Reducing UPFs in 2026 🥘

[Bookaholic73]

I’m planning on reducing my intake of Ultra Processed Foods (UPFs) in 2026 and would love to share the process with others who are doing the same.

I’ve been doing lots of reading and research around this for the last few months and feel ready to start in January.

My focus while doing this will be on trying to
-Keep to a reasonable budget for food
-Reduce instead of eliminate
-Keep meals simple but delicious

Is anyone else doing this?

Some of them are UPF, but I eat feta more than anything else so I’m doing ok I think 👍🏻 just need to avoid some of the cream ones.

Lots of good tips here. Green Roasting Tin and the related books are great for hands off meals. Cooking double and having some to freeze makes a huge difference in saving time. Things like frozen onions, garlic and ginger cut down on prep time, and generally a good store cupboard of spices and non-UPF condiments (mustard, pomegranate molasses, vinegar, tomato puree) helps to keep things flavoursome. Tinned pulses are very handy.

Gadgets are your friend - our bread machine in particular makes it so much easier to reduce UPF, not just for bread but dough for pizzas, naan etc. It's obviously expensive in the short term but will save money over time. Panasonic seem much more consistent than any other brand I've used. A good mixer/food processor will save loads of time. Our ice cream maker is a luxury but gets quite a lot of use in the summer.

The OpenFacts app is handy for scanning labels and getting a quick read on what is UPF and what isn't - it is amazing how much similar-seeming products can vary. E.g. some tortilla chips have 20+ ingredients, others are just corn, oil and salt. Similarly you can get non-UPF yoghurt in supermarkets if you shop around, though be wary as some low fat versions and most flavoured ones are packed with stabilisers and flavourings.

Palm oil in its natural state is red and spicy and wouldn't be UPF. But food you buy with palm oil as an ingredient will be using refined, bleached and deodorised palm oil which is a pretty clear UPF.

My understanding is all 'regular' cheeses are UPF free - cheddar, brie, mozzarella, feta etc. The only ones that aren't are, well, the plainly processed ones! Or pre-grated / sliced. Again, buying whole blocks is usually cheaper too.

Following. We are already doing a lot of this but we could still improve, and I’m always looking for new ideas.

Cheese is considered good for you these days.
Especially artisanal cheese with live organisms. But even those mini edams have a positive effect.
It's a naturally fermented food & is one of the key things to living a longer healthier life according to Tim Spector. If you follow the Zoe account on Instagram you can pick up a lot of updated dietary advice & the odd recipe.

@UnaOfStormhold could you recommend a good mixer/food processor? We have been looking at some but finding it hard to make a decision! We can’t have anything massive as storage and work top space are an issue.

@MissyB1 we have this one & I'm really impressed. I really wasn't expecting much as it was fairly inexpensive when we purchased it. But it's been brilliant & pretty compact.

Buy 80% of your shopping basket from the fresh fruit veg mean and dairy aisle.

That's pretty much the answer.

I drastically reduced carbs and found that I was no longer really eating many UPFs. So that's one easy way of doing it.

It really frees you up to think differently about what constitutes a 'meal', whether satiation is what we think it is (is it really that full "I'm done" feeling we're used to when eating processed carbs?) and what our nutritional requirements actually are.

My lunch, which is in front of me, is 70g-ish of sliced lamb heart, a pile of kale and a piece of roasted sweet potato left over from last night. Basing meals on a protein and vegetables and maybe throwing in a carbohydrate in the form of starchy vegetable or legume will make the transition to fewer UPFs easy.

I've been doing this for a year. I make two large loaves of wholemeal bread each weekend. It's easy. Start the yeast early morning while my first kettle boils. Mix, knead & leave to rise, then have my shower and dress. Knock back, put in tins and eat breakfast. Put loaves in the oven for 45 mins whenever suits you. I do have a breadmaker but I prefer hand made. And it fends off bingo wings 😁

Other than that, meal plan, cook from scratch, eat 30 different fruit & veg a week.

It seemed a massive task when I started but now I do it without thinking. Ds17 is much less grumpy, we're both much healthier - no colds or flu - and I feed us both for under £60 a week.

@MissyB1 I use a Bosch MaxoMixx which is basically a stick blender plus whisk, mini food chopper and a food processor attachment for grating/slicing. Lots of bits but doesn't take up much worktop space. The only thing it's not great at is creaming for cake mixes but I use my old kenwood chef for that.

I have started trying to think about what to have for breakfast and lunch when eating less UPF.

So far for breakfast I’m thinking home made granola with yogurt and fruit. I’ll have to find a yogurt that’s not UP.
Chia pudding is really nice with yogurt and fruit too.
Tomatoes/egg/cottage cheese on toast also sounds good.

Lunches is where I get a bit stuck. I’m not a huge sandwich eater, don’t really like soup, and rarely have leftovers. So I’m not sure what to eat.

Plus, I’m on a high protein diet and think I’ll have to eat pretty meat heavy because I’m cutting out all the protein products that’s are UP.

Do you have any specific websites or cookery books that you’ve used that has helped you in that transition?

Interested in reading what everyone's doing, my diet is already very limited due to health issues & being vegetarian, so not sure I can do much more but curious about reducing any UOF!s if I can.

@Meadowfinch 30 different fruit and veg per week; colour me impressed! I'm definitely going to try that. Currently, I'm not even doing half of that but tend to have lots of the same. I'm off to make a list

Thanks I will have a look at that one!

