UPF Discussion Thread

[sunlovingcriminal]

Hi all, wondering whether any of us here would be up for a UPF discussion/support group?

We recently watched the panorama documentary on UPF, as well as reading the ultra processed people book- and have decided to make a lifestyle change for our family.

So, out with the cereal, fruit yogurts, packaged breads, squash and pre-made sauces

And in with the homemade everything...

It is taking a lot of prep and cooking. We're both a bit exhausted and overwhelmed but quite determined.

We have 3 teenage boys- so it's going to be interesting seeing whether we can get them to enjoy both the cooking and eating.

We're one week in and I do already feel better. I am not as hungry- my urge to snack has gone- and my reliance on artificial sugar fixes seems to have diminished.

Still on the hunt for alternatives to stock cubes though! Other than making from scratch (which I fear may be inevitable!).

Would be great to hear some inspiration from others, or great non-upf swaps!

We have started doing this for the last two weeks. Currently spending a lot of time in the kitchen but I have been recommended this site for some non ultra processed condiments. https://hunterandgatherfoods.com/products/classic-avocado-oil-mayonnaise-keto-friendly?ab_v

The ketchup on there might be a go-er!

We do have an allotment so made some green tomato ketchup last year, but the boys couldn't get their head around the fact it wasn't red

I thought that Marigold stock powder was good - until I read the small print !

I've been using this Balsara stock powder from Amazon 📧

Chicken Stock Free UK Post Chicken Stock Powder Chicken Flavour Enhancer SOUPES STEWS Curry Food Spice and HERB 100g : Amazon.co.uk: Grocery

Ingredients listed are chicken, onion,carrot, garlic, herbs. No mention of anything else on the packet. It tastes like chicken, but a little salty.

Also, I bought "Vegeta" seasoning made by Podravka while in Bulgaria, it's very tasty & also veggie. I was assured that it's all natural, but the label is not in any language that I can understand. Amazon stock it, & so does my local Tesco as they have a large section of Eastern European foods.

I am a bit obsessed at the moment and went UPF-free-ish for the last 3 weeks. Never felt better! But I am not super vigilant and I am still using up some of the ingredients I have in the cupboard, and researching constantly.

What I discovered that works for me:

• Crosta & Mollica piadina is amazing as flatbread. People in other UPF groups swear by most of their products but as I am a keen baker I don't consume anything except their piadinas.
• Green and Black 70% dark chocolate is non UPF
• Plain salted popcorns are a great snack

I love the idea of this but, can I ask, does it end up being very costly? Lots of these lovely things posted made with nice ingredients end up (understandably) ££. To make everything from scratch incl bread might be cheaper but then costs in time.
I have teen boys who are hungry constantly and I don't know if they'd be sold on it fully. I am keen to at least cut down on UPF a bit. I definitely need to do more research!

It is more expensive so far unfortunately. And it gets my goat- eating "proper" food shouldn't cost more, but just shows where we've got to with food in the world... anyway...

There are lots of ways to fill up hungry kids...
Lots of protein- hard boiled eggs, natural yogurt blended with frozen berries and honey, and currently I am making a big batch of biscuits, and a cake every week, as well as homemade granola. As well as lots of fruit. But there is no getting away from the fact that non-adulterated food is more costly 😞

But theoretically it should stop them craving fake sugar to get their energy fixes.

I have eaten this way for decades - it's the way I was brought up, and the way I fed my own children and grandchild when we looked after her before she started school. Over the years, I have strayed and I do compromise.

I would suggest picking your battles and be prepared to drop the ball when you're time poor. These are some of the habits that have stuck:

