UPF.... WTF - I knew it was addictive but didn't realise...

[PaminaMozart]

... how quickly things can fall apart!

I'm a self-confessed health nut. Love exercise, lots of walking, and my diet is normally supper healthy. Lots of vegetables, lean protein, a smattering of complex carbs, healthy fats and dairy/mostly yoghurt.

It has stood me in good stead. At 70 I am really fit and my health-MOT suggests a biological age of 53 or thereabouts.

BUT...... for the past 10 days I have had relatives staying with me who seem addicted to UPF, carbs and sugary 'treats'. They sleep till 10, so I've given my usual morning workouts a miss so as not to disturb them. No point cooking stuff they won't eat. Or we eat out at places with limited/no healthy options.

Slowly but surely I've fallen into a pattern of eating what they eat, drinking wine daily (as opposed to a glass once or twice a week), and taking the bus instead of walking.

And, even after such a short time I have gained weight, my belly is definitely more prominent, and my lovely muscles seem sadly diminished.

A salutary lesson. Use it or loose it. I wonder how long it'll take me to get back to where I was...?!!

I hear you. The crap food makes me feel crap, and the only way I can stop myself eating it is to not buy it. I've read that it takes three weeks before the cravings stop. The bacteria in our gut affects our brain, and makes us crave the food that feeds the bacteria. If you can go cold turkey, the balance of bacteria changes (the bad bacteria die off), and you get less cravings as a result. That's why even a short lapse can have such a dramatic effect, because it feeds the wrong bacteria. I think it was the sadly late Michael Moseley that I learnt this from.

That makes sense @NotbloodyGivingupYet thanks. So much for listening to your body! Maybe a 3 week period would be best and go with the flow, and not worry about will I ever again eat a Galaxy bar for the rest of my life.

UPF is worryingly addictive. I'd highly recommend Chris Val Tulleken's 'Ultra Processed People' - I learned so much from this!

That's a no brainer though, sounds like you've gone from one extreme to the other.
From a "self confessed health nut"to missing your daily morning workout for a couple of weeks, drinking wine and eating what they eat.
Course you'll slap on weight!
As the saying goes, everything in moderation.
Not going to extremes.

It actually is. It’s the same concept as alcoholism. Many alcoholics believe that just one drink can send a person with many years of sobriety spiralling back into alcoholism. We see this time and time again. Some people have the same sensitivity to sugar or other ultra processed foods.

I'm going to agree with this.

I've been tired every day, my diet was all UPFs and diet fizzy drinks.

I slept midday every day. I woke up tired. Zero energy.

2 weeks I've been on keto, no UPFs, all whole foods, no fizzy drinks, only squash.

No processed sugars.

I feel like a different person.
I've lost 10lbs in 2 weeks and haven't had a single nap in 10days

Quite a lot of thin people are also very anti fat. My weight has yo-yoed all my life (not good I know). When I am thin fat women hate me and I am embraced by the thin brigade who claim me as one of their own. When I am fat larger women adore me and thin women don’t even look at me.

Also when I am thin men open doors for me and when I am fat they close them
in my face.

it’s like experiencing the world as two different people.

I’m with you. It’s a constant battle. I’ve nearly always been a healthy weight but I have so many internal struggles each day.

'Use it or loose it.'
That's a bit puzzling - you ARE using UPF and not losing it at all but want more of it!

(Anyway I thought that phrase related to small, village shops.)

@SackofSweets and others who struggle with UPF and sugar - it becomes so much easier if you are able to pretty much eliminate these from your diet. As my current experience shows, though, it is so easy to get sucked back in.

Dr Hyman explains this really well in The Sugar Solution, which was a turning point for me. There are two approaches: gradual weaning or cold turkey. Use whichever seems easier.

I found it a revelation: UPF and sugar assault our taste buds - to the extent that we no longer appreciate the more subtle tastes of vegetables. I use lots of herbs and spices which can lift simple vegetables to another level.

Last night I made a stir fry of vegetables (asparagus, buk choi, red peppers and onions) which, sadly, my visitors just picked at. To me it tasted delicious... Onwards and upwards...... I'll get back on the wagon!

As the saying goes, everything in moderation.
Not going to extremes.

//

I think for so many people though the problem is their perception of moderation is very skewed. It actually means much less than what they take in.

OPs lifestyle isn't at all extreme more when eating well and moving list is your bodies norm a sudden intake of very shit, nutritionally pointless food coupled with no activity, your body and system registers it immediately and you feel the ill effects very quickly.

Of course shit food and sugar is addictive! If I go on a health kick my belly flattens completely. Junk food is terrible for us all! I'm amazed that with all your years of apparently having a perfect diet that you managed to do quickly drop those habits to be honest.

Your stir fry sounds delicious!

We try and eat as many whole foods as possible. The biggest issue in my house is bread (in the country I live in it's a staple for breakfast and lunch!). I have almost stopped eating bread for lunch entirely now (always homemade soup or leftovers from dinner) and have only 1 slice of denser rye bread for breakfast, and have added more non-bread breakfasts for my kids (porridge, omelette, yoghurt and fruit). I feel so much better: more energy and less likely to have a slump in the afternoon/fall asleep on the sofa in the evening.

