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???

I wouldnt eat a Magnum personally as I dont like ice cream unless its Italian home made and I dont like that sort of chocolate

However bacon (but then I dont consider a problem with that) and I am partial to even bacon fries/frazzles

I have a very low UPF diet, in fact I cant remember when I last ate something in that category, perhaps a couple of weeks ago and it will have been bacon frazzles probably!

So I agree with you, but then I dont demonise UPFs anyway, I dont have that much because I have a difficult dietary need, not because I am on this band wagon.

For me reducing UPFs hasn't made me dislike them perse, but it's stopped the craving for them. I feel like my hunger is much more intuitive now, before I would just blindly grab UPF biscuits or chocolate, I don't even know if I was hungry, now I am fuller for longer, and when I'm hungry I seek fruit or nuts or something substantial, useful, I just don't get that craving for sugar and/or "comfort" food anymore. It's really weird, and my snacking habits used to be very high in UPF.

I still use stock cubes, but not more than one at a time. I add tomato puree, dark soy sauce and mushrooms for more flavour in a cottage pie.

Treats: salted cashews, Aldi dark chocolate, medjool dates

what are you all doing regarding alcohol

Vodka, ice, lemon

@ScribblingPixie have you got a UPF free soy sauce? I haven't looked at this yet but the one in my fridge (light) is UPF.

I've got various, but just checked the label of my Kikkoman - its ingredients are water, soybeans, wheat, salt and it says it's naturally brewed so I'm thinking that's a safe bet?

My Pearl River Bridge dark soy sauce, which I love, says it has sugar so I suppose that one's not great. :(

There's jars of concentrated beef stock at m and s. You can make a spoonful into a hot drink too with boiling water.

@ScribblingPixie thank you, I don't mind sugar, just trying to avoid the additives etc tbh, I eat so much sugar, butter, flour, and other carbs but I've cost 10lb since dropping UPF regardless 🤷‍♀️

Using my 20% 😅

Is cheese consider UPF?

@gettinghealthy not if it's proper cheese, none of this low fat nonsense.

I think look at the label of each one. Eg Waitrose ricotta cheese says it contains nothing but ricotta cheese. M&S ricotta is just milk whey and salt. But Galbani ricotta, which I've seen Italians recommend and is delicious, has lactic acid and citric acid in it.

Placemarking

So…. I’m getting this weird thing where any UPF icecream (basically anything other than home made) tastes like cheese to me.

And also, milk chocolate, all varieties but especially hersheys, tastes like cheese!!

Am I the only one?!

Bacon tastes really metallic to me now. It’s so weird.

Also after a 6 hour flight (following a 24hr delay) we went to McDonald’s and I had a cheeseburger. All I could think about was the softness of it, the fact that I barely needed to chew it. And this has been orchestrated to make me eat it quickly and crave more.

I’ll be honest, I literally never thought there would be a day when I’d think anything negative about McDonald’s.

I can't say lots of stuff tastes like cheese but the texture is weird on ice cream. Feels like a frozen paste.

Since trying to cut out UPF I've only had really good quality chocolate. More expensive but I enjoy it more when I do.

If I do get anything from McDonald's now it's chips. Last time I got a burger I got a similar reaction. I think something has clicked and I don't see it as food

Yes one thing that keeps coming into my mind is: Has this been cooked by a chef, or designed by a scientist? That, for me, is the quickest way to determine a UPF and the motives behind the food.

I’ve used both of those in my kitchen so for me that wouldn’t make it upf….

Well given citric acid is in most citrus fruits and lactic acid is in our bodies and also naturally in foods anyway, not sure why that poster seems to think these are strange components

The citric acid in upf is not the same as what is found naturally as it is produced from a black mould Aspergillus niger. When I cut it out of my diet my acid reflux completely went away
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6097542/

Exactly @Thegreatgiginthesky. When you've got food sensitivities, which I do, it doesn't pay to assume that any additive is benign. The method of how the cheese is made is also relevant to me (casein).

UPF ingredients can sound really innocuous like starches because it'll follow a familiar word or ingredient, but doesn't really show what has been industrially done to it which is the problem. That's why labelling is core to this issue I think.

Found a nice recipe for healthy breakfast muffins. One ingredient was apple sauce…. Which it turns out is impossible to find without UPF… guess who’s making apple sauce for the first time today? Had to idea it was THIS easy! 😂

@Fluffyflipflop I'm surprised at how easy all this stuff is. I bet it'll delicious as well.

I came across a post on Facebook today about making your own vegetable stock. Basically chuck the ends off veg - onions (including the skin - lots of vitamins apparently), garlic, celery, carrots and mushroom stalks into a freezer bag, and once it's full boil it in water for an hour then strain the vegetables out and the remaining liquid is the stock - super easy! I've started my kitchen ends bag off today.

There was a comment where someone said she freezes the in a muffin tin and then chuck the frozen stock cylinders in a bag ready for use.

Good job we have a second small chest freezer as my freezer is filling up nicely as I'm trying to have a stash so I'm not having to cook from scratch every day!

Well I would certainly like to get rid of my silent reflux thats for sure.

Trouble is I just love all the things that are a bit acidy, yoghurt is no good for me, chocolate, tomatoes, peppers.

I dont buy any prepared foods so its what Im cooking perhaps.

@soupfiend I couldn't eat any acidic food before cutting out citric acid. Now I can eat unlimited tomatoes, chocolate etc without any issues. I don't think the acid in real food was the underlying cause for me. As you sure it is not in any of the canned foods you use, tinned tomatoes etc, you can get some with citric acid and some without.