Ultra Processed Person going cold turkey

[Fluffyflipflop]

Hiya!

I’m halfway through Ultra Processed People and feeling completely disgusted at my own dietary habits for the majority of my adult life.

My UPF consumption has gotten worse as I’ve got fatter, due to eating more and more ‘diet’ and ‘low fat’ foods which I now realise were full of CRAP! (I think I knew this before but was so obsessed with calories in/out that the content of the food was irrelevant).

Suffice to say I’m now switching my focus entirely to non UPF food. It’s virtually impossible to be 100% non UPF but in my usual all or nothing style, that’s what I’m aiming for!

Is anyone else doing this?

one thing I’m struggling to find is a really good flavoursome beef stock. I’ve tried the Pots one (in what looks like a beer can) and my cottage pie was very bland according to my husband who I think would inject MSG into his eyeballs given the chance.

Also, what do you do for treats???

Good luck OP!

We eat mostly UPF free. The exceptions would be stuff like stock cubes, but it's such a small volume of food we decided not to worry.

We eat fresh bakery bread from the supermarket, which in our supermarket is UPF free. For treats we do home baking. Appreciate this is tricky if you're on a diet too, as you end up with loads of things at once. Maybe some homemade freezer friendly treats? Banana on a stick dipped in dark chocolate and frozen? Maybe with chopped nuts stuck on the choc?

I'm trying to eat less upf but it's hard changing the habits of a lifetime.

My fave treats/snacks so far are:

Dark choc rice cakes with peanut butter
Popcorn
Tesco finest milk dark chocolate (its unreal)
Itsu Seaweed thins
Salted nuts
Cheese on crackers with relish (doriano crackers are upf free)

I wouldn’t stress about stock cubes. You might be more likely to give up if you are so strict you end up with things tasting bland.

Make your own! Beef bones or oxtail, veg ends and water. Simmer or put in the slow cooker. Strain, cool and then put into ice cube trays in the freezer.

Lovely thank you for those suggestions. I’m copying and pasting into my notes!

Maybe I need to relax about stock cubes then. One of the things this book talks about is how UPF are partly used to drive over-consumption, so I think provided an oxo cube doesn’t make me crave a second portion that should be ok. I’ll experiment and see!

Which supermarket bakery makes your UPF free bread? The supermarkets we have here with a bakery are Morrisons, Sainsburys and Lidl. I must check those out.

Thank you for those snack/treat ideas. They’re going on my list! Peanut butter on the dark chocolate rice cakes sounds lush!!

Your mention of seaweed thins has made me think of sushi. I wonder if the Lidl packs of sushi are UPF free??? I’ll check! (Or make my own!!)

I think the reality is that when my husband says he’d like the cottage pie to taste more beefy, what he really means is that he wants it to taste more like oxo and bisto specifically. Normally I put 2 oxo cubes and bisto granules in my cottage pie. So really it’s gravy he likes the flavour of 😂 Im going to slowly wean him off.

I will explore the option of making my own stock. I’d feel really accomplished if I actually managed that!!!

Watching because my aspiration is to be UPF free too! 👀

I’m doing this too. Snacks are hard:

1. home made biscuits I get the chance
2. some milk chocolate is UPF free (M&S and Waitrose)
3. shortbread and some biscuits
4. crackers and cheese
5. fruit
6. home made stewed apple and apricot
7. greek yoghurts and some fruit yoghurts
8. homemade bread (I use a bread maker and it’s really simple) toasted with real butter and naice jam

Its usually more expensive as I suppose the better ingredients cost more.

I also wouldn’t worry about a stock cube or too.

You have to do these things in manageable chunks or you will quickly find it too difficult.

I've cut UPF before and always lose 2 stone which is fab. But it's hard work. I am doing in now, in a fashion but accepting the fact that the food industry in the UK wants us to eat UPF! It was nearly impossible to buy something for lunch while out and about. Nearest thing I could ever find was a salad from M and S lunch selections.

