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?

I buy beef bones and put them in the pressure cooker/instant pot and freeze them in 250ml ice “cube” trays. It’s not very difficult but also it’s not the be all and end all. Is a run not worth doing if you can only do it once a week? Or a book not worth reading if you can’t read another in a fortnight?

Just do nice things that you want to do. It doesn’t matter a jot if you don’t “make it a habit”.

Totally agree, it's difficult

Today I've had porridge with milk, sugar. Homemade leek and potato soup for lunch. Processed cheese sandwich on brown. Salmon, rice, green beans fro dinner. Dried dates for snack.

Don't really know what you want from your post. 'Permission' to eat crisps because it's all useless?
Eat food as much as possible that is recognisably from a farm. Of course pasta, stock cubes will have been processed - maje as msny good choices as possible. Sourdough- knead thoroughly until elastic, refrigerate rise, bake when using oven.

OP, stick with it! It honestly gets easier. I was despairing a few months ago but I'm on top of it now.
A lot of ignorance on this thread about what UPFs are and what harm they do, ignore.

I spent most of Sunday baking and cooking, but I do that every few weeks and stock up the freezer.

I don't make my own sourdough as it's a faff, I buy supermarket sourdough that's non UPF (can also buy Jason's) but yes that's more expensive.

I make chicken stock from bones and freeze. Make hummus, pesto, wraps, pizza bases, cakes, flapjacks in batches and freeze. I don't make jam as such, just cook down some yellow label Berries with some water and honey (no faff with pectin/temp etc). Throw out the cooking sprays, balsamic vinegar etc they're all UPF.

Some non UPF foods are cheaper than the UPF, some more expensive. Once you've done your food shop a few times it wont take as long as you will know.

Keep going - It's so worth it. You will feel so much better and I have lost weight too.

FFS! It wasn’t that long ago when ‘ordinary’ people were washing their own clothes by hand, cooking from scratch, making or mending their own clothes and walking to work but hey, you do you.

Once you start making your own stock you won’t ever go back to the cubes. You make a vat of the stuff and freeze it, it tastes soo much better and costs peanuts.

You can make sourdough in a bread machine, and base your soup on a chicken

It is not hard or time consuming or expensive. No you don’t have to put more effort in either you simply use recipes that are quick and easy like we all have to do when we work full time.Everybody can do it and to say otherwise is a complete cop out. If you don’t want to do it or can’t be bothered then that’s entirely your choice but don’t blame that on time, being difficult or expensive.

If people have time to spend hours scrolling on phones they have time to cook properly and to use said phone to find recipes that are quick and upf free. If they don’t want to that’s entirely fine and their choice but it is a choice.

Or buy Jason. The amount of money you save from buying crap and over priced convenience foods is massive.

Absolute nonsense. It's no better and will have processed ingredients. Once you get in the groove it's no hassle and the better you eat the more energy you have.

Tbf, it is more effort than sticking some oven chips and frozen battered fish in the oven. It's just not a lot of effort and doesn't take a lot of time. And isn't impossible.

Tbh, the people I don't understand are the ones who wil make a bolognese or something with meat and onions but use a jarred sauce instead of passata and herbs. That one really doesn't make any sense at all. It's as quick to open a jar of passata as it is to open a jar of dolmio.

I make my own bread using flour, yeast, salt, a little honey. It doesn't take all that long and you can do other things in the rising stages. Why does it have to be sourdough?

I understand the point of the whole UPF free thing, but some people do take it to the extreme. In my view, if you're mostly cooking your own meals (even if that includes things like stock cubes, gravy granules and the occasional jar or packet of ready made sauce), then you're probably not gonna be that unhealthy. Life's stressful enough half the time, you gotta choose your battles, and for me that means not fannying about making every little thing from scratch.

And sometimes we just need a little treat to look forward to, or cheer us up after a long week! For example, last night after a very healthy homemade Sunday lunch, I ate half a shop bought family sized trifle for my dinner, and I have zero regrets 😂

I'm not sure you fully understand what UPFs are. You can be making all your meals 'from scratch' i.e. not ready meals or takeaways, but still eating lots of UPF.

