Avoiding UPFs at breakfast

[Ayechinnyreckon]

After breakfast we eat virtually no UPFs but the kids breakfast is a huge issue.

They wake early and are hungry. They're 9&6 so can be trusted to go downstairs, get themselves some cereal and occupy themselves in the morning until we get up.

They eat cereal and pastries mainly until we get up and make a more substantial breakfast if they want it) 90mins - 2 hours later.

AIBU to want quick and easy breakfast that the DC can get themselves? So I don't have to get up at 5.30!

Do you think they are good for you? Honestly?

The point @vickylou78 is that almost 70% of people your age are overweight and obese. So your theory about being healthy doesn't stack up.

You could also use the same argument about smoking. Decades ago no one thought it was a cause of cancer. Science moves on.

we're adding chemicals that are manufactured to bulk out natural food (emulsifiers etc) or preserve shelf life . This didn't happen as much 50 years ago.

People weren't overweight as they walked more, didn't work from home, didn't eat crap processed ready meals, McDs wasn't on every street corner, etc etc.

Honestly it's not worth trying to explain to these people.

They just can't grasp it.

It's sad as they are the one's buying and eating all this crap.

Oh well, let them, natural selection innit

I'm inclined to agree. Ultimately if people think it's nonsense they can crack on doing what suits them. What's a real shame, is when posters like the OP are looking for ideas and recipes and are expected to justify their choices and post RCT evidence.

It's not that it's hard to reduce UPF, but it does require a bit more mental effort and planning to make sure you have suitable foods for breakfast and ingredients to put meals together quickly. I find that sharing ideas and inspiration with others can really help. I could do without the sniping though.

There's a happy middle in all of this.

My opinion is that it's fine to do 80/20 or better still 90/10.

With kids though, they can't choose or buy so it's down to their parents to do that.

It's also more about variety- getting a wide range of fruit, veg, seeds, fermented foods.

I'm totally with you on the 80/20% and am personally not puritanical about it. But in trying to reduce UPF as much as possible and practical, whilst trying to vary our meals, I find it helps to share ideas - just as the OP in this thread asked.

I posted upthread about an instagram site I find useful and a poster made a sarcastic comment about instagram not being scientifically valid. .
It's clear some people are quite put out by the conversation - I'd love to know why.

Kedgeree. Make a batch and freeze in single size portions that can be microwaved.

Kippers.

Most of Europe has a mix of fruit / veg / ham / cheese and bread for breakfast, you could make up a couple of plates and put in the fridge overnight.

Samosas if you have a sweet centre near by.

Hard boiled eggs.

Scotch eggs. I know they are not normally a breakfast food but there is no reason they can't be.

If they don't like Weetabix have they tried it spread with Nutella or jam and eaten like a biscuit?

I was just interested. I fully expected him to say that I needed to lose weight, but he was more concerned about the UPFs. Maybe the liver struggles to process them? They definitely can't be good for you, so I think they are best avoided if possible. I try to cook from scratch when I can, but do have a few UPFs each week.

@specialsauce

”natural selection”???

you can eat 100% organic, home made, upf-free, every single morsel you put in your mouth but you’re still gonna die some day.

I agree that 5.30 am is a crazy early start to the day if doing it every single day over a period of years 😳and if the children can be trusted to help themselves to a first breakfast then that’s really good .
If you would like the food to be more low GI to make them feel fuller longer then prepping overnight oats is good or having hard boiled eggs, cheese , cooked chicken in the fridge a great idea .
alternatively mini frittata cooked the day before , cooled and refrigerated so they can help themselves.
when I had my first child she went through a time of being a very early riser but I got up and did her a little tray of healthy snacks then lay down to sort of doze on the sofa .
once I got to having 3 children they were all very different so I just got up when the first one was up .
made them something small and healthy to eat , took my coffee back to bed and they snuggle up next to me for maybe half an hour

I used to batch cook flapjacks for lunchboxes, afternoon snacks and early on weekends, otherwise the options were yogurt (plain Greek), various fruits, honey to sweeten the yogurt, granola (can't claim always home made but often was) or sometimes leftovers they could microwave. By 8 my younger dd would make herself cheese toasties (on the griddle) but elder was a very light eater, still is so a flapjack was plenty (but she would make herself tea from 6). I taught mine to use the kitchen equipment safely from young as I was.

Having the whole household get up every day indefinitely at 5.30am isn’t sustainable.

Yeah when he was younger we used to take turns getting up with him and the other got more sleep, but once he turned 7 it was clear he didn't actually need us to be downstairs with him in the morning so we were able to stay in bed until the youngest woke up.

