Swap to make to avoid UPF

[bluechameleon]

I watched the documentary "What are we feeding our kids?" tonight after reading a couple of threads on it. I am now determined to cut down the amount of ultra processed foods we are eating. I would have said our diet is pretty good but when I look more closely lots of the foods we (or particularly the DC) eat would come into this category. I thought it might be useful to share ideas of easy swaps to make. I've spent quite a while on the Tesco app looking at the ingredients of different foods I buy and have found the following:

• Tesco own brand breadsticks don't look bad (not sure what barley malt extract is?) and Tesco own brand cream cheese is just cheese, so I am going to try substituting these for Laughing Cow dippers.
• Ready salted crisps seem to be mainly OK, including salted tortilla chips. Unfortunately DC always leave ready salted until last in the multipacks.
• Bread is a problem. The only one I found on Tesco that had only real ingredients was a sourdough loaf from the bakery and I don't like sourdough.

Good thread.

I watched that documentary and also had a conversation with DH about our diet. Our kids love Quorn products which I think are in the UPF category. We are ditching shop bought waffles and trying to increase porridge for breakfast from once a week to more times. We have never really bought sugar kids cereals which helps

We definitely need more of the first two groups which realistically means me finding the time to plan and cook more

Could you manage without bread, or find a different bread such as pita or naan if you don't like sourdough?
What will you do if your kids don't like the swaps?

The obvious solution to bread may be to make your own - a bread maker with a timer can give you a fresh loaf in the morning.

Bread is easy to make. You need the ration of 2:1, so the weight of the flour, let’s say 500 gr and 250 mi Luke warm water. If using wholemeal flour or a mix of spelt, you will need a couple tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to get the elasticity in the dough. A pinch or more of salt and some bread yeast ( of using fresh dissolve in a bit of water with a bit of sugar to activate the bacteria) . Let it rest on warm place until doubled on size. Then 200 degree in oven until brown.

Even with a shorter ingredient list, crisps still are highly processed food in the sense that they are engineered to drive your brain nuts into having more. The amount of salt, thickness, oiliness, cooking time is designed to make you unable to have more than 1. The combination of fat+salt+ sugar ( when chewed the potato is a sugar) makes it irresistible.
Try to avoid daily crisps and make them party food for birthdays or special occasions and not a daily or weekly habit.

Any food you don’t know or can’t explain it going to be part of processing like barley malt extract which is a form of sugar extracted with a very complicated process.

Well done for trying to go for real food.

Apologies for typos, was on phone.

They sell barley malt in health food shops. Malting barley and other grains is one of the oldest forms of food processing known to humankind, I think. It's the basis of brewing - which provided a safer drink than water for millennia. All 'processed foods' are not automatically evil.

www.hollandandbarrett.com/shop/product/meridian-barley-malt-extract-60028202

I'm looking at the cupboards with a critical eye now. Bread maker arrived this week and to be fair I had been thinking about it for a while but the program gave me a kick.

@ErrolTheDragon when a product is process to the point it is unrecognisable from its original form, the way the body will process it is very different than the natural form.
In this case, it is used as a sugar, without saying sugar on the label.

And my health food shop is full of ultra-processed food (all the vegan fake sausages, ice-creams, cheeses, ...) and junk health food, form the keto bars, to kids cereals.

Of course all processed food are not evil, but what does malt extract have to do in a spread cheese ? It is used as a favour enhancer and favour developer . So it is not used for what it was designed for but part of an ultra-processed product. It is used a LOT in the ultra processing industry . Very different than it original use for beer.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/apr/12/ultra-processed-truth-10-bestselling-foods-cherry-bakewell-fray-bentos-pies

To state the obvious, the easiest way is to simply not buy snack food. Fruit, cheese, and leftovers from home made meals are easy to snack on and are not ultra processed.

Eggs are another great snack, crudités and humous, cold new potatoes, peanut butter on apples, handfuls of nuts, olives - lots of options.