I can also really see the difference in my kids palate. They are used to having to eat lots of different vegetables and though they would definitely gobble up UPF if and when I serve it (we will have something like crispy chicken, fish fingers, sausages maybe once a week), they are used to eating homemade casseroles, stews, roasts, meatballs, pasta dishes with meat that is not UP no added sugar/flavour enhancers outside salt and herbs/spices. They definitely don't like everything we serve them but are much more flexible food-wise than many of my friends' kids.

I try (and often fail) not to have much sugar and your tastebuds definitely change and adapt to what you're used to. DH and I used to drink that premixed cappuccino mix. Someone gave me a sachet the other week and now it tastes so horribly sweet to me, I couldn't drink it!

I know there are definitely things I could do better and time-wise sometimes I draw the line. I don't have the time or inclination to make my own bread, pasta, puff pastry, mayo. But I feel like we're on the right track with mostly meals cooked from scratch/whole foods

Pretty sure she meant her muscles! I've mostly heard the phrase in relation to physical and mental abilities.

Thanks, @PatienceOfEngels - your experience with your children is very relatable. Mine, in the early years, would eat more or less anything, especially vegetables. They devoured them! Unti, they started nursery and were served the usual stuff that was - probably still is - served to kids in this country. They still ate what they cooked but they definitely also wanted the processed stuff.

I also had a similar experience with a cappuccino mix...

The problem I have now is related more to carbs than sugar........ especially chips. But now I've recognized the issue I'm finding it easier to keep on top of it.

As for use in or lose it...... definitely related to my 'lovely' muscles!!

I think Ultra Processed People should be mandatory reading.
Chris Van Tulleken has a well researched, easy writing style but he manages to convey chilling information with impact.

UPFs are more than a sum of their parts. The damage the petroleum by-produts and lab created additives are doing to our body is terrifying, particularly emulsifyers.
Manufacturers break foods down to their component molecules and then add them back together to form "food". They may be naturally derived but because of the processing (some are added to allow the "food" to withstand the processing itself) by the time they get to our body they bear no resemblance to anything our body knows how to process. Our gut literally doesn't know what to do with them and the damage they can do is immense. They bypass all the systems in place that have evolved over milennia to keep us healthy. They interfere with hunger/full hormones. They cause leaky gut. They damage us.

In 20 years time we will look on UPFs the way we look on smoking now. Don't forget the strapline for Craven A cigarettes used to be "For your throats sake, smoke Craven A"

True. And when you stop eating refined sugar, fruit tastes absolutely beautiful. I started putting cinnamon on porridge instead of sugar/syrup a couple of years ago and don't even miss it. The tastebuds adapt. As OP mentions above, very young children are more open to the taste of fruit and vegetables than three and four year olds, before the processed crap hits their palate. We wouldn't dream of sweetening weaning foods so why do we do it to our own?!

Yep and eating that much takes effort when it's healthy. Pure stuffed

Huh? No no no. EVERYTHING is wrong with UFPs. There is nothing good about them. Processed foods are ok. UHP foods are terrible for gut health, hormonal response and nutrition.
There used to be nothing to be gained from eating them over non processed or simple processed foods.
I'm shocked anyone doesn't realise this.

Do you get all of that without eating UPF?

Can I ask for a typical day food wise?

I eat minimum 2500 but not always that fussy about where I get it

OP I just wanted to thank you for the thread, I’ve been feeling so unhappy with my diet and unsure how to get out of the bad habits I have. I’ve just ordered the sugar solution and will look up Caroline Girvan. I’m hitting 40 soon and figure whatever I can do now will only help me later on!

Oh come off it. Why are people being so obtuse? No matter how healthily you usually eat, if someone is staying at your house for 2 weeks eating chips, drinking wine, etc, you’re going to find it hard no??

The post is clearly light-hearted, why take it so seriously..

Yes, good idea to do it at forty @Peaceandquietandacuppa . Wish I had, once peri starts to bite it is incredibly difficult if you are carrying any weight and your diet is poor. I had to wise up in my late forties and losing weight and keeping it off was an awful lot harder than it had been in earlier years, your motivation slumps too. I am starting to understand how quickly we lose muscle etc. Sugar and large amounts of carbs definitely out for me now.

I bloody love anything fried potato and would probably fight a pigeon for the last chip

I've read the UPF book and I agree @Stifledlife it should be mandatory in schools, when you consider the health issues we are all developing. I can't say I have radically changed my diet but I am more aware now and i have a long way to go. It is absolutely horrific what we are being manipulated into consuming by companies who are only laughing at us while tax payers will be paying for each others health treatments. It's an absolute eye opener of a book.

I'll also look at the Sugar solution book @PaminaMozart thanks.

Anyone remember Supersize me? the documentary about McDonald's? A young healthy man consumed only McDonald's for a month and tracked his body's reaction. The results were shocking and it was only a month unless I'm wrong so ties in with OPs experience in 10 days.