To ask you how to reduce UPF

[Calvinlookingforhobbes]

Just that really. Which switches could I easily make to reduce UPF without too much effort, please?

• breadmaker
• swap out breakfast cereals for oats, eggs etc
• avoid stuff sold in a jar
• batch bake - you can make a large amount of biscuit dough & freeze in smaller balls wrapped it cling film

I've been following an account on Instagram and it's definitely showing that the less processed/better stuff is more £££
Like
Bread
Peanut butter
Ice cream (HD is good but again, ££)
Mayonnaise
Baked beans (the organic ones have the better ingredients)

I'm on a budget but do cook main meals from scratch. Main UPF for me is bread and condiments. Swapped crisps for plain own brand tortilla chips as less ingredients
About all I can afford to do

We fell into a rut with cooking and ended up making the same x number of meals and then defaulting to takeaways or UPF meals.
To work out way out of this we started using HelloFresh - it gave us loads of new ideas for meals and the majority of the recipes use just fresh ingredients.

We did this for about 6m and have since stopped. But we have a much wider range of go to recipes now and find it easier to think up meals with fresh unprocessed ingredients!

Don't snack. Or buy them. And stop buying cereal for breakfast, or bread that comes in a plastic bag. Choose fruit and yoghurt for breakfast.

The real thing is cooking. To avoid UPF you have to give up heating things up in the oven or microwave. If you cook from fresh ingredients, then very little UPF.

The Open Food Facts app is handy for a quick barcode check to indicate processing level. I'd go through your regular supermarket shop and see what UPF items you're eating most of, which is probably the first thing to consider replacing. By comparing alternative products you can normally find less processed versions - it's crazy how much different brands vary. I found that sSme tortilla chips have 2-3 ingredients and others have 20! Beyond that my two tips would be to cook extra of the sauces you use most often and freeze them in portions, and to get a breadmaker (panasonics are great) for bread, pizza dough, naans etc.

The WHO study is interesting but I'm not sure it's fair to say that bread and cereal etc are in the clear yet - it's a big study but only observational so there may well be other factors at play which they haven't fully been able to adjust for, and some of the results were pretty marginal. I hope in 5 years time we have a much more nuanced understanding of which sorts of UPF are OK and which to be avoided but we're not there yet.

Don't worry too much. I have grave doubts about the science behind this latest fad. https://thecritic.co.uk/whos-afraid-of-upfs-part-2/
https://thecritic.co.uk/institutionalising-orthorexia/

Interesting study.
I do think there are a number of caveats with it.

1. It's an observational study and can't determine cause and effect
2. It looks at association between diet during one year and outcomes for up to 20 years later - people could have changed their diets
3. The outcomes are cardiovascular disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes, no others. It doesn't for example, look at association with BMI or other diseases
4. It's across different countries with very different diet and culture therefore there's probably some confounding
5. To add to this the participants were selected differently in each country - e.g. women only in one country, 50% vegetarians in another. These could serve to hide effects or enhance them.
6. There's no real comparison between the individual foodstuffs mentioned - it only measures total amounts of foods in the diet, it doesn't actually look at whether UPF bread is worse than non UPF bread. In other words we don't know what the people who ate less UPF bread were eating instead.
7. It's probably fair to say that processed meat and fizzy drinks are worse than other UPFs but it doesn't tell us that other UPFs are not leading to an increase in cardiovascular disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes

Thank you. I hadn't seen that. Interesting study.

E numbers are codes for substances that are used as food additives - some E numbers are NATURAL.

If you want to avoid UPF - cook from scratch with fresh ingredients and stop buying pre packaged / ready made foods.

My teens eat a LOT of granola with natural yoghurt for breakfasts and evening snacks. I now make my own granola so I know it's at least healthier. I have found an amazingly tasty and healthy recipe (google Cookie and Kate granola) but the only downside is that it's really pricy, it works out more expensive than shop bought! I also make muffins, banana bread and scones instead of buying treats. And no more curry or pasta sauces (home made sauces def taste better as well as not being UPF . . . . but quite a faff, I have a job and can't be a 50s housewife entirely).

A friend of mine was given a rule of thumb that the fewer ingredients the better when buying food

So no E300? E160c? What about E500?

I say this as a qualified food scientist and someone who used to work for a major bread brand in the food industry.

It is misleading to consider mass-produced bread (like Hovis, Warbutons, Supermarket Own label etc) an 'ultra-processed food'. Factory produced bread is produced using the same ingredients and method you would at home.

Wow so many similar threads on UPFs.....in the last 48hrs

That definition has a basis in science. This one has a basis in ideology.

I do not agree on the bread. I do not use palm oil in bread I make nor derivatives of it.

@Mum2jenny thank you 😊 that answers that !

If the list of ingredients has something that wouldn't be found in a kitchen cupboard/pantry, but only in a factory, don't buy it. Reading packets is both surprising and shocking.

@Calvinlookingforhobbes its hard to say how to cut down with Zero clue what you eat now!

Stick to the edges of the supermarket.

So meat, veg, nuts, cheese, etc.

Look at ingredients, if there's lots & it sounds like you need a chemistry degree to interpret them, that's a upf.

Some stuff is surprisingly ok, so tortilla chips. 😁

Chris van Tulleken wrote the book, great listen on YouTube.

That's true of you look at cost per item hut the overall basket is probably cheaper as there wont be crisps and ice cream, ketchup or biscuits etc in there. S in, no optional foods. Just meals and healthy snacks. The amount of time I've gone to the cupboard to graze and decided that if there is no chocolate then I'd rather go without than eat the fruit I have in has saved me a fortune!

I don't use the Chorleywood process at home whereas I understand about 80% of bread sold in the UK is made this way - involving low protein flour, hard fats, extra yeast and a "number of chemicals".

We've looked at reducing upf, basically it's the odd convenience food for us as we mostly cook from scratch. But one thing i would suggest is getting used to less tasty food, unless you're a good cook (we are not!).

Just noticed your name op, love that comic strip!

What are your go to family meals that you need to swap?

• Cereal you can replace with muesli/toast/porridge/eggs/yoghurt/fruit/pancakes (American style pancakes you can make in advance and reheat for a few days)
• Use fresh bread from bakery or bake your own for toast/sandwiches etc
• in a packed lunch, natural or Greek yoghurt with fruit instead of processed fruity yoghurt with sweetener. Popcorn or oatcakes instead of crisps. Instead of penguin bar make your own cookies etc.
• In evening swap fish fingers for a piece of fish, chicken nuggets for chicken or other fresh meat or tofu. You can season and fry/roast/air fry. Pretty straightforward to make your own tomato sauce or pesto for pasta if you have a blender.

it can be more time and money as others have pointed out so don’t beat yourself up., hopefully you can find some swaps that work and feel a bit healthier.