Low UPF diet - to think the experts weren’t lying?

[AusBoundDD]

Nearly 6 months ago I made it my New Year’s resolution to start eating a low UPF diet in hopes of losing some weight for a once in a lifetime trip, alongside just being healthier in general. Honestly it has been life changing! I’ve lost nearly 10kg without really having to think about it - no restricting or anything like that and in general I just feel so much better. UPFs like crisps, ready meals, even basic supermarket bread don’t feel like ‘real’ food anymore and no longer appeal. On the occasion that I do choose to eat something UPF (which for me is no big deal, im not strict!) it just isn’t as enjoyable as it used to be. I’d choose some sourdough over a loaf of Hovis any day when previously I used to hate it! I feel much fuller + satisfied for longer and rarely get the urge to snack.

Obviously it has its downsides - much less convenience food so cooking takes longer (PITA when doing lunch/dinner prep after a long day at work!), ingredients are more expensive so my shopping bill has gone up but all in all it’s a decision I don’t regret. Honestly I think that this way of eating should be the future.

Anyone else feel this way?

The issue is they are a) cheap and b) addictive.

I don't think people realise the lab work that goes on to hit the 'sweet spot' with all UPFs to make us want more.

UPFs are the 'new tobacco' isn't far from the truth.

Where does pasta fit into this? It's just wheat, but it's been very processed to get to its form. Is it upf?

'What the big food companies have been allowed to get away with for so long is scandalous in my opinion - so much rubbish and so little real nutrition. They should be more heavily taxed so that healthier food is more affordable! '

To be fair, food is cheap in the UK, if only people would buy basic seasonal foods and not processed rubbish.

I spend £55 a week to feed two adults. Every week my shop includes chicken, pork, some kind of fish, beef mince, eggs, at least three different fruit and 10 different veg. Sometimes lamb or duck.

I buy a 16kg sack of wholemeal flour from the local mill and make bread early on the weekend. A sack lasts 6 months, bread is really easy, works out cheaper and tastes infinitely better.

I’m a bit confused about the supermarket bread thing that has been mentioned here, and would appreciate advice! I usually buy mine from the supermarket ‘bakery’ section ie the bit where they bake it in store (rather than the longlife packaged bread on the shelves). Is this still counted as UPF, and are there any particular dodgy ingredients / additives that I should be avoiding in bread?

Having done Home Economics A level in the early 70s none of this is new to me it just has a different name. Of course, there was a boom in factory made ready meals in the 80s and 90s and a corresponding drop in cookery being taught in schools but I have always preferred to cook my own.

I think you’re setting out to undermine people’s confidence in foods that don’t contain UPFs.

Do you work for a multinational food producer, by any chance?

I think the key part of this is the ULTRA part of UPF. Pasta, cheese etc is processed but not ULTRA processed. Look at the ingredients in the bread you are buying and see if it contains preservatives. Calcium, iron, thiamine (Vitamin B1) and niacin (Vitamin B3) are added to white UK flour for nutritional reasons and are fine to eat.

I’m really trying to reduce the amount of upf food I eat. I’ve got a great app on my phone where I can scan barcodes to help me know what’s the best option. So one bag of tortilla chips is ok, the other not so much. It all helps.

I tried to limit my consumption of UPF foods at new year too.
I've noticed no difference at all! I wasn't actively trying to lose weight bit a couple of kg would be great.
I didn't think crisps generally were upf? Although I probably eat them less than once a month.

Back in the early 2000s I was recovering from an ED and I went on a holiday to Greece where I was eating fresh bread, cheese, fish, Greek yoghurt, fruit, vegetables etc. I found it disconcerting not to have packets to work out the calories in things but I realised I was eating more natural food (the 5% fat margarine I had at home was full of chemicals/additives and tasted disgusting ) and when I got home, I started to try and replace my low fat/low calorie foods with more regular foods.

Diet coke is my major vice although I am trying to drink more water.

@mumuseli

Tesco's Bakery white bread typically contain Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin], Water, Yeast, Rapeseed Oil, Salt, Dextrose, Palm Oil, Palm Fat, Flour Treatment Agents (Ascorbic Acid, L-Cysteine), Malted Barley Extract, Stabiliser (Tetrasodium Diphosphate).

My bread, baked most Sunday mornings - Wholewheat flour, yeast, rapeseed oil, water, a teaspoon of sugar, a pinch of salt.

Batch cooking is your friend here. I find the opposite: cooking UPF takes longer, because it's microwave for this long and that long and faffing about is not my thing.

What I do is cook a large batch. Sometimes we have the (adult) kids & or friends and hangers on eating with us sometimes not, and quite often it changes at short notice as their plans change, so anything NOT eaten is portioned and frozen in portions.

On Monday, on discovering it was definitely just us two old fogies eating, I took great delight in simply defrosting a chilli & rice portion for me and shepherd's pie for him, and catching up on a couple of episodes of The Archers (no groans from kids).