If you eat pretty much any cereal apart from porridge oats or weetabix, any yoghurt apart from completely plain, Philadelphia soft cheese, any 'healthy' snack bars, cooking oil spray, stock cubes as OP said, most baked beans, any baked goods such as fresh croissants or wholemeal wraps, jams, chutneys, condiments like chilli sauce or balsamic vinegar, you're eating UPFs. It's way beyond looking up recipes.

Our food system is so commercialised that it's utterly pervasive, and it is difficult, time-consuming, and sometimes expensive to avoid them.

I don't eat most of these, but I wouldn't obsess over a tiny amount in sauces or condiments as long as the bulk of my diet was non-UPF.

Jason is better because it doesn’t have the additives that most breads have.

A completely UPF-free diet is basically impossible, but a low-UPF diet is achievable.

Err I do thanks.

As I said I make my own granola with plain yogurt or porridge or have toast or eggs. Anybody that really can’t survive without cereal can look at M&S only 5 or 1 cereals . Crosta bread rolls and wraps are UPF free…..I generally don’t use any of that other stuff- cooking spray 🤢 rubbery croissants etc.

But those products are all at the high end of pricing.

You're right. It's cheaper to buy food that harms us. The whole food system is upside down.

I have a lot of food allergies and some intolerances that make my IBS worse
I started a FODMAP diet 2 years ago and cook from scratch quick easy meals - last night we had grilled chicken, mash, carrots, green beans and asparagus took about 1/2 an hour
When I cook joints I save the stock and freeze it
I agree it’s virtually impossible to avoid UPF completely but I read the ingredients in any cupboard products and am as careful as I can be

I get it. You're a Jason fan. The op said not a big budget and nothing beats the bread you make at home. Nothing beats getting in the groove of preparing healthy food being the norm. Sure, we all cheat now and then.

There’s some great Facebook groups that help flag UPF swaps that are available from supermarkets. For example, marks and Spencer’s do a range of breads, cereals and even ready meals that are UPF free.

also you have to get into the rhythm of things for it to become less hassle. If you’re making soup, you’re making enough to put several portions in the freezer. And then when you make your beef pie filling, you’re doing the same. I do feel a freezer is key.

honestly, I think write down your usual weekly meals and try and reduce your UPF rather than trying to change everything overnight to making it yourself or you will get overwhelmed.

and sourdough isn’t necessarily any better for you than yeasted bread if both loaves are free from dough conditioners and preservatives.

id also still use stock cubes as even with two freezers I don’t have the space to be holding gallons of meat stock to be used at a later date. I’d just pick the best recommended one.

progress not perfection.

People who are seeing significant health impacts of a high UPF diet are not unwell because they used a stock cube in their vegetable soup with lovely whole grain bread and real butter.

They’re unhealthy because they’re eating McDonald’s and other takeaways and crisps and store cupboard snacks on a daily basis.

I eat a fairly low UPF diet, not because I’m trying, but because it’s what I eat because I mostly just eat whole real foods.

UPFs have become the latest food panic. Don’t overthink it. Just eat real food, mostly protein, fruit and veg.

Today I’m eating: porridge with apples, raisins, chia seeds, coconut and flaked almonds with some double cream for breakfast; lunch is sautéed Asian pork and cabbage with broccoli (leftovers from dinner), literally minced pork with lots of veg plus soy sauce and sesame oil; dinner is beef stew and french beans.

Yes, I’m not stressed about the soy sauce and the sesame oil (processed foods but not really UPFs). I used some real beef stock plus stock cube plus an AF Guinness in the stew, but I’m not worried about that either. It’s a small bit of the meal which is otherwise protein and vegetable rich. I haven’t snacked on crisps and junk food all day.

Exactly. That's why this thread is mad. I probably eat 90% UPF free. Not going to obsess over the 10%.

Yes it's not for people who work full time! But I don't think going to extremes is going to do you any good. You are already eating healthier so why worry about the odd upf?