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)

Interesting that that article says “But from a processing standpoint, there is really no difference between oat milk creme fraiche and your standard dairy ice-cream, or a frozen beef burger patty and a burger made from soy protein.”

Yet this article from the Guardian (backed by research) says

“plant-based alternatives to meat products also got the all-clear. They are “not associated with risk of multimorbidity”, said the authors.”

but

”regular consumption of meat products – such as sausages – and sugary drinks make it more likely that someone will get those diseases.”

https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/13/some-ultra-processed-foods-are-good-for-your-health-who-backed-study-finds

So health wise plant based UPFs are better than animal based UPFs.

It's just the latest thing we are told we have to worry about. It was carbs or sugar or saturated fats or sodium or MSG before this one.

I just can't get bothered about it all. I'm a big fan of everything in moderation. I cook some things from scratch and other times when I'm short on time or just being plain lazy I cook beige food and I don't feel guilty or anxious about it.

I also think we have an unhealthy understanding of risk in this country. If someone told me that if I eat chocolate every day I'm increasing my risk of a heart attack by 10 fold. But if my risk of heart attack was 0.00001% why would I care about the reduction of one of those zeros?

I'm going to die anyway. That's inevitable. So I might as well go through life enjoying different foods and experiences rather than constantly worrying about every single danger.

Yes being healthy is important and I take steps to ensure both my family and I maintain a good level of health. But I'm not going to worry if my kids eat chicken nuggets for tea once a week either.

I am aware if it but I just don't have the brain space for it. We're in a surviving not thriving period of life (toddler in nursery and I've been ill 13 times in 9 months) so it's just not a priority. What is a priority is adequate rest, enough fresh air and a bit of time for hobbies.

It sounds like people, on here at least, don't over consume UPF's anyway.

Surely that's the ideal?

Worrying about weight and food, restricting and deeming foods "good" or "bad" can have long term negative mental health consequences and lead to more disordered eating.

Eat a balanced diet - that also means don't freak the fuck out about bread.

UPF is the biggest money making scheme there is. There is no money in eating fresh fruit and vegetables. There is a lot of money in hyper palatable cheap ingredients full of fat and sugar and ultra processed.Food manufacturers spend a lot of money on food scientists and lobbying the government to not ban or tax these products. The profit margins on them must be astronomical for them to resort to that.

Agree with PPs, this is more complex than the headlines suggest and as usual with these things the reality gets lost in translation.

I know my diet could be healthier and I know how, but I already do cook a lot from scratch and eat a lot of fruit and veg, v little red meat etc. the reason I do still eat some junk is honestly stress and lack of time, and having a fussy teenager doesn’t help, though I try.

if you eat nothing but french fancies and space invaders yes it will be very bad for you, but I think more important is getting people to understand what they do need (fresh, unprocessed, variety, more plants less meat) and how to do it cheaply - and imo governments should use taxes and info campaigns to nudge that much more and make it realistic.

Tax has been used to make sugary drinks more expensive which is a disaster IMO as it nudges people to buy sugar free which is also very unhealthy and causes weight gain. (lots of science on this). That’s something I do actively avoid, artificial sweeteners. We need to reduce sugar but without the sweeteners.

Everything in moderation

I agree with this.
It's not like I eat tons of them anyway, as long as it's every now and again and not all the time.

The Gruaniad had a good breakdown a while back that helpfully had a list of convenience foods that were processed but not UPF: so shredded wheat was OK, ditto microwaveable rice packets (a godsend in screaming newborn need-to-eat days), some ready meals such as lasagne – not necessarily packed full of health and still worth looking at the traffic lights and calorie content, but useful to know you can have some easy things without having UPFs, so we’re not all up at 4am to make bread and such.

I am autistic with a fairly restricted diet due to sensory issues, so I rely on a lot of 'UPF.' I would also struggle to cook a full meal for myself every day, if for whatever reason I couldn't use ready-meals and UPF. So in my case it's pretty much UPF or nothing, with the exception of stir-fry (though the sauce is probably still UPF) and the occasional roast.

It definitely makes sense to me. I have tried to cut down on bread and sugary things as I needed to do that anyway. My dc is fussy so I do still buy cereals and some things for them but I have stopped buying crisps completely.