Posted in error

I remember ringing up LBC in the 1990s and saying exactly this and also that the tax should be used to make wholefood cheaper but I got such a backlash.

I wasn’t demonising it. I think you should go back and read what I said. I’m not arguing about having good fats, just pointing out everything in moderation.

Buy a breadmaker and make your own.

I make yoghurt flatbread. A heaped spoon of greek yoghurt, 1/2 a tsp of salt with self raising flour added to make a soft dough. Roll out flat and then cook in a hot dry pan. This is our lunch go to most days as my partner is yeast intolerant.

If I am making dough for my daughter to have bread I use 500g of bread flour, 10g of salt, 10g of sugar, 1 packet of dry yeast and a dollop of oil. Mix up with hand hot water to make a soft dough and kneed for 5 - 10 minutes (I do mine in a mixer). Pop in an oiled bowl and cover with oiled cling film and leave for an hour. You can then cut of small balls and roll out flat and then fold in half and cook on a hot dry pan to make pittas. You can make pizza bases or small rolls that you cook in a hot oven in an oiled and floured tin to make a bread bun or a small loaf. Cook it until crusty and sounds hollow when you knock on the bottom. Dough will last a few days in the fridge so I make 1 batch and use it up over a few meals.

I'm pretty good on the whole, cook from scratch, swapped bread for sourdough but I do eat shop bought granola a couple of times a week and I eat energy gels once a week for my long runs.

I can't say I feel much better for it and it's not doing a whole lot for weight loss either but the only new thing I've changed recently is the bread swap for sourdough. I've always cooked from scratch and for 85% of my meals.

I'm always willing to try better and keep meaning to make my own granola and I'm going to look into my own gels for training and keep the processed ones for races.

I can't give up sweetener in my coffee, sugar is too high in calories to have every day. Also not willing to give up my daily can of pepsi max.

If you research what L cysteine is usually made from, I think you’ll be put off this ingredient.
Honestly, what they put in food to improve shelf life is shocking.
I’ll give you clue - it’s in this article
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/may/13/10-gross-ingredients-food-horsemeat-scandal

Agree with this.
It’s easy to find barely used ones second hand, if cost is an issue. If you have a charity shop near you that sells electricals, they come up quite often.

You can get decent cereal from Rude Health.

The spelt flakes and puffed rice are just that - whole grain and no additives.

They taste a bit “clean” at first if you are accustomed to the added salt, sugar etc; but once you develop a taste they are great. I couldn’t eat the additive stuff now. The spelt flakes especially have a nice malty nutty taste.

By a bread machine - and this book Bread Machine Jennie Shapter.

I'm not a Low UPF diet person - but we've been making our own bread for 20+ years with help of this book. You can buy large bags of flour from either mills direct (IL do this and we did at one point) or from Amazon and dried yeast.

Some like Chiense style chicken buns are a particular pack lunch favorite with the kids.

Also do fair bit of home baking using butter mostly sunflower oil- many cakes freeze well.

We did do home made sourdough starter at one point but kids started to dislike the bread though tolerate the pancake longer - also did home made yogurt - in fact our current bread machine has a setting for that as well. It did help sort DS gut issues out - he always had problems - but all fermented foods are supposed to help and it slowly petered out but he's been fine since.

Obviously if you cut out food high in fat sugar and salt - like ready made meals and crisps there will be an improvemnet from that alone.

We did do home made pasta sources for years and then tried a shop bought one and it was salty and didn't taste right - not so with the pesto sauces though. We try and keep crisps for special or rare treat - but honestly haven't noticed supermarket bread being an issue - it's different but often better toasted than home made stuff.

Using the Yuka app has helped me avoid risky additives. It has a carrot is it’s ‘badge’ if your looking for it in the App Store

That’s what I use. It’s really good.

I think we are fairly lowish on UPF already but could always do better.

One thing I've recently done since Jan is gone cold turkey in cutting out biscuits, cakes, chocolate etc. I haven't lost a huge amount of weight on the scales but the difference in my face has been really noticeable, it's slimmed right down and looks less puffy and tired. I felt like I was starting to look really ugly and pouchy but this has really helped. I ended up letting myself have some chocolate over Easter and indulged a bit too much, and I can definitely see it in my face again. So trying to go back to cold turkey but it feels harder now!

Regarding bread, Tesco bakery do some white sliced that aren't too bad and reasonably priced. Yes they contain palm oil and dextrose, but no preservatives/ emulsifiers. Have heard m and s do some non UPF bread. Also try Polish food shops if you have any nearby as ive found a few non UPF brands. My teen son eats loads of white bread and I need a convenient solution (don't have time to bake it all). So I just try and minimise preservatives and try not to worry about the other ingredients unless they're obviously bulking agents or cheap additives. Old english white from warburtons is good but expensive.