• bread. We have a Panasonic bread maker that makes a loaf 4-5 days a week. I've taught myself to make brioche buns, focaccia, various flatbreads, rolls etc now too. We rarely buy any baked goods. I can make crumpets, doughnuts etc but I don't. I buy a 25kg bag of white flour and a 16kg bag of granary flour from Shipton Mill and pour into 5l lidded buckets. One of each kept in utility room, and rest in cellar. Yeast is free from Tesco - pick up some every visit and freeze in small balls that can be added to dough. Lifesaver in lockdown.
• Oats for breakfast, either overnight or porridge. When kids were little, we had mini shredded wheats and weetabix (compromise). Also yogurt - stock up of UHT milk so it's a 2 min job. I have a yogurt maker, but I used to use a Dutch oven casserole in the airing cupboard.
• Ready meals - batch cook lasagnes, shepherds (I make shepherdess) pie, chilli etc and freeze,
• I make batches of tomato sauce with canned tomatoes and onions. Freeze in potions big enough for pizzas, or larger portion for something else. I also freeze a mix of grated mozzarella and cheddar, so pizzas are faster. When I make pizzas, I make a small one that will fit in the air fryer and bake for 5 mins and freeze.
• Make a batch of mashed potatoes and use to make fish cakes and veg fingers a la Birdseye. They freeze well. Faffy dipping in egg and breadcrumbs, so do in a batch.
• Use stale bread for croutons for soup and salads. Doesn't matter how many I make, there are never any left. Or whizz into breadcrumbs and dry in low oven. Mix with grated cheese, freeze and use to pad out burgers, top lasagnes, coat fish cakes etc.

These are amazing tips! Thank you so much. The yogurt maker was next on our lookout on eBay- as well as an ice cream maker.

We have lots of bread ends left over which I've been freezing- and have been scratching my head as to what to do with them, so these ideas are great. Thank you!

We also have generally eaten this way and I would say rather than killing yourself, aiming for about 80/20 or 90/10 is realistic and doable. So unless you're consuming loads of ketchup, for example, I would buy organic ketchup or Stokes, which has decent ingredients, and not kill yourself worrying about it.

Like @sunlovingcriminal, we freeze batches of homemade chicken and fish fingers/goujons. I also find courgette fritters with some feta or mozzarella, homemade muffins and homemade waffles freeze well and can be reheated quickly.

I do tend to make homemade stock and freeze it as I've always found stock cubes too artificial tasting, although do use the occasional Kallo organic mushroom one.

I sometimes get the whole family involved in making a huge batch of Chinese dumplings - usually some veggie and some pork/prawn - and freeze them. It's a bit of an assembly line project, but can be a lot of fun and everyone loves them.

Do not buy and ice cream maker... well unless you WANT to put on weight!

In all seriousness, it is so gorgeous that I very rarely use it. What I do is make instant sorbet using frozen fruit. Mango sorbet is delicious. It clearly hits the bloodstream quicker than full fruit pieces, but it is lovely. It takes about 5 mins.

My thermamix allows me to make almost 100% of our food really efficiently. I rarely buy premade stuff including salad dressings, ketchup, mayo. Humous is dead easy too. I use my panasonic bread maker and make rolls 3 or 4 times a week.

Shamelessly book marking and following with interest. Have reduced processed food over the last year but after seeing Panorama, I want to go further.

As per PP bread and sauces are the big challenges. Bread, I can mostly get around by using a local bakery. But every day condiments are very expensive without uPF. Hoping for tips.

Placemarking.
Is bought bread really so bad?! I mean the brown seeded type rather than white sliced.
I haven't wanted the docu yet, but will.

If it isn’t stale after about 2 days, then it’s got ‘stuff’ in it.
This is hovis seeded. Emulsifiers are bad guys here.

Wheat Flour (with Added Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Water, Seed Mix (13%) (contains: Toasted Brown Linseed, Toasted Sunflower Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Millet Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Golden Linseed, Poppy Seeds), Yeast, Wheat Protein, Salt, Soya Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Granulated Sugar, Barley Flour, Preservative: E282, Emulsifier: E472e, Caramelised Sugar, Barley Fibre, Flour Treatment Agent: Ascorbic Acid

What is E282?
Calcium Propionate. It is a new type of food preservative developed in recent decades with its considered safety over sodium benzoate (E211), and price lower than potassium sorbate (E202). Calcium propionate is made from the reaction of propionic acid with calcium carbonate or calcium hydroxide.

Never added this to my bread. I do add some salt.

Tesco Hi Fibre Malted Loaf £1.35 for 800g

INGREDIENTS: Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin], Water, Malted Wheat Flakes (10%), Wheat Bran, Wheat Fibre, Yeast, Wheat Gluten, Salt, Barley Malt Flour, Palm Fat, Emulsifier (E472e), Dextrose, Flour Treatment Agent (Ascorbic Acid).