Yeah but as the generations pass on their damaged genetics the kids full of chemicals will eventually be infertile - natural selection.

Yeah I appreciate that there are plenty of overweight people, but what I am saying is that I'm not overweight, neither is my brother and neither is my husband or my children aged 9 and 6. My generation were brought up on absolutely crappy 80's diets for breakfast but what I'm saying is it didn't matter...... We eat enough healthy food to compensate for breakfast being sub optimal! As long as people have a balanced diet and exercise regularly, a few rice crispies for breakfast isn't going to ruin your life! It's just all so dramatic.

Yes, frittatas sound like a good idea. You can put all sorts of things into them and cut into squares. TBH I wouldn’t be that bothered about them eating cereal, the wholegrain ones are OK, even those that appeal to children like the hoops which also come in relatively healthy chocolate versions and are quite filling. It’s only a small part of their daily nutrition. Whole milk makes it a good breakfast.
But I can’t understand why you don’t buy a simple toaster, wholemeal toast is delicious whatever you put on it. And they’ll probably enjoy “cooking” for themselves.

My spine consultant said I shouldn't go running but that doesn't mean the rest of you need to hang up your Rokas.

I cannot get on board with something that says plain crisps are fine but salt and vinegar are shit. It's the obsessiveness and pedantic categorisation of this sort of approach to food, that I don't think is helpful or ultimately sensible. I think we all know that a salad or your own lasagne is better than a microwave mac & cheese. I don't see what upf is adding apart from misplaced guilt.

No. Im not sure where I implied that

I think obsessing about a slice of bread here or shop bought hoummous (as I saw on another thread yesterday) there, or the odd ready meal is over the top

I probably have fewer than 5% of my diet as processed food, less as UPFs, thats not because of UPFs themselves, thats because I make my own food for long boring other reasons, but Im quite shocked at how obsessive people have become over small things when the reality is as a nation we eat too much, too often and thats about the long and the short of it.

Another thread recently had some research about how children now eat on average 8 times a day, where on earth has this need come from, its completely unncessary

Thats what we should be focusing on, the constant need to snack all day long.

We aren’t a snacky family - my kids eat 3 meals a day, one snack. It’s true that most of my eldest sons’ friends don’t eat meals but instead eat crap all day long. I still think though the biggest issue is what they’re eating - mostly because if it was whole foods, they probably wouldn’t feel like they needed to snack all day but they’re not getting any nutrition whatsoever!

I don’t like my kids having crisps at all but my eldest is adamant he must have a pack in his lunch box 🙄 he’s 12 so I have to respect his wishes to a degree. We compromised on ready salted kettle chips because they don’t have any msg like most crisps, and the ready salted have much less ingredients compared to other flavours. I’m not happy about the rapeseed oil at all but 🤷🏽‍♀️ my point is, there’s definitely a sliding scale in what’s okay and what’s not.

HRTFT but porridge made in the slow cooker overnight is delicious. 9yo could easily ladle that into two bowls, add sugar/ berries/ peanut butter/ whatever.

From around 8yo my DD would make a banana milkshake: just a banana and some milk whizzed up in the blender.

I often do almond milk (home made, dead easy), banana, spinach and a squeeze of honey for breakfast.

Easiest is probably boiled eggs with a slice of your home made bread. That's a palatable protein to start the day with, I can't get my head around smoked fish (and ham = UPF).

Like a PP, to me these are related issues. If a person is grazing on moreish stuff that never gives satiety, they're more likely to keep eating. And the moreish stuff is far far more likely to be ultra processed than not. I think the term is vanishing caloric density - food that dissolves quickly in the mouth and tricks the brain into thinking they are less filling and have fewer calories.

I dont disagree but even amongst those who dont really feed junk (as it were), they seem to think their kids are going to pass out if they feel hungry. Why are we worried about waiting until meal times or feeling hungry?

There's nothing wrong with waiting for meal times per se, but blood sugar drops in children have significant impacts on concentration, behaviour and learning. Which isn't good for their education or socialisation. Which is why nutrient dense, protein and fat rich foods are important for them - to reduce the impact of hunger between meals.

Its why my kids have the second breakfast, if they don't the hunger impacts their learning.

I can’t speak for others’ experience but for me (three young kids) - if I offer something unexciting like an apple, they self regulate just fine. So that’s what I do most of the time.

There is a broader cultural shift around eating (and drinking!) and how often people do it. Things have swung really far in the direction of snacks, elevenses etc - to my mind because of product marketing.