Who can afford to eat additive-free?

[nathaliekonegal]

I just finished reading "Ultra processed people" by Dr Chris Van Tulleken and was absolutely shocked to find out how some of the foods I considered healthy are actually full of stabilisers, emulsifiers, artificial sweeteners and other chemically produced substances. I am determined to change my family's diet for the better and joined a couple of Facebook groups to get advice from others. A lot of people in these groups seem to swear by this non UPF shopping list https://www.instagram.com/go.upf.free/ The list looks great - but honestly, who can afford to eat like this? My husband is on an average salary and I work part time.. but childcare and other bills are expensive. I would love to be able to feed my family with all these additive free products but there is no way we can afford it. It really brings me down and I feel like I'm the only one who can't feed her children a healthy, UPF-free diet.

I think not eating UPF gets people really confused.

Just go backwards intake and eat simple meals for example

roast dinner on a Saturday night or Sunday - then next day have bubble and squeak with the left overs and cold meat. Fish is very simple to cook and can be done in the microwave, add in potato and vegetables, a cottage pie made with mince meat and mash potato. A few casseroles made in the slow cooker, dash made in the slow cooker. Have porridge oats for breakfast or omelette, kippers.

Tinned foods are ok, but not tinned meals

Pick up a bread machine on free cycle and make your own bread to avoid the UPF bread in packets and supermarkets

It's not expensive to eat non UPF but it is time consuming.
You could batch cook spag bol and freeze portions.
Jacket potatoes with cheese, beans
Omelettes with mushrooms, cheese
Chicken pie with veg. Pastry is quite quick to make.
Veg stew

A recent study has shown that not all UPF foods are bad for you but I still try to avoid them all. It's hard because so much of what we eat has additives.

On the other hand, I'm a pensioner and grew up on lots of packet foods, they don't seem to have done me much harm.

Pick up a bread machine on free cycle and make your own bread to avoid the UPF bread in packets and supermarkets

I bought a second hand one on eBay and I love it. It's super easy to make wholemeal seeded bread, it literally takes 5 minutes to get the ingredients ready.

But this Instagram list is a list of non UPF ready meals and prepared foods.

It is much cheaper - but more time intensive- to eat UPF by making meals from scratch. The pre 1950s way of cooking basically.

Basically to be UPF free you either need time or money. The Instagram list is for people with money but not time.

Pre-1950's? You mean WWII and rationing?

I was raised by two health-conscious parents, my mom cooked from scratch all the time. I do the same for my kids now. The key is to plan and to buy whole-food ingredients and cook (like the other posters say). I would find some whole food cooking Instagram accounts and learn/get ideas from there.

I’ll make my own chicken fingers, fish fingers, salmon burgers, beef burgers and have those with whole vegetable sides (roasted or steamed) and salads. I make a roast chicken once a week and leftovers are tossed into a risotto the next day. I don’t worry about things like pasta, organic yogurts, sourdough bread, rice, canned beans/lentils, some foods need to be “processed” to a certain degree.

I never buy ready made meals and I read the ingredient lists of condiments, curry sauces etc..regularly. I’ll usually go to the Whole Foods for those because the ingredients are better, but appreciate that they are very expensive.

No, not specifically wartime obviously but before there were large amounts of processed foods available.

Some UPF free versions of normal things we use, like soya milk, do cost more. But as we mostly cook from scratch it’s just not something I think about much.

I just cook from scratch, DH has an allergy which causes anaphylaxis, but occasionally have a "picky tea", which is beige freezer food. I try to eat "clean" 80% of the time.

Whatever you do, don't now read Davinia Taylor's "It's not a diet" as you'll blow your mind even more.

The odd pizza for tea or McD's won't kill the kids, the one thing Davinia does say is 80/20, and I think that's a good way to think of it and I've taken it on board.

I keep all my bread ingredients and measures in a plastic tub - apart from the yeast which I keep in the fridge - then its easy to prepare and set the timer for 10 hours time and wake up to the house smelling of fresh bread. Its easy to make rolls and freeze for lunches or to go with soup etc.

I don’t think so in general. I don’t buy the majority of what’s on that list. I make soup from scratch for example as fresh pre made soup is really expensive for 3 of us every day for lunch.

But, OP, that list is all pre-prepped. Of course it costs more. Instead, it's really not difficult to cook from scratch. If you are worried about bread, buy a breadmaker and make your own. It's easy.

I had chemo last year and ever since, I get a sore mouth if I eat things with many common emulsifiers or anti-caking agents in. Sweeteners are an issue as well.