Stuff like stock cubes I'd just use an organic one. It's a tiny cube, dissolved and mainly water by the time you consume it. Atm, sauces, condiments, salad dressing I'm just using a decent quality one, but sparingly. I don't eat breakfast. Lunch tends to be either a salad or eggs in some form. Dinner something homemade, plenty of protein and plenty of veg/salad.

I still use veg oil for some cooking. Used butter or lard last time but it's so greasy in the kitchen. Olive oil where I can, or butter for some things.

Just cook from scratch where you can. Up your protein like meat, fish, eggs. I cut out bread, beer, cereals, ready meals, beige freezer food, takeaway like domino's etc. But we still have Indian takeaway as the restaurant we use is really high quality with fresh ingredients rather than reheated processed crap. I've lost 8lb in 4 weeks which am happy with. The weight came of slowly last time as well, but it was consistently 2lb a week for the first 3 months, then 1lb a week before stalling. Then it was Christmas and I struggled to get back into it,.mainly due to life being mad busy.

Hence this time I am focusing on really reducing UPF rather than eliminate altogether. Because life is difficult enough without having to go hungry for the day cos the only supermarket meal deal is partly UPF.

You could make an oxtail gravy -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roast_rib_of_beef_bone_98290
I use this recipe, but don't bother with the bone marrow at the end if you don't want to. Again you can freeze it in stock cubes (using ice tray) as a little goes a long way! Use the oxtail meat in another dish so not wasted. The ice cubes will be little pops of flavour to any mince dish!

I heard about m & s bone broth (frozen in ice cubes) on here. They're great. You might need to add extra salt for a while if you're used to a gravy taste. Slowly decrease the amount over time.

I’m finding the whole subject fascinating. I can’t believe I’ve never cared about the ingredients in food before. All I’ve ever looked at is calories, protein, carbs and fat.

I’ve logged these thing obsessively for years. Felt constantly hungry and deprived. Eaten low fat, low carb everything meaning that I’m eating food with loads of artificial sweeteners, emulsifiers, thickeners etc.

Ive been largely UPF free for 3 weeks and have been eating loads of fruit and veg. Also things I used to
consider as “naughty” including full fat Greek yoghurt (which, by the way, tastes like nectar from the gods). I’ve not felt hungry, I’ve not had double portions of any meals and snacked only on nuts and fruit. Amazingly, I’ve also not had any headaches which I get all the time usually.

I can’t say I’ve lost any weight but I think I need to move away from that mentality now because I’m 44 and spent the last 30 years on a bloody diet and all I’ve ever done is get gradually bigger.

I make my own bread and it turns out really nice. I'll have to dig out the recipe it's taped to the inside of a kitchen cupboard door and I'm not home. Roughly it is

Plain flour
Wholemeal flour
Wheat Bran
Milled chia and flaxseed
Salt
melted butter or olive oil (mild)
1 egg
Bicarb
plain yogurt or buttermilk
Splash of milk to loosen if necessary.

No kneading and no raising.

Lovely with REAL butter and full of the good stuff. I make a few, then slice and freeze.

Fresh or frozen fruit
Fresh or frozen veg

Meat from the butchers
Fish from the fishmonger or fish counter at supermarket.

Loose potatoes

Olive oil
Butter
Full fat milk
No sugar but keep some for visitors, then it usually turns into a brick!

I like flavoured coffees, but I am easing off the milky ones, and now have plain coffee, splash of milk and home made vanilla or mocha syrup (oops made with a bit of Stevia sweetener) I do have the full fat versions but only now and then.

I'm no saint, but am trying!

I aim for it, but I do have a galaxy chocolate habit if I'm stressed.
Waitrose do a good bone broth. I found it on a top shelf in the meat aisle. But like others, I also use those jelly stock cubes.
I also found that being on uhp free diet has reduced cravings. Those additives/sugar etc are addictive.

You'll be eating full fat, so greek yogurt with fruit is lovely and not a chore to eat like that revolting low fat stuff 🤮
Salad veg such as peppers, beetroot and tomatoes begin to taste much sweeter when you're not eating sugary food.
I don't eat bread, and that was hard to give up, but there are so many other lunch options.
I feel less need for treats as proper food nourishes in a way that stops the feeding frenzy ( I am familiar with those from before I gave up bread)
I nibble on mixed nuts if I get an attack of the munchies before dinner's ready.
I've found that eating is more of a pleasure, because I no longer see food as the enemy that will make me binge or make me fat.
I hope you find it as worthwhile as I have.

