Anyone else cutting down on UPFs?

[AtomicBlondeRose]

I recently listened to the podcasts by the van Tulleken brothers and it really convinced me to try cutting down on UPFs. I never ate much of them when it came to meals but do have a weakness for biscuits/snacks. As my DC are away with their dad for a couple of weeks and I’m not at work it seemed like the perfect time to try.

So, I’ve been baking my own bread - this suits me as I don’t eat much bread and enjoy the homemade whole meal style. I make a small loaf and it lasts DP and me most of the week. I’m not so sure how the kids will react to this.

I made some biscuits but we weren’t bothered about them tbh. I have been baking fruit loaves such as a courgette tea bread (we have a glut of courgettes!) as we both like them a lot and they’re hard to binge on. DP is a gardener so gets really hungry and needs some filling stuff but doesn’t like junk so the tea loaves suit us well. I’ve also made granola/granola bars which are easy and which we like a lot. Cereal bars were one of the main UPF foods I ate.

Meals aren’t really an issue as I’ve always preferred to cook from scratch although I worry a bit about how it’s going to go when I’m at work and don’t have all afternoon to potter about! I made chicken kebabs with homemade flatbreads that were very easy and tasty. A good air fryer really helps too.

Yesterday we had sausage rolls from the freezer and baked beans for lunch - I really didn’t see any problem with the beans as I’ve always thought they weren’t so bad and the sausage rolls were decent M&S ones - but I had a terrible stomach all afternoon and evening, really gassy and uncomfortable and I really think it was the baked beans. So I might even have to cut those out. I never intended to go 100% hardcore (I would really like some crisps!) but it’s crazy how my body is getting used to the more nutritious food. I find myself snacking a lot less as there just isn’t anything to snack on and I’m not really hungry anyway. I’ve had one slice of whole meal toast and a poached egg for breakfast and it’s filled me more that two slices of white toast and two eggs did previously.

@floweringpoppies you may be right! You do need a lot of processing to get oil from vegetables.

But I don't think they have a load of extra ingredients, so I guess it depends how you define it?

Those crackers sound AMAZING

Just popping on to say my husband had the Ortiz Fisherman’s Stew this lunch and really enjoyed it. It’s a good store cupboard/fast lunch thing to have in. Ingredients are simply tuna, potato, tomato, stock, olive oil, pepper and salt.

Its a wee bit pricey but often on offer and good for the odd time when you just really need something quick and foolproof.

"Feel sorry for vegans and other dairy avoiders trying to avoid UPF though as lots of milk alternatives are UBF and same with meat alternatives."

I think one of the saddest things about the current fashionability of plant based foods is the way that the agri-food industry is using it to sell ultra-processed rubbish as supposedly healthier & better for the planet.

Oat milk is easy enough to make at home, literally soak oats overnight in water, then put in blender / food processor & run it for 3-4 minutes (best to put a timer on & leave the room!) then strain through muslin. Add a pinch of salt and/or a tiny bit of vanilla essence if wanted. Almond milk also easy to make exactly the same way, plus you can use the residue of the almonds in cooking, but expensive of course.

And UPF meat alternatives really not needed - there's so many great options, tofu, tempeh, pulses etc. (I'm not vegan / veggie these days but used to be in the past when organic meat/dairy was much harder to come by and my budget was lower, I still eat meat rarely & tend not to cook with dairy.)

They honestly are 😄 May be a tad pricey to buy the ingredients but each batch could last for a couple of weeks and a couple of batches come from each bag of ingredients if you see what I mean!

I haven't read the whole thread, but it is one of the main advice I give to my patients - to avoid ultra processed food. It is really good to see this being discussed and people changing their lifestyle.
It is easy to do curries and Dahl and freeze it.
If someone could share a recipe for making granola, would appreciate it.

I’d also love to have a granola recipe but I’ve got a nut allergy! So one without nuts would be great!

@SecretSnake my snacks are fruit or plain yoghurt and nuts with a bit of honey if you want something more filling. Cashews are delicious with yoghurt. Both are super quick, although you have to be careful with the yoghurt or it’ll end up blobbed on your baby’s head if it drops off the spoon! I don’t really like biscuits.

@Wombat27A bamboo fibre! Bloody hell. I think my sausages are ok. Try to buy high quality ones. Don’t eat much meat anyway so can afford to buy better quality. I can’t eat beans tho coz I get such bad cramps. So protein can be a bit tricky if I don’t eat cheese and some meat. We get fancy bread delivered. Supermarket bread tastes horrible now. Kinda slimy and weirdly sweet.

I wish I had some easy pie recipes. Anyone got any? I used to buy the pre packaged pastry but it doesn’t taste nice. I want real butter in it not slimy horrible oil. Also, can you freeze pastry? Maybe I could batch prepare it. And just do the top of a pie rather than all the way round coz of the whole soggy bottom/blind baking faff

@BruisedSkies

I've started making pastry with ratio of 100g flour to 50g butter, salt and tablespoon of water or so. Fridge for 30 mins, stand to room temp then roll it out. Yes you can freeze it!