Most plain yogurts are UPF free and you can mix with fruit/muesli for breakfast or with lemon juice and herbs for salad dressing. Porridge for breakfast too if you like it. For lunches what about omelettes or oatcakes or rice cakes with cheese or hummus. I cook from scratch with seasonal fruit and veg and proper butter or oil and use a bread maker; I don't get hung up about the occasional few slices of salami on a pizza. In fact Co op or Sainsbury's taste the difference pizzas or Croatia and Mollica are pretty good for ingredients.

I was advised to eat 30 different fruit & veg each week by my oncology team (bc) because it optimises the immune system.
So I have fruit with porridge for breakfast - pears, apple, satsuma, plums, oats.
Lunch might be home made tsatsiki & pittas or celery & stilton soup. Supper maybe chilli which includes onion, kidney beans, tomatoes, chillies. Or a stir fry with chicken & sesame. Or a seafood risotto with spinach, fennel and rice.
If you keep a food diary, you'll be surprised how quickly they add up.
Nothing I make involves much prep, and I buy seasonally to keep the cost down.
The best thing is I don't get colds any more. 🙂

Ive been reducing UPFs since January. At first it was a lot of label grazing in the supermarket to figure out ingredients, but eventually you find perfect UPF free swaps (eg changing sunpat peanut butter to waitrose own brand 100% peanut butter). Food shopping does become easier eventually.

Breakfasts tend to be porridge (i might chuck in a square of 90% chocolate to jazz it up some days), greek yoghurt with fruit & seeds and nuts, a smoothie, sourdough with scrambled eggs, etc. All quite quick and easy. Now the dc are on their school holidays I'll have a bit more time to in the mornings so might make some sourdough discard waffles/ pancakes, eggy bread etc.

Lunches can be heating up yesterdays dinner, sourdough bread with cheese, soups (plenty of the fresh soup tubs at the supermarket are upf free, just read ingredient labels). In the summer i got quite into picky lunches, so some veg sticks with hummus (again, check the ingredients of the various brands), chunks of feta, kimchi, quiche, omelette, etc.

What do you usually eat for lunch at the moment? Im sure there will be lower or upf free alternatives.

Ive found the 30 different plants a week surprisingly easy, because it also includes herbs and spices - so things like chucking in some cumin seeds, some frozen ginger, or a sprinkle of paprika/ cinnamon/ nutmeg/fresh pepper/ dried herbs all count towards the 30.

I’ve been doing it for a while and batch cooking is absolutely your friend. I work and solo parent and it can be difficult at times. I picked my bread maker up for £15 second hand and make bread a couple of times a week, slice and freeze it. I make bread crumbs out of this and so the kids can still have chicken nuggets (partially cooked and then frozen) and chips sometimes , I also have an air fryer.
We also have things like Katsu curry, the sauce is super easy to make and freezes well. Lots of things like shepherds pie filling so you just have to add potatoes and bung in the oven, bolognaise, curry, chilli are all easy too.
it’s not perfect but we eat about 80% upf free at home at the moment.
Many people can be a bit holier than thou about it and talk about how they eat 100% Unprocessed Foods and they never let their kids eat anything that’s UPF.
I think that anything you can do is a step in the right direction and occasional takeaway pizza or Chinese is fine in moderation.

OP, some lunches that aren't soup or sandwiches -

• A salad of grated carrot, grated apple, sultanas and hazel nuts, with vinaigrette. (very filling)
• Home made tsatsiki and warm pittas. (takes five mins to make)
• smoked mackerel, celery & potato salad
• wholemeal pasta with any homemade sauce
• jacket potato with tuna & sweetcorn.

If you need high protein, think about shredded chicken or anything with nuts or beans, as well as meat or fish.

Other options for High protein lunchs can be lentils or chick peas.
Halved hard boiled eggs are lovely in lentil curry. Dd1 is taking that to work tomorrow on an extra long shift as a vet. With a portion of black cardamom rice.
The famous Ottolenghis tandoori chickpeas is great frozen & reheated. As is almost any chickpea curry.
Tofu is also a good one. Firm tofu can be sliced & shallow fried until crispy & dipped in a soy/chilli/lemon sauce.
Just a tip when I batch cook I make enough for 4-6 portions. I usually keep 2 out & freeze the rest. May be something to do with having 4 kids ( even though they're all away now at uni/working) & I'm not just not used to cooking small amounts. But it's just as easy to cook large amounts & have more food in the freezer for the days you don't want to cook.
Buy a couple of good cookbooks for inspiration if you're stuck or can't cook. You need to cook food that you actually want to eat at the end of the day. Alternatively there are lots of brilliant Instagram accounts that post really good recipes.

How is that better than a pizza? What do you think pizza is made of?

This sounds like a much healthier
alternative than the shop bought pizzas.

We often make our own pizzas though, which are much healthier

My plan here is not to be 100% UPF free, that’s just not attainable for me. Nor is spending hours cooking my own bread, bagels etc.
I’ll be doing the best job I can with the time and budget available to me.

I’ve been looking through my kitchen cupboards for items that I already have that are OK ingredients wise, and found this tomato puree that I bought from Lidl, the only ingredient is tomatoes. A lot of the others I have seen have acidity regulators in them.