convenience is a big factor, but it's become habit as well and we tend to eat the same sort of dishes on rotation, the freezer is stocked with UPFs and my kids are used to having UPFs for snacks. I'm not looking to exclude them from our diet completely just ways to reduce them or reduce the amount of processing in the foods we do eat. So I'm asking if people could share quick and easy recipes that their kids find palatable to expand our repertoire including for snacks. One thing I'll be doing is getting the bread maker back out to make more fresh bread. We are a vegetarian household but I'm not asking for exclusively vege recipes in case this thread helps others.

What you are asking for is how to cook from scratch. The vast majority of recipes don't use upf.

Try the bbcgoodfood website. Just search one ingredient like courgettes and you will find loads of recipes.

We are veggi too, this week's menu ( devised by DH) is:
Sunday Halloumi and sweet potato kebabs on the BBQ with " dirty rice"
Monday HM Gnocchi with mushrooms, cream, garlic, onions and spinach
Tuesday Egg fried rice with Carrots, Celery, peppers, mushrooms, spring onions, soy sauce, garlic and ginger
Wednesday: Zatar pasta, green salad
Thursday : Goats cheese and peas risssoto, green salad
Friday: HM pizza

Recipes below:
https://ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/zaatar-cacio-e-pepe

https://vanillaandbean.com/vegetarian-dirty-rice/

I don't think there was any UPFs in any of that ?

Cook pasta, when drained add passata, garlic purée, tomato purée, salt, pepper, olive oil, sugar, butter, mixed herbs. Really quick and easy and my kids love it.
rice in rice cooker, chicken thighs, big salad or frozen veg, again quick and easy and kids will eat it.
shreddies and shredded wheat are not too bad as breakfast cereals
i am finding the shopping coming out a cheaper by not buying upf ready meals and pizza etc.

So it's another word for cooking.

Oh this is nearly as silly as the paleo nonsense.

All food is processed- or are we going to start eating raw potatoes and biting lumps out of pigs?

Come on, this is a wind up surely?

I suppose none of you eat cheese and are all teetotal 😂

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I forgot we acquired a slow cooker recently so will look into some recipes for that. For those unconvinced, the report I linked to in the OP suggests the scale of the issue, approx 60% of the diet of UK babies and young children being UPF, higher than the US or Australia, and potential health issues as a result of this.

If you tell us what your family usually eats then posters might be able to suggest some easy swaps?

I'd say cheddar is processed, but those melt squares of 'cheese' is UPF.

Likewise, peanut butter with 100% peanuts as the only ingredients is processed, whereas I'd say SunPat peanut butter is UPF.

A Chicken Kiev is UPF, but a chicken breast isn't. Etc etc

This is the nova classification which tells you what ultra processed food actually is. Sugar is not ultra processed and neither is salt. Neither is cheese.

https://educhange.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/NOVA-Classification-Reference-Sheet.pdf

I'm pretty on the fence about UPFs but even I can see there's a difference between a block of cheese and something like those Dairy Lee dunkers!

I low carb so I’m pretty much forced to cook everything from scratch, except things like tinned tuna.

I have a high tolerance for eating the same food 4 nights in a row, as long as it’s delicious, so I batch cook on the weekend.

The difference in my skin, digestion, bowel movements, sweating etc is astonishing.

There is a difference between processed and ultra processed. There are studies suggesting that over consumption of ultra processed foods alter the satiety response and encourage people to eat more than they normally would. I totally get that, I could demolish at least 3 brioche buns but I wouldn’t be able to eat the same quantity of home made bread.

Why are people coming on the thread to say UPF is nonsense. This is for sharing recipes. Get off the thread! So sick of people trying to be clever & say I don’t believe in UPF. It’s tedious.

I make a salad with pulses. Chick peas, pearl barley, red rice and whatever else is in the cupboard. Mix in chopped black olives, cucumber, sun dried and fresh tomatoes, jalapeños, sweet corn, feta and basil. Dress with a little olive oil. A big pot lasts a couple of days as lunch/dinner.

It's in AIBU.

People are advocating quorn and not wanting to eat "UPF" in the same breadth.

It's BS verging into orthorexia, clean eating and all that paleo bollox.

Eat food, mostly plants, not too much.

Olives, sun dried tomatoes, chick peas (dried or canned) are all processed.

A Sunday dinner or a lamb stew are both far less processed but I doubt we'll get that sort of thing suggested.

Why would that be a problem for the OP?

Seeing as the OP was about kids/convenience etc., any thoughts on Ella’s kitchen or those kinds of premade kids food?

ingredients list example below:

Organic vegetable stock 28% (water, organic vegetables: carrots, onions) | Organic tomatoes 15% | Organic cooked pasta 13% (water, organic pasta(organic durum wheat, organic dried eggwhites)) | Organic carrots 11% | Organic beef 8% | Organic red peppers 8% | Organic onions 7% | Organic cooked lentils 7% (water, organic green lentils) | Organic tapioca starch 3% | Organic thyme <1% | Organic garlic <1% | Organic oregano <1% | Organic black pepper <1% | Other stuff 0%

from what I can see all the ingredients are ok. We are relying on them at the moment due to work and life pressure and I can’t help thinking they must count as UPF but all ingredients are recognisable.

OP, like you I’d love ideas for kids snacks, we eat a lot of crackers. Hard to give them up.

I thought the point of this thread is to eat less processed food?

Or is it just another orthorexic fad?

For context, we cook almost everything from scratch. We grow and forage some of our food. We buy local meat and veg bag.

I do it because it tastes better. It's also all a lot less processed that what's being advocated here.

Get the halal ones- they tend to have more protein and less sugar. I think they're called Aisha, Sainsburys sell them

Nothing wrong with crackers. Add peanut butter or cheese for protein.

Cucumber sticks go down well.

The OP clearly says ULTRA processed.

Also she’s veggie!! Also lamb is ridiculously fatty and not very good for you. 🙄

If you read the ingredients for something and it is long and contains mostly chemicals or things you don't recognise, emulsifiers and stabilisers - it's ultra processed.

It's not a fad to try to avoid newly invented, barely edible substances that are made to look like familiar foods.

Try this website for ideas and also her books are great for ideas. https://www.srnutrition.co.uk/

OP said she was trying to avoid ultra processed foods, and that her freezer was full of them. She hasn't come back to say what they normally eat, but I presume a salad based on a can of chickpeas (ingredients on the tins on my cupboard: chickpeas, water) with a load of cheese and salad veg mixed in as that poster suggested is likely to be an improvement on whatever's in her freezer that she's concerned about. Living on feta and olives every day might not be ideal, but the Mediterranean diet is supposed to be the healthiest in the world so - everything in moderation?

@Sparkl no idea about Ella's kitchen - do you mean the pouches? How about substituting oatcakes for crackers if you want to cut down on those?