I made some mini pies with leftover beef stew yesterday - I just sieved some of the stew and put the liquid aside for gravy. Made the pies in fairy cake tray, so just little but I might try in a yorkshire pudding tray next so they're a bit bigger. They were nice! Bit like a pasty. I'm not sure what's best to glaze with though - anyone?

For my granola bars I use:

250g oats (any old ones are fine)
100g nuts/seeds in whatever proportions you like
100g dried fruit, again whatever you prefer
1 tsp cinnamon

100g butter
3 tbsps runny honey
2 tbsps light brown sugar

First toast the oats, nuts and seeds. I put it in the air fryer for about 7 minutes or you could use a dry pan. Just to crisp them up.

Meanwhile melt the butter, sugar and honey together. I stick it in a big bowl and do this in the microwave.

Mix the oats, nuts and seeds with the wet mixture and add the fruit and cinnamon. Stir to combine then pack into a pan and bake. I do it in the air fryer at about 160C for 25 minutes so adjust according to your oven and your taste (I like it really golden brown and crunchy on top).

Leave to cool before taking out of the tin.

I have been experimenting with the sugar levels - when I dropped it to one tablespoon it all fell apart and made nice granola so that’s what I’d do if I didn’t want it in bars!

I cut this into 12 pieces and costed up at Lidl it currently costs about £2 a batch so the same or a bit cheaper then buying cereal bars on offer. And much cheaper than the fancy ones. Plus you can adjust the fruit/nut/seed mix to whatever you like. I have raisins, cranberries and chopped apricots in mine.

Half-butter, half lard, same amount of flour, mix in an egg until combined, add a bit of milk or water if still too dry. Leave to rest. Roll, use. Can freeze.

I make pastry in Imperial measures and bread in Metric!

So a pie would be 8 of flour, 4 of lard/butter, etc.

My definition of upf would be 5 or more ingedients or including something you don't have in your kitchen but I think the Nova scale is great.

I always do half butter, half lard with pastry. But I can’t make it without using the KitchenAid, I’m afraid. By hand it comes out like grey cardboard every time.

That doesn’t sounds too hard for pastry. I like the cupcake tin idea. I’ve got a basic food processor, the one with the curved knife. So that should be ok. I’ve not put egg in pastry before. What difference does that make?

Would anyone be interested in sharing non upf snacks and meals for kids? We mainly cook their meals from scratch but fall down on snacks and yes I know lots of people say they don’t need them but when they get in from school they’re hungry and want something, usually something sweet and it’s all too easy to reach for shop bought biscuits. I’ve started a list on my computer, whenever I notice a nice looking recipe. I recently made banana bread with gram flour and that went down well although it was a little dry so next time I’ll add some olive oil to the mix. We’ve recently been making our own bread for post school toast and as we usually eat wholemeal anyway they don’t seem to have noticed a difference so win win!

fluff I’ve made savoury muffins before. Pretty easy and you can freeze them and then defrost quickly in microwave.

@Fluffruff all I can think of is babybels!

well... if you look at the Nova Food app, which is often treated as the authoritative definer of UPF, they list Dolmio as relatively healthy choice. It's PF not UPF. And similar grading for whole meal supermarket own bread.

At least that's what I think Nova App says. I find it hard to look stuff up on there.

This source says UPF should be defined as not a lot of additional salt, sugar or fat: so that doesn't care about Treatment agents or what the exact type of vegetable oil was used to make a loaf of bread.

TrueFood claims to be an authoritative source for identifying PF & UPF, but they don't tell you what threshold to choose. On there, Prego sauce scores 34-81% UPF, plain tofu counts as 5% PF, salted butter is 41% PF. So... the Prego can score as less PF than the organic salted butter.

UPF Seems like more of an idea than an actual knowable thing.

For children's snacks I am planning to use the extra time this school holidays to experiment with some different low sugar home bakes and see which we like, so then I can try to get into a pattern of making something every weekend once term starts again. I'm also planning to try some savoury snacks (cheese straws, veggie scones) but I'm less optimistic about DS2 eating them.

So happy to find this thread. I'm following with great interested. I've just ordered a bread maker!
Snacks will be difficult to replace with my children, but I'm thinking of enticing them with homemade treats instead. My children do however have severe allergies, so no nuts, seeds, egg or fish!!

I listened to the podcast too and am trying to make changes to move towards avoiding upf. Can anyone recommend and good cookbooks?

Look into Lebanese dishes. Very healthy, lots of vegetables. Just hold back or cut out the rice.

A Lebanese Feast is an excellent cook book.

Marking place

I would think most cookbooks are good? I have a billion books and none of them require UPF ingredients - it's all fresh stuff. What kind of food do you like? I'd search for a book based on what you like and how you like to cook.

I'd recommend the Roasting Tin books as very easy and appealing meals. I've got the original Roasting Tin book and then also the Green Roasting Tin (veggie & vegan) - I particularly like the latter even though I do eat meat.

There's lots of quick recipes and unlike a lot of books (IME) they are actually genuinely quick & because of the one-tin approach don't generate lots of cleaning up.

If you want to eat seasonal / local as well as no UPF you need to be a bit picky on which recipes you choose & maybe do a bit of substituting, but I use them more than any other books I own.