Not eating processed foods

[Dogmum40]

Hi All,

I’m trying to change the way my husband and I eat, we both now work from home and can be in the kitchen a lot more so I’m trying to say goodbye to the processed foods and eat as clean and healthy as possible . (I should add we don’t have children)

We never have been the takeaway/fast food/microwave meal type people but I am aware that we do still eat a lot of processed foods from cereal in the morning, to bread for lunch and prepared soups/sauces

I always home cook where I can and never buy the stir in type sauces, I mainly buy a white sauce mix or sour cream dips for ease and Canned soups for a quick fix but I want to try going process free if it’s possible so could those of you who have a totally clean diet give me some tips on a process free day of food please from breakfast through to lunch and dinner with snacks.

In sandwiches we have the usual ham, bacon, cheese etc.. and I know these are processed so sandwich ideas would be particularly helpful

I have a sweet tooth so definitely need a snack sugary alternative to cakes/choc and biscuits ( I have tried nuts and seeds for snacking but it wasn’t a major success)

Thank you 😊

I read an article about this recently (can't find it now), which stated there's a big difference between highly-processed modern foods - e.g corn flakes - and other processed foods like bread & cheese.

Basically, if it contains things that you can't find in a kitchen , or can only be prepared in a factory, it's best avoided.

I think it would be very difficult to avoid all processed food.

I'm waiting to see if anyone can actually answer you menu question.

Thank you for replying, Yes as you said above I have been googling before posting and everything has some form of processing! I can basically think of salads and stir frys! I’m starting to be aware of our diets and it has me worried about how much crap we are putting in our bodies

Tinned soups are high in salt and sugar (have a look at the list of ingredients in 'well-known brand' cream of tomato....sugar is up high).

home mad red lentil soup is to die for. Only 5 ingredients and no nasties (apart from ham stock cube) Onion, lentils, water and stock cube.
Look out for a book (sadly out of print) called The Bean Book by Rose Elliot. It is a fantastic resource and includes so many 'clean' recipes that don't take long to cook. One of my favs is a lentil and mushroom mix that is so versatile - top it with pastry for pies or pasties, add to pasta for a bake. Use to stuff big veg such as peppers or marrow, or to stuff pancakes/enchilladas. Best of all C H E A P. I always feel super virtuous after making some of these.

Menu example Breakfast eggs.
Poached, scrambled, on toast however you like them. If you're concerned about bread try making your own? Or buy organic?
Lunch -- soup, home made. Honestly, home made soup is very easy and you can make more than you need for one meal, it will keep for a couple of days in the fridge. Have it with your home-made or organic bread.
Dinner -- you can buy organic meat, eg chicken, if you're meat-eaters, but please buy at least free range if you can. Stretch it with vegetables or pulses in a caserole, and serve it with brown basmati rice.
Or a vegetable and bean casserole if you don't eat meat.
I wouldn't necessarily view cheese as a processed food. It has a very long history as a way of preserving surplus milk for lean times. Again, i'd buy the best quality you can afford and avoid squirty stuff, 'strings' or 'slices'.
For dessert/pudding we have seasonal fruit with cream or yoghurt, with occasional fruit crumbles in the winter.

Thank you all so much and for your recipe ideas, I saw the what we feed our kids programme and even as an adult I’m horrified how much is put into our foods, I love baking but my hubby doesn’t have a sweet tooth so instead of me baking for myself I buy prepackaged cakes and they have anywhere between 14-20ish different ingredients which is shocking knowing a sponge cake usually has just 4

I usually make just a veg soup so will definitely try lentils! To throw this in the mix we eat meat daily so ethically I’d like to eat less meat but non processed is a good start 🤣

I’m screen shotting all your ideas so I really will use them so once again thank you so much for replying! I definitely can’t give up cheese or bacon though 🤣

We are fairly self sufficient in that we have chickens, grow potatoes, and seasonal produce like tomatoes and beans in summer and we have apple, blueberry and raspberry trees/bushes

Any sweet ideas you can think of as well as fruit?

Should also add I work in the farming industry so do buy organic or free range and I always know where my meat comes from, sometimes I will buy bbq packs which have spare ribs etc in them and don’t eat burgers but lamb is the one item besides the bbq packs that I buy from the supermarket. I do try to buy ethically or local and have had veg boxes in the past but as there are just two of us they didn’t supply boxes for couples so had food waste which really annoys me so we stopped and now again buy from the supermarket or we will go to the veg shop or farm shop if we have time

A bread maker is great and an easy way of cutting out highly processed food (I think chorleywood process bread counts as highly processed). Some cereals are much better than others, and home made granola or muesli is delicious. I think most cheese is ok.

