AIBU to be confused about ultra processed foods?

[Mostlycarbon]

I'd never heard of UPFs until I joined Mumsnet. To be honest I assumed it was an affectation of the wealthy who have more money to spend on groceries than we do, and possibly in some cases symptomatic of orthorexia.

However, it all seems to have gone mainstream now and be a genuine nutrition concern in the UK: Why we might never know the truth about ultra-processed foods - BBC News

So I figured I should have a think about our diet as a family and specifically what we are feeding our two year old. We mostly cook from scratch (I work part-time, husband loves cooking which makes it doable for us), meat eater who eat fish a couple of times per week and veggie at least once per week.

So his diet is something like:

Breakfast: porridge, banana or eggy bread or sometimes cereal, yoghurt etc.

Lunch: eggs on toast/ beans on toast (low salt, low sugar)/ pasta with pepper, tomato and grated cheese/ cheese on toast (wholegrain sliced supermarket bread)/ peanut butter sandwich and yoghurt/ jacket potato with tuna/cheese/beans plus apple or cucumber on the side.

Dinner: Spagbol, fajitas, fish pie, chilli, roast chicken, chicken casserole, fish with rice and veggies etc. Occasionally fish fingers or homemade pizza.

Snacks: Organix brand snacks, cheese cubes, fruit, raisins, yoghurt, little pot of cheerios, apple and peanut butter. The occasional ice cream as a summer treat.

I thought we were doing pretty well, but actually are we? I probably need to reduce the organix snacks which presumably are UPF. But what else is UPF? Peanut butter? Cheese cubes? Yoghurts? Supermarket bread? Presumably the tortillas we have with fajitas?!! Tinned tuna? Beef mince? The baked beans I guess!

And presumably some UPFs are worse than others?!!! We're both teachers with a hefty mortgage so we don't have infinite time or money to worry about this.

YABU: It's actually very straightforward to not feed your kids junk.
YANBU: It's confusing.

Just look on the back of the packet - if there is an ingredient on there you don’t recognise or wouldn’t find in your own pantry then it’s probably UPF. A lot of your food sounds ok to me. Supermarket bread and flavoured yogurts are quite often big UPF offenders.

See, ice cream is my Achilles heel. I rarely give my two toddlers ice cream (luckily they're young and think my frozen smoothies are the best things in the world) but me? Oh I resolutely ignore all those ingredients for a bucket mouthful of pralines and cream

Doesn't that depend on other linking factors too though? Are you talking about lifespan being reduced for people who have an occasional UP treat, or eat it all of the time? What percentage of the diet is UP to shorten life?

I think you’re doing pretty well. Not a lot of that is true UPF.

I bloody love pralines and cream, the new HD biscoff one is so good too. Everything in moderation imo.

I think your diet is quite splendid. I can assure you, when I was a child, my mother was a splendid cook but in addition to that, I ate loads of sweets and crisps and other kids had fizzy drinks (I was never that keen on those, still not). I outgrew it but it was hardly healthy. We used to be told (in adverts), "A Mars a day, helps you work, rest and play", and other sweets were routinely advertised. You'd see children crowding the sweet shop after school.

As for bread, most people don't live on bread, they just have a bit. I had a good healthy lunch and this evening made myself a sandwich with Warburton's half-and-half bread. It isn't going to kill me. I don't eat bread every day.

You are doing fine.

It isn’t rubbish. It’s completely intuitive that eating factory foods stuffed with synthetic ingredients is bad for you. The human diet should consist mostly of natural foods, including lots of fruit and veg. In practice this isn’t always easy because food manufacturers have a vested interest in fooling you that their products are ‘natural’ even when they’re not (eg supermarket bread in artisanal packaging). I have avoided most processed food for years because I struggle to trust production processes but the main things to be concerned about are products that do not have recognisable ingredients.

@Daffydaff and @MUCHtodoAboutSomething

but I wasn’t implying eating ice cream was bad! I was just giving an example of quite nasty UPF.

