If you try your hardest to avoid “ultra processed foods”….

[ReeseWitherfork]

There’s an article on the BBC website about “ultra processed foods” and it’s got me wondering if I can make some easy swaps on things. I am sure there are some people out there who’ve explored this before. I cook from scratch, eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, but I’m wondering if I need to start looking at things like a bread maker (we’re a fan of a sandwiches my house!)…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65754290

@TooManyPlatesInMotion - an article in the Times this weekend had someone try to avoid UPFs for a week feeding her family. For pesto she recommended the Deliciously Ella vegan pesto.

This mayo recipe works well. www.inspiredtaste.net/25943/homemade-mayonnaise-recipe/

I had a bread maker a few years ago but got rid of it as DH and DS didn’t really like the bread and I found it quite heavy (although I did like it) and it gave me dreadful heartburn.

Thanks @Peridot1 !@Peridot1 ! Useful to know re Ella's pesto. Pesto isn't hard to make at home, but i am only have time to keep the family supplied with homemade pesto or ketchup... Definitely not both! 😂

Jumping on for motivation!
I used to be very good at this until I had DD. It's hard to get her to eat the good stuff, especially as all the other kids at nursery eat loads of processed stuff and round their houses too. The last nursery even had a go at me for not having enough junk food in her packed lunch!

I want to try and make the things she likes from scratch, like wraps etc, but I'm worried she won't eat it and it will be a waste of time. I don't personally want to eat bread myself.

Agree with PP about the tanning- I lived in the tropics with no UPF in my diet and only needed a bit of fresh aloe vera on my skin to not burn!

Really interesting thread. For those of you making rolls do you have a recipe you can recommend?

If you can get your hands on or make some sourdough starter it's easy (and cheap) to make a no-knead sourdough loaf. It takes a long time but is mostly hands off - you come back to it and fold it every now and again but that's pretty much it. You do need to plan ahead though. I find it lasts about 3 days in the bread bin.

I am trying to do this. My main general tip/thought is: don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. It's really really hard because UPFs are everywhere. I just came back from a week away and I ended up having a fair amount of UPFs because that's just the way it is sometimes.

For a specific tip, my kids now actually prefer to frozen chips, my crispy potatoes - diced potatoes tossed in olive oil and salt and baked for about 20 mins.

@Peridot1 good point re additives. I know we are bigger now but perhaps wrongly I thought we are better eg more fresh stuff. My dc certainly eat better then I did or my parents did

This is a good bagel recipe. Not as difficult as I was expecting and tasted really nice.

For mayo, I use this recipe. It takes literally 10s to make (well, maybe 3 minutes if you include adding the ingredients and clearing away) and no faff with dripping the oil in - it’s like magic. If you can find a jug/container the right size it’s so easy, and identical to traditionally-made mayo. I’ve even made it vegan using aquafaba, which worked well (a little more runny). And it uses a stick blender, which is much cheaper than a food processor.

The only downside of making your own mayo is you can’t ignore the ludicrously vast amounts of oil it takes! I often use sunflower oil but it looks from this thread like I should rethink that.

https://www.seriouseats.com/two-minute-mayonnaise

The tanning thing is interesting. I’m a redhead with pale skin but I don’t really burn. However I’ve noticed the last few summers I do more easily. And since having kids, I eat a lot more convenience foods. I wonder if there’s a link.

@SoooBloodyTired you're definitely right… this needs to be incremental. I think I need to start with our snacking. I’m such a snacker, and I tend to grab lots of crisps and cereal bars. I’m BF twin toddlers so I get pretty hungry. But I am currently boiling some eggs…. a step in the right direction! Crisps are my downfall and I don’t want to imagine a life where I don’t eat them, but making snack bars at home with oats etc doesn’t sound ludicrous.

Thanks for everyone with the M&S bread recommendations - I do ocado occasionally but might make a permanent switch. Especially as we do Asda most of the time and @MumofCrohnie has enlightened me on their bakery practices!

DT have a milk allergy so all three of us are off dairy. Meaning oat milk and vegan spread and almond based yoghurts. All of these need addressing too by the sounds of it. I might have to just suck that one up until they’ve completed the milk ladder. I’m a butter over spread kinda girl anway!

I’d love an alternative to wraps - we use these a lot as fajitas are so easy and a good way to get a range of things into fussy DS, but even if I could find a good recipe, all that rolling out is so tedious.

As a lot of you seem quite up on the science with regards to nutrition, may I ask what the deal with sugar is? Considering what to do if I make my own cakes and biscuits etc…. (Which I do a fair bit of anyway so this one should be easy.)

