To think it's impossible to eat a UPF free diet as an ordinary person?

[MyHealthyMission]

I mean ordinary as in, works full time, earns a decent but not huge wage, has free time but not entire days at a time to dedicate to cooking etc.

I'm on a bit of a health kick, and have turned my attention to eating whole foods and ensuring I'm eating as healthy as possible as we come into winter.

I've had a sourdough starter on the go for a while and decided I'd knock up some bread rolls and soup to have for lunch in the coming week because it's turned cold. Figured it would be a great, low UPF meal. Until I googled the beef stock, which is apparently a really bad UPF! Even the super expensive all natural concentrates are UPF. So unless you can afford to buy and boil a load of beef bones, it seems you're out of luck.

Obviously you can do the normal things like avoiding crisps, protein shakes etc. as they're all full of UPF, but when even things like stock cubes are stuffed full of them, it just seems impossible! AIBU to think it's just become impossible to eat a UPF free diet?

Oh come on, can't you take a guess? Here's just a small list of things that are quite hard and/or expensive to replace with non UPF:

Most bread
Most breakfast cereals
Table sauces (ketchups/condiments)
Shop bought pastes and some pickles
Stock, some seasonings and ready made soups/broths
Crackers/oatcakes

Obviously none of these things are essential but also they're pretty common/staple foods for most families aren't they? And not obviously 'unhealthy'. I know when I had primary age kids even assuming I could transition them off the nuggets and fish fingers onto homemade meals without complaint, taking away their ketchup, Weetabix, lunchtime sandwiches as well would have been quite difficult...

There are loads of bread options

cereal- M&S does UPF free cereal and granola is easy to make and comes up as big batches, toast or porridge are easy alternatives

Why do you need tables sauces on a curry on pasta? If you do there are brands out there.

I don’t buy pastes and I cook a lot of curries.

If pickles are so important look for upf free brands

I only use herbs and species don’t feel the need for seasonings. I don’t lose sleep over the odd stock cube split 5 ways once a week. Anybody who does needs to examine their priorities

Soup is so easy and nicer home made.

Don’t really use crackers or oatcakes aside from Nairn’s sometimes and theirs are very low UPF.

The hands on time isn't long though. It actually takes very little of your time. Same with making stock. Bung chicken or beef bones in a pan, cover with water and leave to simmer. Very little hands on time needed. Keeps for a few days in fridge or freezer it until you need it to make soup, risotto etc.

organic vegetable bouillon is the answer to replace stock cubes

It’s literally what the thread is about!! It’s in the op.

if the original post was ‘I’ve accidentally given my kid a stock cube, is this bad’ and anyone responded with ‘yes, flagellate yourself, it’s a UPF’ then your comment would have some merit.

but the thread is literally about if it’s hard to avoid UPFs as they’re even in stock cubes.

Tbf, I don't ever use or buy any of those.

I make my own mayonnaise and salad dressings.

I haven't bought a breakfast cereal that wasn't porridge in over 20 years.

Never eat shop bought soup and make my own stock,

I didn't ever buy that stuff for my children. I've never bought them chicken nuggets. They did occasionally have fish fingers or the occasional shop bought pizza or ketchup when they were small and had a schoolfriend over for dinner.

Everything my children ate or took to school for packed lunches was homemade without UPF.

I stopped eating it long before it was even called UPF or 'a thing'. I was also a single parent working long hours.

It's not difficult.

It just requires 'some' effort. Not a lot, just more effort than the no effort of sticking beige freezer food in the oven.

Same!

dear @tostaky, and OP, my mum (& everyone's mum) used to bottle fruit in Kilner jars, e.g. sliced stewed apples; blackberries; blackcurrants; gooseberries; plums - seasonal fruit bought when in glut or harvested from an allotment - for the winter. This was because a) it was the fifties b) we were poor c) we couldn't afford a fridge (till 1963). Puddings in winter were always bottled fruit & Birdseye custard.
Bottling fruit is pretty simple, you can still get Kilner jars, rubber sealing-rings, etc. But, now we've all got freezers, it's not really worth the effort, unless you're really keen.

Making your own stock, on the other hand, is worth it if you're regularly left with chicken carcasses - which it is wasteful to throw away. Then you can easily make stock to freeze or to make a delicious home-made chicken soup. Or simply freeze the carcass till you're ready to use it.

Definitely there is also a big difference in price. I don't really see how products are helping you cook dal curry, or a chilli- unless you use a sauce which are usually pretty processed, or jacket potatoes. yes there are plenty of non processed options but they mostly more work. Boxes such as Hello fresh are a reasonable gateway- but the flavour sachets are mostly processed and it isn't cheap.
The point I was making is that products don't really help you , you have to start from ingredients which is more time and effort than most people want or are able to put in.
Don't look to changing products, look to starting from ingredients.

Does nobody have a spice cupboard?

