This UPF thing is irritating me

[SnowMoss]

I've never eaten much UPF, but it is getting harder and harder to avoid it. I don't go the whole 9 yards or anything, but try to keep myself informed and do my best to eat a healthy balanced diet.

Made a good effort to keep an eye on upf's, so for the past year have been sourcing good poultry, fish, and eating it with vegetables, etc. But I am bored out of my mind at this point! Just so fucking bored.

Then I hear about seed oils, so now even the small things that I added, such as mayo, gnocchi, the occasional flatbread (contains only sunflower oil, salt, wheat) are seen as a UPF too, due to the inclusion of sunflower or rapeseed oil. I am happy with and have the time to cook from scratch, but avoiding oils has basically taken a good whack at my time.
It's one thing trying to get people to eat a good diet, with veg and fruit and less processed meats, which will benefit their health, weight and wellbeing, but I am honest to god fed up of eating meat and a pile of veg, even if my own sauces and seasonings suffice.
And no, nothing substitutes for mayo! And no, I really don't want to make my own! I will make my own pesto, coleslaw, stuff like that, but I am bone bloody weary of avoidance.

Surely just being mindful is enough? I get that the food industry is an unregulated cesspit right now, but I am beginning to wonder just how awful it is, in moderation, to eat a some.
Sadly if I google any kind of additive or seed oil, I get lists of 'side effects' such as bloating, calcium loss and so on, it is so depressing.

If you are mindful of UPF's have you found a good balance?

I recall googling them and the 'calcium' related ones, or one of them had bone loss as a side effect. I have osteoporosis in my family so I suppose this was going to bother me.
Also, most have a side effect of gastric issues or bloat - but when eating them I never had any issues at all, and i have diagnosed IBS. They were great. In fact I had less bloody bloat at that time!

Crosta & Mollica flatbreads have no UPFs and are made with olive oil.
i think I learned that here.

But you can't use them as a pizza base.
I use them to wrap chicken, salad, or as tortillas, dips, etc.

At what dose, though? Most of that seems to be the raising agent, e.g. baking powder - that's going to be a tiny proportion of the overall product.

No quite a flatbread but Croatia and mollusc wraps are upf free

I think people should eat whatever they are comfortable eating but not eating something because of a worry of bone loss when the amounts eaten are very small seems to be a worry too far for me. But each to their own and our own comfort level.

I always think of this example. some of the chemicals listed below could cause any manner of problems to someone. You could looks down this list and get worried and say there is so much ‘crap’ in it- who would eat this?

INGREDIENTS: AQUA (90.9%), SUGARS (4.9%) (FRUCTOSE (50%). GLUCOSE (41%), SUCROSE (9%)), FIBRE E460 (2.0%), ASH, FATTY ACIDS (<1%) (OMEGA-6 FATTY ACID: OCTADECADIENOIC ACID (42%),
OMEGA-3 FATTY ACID: OCTADECATRIENOIC ACID
(31%), OCTADECAENOIC ACID (20%), HEXADECANOIC ACID 6%), OCTADECANOIC ACID (1%). HEXADECAENOIC ACID (<1%). AMINO ACIDS (<1%) (ASPARTIC ACID (26%), GLUTAMIC ACID (17%), LEUCINE (6%), ALANINE (6%), LYSINE (5%), GLYCINE (5%), ARGININE (5%), PROLINE (4%), SERINE (4%), TYROSINE (4%), THREONINE (4%), ISOLEUCINE_ (3%), PHENYLALANINE (3%), VALINE (3%), HISTIDINE (2%), TRYPTOPHAN (1%), CYSTINE (1%), METHIONINE (<1%)), PRESERVATIVES (E236, E296) COLOURS (E160a, E161b, E161c, E140, E161d, E161e, E161g, E161h) E300, E307, FOLATE, CHOLINE, BETAINE PHYTOSTEROLS, FLAVOURS
(2,5-DIMETHYL-4-HYDROXY-2H- FURAN-3-ONE, 2,5-DIMETHYL-4-METHOXY-2H-FURAN-3-ONE, GAMMA DECALACTONE, . GAMMA-DODECALACTONE,
2-FURFURAL, 5- HYDROXY METHYL-FURFURAL, LIMONENE, LINALOOL,
(E)- NEROLIDOL, E1510, HEXANOL, OCTANOL, METHYL BUTANOATE ETHYL BUTANOATE, METHYL HEXANOATE, ETHYL HEXANOATE HEXYL ETHANOATE, (E)-2-HEXEN-1-YL ETHANOATE, BUTYL ETHANOATE, METHYL OCTANOATE, ETHYL OCTANOATE, OCTYL-2- METHYL BUTANOATE, OCTYL HEXANOATE, DECYL BUTANOATE DECYL ETHANOATE, METHANETHIOL, ETHYL 3-METHYLBUTANOATE GERANIOL, E210, FARNESYL ACETATE, MESIFURANE, METHYL
ANTHRANILATE
GAMMA-DECALACTONE
METHIONAL,
DIMETHOXYMETHANE
1-BUTOXY-1-ETHOXYETHANE),
HYDROXYPHENYL)-ETHYL BETA-D-GLUCOPYRANOSIDE.

that is a…. Fresh unprocessed strawberry.

