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)

We are not exactly the upf crowd. and I am not extremist, so I let my big kid have some.

Can anyone define UPF? I don’t mean give me a list of supposedly UPF food types, I mean an actual definition? And then explain exactly how they are harmful backed up by real evidence.

Association/correlation does not prove causation. Of course people eating lots of low nutritional value food are going to be short on essential nutrients which will have adverse health effects.

It does not necessarily follow that the “chemicals” in ready meals are themselves causing problems. I mean, why are my burgers made of pea protein harmful and my peas that I just shelled out of the pods not harmful? Yes I get it that there’s fibre and more vitamins in the whole peas, so they are better nutritionally, but that doesn’t make my burger bad and somehow cancer-causing. If I eat 17 burgers and no veg, that’s what causes the harm.

The whole thing is a fad and someone’s making a lot of money out of the worried well. Again.

I'm not consciously reducing them because we've traditionally not eaten many to begin with. We eat lots of fresh foods, mostly cook from scratch, grow our own fruit/veg, have our own chickens for eggs, and raise/hunt a lot of our own meat.

What UFPs we do consume are in convenience foods and I'm happy with the balance we currently have as I think some convenience foods are necessary just to get you through life when life is busy or like we do, you live 20-30 minutes drive from the nearest shop where you can buy fresh whole foods.

I'm happy with the balance we have so don't really feel the need to change, but then I have long not relied on loads of processed/packaged foods as the bulk of our diet.

Really difficult tbh. My eldest has eating issues and will only eat chicken nuggets and fish fingers with boiled rice and sweetcorn for dinner. I’ve tried making nuggets and fish fingers myself but she won’t eat. I don’t know what to do and threads like this really make me more anxious

I am absolutely NOT reducing my uptake of UPF.

Why? Because we grow much of our own veg, so the vast majority (almost 100%) of our meals are cooked from scratch. I maintain for me it's almost as quick as ready meals, because I don't have to spend time shopping for things (reading labels takes time) and I frequently make double portions and freeze one or cook something in the same oven to save energy.

We do buy the odd UPF as a treat eg a pre-made pie.

I've been reading a lot about this and I think the main thing we can do to improve our diets is to eat less meat - especially things like sausage rolls, bacon, burgers etc.

No not really. We eat a lot of vegetables (more than the recommended serves, every single day). I never really know what people mean when they say they cook from scratch - we don’t make our own pasta except for dinner parties, we use bought passata etc. I wouldn’t describe that as cooking from scratch.

I do find the fawning over Chris van tulleken and Tim spector a little cult like. I'm an academic and we have these 'celeb academic' types in my department. They're very very good at publicity and soundbites and can be very charismatic on BBC breakfast but their in depth knowledge isn't actually that great, they misrepresent findings to suit their publicity agenda. So I'm a little sceptical of people who have read one book (ultra processed people) and evangelise about it constantly.

I try and eat less upf than I used to but can't always be arsed to do everything from scratch when working full time.

With the exception of plant-based milk and yoghurt, my diet is completely unprocessed.

I cook everything from scratch and don’t eat snacks like biscuits, crisps etc. (I actually don’t snack at all most the time).

My diet is very varied and not restrictive - I have chocolate nearly every day, it’s just 100% dark chocolate or I add cacao (again 100%) to porridge.

Fair point. When I say I cook from scratch I mean I cook with whole foods. So for pasta I eat gluten-free pasta which is 100% edamame or black bean or lentils. No other ingredients. I make pasta sauce.

I recently found out that the kids shampoo we'd all been been using for years had been withdrawn because it had been found that one of the ingredients was definitely carcinogenic. There are all sorts of carcinogens in our furnishings. That 'new car' smell includes carcinogen benzene. Make up is full of carcinogens including many lip balms.

UPFs are just one in a long list of things.

UPF is essentially meaningless as it can mean a packet of haribo or a yoghurt. Out of those examples, one of those is clearly going to give you more benefits than the other.

