The whole UPF concept is an artificial distinction and very unhelpful

[Interestingnamesuggestion]

I understand that it's healthier to eat foods that are more natural/made with natural ingredients. I have no issue with that.

My issue is that putting so much food that people eat regularly (especially people on lower incomes) into one category and labelling it all as if it were all equally bad just removes all nuance and can make healthy choices feel unachievable to people who have less money or less time to spend in the kitchen.

Literally, cheap sliced wholemeal bread is a UPF in the same category as cheap white sliced bread. Same category as a bag of Quavers or gummy bears.

Wouldn't it be better to have one or two more categories to reflect the benefits of eating food that is higher in fibre (e.g. wholegrains, not that weird stuff they add to "healthy" processed snacks) and lower in fat and sugar? Or food that has some additives but is made with a higher proportion of whole foods?

A lot of european cuisine is based on the much maligned 'white carbs'.

MadnessInMyMethod

Ah that’s ok so, I don’t like donuts so I think I’m covered!!

This reminds me of the "supermarket bread is nutritionally the same as a doughnut" discussion from a few months back. Yes, both have the same basic ingredient (flour) that has the same amount of vitamins per 100g, but the way each food is eaten makes them very different. People will add fillings to the bread such as: tuna, lettuce and tomato to make a more balanced meal overall. A doughnut has little opportunity to offer anything except fat and sugar and calories. Putting them in the same category is unhelpful.

I think the UPF concept is basically unhelpful. There’s not even an agreed upon definition of a UPF.

But food isn’t just healthy or unhealthy. Avocado is generally healthy but if I ate nothing but avocados that wouldn’t be a very healthy diet.

there is nothing wrong with dried fruit

The point is that you do what you can. Rubbishing all advice about UPFs because it suits you to is unhelpful. There are a lot of food manufacturers out there who don’t want people dropping UPFs from their diet because they’d go out of business.

Well banana chips are only 68% banana and fill of oil,sugar and flavouring.

I think it’s very helpful and it’s common sense.

UPFs and too much sugar are both bad for your help. Manufacturers want you to eat their products and want you to want to eat their products. They don’t care about the impact on your health or the planet. If you stick to real foods and a balanced ingredient based diet without too much sugar, processed meat or saturated fat you can’t go far wrong.

Upf is a helpful concept if you go to the US where it is nigh on impossible to buy anything without high fructose corn syrup unnecessarily placed as the second ingredient.

But I'm not stopping using tinned tomatoes because they've got citric acid in them or whatever nonsense I see on upf groups.

Those things you've listed in the bread are nearly all vitamins (mostly B and C). Flour-based products in this country are routinely fortified, because people get vitamin deficiency otherwise, particularly women with folic acid.

This is a good thing, for our overall health. I am grateful i live in a country where my bread has free extra vitamins in it. Other countries have also found that people get healthier when the staple food is fortified.

Just because you don't recognise an ingredient, doesn't make it bad for you. Google "what is ascorbic acid"

OP, I think most people know that Weetabix are better for you than Frosties.

I understand what you're saying and agree to an extent, but there are very few people who don't already have this basic knowledge. I think it's patronising to say otherwise.

I agree. I've been learning about the tobacco companies that diversified in the 80s and bought food companies. Then got to work on making food as addictive as cigarettes because it's great for business 💰

I think it was interesting and good to learn about the concept of UPF and how it can have a health impact. My takeaway is "I'll try to eat less processed food", and I do overall try to.

For food that I buy that is ready-made/processed, like bread, condiments, ice cream, etc...it would never occur to me to be scouring labels and spending more for a version with fewer ingredients. I just do not ultimately believe that having the cheaper processed version rather than the expensive "pure" one is going to have a genuine impact on my health in the long term big picture, in the context of my overall lifestyle. Other than some sort of 0.001% augmentation of a risk factor or something.

And a cynical person (-my DH!) might say it is deliberately done so they can impact people's lives and health to the extent whereby we are all obese. They want us all ill, and obese, so we're all having to take anything by Big Pharma to make us sicker. DH says it's a way of culling overpopulation - I'm in agreement in some ways.

The difference between UPF ice cream and ice cream full of crap is huge..and UPF is so much nicer. Depends how much you use condiments I guess. I go for UPF free or the lowest available with whatever I buy( after a while you know the products that are ok) and don’t waste much time worrying about the odd things I can’t get or treats/ eating out( the rare times we do) as I b know we consume very little UPFs.

It’s interesting as after a while you can taste and just not fancy ultra processed or artificial crap in food.

Sure, but I love a Magnum, crap and all.

As I said, I don't believe that having a Magnum two or three times a month, rather than a bowl of UPF free ice cream, is going to impact my health. I exercise, I am active, I home cook nearly all meals from scratch (with a few shortcuts sometimes) and eat a lot of veg, I control my weight.

I do not believe that having some UPF bread, ice cream, condiments and a bit of other UPF stuff probably in the context of all that is really any kind of significant health risk. But to each their own.

Well there is a difference between nutritional value and UPF. So a slice of wholemeal factory-produced bread contains some valuable nutrients whereas a packet of sweets contains nothing more than fuel. It is best to reduce our consumption of UPFs. Nobody is saying never ever eat them. It’s not about perfection. Just do the best you can. So, you want to make cheese sandwiches….. the shop has sliced white and wholemeal bread, Dairylea and cheddar - it is obviously nutritionally better to choose the wholemeal loaf. When it comes to the cheese, it is likely to be better from both the UPF and nutritional point of view to choose the cheddar. Ideally, you should also pick up some cucumber, lettuce and tomato to add to your sandwich. If you are living in an ideal world, you bake your own sourdough or multigrain loaf, buy farmhouse cheddar and locally grown salad items at your local farm shop.

I did a "UPF challenge" where we aimed to eat no more than four meals in a week with UPF food. It was interesting, there is a lot processed that isn't UPF. Also you can switch out one granola for another and meet criteria. What was most interesting to me was how things that are precooked for you such as chicken breast are UPF. Not just snack bags of breaded chicken but plain chicken breast.

It's like everything else, set your own goals. Just because brand flakes are UPF doesn't mean I'm going to stop eating them if they help me meat my nutritional goals.

But it's not like a food is labelled as a UPF at the expense of providing other nutritional info. Poor people are capable of reading a label and making a decision...

It's just another piece of information for you to consider when making a purchase.

Exactly. We all have a limited amount of time and money, and multiple goals to meet in terms of nutrition, exercise, lifestyle etc. UPF is one factor of many to take into account when doing your food shop and planning your meals and diet.

I make my own granola, it’s so easy, nicer, healthier and cheaper. 1 recipe equals 2 massive jars. Re chicken breast. It takes minutes to shove a breast in the air fryer or oven and then refrigerate for sandwiches. UPfs aside, it’s cheaper too.

It really needs to be the main one as it often takes care of the sugar, salt and saturated fat problems too.

No, the avocado is definitely still healthy, you'd just be overeating it. Don't blame the avocado for your poor impulse control 😂