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.

My biggest weakness is that I'm a Pringles Addict and buy a tube every couple of weeks :/

I have severe IBD, but can't eat whole grains and raw veg and some fresh fruits so I have to rely on white carbs. I do make my own bread (and it's delicious so still moreish) and try to rely on potatoes for carbs because if not fried they're much better than white breads.

Slow cookers are good for batch cooking meals when short on time, although there don't seem to be loads of slow cooker recipes and I'm never sure if I can use just a normal recipe?

Place marking - really informative thread. Thank you!

I’m really finding that the whole foods have so much more “body” to them. I just went for a run and feeling hungry afterwards got a slice of whole meal soda bread and fruit butter, both homemade (fruit butter just the leftover purée from making fruit jelly, reduced with some sugar).

I know that one slice of shop bought soda bread with jam would go down in a couple of bites and barely touch the sides. This took me ages to eat, felt like it had some real heft to it and in fact 8 don’t think I’ll be hungry for lunch. In old books etc you feel a bit sorry for people having bread and jam or bread and cheese for a meal but it IS a meal if it’s all proper food. Filling and tasty too. UPFs have undoubtedly given us convenience but they’ve taken the food out of food.

I agree. If you think how fast people can eat eg a McDonald's burger it's no wonder over eating is so easy. It barely touches the sides and wham! a few hundred calories consumed without feeling satisfied

I’ve often got to the end of a McD’s burger and fries and sort of felt “is that it?” - it’s not the size of the meal just that you don’t feel done at the end! And then it’s so easy to pick up a
McFlurry or something else to go with it. I wonder if they did an experiment and made burger, fries, milkshake etc from scratch to the same calorie/fat level (so not consciously trying to make a “healthy” version), what they would
find in terms of satiety, how long it takes to eat and so on.

100g of skinless chicken breast is 120 calories. I dread to think how many calories in a Big Mac. I think a large portion of fries is around 500 calories. Give me 200g of chicken and a salad any day...

We have often commented the same after macds.

calories make little difference tbh, it’s a health thing. A Mac Donald’s cheeseburger is only 313 calories, so it it’s the calories of eating them often that tray makes any impact.
1 avocado has similar calories

My favourite chocolate is Cocoa Loco, which seems to only have real ingredients in. I get big packs of the dark chocolate buttons delivered with my veg box every few weeks. They are expensive but worth it if you have the disposable income.

Montezuma 100% black chocolate doesn't contain anything else. I like the orange version (contains orange oil). It's an acquired taste I suppose but I enjoy nibbling on a couple of squares - it's not something you can really eat a lot of.

Montezuma's Absolute Black 100% Cocoa Dark Chocolate with Orange and Cocoa Nibs GlutenFree and Vegan 90g Bar amzn.eu/d/ePYAs0c

I've been trying to eat UPF-free this year - I've been paleo on and off for a few years so eating UPF-free is actually easier as dairy and other things like legumes and oats are allowed. I'd been reading and listening to a lot of stuff on health and healing (I have an autoimmune condition) and the consensus now seems to be that mainly plant based and minimally processed is the way to go. I've been making meals like bean salads, lentil curry, bean chilli, lentil and root vegetable stew and finding it really enjoyable; I haven't eaten bread and cakes for years due to following paleo so don't miss them. We really don't need a lot of the things the food industry tell us we do, and we don't 'need' to snack constantly. For me it's been a gradual process of undoing the brainwashing of a lifetime of food advertising, not to mention NHS low fat nonsense.

They did this with a cheese sandwich on the podcast didn't they.

www.thekitchn.com/granola-recipe-258376

I have just made this basic granola recipe. Literally did oats, honey/ maple mix , salt, olive oil. It’s good. I didn’t add any nuts, seeds or fruit as everyone likes different here so they add those separately as they eat.

If anyone is new to avoiding UPFs and wondering which foods to replace UPFs with this article outlines how the body responds to carbohydrates, fiber and sugar and suggests other foods to consider.

foodrevolution.org/blog/are-carbs-bad-for-you/

Ironically the article is written by the grandson of the founder of baskin robbins who is extremely anti UPFs!

I’ve been wondering today about the link between UPFs and fussy eating. How these foods are designed to make us want them, so for kids, normal foods can seem so strange. With fussy eating, it’s never veg that kids want, it’s always chicken nuggets, crisps or potato waffles or whatever. I wonder what parents did before there was the option to feed kids UPFs. It’d be interesting to know the modern history of family mealtimes. I don’t know much about it or what happened in the past.

This is very interesting. What are people doing about work lunches? I’m trying to give up bread too. I need something quick and easy to assemble! Thank you!

Also, any alternatives to bagels for bagel
loving teens?

Thanks!