Pip and nut is the best I've found

Thanks for the thread OP, I need this one! We have been trying to cut down/out UPF for about a year now. Things I've found useful:

Bread maker - Panasonic was pricy and takes up loads of worktop space in the kitchen but we use it all the time. Makes lovely light bread. Kids and DH take sandwiches for lunch, I'm trying to low carb and it also makes a decent low carb bread too.

Ham - not sure if this is better but we buy a gammon joint to cook and slice for lunches. Lasts ages

Sweetness - I make a tray of flapjacks or brownies most weeks. That works for our sweet snacks.

Things I can't get rid of yet:
Fruit yoghurt - I try to buy the better ones like Yeo valley or Rachel's
Crisps - kids were okay with popcorn for a while but they REALLY WANT CRISPS.
Diet Coke - again, I can live without it but kids and DH really don't want to

My kids are young teens, it's really not as simple as offering them cheese instead. I find this bit of it really hard to navigate but am keeping on trying and as PPs have said, cutting down is better than nothing.

Making chicken nuggets is dead easy and not time consuming. You can buy chicken breast fillets in small pieces or cut up your own. I just dip in egg and panko breadcrumbs (ingredients flour, yeast, salt) and fry in olive oil.

Dd's food for today: Rice Krispies with milk (yeah, no great; we are reducing UPF not being zealots)
For her lunch, DD has a tuna sandwich (Tesco bakery white bread; does have palm oil but no emulsifiers or preservatives) with butter, no mayo as she dislikes it. She has an apple, a fromage frais (no emulsifier, preservative, or artificial sweeteners) and a home made chocolate biscuit. Dinner tonight is lamb with rice and broccoli.

We use corn wraps a lot, just checked the ingredients and it says 60% corn, water and then only a couple of other ingredients but not great sounding ones - stabilisers (xantham gum) and emulsifiers. It’s the emulsifiers that are bad, right? Still, these sound better than some options out there.

@newtowelsplease popcorn as an alternative to crisps…. Genius! My kids are too young for popcorn but I could make the switch for some of my crisp snacking for sure.

Thank you @OliviaOyl and @Whoarethegrownups for the mayo recipes!

To answer a few questions:

Wraps - check the Crosta & Mollica brand, they should be fine

Sugar - it’s not UPF, adding it to homemade shortbread and cakes is totally fine. Ofc eating in moderation is a given. I also bake stuff that uses sweet foods such as dates, honey, bananas. But in short, sugar is fine in moderation.

Popcorn - I buy kernels and pop them on the stove in coconut oil

Also gums and emulsifiers = UPF.
Emulsifiers hide under innocuous names too, such as soya/sunflower lecithin

I expect greedy manufacturers will wise up about labelling, so we need to be even more vigilant. So tiresome!

I'm cutting back. Basically don't buy any crisps or packaged cakes or biscuits or sweet things and that's the job half done. Then start to look closer at other things and slowly try to replace.

Also whatever you plan for dinner, do the same but add an extra portion of a different veg. Then reduce the UPF serving or serve the thing that includes UPF second, and you've just added fibre while reducing the UPF, without much hassle!

Has anyone tried making their own yogurt? Is it a faff?

My kids love yogurt and I usually buy the cheap value pots of fromage frais. Or I could buy a big tub of plain yogurt and then decant into small pots for packed lunches.

Two of my favourite vegetarian cookbooks at the moment are Meera Sodha’s East and Anna Jones’ One: Pot, Pan, Planet. Both are interesting delicious recipes, mostly suited to weeknight cooking, few obscure or hard to find ingredients and the recipes seem well tested. Can’t guarantee either are totally UPF free though and neither are marketed that way but other than a few stock cubes I can’t think of many recipes which feature UPF.

@newtowelsplease Agreed, it does become more difficult with teenagers. I think it's a case of changing what you can and trying to find the best, minimally processed, even if not perfect. Could you get coke with Stevia instead? Why not just coke with sugar? I still bought crisps for my teens but mostly bought ready salted where the ingredients are just potato, oil and salt. Granted, I realise the oils not good.

Habits seem to stick a bit. DD at uni mostly cooks from scratch and has a non cereal, non bread breakfast. She makes a lot of omelettes and crepes. Of course she'll be eating lots of crap snack foods too but at least her meals are not ultra processed too.

@Grumpyfroghats We mostly cut out oven chips and have potato wedges or chippy potatoes, which is basically like you said, potatoes chopped small, put in the oven with oil and salt. We don't even peel them.

If we have oven chips in, they are the so called naked ones, which are just oil and potatoes. Again, crap oil, but at least no other crap in them if there's no potatoes in and no time to chop.

Someone does make wraps without the crap but they're comparatively expensive to the others. £2 for 4 last time I bought them, so likely more than that now.