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!

Has anyone ever made their own "dairylea"?

I can't remember who asked about sausages, but I adapted this recipe from the English Breakfast society to make sausage burgers last night.

I didn't bother about the pork fat or casings, just added scaled down quantities of the herbs & spices to a pack of pork mince and breadcrumbs.

Really pleased with the results which tasted sausagey and I thought had a better texture than most supermarket burgers and sausages. I used a food processor to mix which may have helped.

A single pack of pork mince made 6 good size burgers which didn't shrink on cooking and were filling.

https://englishbreakfastsociety.com/bangers-sausage-recipe.html

Surely a rule that foods at school must be “nut free” would also include almonds? Why would almonds be safer than mixed nuts?

Only because our school is 'nut aware' rather than nut free, maybe an Aussie thing. Avoid peanuts and any other known nut allergies in the class otherwise we can use nuts in lunches.

Can I just ask a silly question? When you make something like breakfast muffins and it says you can freeze them, do you just get them out and defrost or do you have to reheat?

I assume you can just defrost and eat them but I find it unnerving for some reason, possibly due to the weaning guidance where you had to reheat everything before cooling to baby temperature.

You could defrost and eat, or if in a hurry reheat. They're already cooked, so should be fine.

Thanks @Cynderella. I'm just overthinking it!

Today I made banana and oat bread and some cheese muffins for breakfast options for the DC's.

Only downside is the muffins are delicious and very tempting so my low carb diet has gone out the window today.

See this is my problem, if we got a bread machine, we would just eat the whole lot hot with a load of butter!!

@WeirdPookah I make sourdough bread once a week and it's delicious! I'm trying to only eat it on the day I make it but it's very tempting!

See this is my problem, if we got a bread machine, we would just eat the whole lot hot with a load of butter!!

but eventually you'll just be using it for sandwiches etc, the novelty will wear off. A hot crust is nice but if you need the rest of the loaf for other stuff.

I don't eat bread much, once a week for Saturday breakfast with eggs, hot bread would be too tempting to eat when I don't normally eat it.

@BewareTheBeardedDragon I use a vitamin instead - you can pick them up for £100 second hand. Make smoothies, instant ice cream using just fruit and yogurt, soup from veggies and it heats it up at the same time. Carrot cake mixture is a doddle as just pop the carrots in whole

vitamin instead = vitamix

My nemeses have been aioli, tomato ketchup, pesto and mayonnaise if anyone has any pointers. Non-UPF chocolate has been surprisingly hard to find, and expensive!

@CaptainWarbeck not sure about aioli (Tesco and Waitrose both seem to do fresh ones with rapeseed oil but nothing else UP if that's any good?), but ketchup is quite easy to find: non UPF brands include Tiptree, Stokes, Leon, Mr Organic, and there are quite a few others...I think even Heinz Organic may be OK. Mayonnaise: there are loads if you don't mind sunflower oil (e.g. Sainsbury's Organic) but if you want a non seed oil one then Hunter & Gather do ones with pure olive or avocado oil. Pesto is trickier - Biona do a vegan non UPF one but it's stiff with salt (presumably to compensate in flavour for not using proper cheese?) and I don't consider a pesto without cheese as proper pesto anyway, so I prefer to use Belazu, which contains seed oils and citric acid but is otherwise UPF free. Chocolate: there are some lovely ones - dark chocolate is pretty easy to find, and there are some milk chocolate ones too: Divine, Waitrose 1, Montezuma's, Seed &Bean (just check ingredients as ones with added flavouring aren't always free of emulsifiers).

@CaptainWarbeck abel & cole have some pesto recipes on their website which are good and easy to make.

Yes, pesto is an easy one to make yourself, in any kind of blender/food processor/Nutribullet. Basil, olive oil, grated Parmesan, optional garlic, optional pine nuts (I often sub cashews or almonds as am more likely to have them in the cupboard.) Whizz, eat.

Could someone please tell me which oils are ok? We eat very little upf here and have done for ages but I always assumed oil was fine and now I'm reading lots of threads saying it isn't

From reading the Dr Andrew Jenkinson book, I seem to remember it's extra virgin olive oil or cold pressed olive oil only. Something to do with the ultra processing of vegetable oils creates trans fats.

Butter and lard are also good options depending on what you're cooking.

The answer definitely depends on who you ask!

I use butter (on bread/over vegetables), ghee, coconut oil or lard for cooking, extra-virgin olive oil for dressings/post-cooking.

Lidl sell a reasonably-priced cold-pressed rapeseed oil which should be ok (yes it's the heating during processing which is the problem), I just dislike the smell/taste.

I thought Avacado oil was ok for cooking? I read on another thread. I haven’t figured out what to do really for frying. I thought olive oil was bad due to its low smoking temperature?

trying to figure out snacks for kids at school and not managing very well. My ds won’t eat bananas or apples. School day no seeds or nuts. He is currently taking plain crisps and very sugary homemade granola. I am wondering about doing a batch of fairy cakes and freezing so we can take out for lunches at school. Not sure what else to try. I think he doesn’t want anything that looks different or weird to his mates at school.

Thanks, we use olive oil and cold pressed rapeseed so sounds like we're ok. I thought I'd read they were alright but all this talk made me doubt myself

Harping my dc have hm brownies, fairy cakes, gingerbread, shortbread, oat & raisin cookies, flapjack, savoury flapjack (all these get batch cooked and frozen, take out in the morning and thawed by break time), hm popcorn sprinkled with salt/ icing sugar, dried mango, a boiled egg or a slice of marmite bread and butter (which I thought was fine but someone up thread said marmite was nova 4).

Thanks will try some of those

Do you use golden syrup in gingerbread recipe? Or found one without?

Hi, can anyone comment on whether this is UPF please? My friend and I disagree...

Healthy Pasta Bolognese For Toddlers | Little Dish

Thank you!

@sunandfog looks like that's just processed, not UPF. Ingredients are good and if it has a recognizable texture/mouthfeel (eg not made into smooth mush) I'd be happy with that.