I would think in the past fussy eaters were just given the plainest parts of the meal eg bread, potatoes, pasta etc. For a lot of human history there would always have been someone happy
to take whatever you didn’t want off your plate. Of course homemade whole grain bread for example with a small amount of protein, fat and some plant-y stuff (eg an apple and a chunk of cheese) is a fairly decent meal nutritionally as it would be with most plain carbs in their least processed form, and that would basically have been the standard diet for the majority of people. The trouble with UPFs is that they mimic these plain carbs but have stripped away much the nutrition. So the body wants what it knows to be a safe, quite complete food and is actually getting a bastardised version.

Funnily enough when my children were young they didn't like chicken nuggets and fish fingers, they do now but just liked home cooking.

@manlyago I sometimes make cowboy caviar which if you google is a salad made of beans and sweetcorn. I sometimes add some cheese.

The other thing I do is roast vegetables in spices and have that with some feta

Yeah maybe that’s a big difference. Plain food now is all UPF. Whereas plain food before could still be healthy.

tbh, if you are ever graced with a truly fussy eater, you'll understand what it means to be delighted with joy when they eat something as exotic as a Wotsit.

I would think in the past fussy eaters were just given the plainest parts of the meal eg bread, potatoes, pasta etc.

You can still do that now though. Throw in some marmite, weetabix and raw carrot and that’s what DS lives off. I never buy nuggets etc (kids don’t like them) so we just never got into that. He is determinedly fussy all the same 😄

Oh yeah, of course - what I mean is that someone who only likes plain food would have had a limited, but still pretty nutritious, range of food available in earlier times. Because UPFs are designed to be consistent, fairly bland and of an unchallenging texture, it’s clear why they appeal
more to the fussy eater - a chicken nugget, sliced white bread or potato waffle is always the same. It’s just unfortunate that those are also the foods with the least real food value, but completely understandable why fussy eaters see those as the safest.

You're assuming fussy eaters only want bland food or are afraid of other flavours. Sometimes they only want spicy or sweet or halal, etc. Almost 80yo MIL won't try vegetables she doesn't recognise (which is plenty). She didn't like rice when she tried it and she doesn't know how to cook pasta so would never try that. Says she deplores onions or ginger/spicy things, but regularly makes ginger biscuits & eats leeks. Another friend says she'll occasionally eat a single piece of carrot to encourage her grandchildren, but has otherwise dodged fruit & vegetables for most of her 80 years. People are weird in their fussiness.

The fussy eating thing is interesting - I hadn’t thought about that, but you’re right. My DP and his siblings grew up in the era when cooking from scratch was the norm. The children were labelled as fussy eaters but the parents couldn’t cook. The family ate home made boiled mince and potatoes almost every evening. The children ate it to survive but found mealtimes quite miserable. Today bland foods do not go down well with any of the siblings!

Mince and potatoes! My mother cooked it all the time! It was utterly ghastly, and I have never made it in my entire adult life.

I need help! I used to be a No UPF cook. I did it all. I made the bread, the sausages, the jam and the mayo. Now I just can’t be arsed and am broke to boot. My child (who never ate a UPF until she was at school) now virtually lives on them, and I can’t see banning them going well! Above all, I have other stuff going on, I'm utterly burnt out, food wise, and some days I stand in my kitchen at the end of the day and think ‘I don’t want to cook. I just want to eat and crash out’ (other days I make pizza from scratch. It’s about 50:50. Thank god for the freezer!)

Where could I start with DD’s food? She’s the fussiest kid alive as it is!

What can you recommend that takes no time? Like when beans on toast is beyond me. Yesterday I had frozen veg with garlic butter (shockingly UPF. I’ll whizz up a batch when I get some enthusiasm) and homemade rolls (white, but homemade) with olive oil and balsamic. I don’t even like frozen veg. I keep it in for the dogs when it’s hot!! (Bear in mind my budget is temporarily £20 a week for both of us, but I do have a good store cupboard from better times)

@Eeksteek i was thinking about this today. How to try to eat less UPF but it also be realistic with my lifestyle. Today I made stir fry with hoisin sauce. Didn’t take too long. Maybe half an hour. But defo longer than beans on toast. Is your situation financially/time likely to change any time soon? It sounds like things are really hard at the moment so maybe now is not the time to be trying to overhaul diet too.

R.e fussy eating, I know plenty of fussy eaters. Although I don’t know any kids who are fussy only for spicy food. All the fussy eaters I know all prefer bland, beige food. I’ve also read that it makes sense for some people to be naturally more cautious than others.

But the difference now, is that UPFs appear to be much worse for people than a diet of mince and potatoes every night. Mince and potatoes may be lacking in variety or vitamins but UPFs seem to cause other things like hormone changes on top of the lack of variety. Alongside it being specifically manufactured to be moreish, easy to eat etc. I’ve spent a weekend with people who only eat UPF and have found the idea of eating home cooked food overwhelming, so it’s been on my mind.

Anyway, bit of a ramble and don’t want to derail thread onto why some people are less adventurous with their eating.