And that's the problem, they never tell you.
Perhaps a shit ton of it affected rats. We will likely never know the proportion in a flatbread.

And we have had perhaps hundreds of years eating fresh strawberries. We haven't been eating manufactured additives all that long. God knows.

It's really easy to make your own pizza base - for one base100g strong white flour, dash of salt , yeast ( 1/4 teaspoon ?) splash oil and mix to a dough with ( slightly warm ) water , roll onto an oiled tray and leave for a bit

Basic flat bread with no yeast - 100g flour and mix with milk, yogurt or water , can be fried up in a couple of minutes - I add grated cheese with olives or onions or garlic with sundries tomatoes and rosemary - whatever you fancy - to the bread mix

I salute your autocorrect 😆

Pitta bread makes a good pizza base

But my point is, what is a manufactured additive? It is a chemical . Whether it comes from nature or made in a factory. It is ultimately a chemical. Why would it being manufactured make it intrinsically less healthy than something natural? Arsenic is found in nature but honestly I wouldn’t touch it!

OP, I cook from scratch, normally make curries, casseroles, grilled meat/fish and veg. I don't buy mayonaise, biscuits, cakes, sweets, shop puddings etc. I make my own jam. I have even taken to making my own bread since New Year because shop bread is such poor quality

But even I use a teaspoon of rape seed oil or olive oil in most meals.

I eat as healthily as I can to boost my immune system, having had cancer a few years ago. Since I adopted this diet - 30+ fruit & veg a week, wholemeal pasta or couscous only - I haven't had a cold or been ill otherwise. I'm fairly sure a tiny amount of oil won't negate the benefits.

I’ve been reading about oestrogen dominance recently and seed oils are apparently a potential factor in some women. I prefer butter anyway, so I’m taking that as gospel!
I try and just eat as close to the vegetable/fruit/meat as often as possible but it isn't always possible.

On the news yesterday they were talking about lab grown meat going to be the answer to food production…they glossed quickly over what it’d be made of though. Not for me thank you!

I've started following loads of easy recipes (I use TikTok but any platform will do!). I make my own bread, pizza bases, sauce, flatbreads, naan and wraps. So easy and very few ingredient's plus way tastier than shop bought. Greek yoghurt is a big staple of my cooking for the breads and sauces.

Edit - this was supposed to quote where you said you can't use the crosta and mollica ones as pizza bases, not sure how I lost the quote!

Why not? We do, they come out lovely and crispy which I prefer.

Alternatively they make actual pizza bases - albeit with the tomato already on it. Non upf though. And you can add your own extra sauce/ toppings if that was an issue - https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/crosta-mollica-pizza-base-with-tomato-sauce/621650-200263-200264?gadsource=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwvrBhB5EiwAd5YbXqxsbS6xvKh6rewooUVrPFATXJdyCQ7kZRqhtkHOhiJXJVBks2KlVxoCTRUQAvDBwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Or get some actual pizza dough - the ingredients on this are fine - https://groceries.morrisons.com/products/the-northern-dough-co-pizza-dough-original/111842227?gadsource=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwvrBhB5EiwAd5YbXuiSV1juwu4tmrVf21uEJMjztQvlMFsS3FNbJaZYpC86ZK5qDHkxoCqNQQAvDBwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Get a stand mixer and you won’t have any problems making breads - it’s really easy.

There’s a guy on You Tube who has a sourdough recipe that involves no kneading and very little effort - lots of waiting and overnight proofing but very little actual work.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxCf39G7pY

Once I understood loaves a bit more, my flatbreads got loads better. No idea why because they should be easier, but they did.

I make pizza dough all the time and it’s really easy and really delicious - Jamie Oliver has a simple recipe and Alexandra’s kitchen seems foolproof.

My general rule is that leaving things to prove in the fridge overnight works everytime.

kilner jar mayo is really easy to make (although I’ve never got it to taste as good as shop bought, but I’m sure with some experimenting, I would).

But to agree with the others on here - don’t sweat small things - it sounds like you’re doing amazingly on reducing UPFs.

This is the post you need to be paying attention to OP.

You sound like you are possibly taking on board the message and obsessing over it.

But to completely avoid UPF you’re also going to avoid things that are still good for you.

We make pizza dough and occasionally bread from scratch.

A cheap mixer is a game changer. No more kneading.

But I don't do it all the time.

It’s like saying you need to never go anywhere near a place that has roads as pollution is bad. It’s extreme.

Cheese strings give you calcium but can help me stay at a healthy weight. Way more important imo.

On the news yesterday they were talking about lab grown meat going to be the answer to food production…they glossed quickly over what it’d be made of though. Not for me thank you!

It's made of meat.

its going to be made from cells taken from actual animals cultured in labs like cells used for other reasons

Well we are at Soylent Green in the timeline 😉😀