Cross posted with your update and you're doing brilliantly. I am am inspired to go cold turkey on the chocolate now!

Im probably 95% upf free.

What worked well for me was-
—switching to homemade bread at the weekend and cutting bread out in the week.
-for treats, fruit, plain yoghurt and honey/nuts, homemade cheese biscuits, homemade cakes.

Maybe an unpopular suggestion but for me, it was easier just to avoid most stuff in a long-life packet altogether rather than wondering about whether something was or wasn’t upf. So typical day like today is a salad Nicoise for lunch and shepherds pie with peas for dinner. I make shepherds pie with a tin of tomatoes in place of stock and it’s lovely.

For stock generally I make chicken stock every week and freeze whatever I don’t use immediately. It’s a good basic stock that you can actually use for anything eg beef gravy using roasting tray the meat was cooked in and the chickeniness does not dominate.

Thank you this is really good advice. I have a total all or nothing mentality with food. Either I’m perfect and on track or I’m not and in a complete shame spiral feeling like a failure.

So I’ll cut myself some slack like you say. In the book he says to aim for 80% non UPF which allows some room for stock cubes and seed oils.

I do really like the fact that I’m eating real food now versus the ‘fake’ low calorie food. I used to have a protien bar everyday! There’s almost nothing real in the ones I was eating which beggars belief…. What was I thinking?!

I'm trying to cut down on UPF but also struggling on the snack side of things. Some good ideas here though, so will keep trying

This is really inspiring to read, thank you so much. It’s definitely where I feel I’m heading in healing my toxic relationship with food.

Lots of people talking about making their own bread - for anyone like me who doesn't have time, Jason's sourdough is a good supermarket option. I also use kallo organic stock cubes. Not sure if they're technically upf free but the ingredients are all natural. This is the ingredients for the chicken one for example:
Sea Salt, Potato Starch, Sustainable Palm Fat, Sugar, Chicken Fat (3.5%), Yeast Extract, Natural Chicken Flavour, Chicken Powder (1%), Spices and Herbs (Turmeric, Black Pepper, Parsley, Rosemary), Onion, Organic ingredients

Try adding mushroom ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and miso paste to your cottage pie - they give a satisfying hit of umami.
are you adding plenty of tomato purée too ? That helps with flavour. Plus buying really good quality butchers mince.
once you start cutting it out it's surprising how quickly you get used to not eating mountains of salt and sugar, stuff tastes of actual food.

i do minimal Upf however I still use margarine fir baking (I bake everything myself, I don't buy cakes or biscuits) and vegetable oil. I try to buy bread from the locaL bakery, make burger buns, flatbreads etc. I haven't lost any weight though 😂. I do buy ice creams, mainly Hagen dazs as that's fairly upf free and magnums.

I've never bought a lot of ready made food so cutting down on uofs was reasonably easy. I've always made my own stocks etc. however I am trained as a chef so have a strong knowledge and experience base to draw on

Oh and I buy plain crisps, the more basic the better, popcorn, nuts etc for savoury snacks. Also things like homemade potato wedges are a really good alternative to crisps in the evening, much more filling and better for you.

We do mostly upf free.
I have found as a working mum that certain brands are upf free. We buy a lot of bonne maman products and mutti instead of dolmio.
Hagen das vanilla ice cream. Crosta and mollica for mini pizzas once a week (the pinsa individual ones are upf free).

I get my daughter to make cakes and biscuits as she loves cooking. She makes wonderful cinnamon rolls.

Otherwise snacks are mostly fruit, nuts, or oat cakes with cheese.

@Speaking
I'm not sure you're avoiding upf with that snack list! 😳

Thank you so much for this reply. Would really love you bread recipe if you get the chance.

why have I never taped anything onto the inside of my cupboard doors before?! That’s such a good idea!!!