It's worth spending a bit of time reading ingredients - some brands of tortilla chips are just corn and salt whereas others have all sorts of extras in.

On sweet food, try making a big batch of mini muffins and freezing them, then take out and defrost one at a time.

@UnaOfStormhold

A bread maker is great and an easy way of cutting out highly processed food (I think chorleywood process bread counts as highly processed). Some cereals are much better than others, and home made granola or muesli is delicious. I think most cheese is ok.

It's worth spending a bit of time reading ingredients - some brands of tortilla chips are just corn and salt whereas others have all sorts of extras in.

On sweet food, try making a big batch of mini muffins and freezing them, then take out and defrost one at a time.

I’ve never frozen homemade cakes so does it have the same texture and consistency as freshly baked if so that could be the answer to my sweet tooth 😁 thank you so much! I’m feeling a little less depressed about the whole processed idea! I used to make everything from biscuits to millionaire shortcakes and sponge type cakes so do you happen to know if those too can be frozen?

Avoiding Ultra-Processed Foods Thread anyone? www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4262140-avoiding-ultra-processed-foods-thread-anyone

Hi OP I've linked a recent thread on this very subject

Thank you! I did try a search before I posted but to be honest I put in processed foods and it didn’t come up with anything (knowing me I possibly spelt it incorrectly or my autocorrect changed the word totally 🙈) thank you for reposting it for me again, I will take a look now 😀

It's a great thread. I've cut out majority of ultra processed foods since watching that programme. Bought a bread maker and haven't bought a loaf since. It's shocking when you look at the back of even a loaf of bread and see that it's full of cheap seed oils and emulsifiers.

My diet at the minute is usually

Overnight oats made with a scoop of Greek yoghurt, water, some frozen berries and chia seeds/flax seeds.

Lunch is salad or homemade soup with homemade bread.

Dinner is things like veggie chilli, fish/chicken with potato/ veg, baked potato, air fryer chips/wedges, homemade wraps. Homemade pizza on a Saturday.

Snacks are Greek yogurt with homemade paleo granola, homemade flapjacks, fruit.

It takes a bit of getting used to (and organisation) but I feel so much better for it.

Oh I do have the occasional sandwich too. But I just cook chicken breast in the air fryer and make chicken salad sandwiches. No ham/bacon

DD and I have a ton of allergies between us so I cook all meals from scratch, with a very small list of exceptions of food/ingredients (fishfingers, bacon, mayonnaise, bouillon powder for example)

Because food shopping for processed food is such a pain in the backside for me as I have to read all the labels for allergens, I actually think it probably doesn't cost me much time to just cook everything myself. Also, sometimes by the time I've seen that some product or other has 40 ingredients I don't fancy it anymore anyway!

I have wondered whether semi-processed foods like veg oils and dried pasta, cheese are supposed to be avoided or reduced in this new ideal but that would be a step too far for me.

My go-to, very quick and easy cooking to satisfy my sweet tooth is pancakes (can make the batter in literally 2 minutes and have a pancake on a plate ready to eat within 5 minutes of thinking 'NEED SUGAR NOW'!

I've also got a chocolate fondant recipe honed to have it ready to eat within 15 minutes of starting cooking it.

Becoming a speed-cook at sweet stuff hasn't done my waist line any favours though

I've frozen tray bake type cakes - brownies, lemon drizzle, blondies. They all froze well (and can even be eaten whilst half defrosted!). I find it doesn't tempt me as much as when I have a whole load in a tin unfrozen. Also recommend rice pudding as a simple pudding which you can eat chilled portions of.

I find that a tray of baked vegetables is very easy and versatile. Either Mediterranean, or more root veg. Can be eaten with fish or veggie sausages, plus egg. I bake loads at a time, plus a tray of sweet potato and ordinary potato cubes. I think meals are relatively easy if you're at home but I struggle with snacks and outside the home. I do also have nakd bars which seem to not be ultra processed

The article on ultra-processed food was in the guardian, about 6-10 months before covid, I think.
Basically, if the ingredients are things you wouldn't normally have in your home kitchen, it's too processed. So bread with just flour, yeast, salt, water is fine, bread with loads of extra things, not fine.

