How do you cut out ultra processed food from your diet?

[Mariayves]

Ultra processed people was a brilliant, yet very infuriating read. I'm determined to make a change for my family and to cut out UPFs from our diet. I'm working full time and I can't cook from scratch every single day, so at the moment I'm focusing on shopping UPF-free as much as I can. Found this brilliant list of products that helped me a lot https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551827109379

Would love to hear what others are doing.

Meh.... Still not sure. You are right of course, in that vitamins and minerals from source are preferable. However, the same scientists will then say, stay out of the sun and eat less meat, but then supplement with vitamins and minerals as a substitute 🙄

Have you looked at the ingredients list? Does it have a long list of things you wouldn’t find in a normal kitchen? Your brand might not be UPF just as some baked beans aren’t.

I haven't cut out UPF entirely but it's mostly about buying ingredients and cooking from scratch. The best thing is to learn 5-10 meals which take half an hour to make. And things like breakfast cereal I've never been keen on anyway.

I'm afraid I prefer Chorleywood bread generally - wholemeal, seeded anyway. The one I have has 3.3g of fibre a slice.

Fresh bread may be lovely but it just makes me eat too much bread- ir's evil! Also white bread makes me bloated and grumpy and is not satiating. I only have two slices from a 400g loaf a day or less usually.

This is considerably less faff than going to our nearby bakery and considerably less money, even with the £30 spent on the breadmaker included.

Including the energy consumption? I haven't done the sums myself though the ingredients are certainly cheaper.

Just cook from scratch. It's not hard.

It's any bread that's been made in a particular way. The advertising on the packet doesn't often help and can be misleading. The problem is that:-

• The wheatberry has had it's bran and germ removed leaving only the endosperm (white starchy inner substance). This was done to prolong shelf-life and make the bread softer to eat. The germ has all the oils that are good for you and the bran is roughage that bulks up your stools and encourages the growth of good bacteria in your guts. Without the oils synthetic vitamins have to be added to replace what has been lost. The government mandated vitamins to be added during the war but never needed to tell us about it. I think a ruling at EU level required it to disclosed to us, that is why on the packet it always says added Niacin, thiamin etc. on anything containing white flour. Wholemeal flour already has the natural vitamins intact that's why it doesn't need to be added and isn't mentioned on the packet.
• In order to get bread produced quickly they speed up the fermentation process. When you make yeast work quickly it creates a more cheesy-vinegary sourness rather than lactic. Also the gluten doesn't get broken down as much. Some people are more sensitive to gluten than others causing bloating and digestive problems.
• The more processed white bread gets into your bloodstream quicker creating sugar peaks and leaves you unsatisfied and craving more food than you need from a calorific view point.
• The more processed stuff has extras added on top designed to improve texture and prolong shelf life. It apparently interferes with your gut microbes and perhaps hormones.

The problem with regulation is that some things will increase the price of a loaf. It can be a race to the bottom to see who can produce the cheapest. People get used to the low price and how it should taste and get very upset at having to pay more for what they consider to be the 'usual' price. It's an unenviable position to be in.

You just need to take a realistic path. We eat mostly scratch cooked food but I do use some processed foods, mostly minimally processed eg tinned tomatoes, cheese, pasteurised milk, bread, canned anchovies, ground spice mixes and pastes, creamed coconut/coconut milk, pasta, noodles - my self imposed rule is I must be able to understand the ingredients, so no weird additives.

@AmaryllisNightAndDay A medium loaf from our local bakery is £4 so I sincerely hope the breadmaker isn’t costing anywhere near that in electricity each night! That said I haven’t actually calculated it. Yikes 😬

tinned beans, tinned tomatoes, spices, ground seed mix

where are you getting that these products are UPF, they are processed foods and there is a difference

simple food

chops and vegetables with mash potato
casseroles in dump bags ready for the slow cooker and kept in the freezer
cottage pie or shepherds pie with vegetables, mince and gravy
roasted meat, potato and vegetables with gravy
fish - takes a few minutes int he microwave and have with vegetables and potato
ratatouille
homemade curry and rice

Yes! All of this.

I cook mostly from scratch, but even with a bread maker, I don't have time to make my own bread a couple of times a week (x2 as there are coeliacs in the family). It's just another stick to beat yourself with, while the people who genuinely eat too many UPFs carry on regardless.

It’s the edible food items like Doritos or Pringles, they aren’t cured or salted potatoes- they don’t contain potato. They are manufactured edible items that are a bunch of chemicals put together to resemble food

https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/pringles-arent-really-potato-chips/. This explains

With my bread machine we calculated a 450g loaf to cost us about 1.20 euros including electricity.

It fills up us way more than shop bought bread and freezes beautifully.

Obviously there is an initial cost to buy the machine but we don't regret it one bit.

doritos is a weird example to try and use. they have never claimed to be potato. like other crisps they are made from corn.

https://www.shefinds.com/collections/never-eat-doritos-like-ever-unhealthy/

doritos are a great example of UPF

Has anyone seen any sausages for kids that could work?

Thanks for the handy FB group, that looks really useful!

We have soup, bread & cheese one night every week. We used to have a supermarket soup from the refrigerator, but we've started making our own instead.

Me and DH take turns making it at a weekend, we make enough for 2 or 3 weeks' worth, portion it out and freeze it.

Works really well and it's fun to try different recipes.

I also batch cook things like chilli, stews etc. and freeze them.

Snack on fruit and nuts rather than cereal bars etc.

There are some changes which are really easy to make, although it's hard to completely cut out UPF's, just reducing them is going to do you a lot of good.

For those talking about Doritos, Pringles etc - yes I would try to avoid those as much as possible. They are definitely UPF and full of dodgy ingredients.

The best thing to do with crisps is get something like plain Kettle Chips/ own brand equivalent that are just potatoes and salt. Popcorn is also good (not butterkist though!) or things like lentil chips.

It's really about going as 'plain' as possible and then you can always dip them in something delicious to add flavour! I like lentil chips with baba ganoush 😄

You could check your local butchers?

Other than that, I would try to avoid sausages (and wouldn't even have butchers ones regularly myself).

If it's the only thing your kids will eat then that's different I suppose, but I'd try to get them onto fresh, unprocessed meat and fish - chicken breast etc.

I don’t have a machine but started making my own bread about two months ago. I absolutely love doing it now, I fortunately work from home so it’s absolutely no bother to make during the day and yes it freeze’s beautifully. And agree that it fills you up much better than shop bought.

Make one good change a week. You don’t need to be perfect from the beginning.