I've been trying to minimise UPFs for 6 months or maybe a bit more. We always had a very homemade diet anyway and weren't exactly starting from eating ready meals or jarred sauces.
i used to be a pastry chef, i trained in all areas of the kitchen. Im a really good cook, can make pretty much anything from breads and croissants to jams and fancy sauces. We have a decent food budget of £450 a month for 3 and while I work full time I have a shift which gives me plenty of time at home. I love cooking.
But even given all the above I'm bloody sick to death of it and I've started buying premade food like coleslaw again. I've just got totally exhausted constantly having to think of everything in advance and make everything. Eg if I want to make chicken and mushroom pie I need to make the flaky pastry and to make a gravy or white sauce. Packed lunches and breakfasts are much more difficult or expensive. I've either got to make the bread for the toast myself or pay a small fortune for bakery bread.
Constant arguments over not buying pappy sliced bread and household revolts over not buying flavoured crisps, Pringles, gravy powder, bars of chocolate, cheap ice cream, or cheap squash.
ive tried so hard to make sure everything we were eating was wholesome but its so bloody hard. Even starting from a very low threshold of UPFs and still including some I just can't be bothered.
some examples...
you want avocado on toast for breakfast - got to make the bread or buy it
want a hash brown on your full English - got to have sautés instead or make hash browns that do not taste anything like the same, however good a cook you are
burger and chips for a Saturday night now means you've got to make your own burger buns and chipped potatoes or wedges. Want onion rings with it ? Yeah they won't be a patch on the ones you buy in the freezer section.
no quick dinner options like a pizza from the reduced counter in the supermarket
want a curry ? Make it all from scratch including the naan bread, mango chutney etc
want a bit of something sweet to have after the packed lunch non upf pasta salad that you made homemade honey and mustard mayonnaise dressing for ? Gotta make it yourself.
the only yoghurts you can eat are plain with some fruit added. That's nice to start with but after a while the thought of a black cherry yoghurt was too much to resist
spend hours at the beginning of the month prepping pastries, curry sauce bases, wontons for wonton soup
want a quick pudding ? What are you going to have ? Oh yeah, nothing. you've had to make it beforehand or wait for it to cook. A quick bowl of ice cream or a lolly is out unless you've had to take out a second mortgage to buy it. Or made it yourself.
nothing is quick. It requires either vast amounts of time to make foods to replace takeaways, cake, bread, ice creams etc even if you decide that you can't actually cut the UPFs entirely. And unless your family is 100% on board you will be fighting a losing battle. You seem to spend your entire life thinking about, buying, making and clearing up food.
the takeaway from it is that I will still avoid emulsifiers wherever possible and do my best but I just can't keep fighting this battle to the level I've tried, it's just unsustainable.