I don’t buy many ready meals but do occasionally eg yesterday we had a Tesco chicken casserole with dumplings and I did fresh veg with it. I know some people wouldn’t touch anything like that but it’s convenience sometimes. There is no way I would make a chicken casserole and dumplings from scratch (used to.) Also I find I have a lot of food waste so if I make something like a casserole it does not all get eaten and even if I freeze it, no one ever fancies it so it doesn’t get eaten even after several months.

Orange juice from concentrate can still be 100% OJ and not UPF. It's cheaper because the transportation costs are less. Basically water taken from pure juice, transported and water put back in.

Unless you live exclusively on UPF it’s of no concern.

As the saying goes, there’s no bad food, only bad diets.

@Mielbee it sounds like things are a bit rough for you right now, I hope it eases soon and you’re over the worst of the illnesses soon (or if it’s chronic I hope you find something that helps ease it a bit soon)

Yes apologies. Just 100% juice I should have written.

What a kind message, thank you so much. Nothing chronic, just the product of nursery germs plus extra from being run down but I think there's light at the end of the tunnel now.

regarding juice from concentrate - it massively reduces food miles.

some foods are proccessed to facilitate easier/faster/cheaper transport. which in my opinion is a good thing.

I have reduced. The quality of our diet in 2020/21 went downhill with the endless months of having to feed the entire family for every single fucking meal for month after month and by the winter I slid into an inert depression in order to get by. At the start of last year, I cleared out the cuboards of things like dusty old spices and started again, and cook more fresh meals with more plant content. And I feel better for it.

Awkwardly I have an autistic teenager who's on a mission to eat himself into becoming a beige carb, so there has to be compromise. You can't get nutrition from foods that you don't eat. He likes the condistency of processed foods and finds the variation of fresh food overwhelming.

There is room for nuance. Some UHPFs carry a greater benefit such as using plant milks if your body can't metabolise cows milk. A wholemeal seeded loaf from the supermarket has more to digest than a white loaf that's had more removed from its wheat.

If you do reduce UHPFs, that will naturally create a healthier more balanced diet.
Public health is in a dire state, and it has deteriorated as UHPFs have taken up more and more prominence in the supermarket. Swapping to lower fat, artificially sweetnened versions of foods has not reversed the trends at a population level.

My understanding is that processing in itself isn't an issue. Ultra processed foods are foods which have ingredients that you wouldn't automatically recognise as "food" such as guar gum, stabilisers and EI764

We have cooked from scratch for many years, like when they disclosed about E numbers. Children like proper traditional food, one is a chef.
Now we are retired we have a ready meal or two to make life easier.

I like food. I eat food. Death comes to us all. Might as well enjoy yourself while you're alive

I like food and enjoy it, but I don't enjoy UPFs except for bread, crisps and chocolate, so I don't see not having them as denial.

It'll be the cakes that are the problem.😙

I'm not as we don't eat any/many.

Yes, we read up on the Tim Spector, Chris van Tulleken, listened to the podcasts, yada, yada a couple of years ago, I've always cooked from scratch (I like it, it's better value, nicer food, etc) but since becoming even more aware of it we've cut out the things that were making regular appearances in the cupboards, like biscuits, ice-cream, supermarket bagels and baked goods, the odd ready-meal, fish fingers, salted nuts.

It's not that hard. Sweet cravings are satisfied by a bit of dark chocolate (80% plus) after dinner, or we'll make a cake or a pudding (DH does a fantastic crumble!) from scratch at the weekend if we really want a sweet treat. We have two good bakeries nearby so buying proper sourdough is easy (yes, it's more expensive, so we eat less of it). We were never big consumers of takeaways or sodas, which is a big source of UPFs. I like the occasional bowl of crappy soupy noodles, and DH loves a sausage roll, bless him.

I reckon we're about 90% UPF-free, like we're 90% alcohol free. We're 100% smoking and drug-free, exercise regularly and, if luck holds out, hopefully that's all good enough.

@pickledandpuzzled I have lost lots of weight doing this BUT I use WW to keep an eye on portion sizes. When I have my homemade cake it has to be a really quite small piece! And same with nuts and nut butters and things- this is why I still track with WW because I know (unfortunately) if I just did ‘non UPF, cook from scratch etc’ without any kind of consideration of portion sizes I wouldn’t lose weight.

One day I hope to ditch tracking and just eat how I’m eating intuitively, but not yet.