Less added stuff but still an emulsifier

Some times it is just a case of finding the best available option at your price point and time constraints.

The yeast I use to make my own bread has emulsifiers too!

I'm not 100% sure but from looking at the ingredients list, I don't think this is UPF https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/296219796

I find we eat less bread. DH makes about half of our bread, he has a sourdough starter. Then we buy some bread products, of varying standards.

We eat more grains and make pies and pancakes. Plus chocolate muffins.

The teenagers make pancakes and fill them with anything and everything. They also make fried rice dishes. My fridge generally has cold rice or grains, a box of two of salad (carrot, coleslaw), ready to go protein and a grainy salad. Teenagers are quite capable of cooking or just emptying stuff into a small bowl for a snack. Just add Sriracha.

Can I join please? I'm very new to UPFs having only found out about them from the health visitor a few weeks ago. A lot of the troublesome ingredients remind me of this book my mum had when I was little called "E is for additives" which was a mass-market expose on E numbers from the mid 80s (unfortunately she read it then didn't act on what she read and we were very much a chicken nuggets and chips household with the occasional spoonful of tinned sweetcorn). I have a lifetime of bad eating habits to unpick but I want to improve our diet for the toddlers.

The past 6 months, I've swapped biscuits for dry crackers for toddler snacks to reduce their sugar intake and they seem to have gone down well (they eat a LOT of crackers), but I'm now not sure what to replace these with as they are obviously ultra processed. I have a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old and while they will sometimes eat fruit, the quantity of crackers they eat would be deadly if it was all fruit and they're not keen on anything like carrot sticks, cucumber sticks or sliced peppers. IDK whether this is one battle I should just avoid in favour of eliminating all other UPFs from their diet.

I do already make my own ice cream, yoghurt and soya milk as I am dairy free and dairy free milk substitutes have doubled in price since CoL crisis started.

@PuffinsRocks let them eat crackers.

Not all small kids like veggie sticks. Mine liked their carrot sticks lightly cooked and their peppers roasted. Only one liked cucumber sticks and they had to be dressed with fish sauce 😯

Just keep trying different things.

It's not as bad as a lot of other products, so I'd carry on buying it and gradually replace it with home baked. It took me a while to get to the stage where I could keep up with the demand because you have to think ahead. Once you get used to making bread, it's easy and I like doing it. A Panasonic breadmaker makes it easier.

Also, you can make bread dough in advance, put it in the fridge to rise and bring it out an hour or two before you want to bake it. Same with pizza dough - if you make it in the evening, it's ready for next day. Flat breads are quick and easy too.

You don't have to make big changes overnight, and if you are working full-time and have kids, it can be hard to keep up if you're not used to planning and cooking everything rom scratch. Keep it manageable!

Lots of recipes online for crackers, water biscuits etc - also, if you make pastry, you can use scraps to make cheese straws, or just brush with egg or milk and sprinkle with a little salt.

This is great thread. I have a few questions I’m hoping someone can help me with:

• Is olive oil a UPF? I’ve read mixed advice.
• If something has added vitamins but otherwise contains only normal ingredients, is that ok?
• are all sausages UPF? Even good quality butcher sausages…
• has anyone found dried fruit that doesn’t contain preservatives such as sulphur or sunflower oil?

Thank you!

Free yeast from Tesco? Why would they do that? Do you have to ask at the bakery counter or something? I’ve only seen the dried yeast in packets on the baking ingredients shelves.

• I don't think oils in general are UPF. Olive oil is obviously processed but not ultra processed. I only ever consume extra virgin olive oil, but it's worth having a look at the ingredients of everything you buy not to make wrong assumptions I guess!
• Tricky one! I guess that depends: is it just vitamins added to milk or water? In that case I wouldn't class it as UPF, but I personally have excluded these vitamin enriched food from my diet after reading Spoon Fed.
• I am actively looking for non UPF sausages and so far no luck even at my local butchers.....
• Sorry can't help with dried fruit as I don't eat it. Have you maybe considered looking into places like Holland and Barrett or maybe make your own?