UPF doesn't actually cause the harm, it just means if you're eating more UPF you're probably eating less fruits, vegetables, lean meats, nuts, seeds etc.

So is it UPF that's the problem? Or is it the fact that, because of UPF, we're eating less foods that have higher nutritional value.

It's the exact same argument as screen time - screen time doesn't rot the brain, it's just that too much of it ends up replacing other beneficial activities such as exercise, play, communication and language development and so on.

I find faffing about with removing film and microwaving this that and the other too difficult to bother with. There's lots of ways to reduce time when cooking. eg
Onions - if you cut to rings, then in half and freeze, you can snap the slices into smaller pieces when frozen before thawing to use.
Likewise if you chop a large onion but use half freeze half, you have onions ready for the next meal you're going to cook.

The whole thing is a fad and someone’s making a lot of money out of the worried well. Again.

How are people making money out of UPF when it is cheaper to cook from fresh? More time consuming, yes, but I find it cheaper.

I am severely disabled so without convenience foods I wouldn’t eat.
I am and have been vegetarian all my adult life though so feel that has off set the things meat eaters will consumed at least.

I won't be cutting out crisps. They may have no nutritional value but they bring a little joy!

There's a lot of disagreement about what UPF is.

I follow James A Wong twitter handle botanygeek on Twitter and he points out regularly the inconsistencies in media discussion of this. Stuff being labelled as UPF or not purely on price tag in a lot of cases. There's a Guardian article today pointing out that whether something is UPF or not seems to be based on who has the higher marketing budget...https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/06/ultra-processed-food-healthy-diets-pr

I think some of it is another way of bashing the time and money poor for their food choices.

We eat a lot of veg but will also eat breaded fish and chicken (from good sources) rather than bread our own fish and chicken.

We use canned beans and the odd bottled sauce.

I've cut down on bacon on sausages but that's more because I hate the way that pigs are treated.

Because people are being marketed and targeted with 'non-UPF' foods....

I am conscious of avoiding UPF. An easy swap is porridge instead of processed breakfast cereals. I was thinking that I'd have to have oatibix again in the summer (I'm in a hot country) but then I realised that I will be able to do overnight oats.

Bread is a big issue, particularly in the UK as most people get theirs from supermarkets. I'm lucky to have a really good traditional bakery making "real" bread in my town. I wonder if the number of bakeries might increase in the UK after so many closed down because of supermarket dominance?

We have recently got a Thermomix which helps to quickly prepare things like sauces and soups from fresh ingredients, so that is helping us to avoid jarred sauces etc. I am in a bit of a bad habit of buying junky treats at the moment though. Perhaps should try making some healthy treat recipes with dates etc. Unlike a PP I certainly am capable of bingeing on my home baking though. But I suppose the idea is that a more nourishing treat is more satisfying and doesn't contain the unnecessary harmful additives etc.

To to mention selling books, YouTube channels etc.

I make pasta sauce, either with passata or tinned tomatoes or fresh tomatoes (depending on the season). It’s only the fresh tomatoes that are cooking from scratch.

I think it’s unlikely most of the ‘cooking from scratch’ people are using fresh tomatoes for every pasta sauce, if only because surely it relies on seasonal produce. Just never using a jar with a picture of a smiling chicken on it isn’t particularly meaningful.

Like veggies and fresh fruit? Or proper lentils rather than baked beans out of a tin?

Fed is best as opposed to not eating .

I’ve been trying to cut down UPF for some time but one DS is like yours - I would rather he eats and grows than not .

UPF home baking could have you eating a lot more sugar fat and salt than you should - it’s all about balance

I am not paying it any attention.

my diet is everything in moderation.

if I need to take a ready meal to work once in a while I do. If I want a bowl of cornflakes for breakfast I will do.

imo “ultra processed” seems just another buzzword. The definition of UP is “five or more ingredients”, but then crisps are UP when they’re potatoes, oil and salt. So how does that work?

sometimes I don’t have time to be batch cooking tomatoes for pasta sauce. So I’ll have a jar. Not the end of the world.