So I cook from scratch at no extra cost. Meat, fish, fresh veg, seasonal fruit. Some frozen veg. And flour from a local heritage source. Once you set your mind to it, it's easy and no more expensive. It takes a bit of planning & effort but not much more time or money. Grilled meat, mashed potatoes, fresh veg, sausages from a proper butcher (who makes them himself), rainbow trout baked in paper, peppers stuffed with mince, spanish omelettes, home made soups. None take more than 20 mins effort.

My ds has his weekly frozen pizza & garlic bread but otherwise, everything is home made, and I'm a full time working single mum, so I don't have a lot of time to waste.

Why would you buy all that pre-packed stuff?

As others have said... you don't have to buy all these 'additive free products'.
You don't really need to buy ready made products at all other than basics like tinned tomatoes, oils, maybe a few condiments like mustard etc.

Other than that you can buy fresh, whole foods - fruit, veg, dairy, meat, fish, grains - and cook with them.

It takes time but you prioritise it and you can do it for not much money.

You don't need a ready made lasagne, even if it is UPF free. You can make your own much cheaper.

https://www.tamingtwins.com

This website has some meals you can prep in 5 minutes and 6-8 hours later you have a meal to which you just add noddles, rice or mash potato.

The website gives you doubling up and triple up measurements so you can make more and freeze portions for another week

Most of the additives are in crap foods that anyone can live without.
Sweets, biscuits, cakes, ready-meals, etc,
Cut them out & there's more cash available.
I think bread is the least of the worries ; a few slices a day aren't going to make anyone ill - excepting coeliacs.

I think bread is the least of the worries ; a few slices a day aren't going to make anyone ill - excepting coeliacs.

what is your thinking based on?

I actually think it has saved us money compared with buying junk! Especially for a family where individual portions can really add up. Our meal plan for last week was

Sunday. Roast chicken dinner, carrots, potatoes, green beans, brocolli.
Bread & butter pudding.

Monday. Cold chicken, salad, jacket potatoes,

Tuesday. Sweet potato and chick pea curry. (From freezer).

Wednesday, carbonara with peas. (Sorry Italians).

Thursday. Fish & chips. (I use cod fillets, spread with cream cheese, add breadcrumbs and air-fry.

Friday, pasta bake.

Tonight, slow cooked beef makhani.

I made extra of the pasta bake and beef makhani to freeze.

Breakfasts are porridge / natural yogurt / fruit & honey. Lunches, sandwiches, salads or leftovers.

I think it’s far cheaper to cook from scratch: buy a load of veg, pulses, grains, add a bit of fresh or frozen protein eg fish, chicken and cook double or triple portions and freeze for your own ‘ready meals’ on nights when too busy/tired to cook. Make up jars of salad and veg washed chopped ready to eat in fridge on a Sunday. If you can buy fresh fruit/veg from a market it’s sometimes cheaper. Ask an older relative to teach you/give you recipes if no-one ever showed you OP.

We really need to make sure our children learn about healthy eating and cooking from an early age. It’s shocking that so many people feel forced into buying unhealthy ready meals when they cost so much more.

It's far cheaper to eat additive free but it takes more effort. If I go around the supermarkets, so much of it is padded out with fillers now, that I put a lot of pre-made, convenience or snack food straight down again - that in itself saves a lot.

Some other things that are easy - making yogurt, dips, grind your own spices and make mixes, putting pita bread into the airfryer and making chips etc.

That's funny to find this thread today as I've just switched to no upf's and before I'd been struggling to keep my family Tesco shop below £130 and my no-upf shop today was £82 and that was with me adding some herbs, spices and an organic olive oil that will last more than one week so it might be cheaper next week.

I agree that the biggest cost of UPF free diet is the time! I could give up my job and happily save a fortune on my shopping and eliminate UPF but that's a costly decision!

Thank you all, I really really appreciate the comments... But cooking everything from scratch is not my thing... Trust me, I tried. I will cook the basics, but won't make bread, chocolate and other things we love from scratch. My point was more about prices from non-ultraprocessed products like, treats, condiments (oils, vinegar), the occasional ice-cream... Are they really more expensive or is it just my impression?

You have to read the ingredients list for everything which takes a lot of time until, you get to know things. A lot of what appears to be processed food actually isn’t , but it’s expensive because someone’s done the preparation for you eg. we had Aldi southern fried chicken breasts from the chiller section. They were tasty but not cheap. I had all the the ingredients at home so could have easily prepared them myself in about 5 mins

Aldi and co-op 85% cocoa chocolate has no emulsifiers in

@nathaliekonegal

Who can afford to eat additive-free?

you asked the above question, what you didn’t ask was

Who can afford to eat additive free when cooking everything from scratch is not their thing...

the later will be expensive the former is cheaper than ready meals etc