If you are not reducing your intake of UPF…

[maybein2022]

… with all the media attention on UPF at the moment and so much research coming out about it. Interested to know. If you’re NOT reducing your intake of it, is it because you’re not able to (finances/accessibility/time), because you don’t want to or don’t think it’s a problem, you and/or your kids are neurodivergent and a lot of ‘safe’ foods are UPF or other reasons.

YANBU: I am reducing mine/my family’s intake
YABU: I am not for reasons listed above (or other reasons)

But it's main principles- eating 30 veg per week, fermented foods etc- isn't new! Millions of people do that. I was brought up on fermented foods for breakfast daily. Idlis, dosas, and such like.

Never eaten UPF. One mildly ND child who was never given UPF so doesn’t eat it now.

No we aren’t changing as a result of the news, though I think raising awareness is good. We eat upf very infrequently and won’t change due to time/cost reasons.

The ‘follow the money’ argument would only make sense if this was in any way a ‘new’ way of eating. As has been mentioned several times, nothing about this way of eating is new.

It’s UPF that’s relatively new - only a few decades old.

I think you could easily end up in a position where all your money goes on food- and who wants that?!

I can’t distinguish between PF and UPF (haven’t RTFT, sorry!) I think fish fingers are PF, while a jar of pasta sauce is UPF, is that right?

However trying to buy more staples for cooking from scratch, and more fresh veg and meat… and it’s quite expensive! Also, you have to crack down on food waste.

My grocery bill is about £400 per month for 3 adults. That includes cleaning supplies.

It’s the scare tactics and packaging of it up into something people have to pay a subscription for that I disagree with, not the principles of eating fermented food and plenty of vegetables. There’s also no real scientific evidence behind the 30 different plants number - it’s a figure plucked out of thin air (and marketing).

Also … I think the drive to reduce UPF is a feminist issue. It increases the domestic load, which largely falls on women.

100 years or even 50 years ago there would not have been 30 different in-season fruit and veg available in the UK at any given time! And that possibly even includes imports!

Surely any "follow the money" arguments would not be to a few individuals who have made lots of money selling books and would apply to the absolute titans of the food industry who would have a vested interest in quashing any research which aims to directly link consumption of their foods to poor health outcomes?

The reason UPFs exist are not out of some altruistic nature of massive companies wanting to feed poor people. They use the lowest quality ingredients they can, fill with preservatives for long shelf lives, and invest millions in trying to make their food as palatable as possible so that people overconsume it.

I do really think your investment in this argument depends on your natural physical state and your own habits. As someone who has struggled with weight their whole life, I can absolutely see the negative effects of UPFs. My partner naturally does not eat a lot of that type of food, is actively put off by it as it makes him feel ill, and just naturally gravitates to healthy home cooked food. Hates McDonalds, no big sweet tooth apart from my home baking and maybe some fancy ice cream. He wouldn't really bat an eye at UPFs because he barely consumes them anyway.

True @LittleGlowingOblong but there are now.

Non-UPF is not new. What is new is the demonisation of meat, dairy and sugar with huge growth in replacements such as sweeteners and oat milks which in some cases has been encouraged via taxation.

These huge industries are under threat. Of course they are going to fight back.

While I don't disagree with you, if more evidence comes out against UPFs, I don't think the argument that they are more convenient (for anyone) would justify their lack of nutritional value.

No because it's pseudo scientific bollocks.

do you never eat crackers or wraps or have to buy bread in the corner shop? What about outside the house. How do you manage other people’s birthday parties for example.

I did take stock of what the kids were eating. and I was surprised by the amounts that had snuck into their diets as I cook from scratch 5 nights a week and I’m conscious of the other two dinners. The meat, dairy and sugar industries also massively benefit from us eating UPF. I don’t need a study to tell me that it’s it’s not great to eat food that is completely unrecognisable form.

I’m not fanatical about it but the kids are eating less ham sandwiches and better yogurts and I buy good bread and read the ingredients on things.

I can’t afford it. I’m too busy worrying about paying for essentials to care about what I eat.

A lot is misleading as well.

”ham” in itself isn’t UPF. “Formed ham” which is the scrapings mushed into some resemblance of ham is.

problem is, try buying actual ham nowadays. Anything you buy in a packet will be formed, even the taste the difference/organic/farm labelled.

but supermarkets have now ditched their deli counters where you could buy ham in slices off a ham joint. Other cold cuts as well.

I’m not obsessive about it’s not like I’ve never eaten processed cake. But I only eat gluten free crackers - eg oatcakes or buckwheat, don’t eat bread, don’t like wraps. Make my own buckwheat or chickpea pancakes which can also be used as a wrap.

Really? My grocery bill went down after I cut out UPF.

I don’t usually eat them but I think if you asked people to make lists of whole foods, UPF and processed foods they’d get it wrong anyway.

For example, most people think that all ready meals are UPF when that simply isn’t true. Also it’s just the new thing isn’t it? We’ve had processed foods for many years but now they’re called UPF so that we can discuss them again and it sounds more dramatic.

Most people think if they cook from scratch that’s better but what if my M&S ready meal has a list of completely natural ingredients and your home cooked meal is full of processed oils, refined flour etc. It’s the same with takeaways….apparently they’re all bad but if I order a Thai red curry and rice it’ll be exactly the same as if I made it at home.

Up until very recently they were just called "processed foods". But they had to change it to "ultra-processed foods" because some smart Alecs kept pointing out that cheese, bread and natural yoghurt are technically "processed", but aren't bad for you in the way that industrial biscuits (for example) are.

But there has been discussion for decades about how bad for you "processed" (now called ultra-processed) foods are.

Ah right. So it’s what the world outside of mumsnet call ‘not eating a load of shit’?

@DaisyHaites Isn't Zoe a really expensive way of simply eating a bigger variety of 'plants?' natural food I looked into it, did all the questionnaires etc and nearly fell off my bed when they eventually revealed the price. It seems like a bit of an over-marketed over hyped version of a regular diet plan. Those biscuits are a massive con

Ham will contain nitrites regardless of whether it’s formed or not. Same with bacon.

But I would STRONGLY urge people not to buy that Naked bacon without the nitrites because I got food poisoning even though i had only added some of it to my pan, thought the rest of it looked dodgy (had weird spots on it), didn’t want to waste stuff already in pan so removed the bacon. God knows what would have happened if I’d actually eaten the bacon!!