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)

I know this wasn't directed at me but I have largely cut out UPF after reading the Van Tulleken book and listening to the podcast he did with his brother. I have also, without trying, lost quite a bit of weight - and I wasn't overweight to start with, just at the upper end of the normal BMI range for my height.

I haven't entirely stopped eating McDonald's or drinking (full sugar) Coke. I haven't entirely stopped eating takeaways and ready meals. And I still eat the odd bag of ready salted crisps.

I have entirely stopped eating UPF chocolate, UPF crisps, UPF biscuits, UPF muffins/cakes. These were the foods that I was honestly addicted to and were the things I would low-level binge on. It didn't matter how much of these foods I ate in one sitting, I was never satisfied and never truly full. Despite massive calorie intake from them. Overfed and undernourished!

This change has also largely resolved what I thought might have been IBS symptoms for me. Mostly diarrhoea fairly shortly after eating, or first thing in the morning after eating UPF at night. It still happens occasionally, and it's always linked to eating the UPF that I do still choose to eat sometimes (the McDonald's, the shop-bought sandwich, the ready meal).

So each to their own but for me it has been quite life-changing.

And it's hard to argue that the whole thing isn't essentially morally corrupt: UPF is often the only option for people on a very low income and people who lack the facilities to store and prepare fresh, real food. A cupboard full of UPF doesn't go off, can be quite inexpensive and doesn't need time and energy to prepare before eating. Making it the obvious choice when you're exhausted from working two jobs, when there's no time or money to shop for fresh quality ingredients, when you can't afford to buy or run a fridge or a freezer. So I do think this is much more than a fad, or bad science that will be overturned before long. It's a political issue, and we should all be up in arms about it.

@BlibBlabBlob that really resonates with me, particularly the addictive behaviour. I think it's impossible to remove upf from diet but I think some of the foods that are upf are very addictive.

I started baking my own bread and now rarely eat processed bread. I also know roughly which bread to buy that is closer to home made. I find I crave bread less - a lot less. I also find I don't view food as the enemy like I used to. It's kinda changed my relationship with food.

Totally agree re cost and ease of upf.

tbh iwhen I bake my own bread I can easily eat half a loaf in one sitting...

I know - it's so tempting!

What joy? You crunch into them - that bit's OK, then what's left goes soggy and gets stuck in your teeth!

@Ariela you know you’re meant to chew and swallow right? Not leave them marinating in your mouth

@ariela 6billion packets sold each year beg to differ 😆

Oh yes. What a terrible blight on humankind crisps are.

They are horrendous for your teeth, ask any dentist!

I love the sourdough jaw ache!

But weren’t there also a lot of UPFs in the 80s/90s? I seem to recall a lot of microwave meals, frozen pizzas, crisps, marathons, waffles, crispy pancakes and so on. I actually feel like my family’s diet is already much healthier than mine was back then, albeit we didn’t snack quite so much.
Sure, I want to live as long as possible and actually make quite a lot of effort with the quality of my food, but it’s not going to stop me using chicken goujons or the odd bowl of flavoured crisps

But weren’t there also a lot of UPFs in the 80s/90s?

Of course, they’re not new. My mother wouldn’t let us eat processed food back in the 70s.

My Mum was not a great cook and was also incredibly busy- she overstretched herself really. When we were teenagers, she bought us a lot of ready meals and freezer foods to cook for ourselves as she wasn’t always home in time to make dinner for us. We loved it! Microwave chicken tikka/Findus crispy pancakes and chips etc. Obviously it’s shit food, but my mum would likely have not realised that- she knew very little about nutrition and cooking. I eat much better now than I did in the 90s! (And hold no ill will towards my lovely mum who was doing her best).

I’ve cut them out this week and I feel absolutely awful. Roughest I’ve felt for years. I think it’s the massive drop in sugar perhaps.

Right, get straight back on the UPFs immediately!

On a more serious note, I have a pounding headache when I totally cut out sugar - particularly after a sugar heavy few days (eg Christmas). I always feel like it’s quite scary how it affects our body- to make me feel so bad and so quickly.

Re jaw ache on 'proper' food, there was an article in the Telegraph a few months ago to show men were becoming less handsome as our jaws work so much less on UPF that the masculine jawline is not developing

Save as kids having no tensile strength in their fingers/can't hold pencils if they have ipads etc from toddlerhood.
Get them on plasticine :)

😳 at unintended consequences
Is there any data you've seen for this? Really interesting

Cheap white sliced has been around since the 1930s.
I would be extremely sceptical of any claims of tensile strength/jaw strength without extremely good data with causation built in.

Cheap white sliced has been around since the 1930s
Has it always had about 50 ingredients in it though?

I agree @Waitingfordoggo and @Bigcoatweather. When I was growing up in the 1970s/80s we often ate ready meals. My parents did a lot less cooking from scratch for me than I do for my DC's.

Vegan and truing to not eat many carbs.

I am but that is partly because I got into cooking over xmas and have learnt how easy it is to make breads and all sorts of currys and soups from simple base of the same key ingredients.

Once you get the knowledge and confidence, it is a lot easier.

I used to talk about time as a barrier to cooking, I now know what I meant was organisation. It takes 5-10 minutes to dice an onion, garlic and chilli and fry it, lob in boiled water and a stock cube and some roughly chopped sweet potato or butternut and simmer it for an hour.

Or making a veg stew by chucking vegetables, tomatoes, water and spices into a pot. Not everything needs to be weighed and measured. Just add more water, flour or time if things are too thick or thin.

The barrier is having the foresight to plan that's what's for dinner and having the availability to do it at some point in the day, not waiting until 20 minutes before everyone needs feeding. Which I am not judging anyone for btw. It was my personal barrier.

Once I'm in the habit of cooking and eating well, UPF is so bland.

I no longer look forward to restaurants as I know that 9 times out of 10, my home cooked food is better.

A good soup, stew or curry are great one pot meals and the more I eat fresh, the more UPF is unappealing.

I made croutons to other day. Just sliced bread, oil, salt and pepper and 10 mins in the oven. I was so proud. There was once a time I'd buy it.

I can no longer eat chilli doritos, they just taste like salt and sugar.

Part of my motivation to make more of my own stuff from raw ingredients is to reject UPF companies and plastic packaging.

You mean like fortification with vitamins?

What additives are there in mass produced white bread that could possibly be a health concern?

I sense the spirit of Windy Miller and a sentimental notion of hand-crafted, artisanal ‘staff of life’ bread at work here.

I know of a dinner party in France that killed one guest and hospitalised her husband for many weeks after they were served artisanal food that was loaded with bacteria. How ‘charming’ to go back to the land and ‘authentic’ practice.