It is possible possible to buy ice cream with no rubbish in it - you just have to check labels.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/02/truth-about-ultra-processed-foods-upfs

The article is 6 months old, but that is such a short time in the confines of Science. It is all so new, and uncertain, and a bit ambiguous. Yes, certain foods are bad for you. Some are to an extent, but then they could be good for you in other ways. It is a minefield imo atm.
I eat a varied diet, plenty of vegetables, some fruit, mainly complex carbs, brown rice, spaghetti (do sometimes have white pasta), lean meats, and fish. Will I get the healthiest ice cream I can find? No, I eat it so rarely. Therefore, I will get the brand I enjoy, or what is the point of having it in the first place. I'm a fan of co-op simply irresistible, haagan daaz, and magnum cracked, if it is store bought. I bake myself, so usually cakes, some bread are homemade. I don't eat a lot of bread in general, but wouldn’t deny myself a slice of bread from a packet, not a fan of white, prefer seeded. If I had to scrutinise every single label, it would drive me mad, and I value my MH. There are obviously a lot of products that are clearly artificial that you wouldn't need to check these at least.

More fool you.
You should read about it and take it on board.
It's the next smoking health issue

No, it’s the next quack food scare.

As ever, plenty of people will jump on the bandwagon before anti-UPF mania fades away to be replaced by the next fad.

sounds like you don't understand the issues.

Best thing anyone can do is ensure their diet and their children's diet contains masses of fresh vegetables, every day, especially greens.

And if you eat meat, limit it, but the best meat is also fresh, and from animals that were also eating greens, (this goes for fish too)

I’m a huge fan of Chris van Tulleken but honestly the amount of fear he has engendered in people about eating a slice of /Warburtons wholemeal loaf now and again is ridiculous. As usual, people take things to extremes instead of absorbing the general message.

Your diet is reasonable and sourcing and cooking your food isn't your number 1 job. I honestly wouldn't sweat it. No point having a perfectly unprocessed diet if you're stressing and getting no down time in your efforts to achieve it on top of everything else.

It's not just one man with one book.

UPFs are not simply foods that have been modified by processing, but rather edible products formulated from food-derived substances, along with additives that heighten their appeal and durability. UPFs are designed and manufactured for maximum profit: they contain low-cost ingredients, have long shelf-lives, are hyper-palatable, and are highly branded and marketed to consumers. They are typically calorie-dense and high in free sugars, refined starches, unhealthy fats, and sodium. 17 Scholars are increasingly recognizing and calling attention to the addictive qualities of UPFs. 10-12,18-20.

UPFsFactSheet_May2021 (globalfoodresearchprogram.org)

And it's also not new news. Giles Yeo was researching this and doing docos on it years ago.

This. 100%. People are getting angry at the wrong people. You should be getting angry about the addictive utter crap the food industry have been peddling us for years feeding (excuse the pun) the obesity epidemic and a ton of health issues, especially as a lot of this crap is sold to us as "natural", "organic", "low fat" etc etc ie "heaithy". It's a bloody scandal.

@Notcontent oh I know! It's just I'm actually quite big on my non-UPFs, have been doing lots of research (as I said, being in America has been the impetus I've needed as it's just inescapable. Don't get me started on their super sweet bread!). But despite all my knowledge and research, I just want the worst offending ice cream possible haha. It's my one blind spot.

Haha there are lots of helpful comments on this thread! I think we might make a couple of swaps but we don't really have capacity for massive changes. It seems like we're doing ok.

Many people do eat bread several times a day though, if their routine is toast for breakfast and sandwich for lunch, plus every time they have pizza, a burger or garlic bread for tea, so bread would be one of the biggest swaps they could make.

Also because food companies know how to make foods addictive

It's really not. The chemicals in UPF are so damaging. No wonder our health is so poor as a nation.

Who eats all that surely if you have toast you don't have a sandwich. Then to have pizza where's the veg, dairy and protein

@jannier an awful lot of people...
I would say the majority of my colleagues have cereal or toast for breakfast and a sandwich or wrap for lunch
Then might have pasta for tea

It’s not a fad, but unfortunately a lot of the comments that dismiss it as such don’t understand the issue at all.
The OP is doing well, though. You can find crisps etc. that are processed rather than ultraprocessed so looking for those kinds of swaps might be productive. You can find Facebook groups that highlight specific products so you can find these without doing much homework.