Many many people cook from ingredients pretty effortlessly. Our mothers an grandmothers did.

What is hard about chopping an onion, frying it off with garlic , a few tea spoons of spices then adding a chopped courgette and pepper alongside tinned tomatoes and beans for a veg chilli, ditto Dahl or a left over chicken curry?What is hard about frying off garlic and onion in olive oil with a bag of kale and chilli flakes for kale pasta, making shepherds pie …. look at the roasting tin books, they’re piss easy and all from ingredients .

I work full time and manage it.

This!I have a mahhoooosive spice drawer under my hob. Every spice you can think of.

All my friends cook like this. It’s not hard!!

I wondered the same.

I've never bought a pre made seasoning mix or packet flavouring for anything with the exception of a 'clean' non upf red Thai curry paste I used a few times.

Me neither. Recipe books and recipes on line pretty much all refer to separate spices .

You don't need a paste or flavour sachet to make curry or chilli though - cumin, tumeric, garlic, ginger, chilli powder, coriander, paprika. It doesn't really take any longer than using a paste.
I do use chopped frozen onions, garlic and ginger though!

Even if you do use a paste though, lots aren't really UPF.

I've only read the first page of comments but it is clear there is a lot of confusion about UPF and plain old processing - such as slicing/grating cooking etc. In short anything we as individuals do to food. Ultra high processing involves taking any old chemicals, which may or may not have nutritional value or change mouth feel or whatever and turn the resultant product into something resembling real food. Case in point - some 'ready made chips which clearly made from reconstituted potato starch

I'm coeliac and have been making the best homemade gf bread in a dedicated breadmaker. 2 Eggs, 450g gf flour, 40g buckweat flour, 50ml milk, 4 tbls yogurt, 1 tsp yeast, 1-2 tbls sugar, splash cider vinegar, pinch salt. Fast rise.

Plus, you can make your own spice blends and keep them in jars so you don't have to check recipes or measure out specfic quantities each time. None of it is difficult.

I agree about the confusion.

Cooking is a process. Every meal you make is processed too one degree or another because you don't eat it as it has grown.

Butter is processed because it's been churned. But you can make it yourself if you're so inclined.

Butter substitutes you couldn't even begin to make yourself.

UPF is full of crap you wouldn't actually ever eat ordinarily and your body neither needs nor knows what to do with it.

I did too- there is nothing impossible about cooking from scratch, but the truth is many people don't want to- it does take time, and getting in late, then facing cooking from scratch is more than many people want to do- they look to products to help , and that is where the UPF comes in, everyone then argues about the relative value of different brands/ reading the ingredients.
It's a mistake to say cooking from ingredients is not more trouble and requires more skill, and many people are generations away from doing this- I grew up in the 60's and 70's and my mother rarely cooked entirely from ingredients, my grandmother's also worked, and also did little cooking, saying it is effortless and people used to do it is disingenuous, also many mothers and grandmothers didn't work or worked part time.
We all process food when we cook, but once you rely on packets jars and tins the processing and extra chemicals and processes become a problem, but to beat the UPF problem you do have to put more effort in- there is no way around it.

Bay's kitchen stocks are brilliant, but yes, it is hard to reduce UPFs.

You can buy a pack of frozen and portioned beef stock from M&S or I just buy borough broth brand when it’s on offer.

No one is denying its more effort but not a ridiculous amount.

I gave examples of meals I was cooking this week earlier. None of them will take more than half an hour. The implication that 'cooking from scratch' requires hours and hours of intense labour that no one but the wealthiest and most privileged have the money or time do is a nonsense.

And, tbh, if other people choose not to because they don't want to, that's up to them. But that's not the same as it's really hard for ordinary people to do it.

I don't see that we are generations away from it either. I was born mid 70s. My mum cooked from scratch, my grandma cooked from scratch. I cook from scratch and my adult children cook from scratch. My children do use convenience foods occasionally but they are well aware that they are making a choice to do so and don't think that a ready meal spag bol is the same as one they've made themselves which seems to be a common argument on these types of threads. That there is 'no difference'.

I agree it's not hard, but it takes planning and the will to learn the skills.
I think you under estimate how many skills have died out- I noticed most people's baskets were very different from mine even 30 years ago. I live in East London and even Indian shoppers have sauces packets and ready meals these days- it shocked me when I first saw it because usually their baskets were very similar to mine up until 10-15 years ago. As people have earned more they have leaned on processed food, takeaways and restaurants more and more.
The cost of living crisis has just thrown these issues more to the fore.

OP, do you have any understanding of the history of food? UPFs were basically invented to make fuelling your body cheap and easy (whilst making huge profits for food manufacturers and causing an obesity epidemic). Pre-UPFs people generally spent more time cooking less tasty food. The odd stock cube is probably not the end of the world, the meals or snacks that are 50% plus UPF are much more of an issue.