A cake with eggs, butter, sugar, cocoa, flour, fine. Cake with emulsifier, preservatives, diglycerides, etc not fine.

Yay love this thread! I started one after watching the bbc What are

Damn. Clicked post to quick. Hang on

The sort of processed foods which I would struggle to avoid:
Stock cubes
Tinned tomatoes and tomato puree
Wine (for cooking)
Pasta/rice

With those ingredients plus various herbs, spices, meats etc. Then I could make lots of different dinners and lunches.

I've started to roast a chicken on Sundays that does three of us for lunches until Wednesday. This week I slow cooked it, all 3 of us do different things with it but it is so much nicer and a tonne cheaper than packaged meat for sandwiches (ham/ chicken etc)

After watching What are we feeding our kids. About daily, hidden ultra processed food. Which in particular are advertised for kids. But then I wish they didn’t call the programme ‘kids’ as I think everyone should watch it and be aware.

So. We’ve made changes

Breakfast weetabix or porridge and toast.
After much shopping around, we only have Vogel soya and linseed bread. It’s the only sliced bread I can find on the shelves that has zero nasties. Coop sells it and Waitrose and I think Sainsbury’s. I’m yet to find an online company to deliver sadly. (We got through 5-6 loaves a week. 6 of us!)

Lunch is Vogel bread.
No ham.

We have tuna. Grated cheese. Marmite. Egg

We only buy plain ready salted crisps. No nasties.

Cold chicken thighs that I’ve made. Sprinkles spices on. Lush the next day. Especially with homemade coleslaw

Homemade Mayo is beyond easy. My daughter did cooking gcse and did it jn her practical. And we can both make it now.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/basic-mayonnaise

We make homemade chicken nuggets. And have with homemade Alioli.

I make our own hummus. Chick peas, olive oil, lemon and natural yog. Loads of crudités.

I make everything from scratch most the time. Pizza is a huge hit.
Pasta and red pesto. Sacla red pesto organic (Morrison’s and Ocado sell it) delicious

Homemade bolognaise Organic spaghetti

Biscuits. Well I don’t buy them anymore.
I batch cook muffins. Carrot and apple grated or courgette. Organic flour and eggs But always half the amount of sugar. Then freeze.

Make flapjacks. Either butter syrup and dark sugar and oats. Or a can of condensed Milk and oats. That’s it

We make these

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/jools-easy-oaty-fruit-cookies/

Organic milk. I have almond milk.

Pudding is organic little Yeo yogurts and fruit. I make smoothie lollies You can buy moulds from Lakeland. Make a smoothie in the morning. Make too much and make lollies with the rest. Banana, berries, yog and milk. Yum

However. At the weekend. We let our hair down. Other crisps. White bread or wraps. Bacon. Kids can have sweets. Normal Ice Lollies or ice cream. McDonald’s now and then.

Lunch. Make mini muffin omelettes in a muffin tin. Yum.

My husband is delighted as he’s gone back to having his beloved cup a soup. The minestrone one has no nasties. Whoop.

I make my own soups. Peas, mint, olive oil and organic vegetable stock.
Or frozen mixed veg soup.

To get an idea of organic stuff. Go onto Ocado or Waitrose deliver. And search for organic. And pick and choose what is important for you.

We can’t afford organic meat or chicken. But have made changes to the things that we ate each day sometimes twice a day. Cereal. Bread. Ham. Crisps. Biscuits. Ice Lollies/petit filous, cheese strings etc

We bought a pop maker from
Argos. An air one. Kids make popcorn each night. Just a small bowl each. With a bit of salt.

It just shocked me the food we were all eating regularly. And I thought it was ok. Eg. Warburtons seeded batch loaf. Full of nasties!

Anyhoo. Sorry for waffling. Hope it helps

Ooh thanks for the beam book tip. Have it on eBay x

Kallo do organic stocks cubes

www.amazon.co.uk/Kallo-Organic-Chicken-Stock-Cubes/dp/B002E2K16A/ref=asc_df_B002E2K16A/?hvlocphy=1006622&hvlocphy=1006622&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&hvptwo&psc=1&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvnetw=g&hvadid=430805415509&hvadid=430805415509&hvpone&hvpone&hvlocint&hvlocint&ref&th=1&hvpos&hvpos&hvdev=m&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-891152611157&hvtargid=pla-891152611157&hvrand=2078677138463212422&hvrand=2078677138463212422&adgrpid=102739073969

Here’s the tv programme

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000wgcd