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?

I wish I could agree re the food bill but for us when we were doing well at reducing our UPFs my shopping bill increased exponentially, the hardest thing for me though is the time, from how long it takes to do the food planning and shopping (even though I do online) through to cooking every single thing from scratch (when we were in the swing of it I was making all the bread, even the snacks and treats so baking a lot).

It is worth it though, so iI really hope to get back to it.

I can appreciate that you don’t have much time. Here are some swaps I’ve found which I hope you might find helpful…

Heinz pasta sauces are good, as are Mutti and Crosta and Mollica. Anything Crosta and Mollica are good tbf - their wraps are delicious, as are the pizzas. They do pizza bases with just tomato sauce that you can add your own toppings to. Curry sauces, Tesco Finest are the cleanest I’ve found. Soups are Covent Garden.

M&S are good, they do some good cereals and bread rolls that are UPF. Also crisps that are UPF. They do frozen stock discs which add flavour to a meal and are healthier than stock cubes/pots.

Biscuits, go for plain Scottish shortbread as they are “clean”. Doughnuts, I’d stick to plain sugar ring doughnuts from the fresh bakery. If you want croissants, Lidl do frozen croissants which you bake at home which are UPF.

If you’re on TikTok there’s loads of UPF accounts that give you swap ideas. There’s a guy who has an account called Tonic. He can be a bit pernickety but his info is great.

https://www.tiktok.com/@tonichealth?_r=1&_t=ZN-92ZFI8RooHG

Here’s his account!

https://www.finnebrogue.com/products/?gf_protect_submission=1

This is a good company for nitrate free stuff. Not all the range is available in all shops. I’ve used the bacon 😋.

Thanks for the tips on bacon, but dare I say it I’m not a fan of any type of bacon. I’m also looking to eliminate any processed meats during this process.
I foresee I lot of sliced turkey and chicken in my future 😂

I am very time poor but focus on buying simple ingredients and doing a bit of batch cooking on the weekend.

After a while it just becomes a habit.

I also recommend the Rob Hobson recipe books, he’s a nutritionist who is trying to get people to reduce UPFs. Obviously most cookbooks encourage cooking from scratch but I love his books, they’re very simple and cater well to teenage appetites.

I wish I could agree re the food bill but for us when we were doing well at reducing our UPFs my shopping bill increased exponentially, the hardest thing for me though is the time, from how long it takes to do the food planning and shopping (even though I do online) through to cooking every single thing from scratch (when we were in the swing of it I was making all the bread, even the snacks and treats so baking a lot).
Im suprised at this.
I enjoy the food planning but these days I get AI to plan.
You could ask it to do do a budget friendly non upf plan for however many people and ask for how many meals that are easy to make.
I asked it to do 6 days ,3x meals a day for 4 people but you can customise it. You can exclude foods are ask for particular breakfasts.
Day 1: Chicken & Root Vegetables

• Breakfast: Porridge (rolled oats) made with milk or water, topped with sliced banana.
• Lunch: Lentil and vegetable soup served with whole-grain bread. Make extra for leftovers.
• Dinner: Sticky chicken traybake with carrots and potatoes using homemade sauce (honey, garlic, and oil).

Day 2: Seasonal Fish & Whole Grains

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with fresh spinach and whole-grain toast.
• Lunch: Leftover lentil and vegetable soup from Day 1.
• Dinner: Speed salmon pasta using whole-wheat pasta and fresh broccoli.

Day 3: Plant-Based Staples

• Breakfast: Greek yogurt topped with fresh fruit (apples or pears) and a drizzle of honey.
• Lunch: Chickpea and tuna salad with cucumber, tomatoes, and a simple lemon-olive oil dressing.
• Dinner: Sweet potato and black bean curry made with coconut milk and served over brown rice.

Day 4: Hearty One-Pan Meals

• Breakfast: Sliced banana on whole-grain toast with peanut butter.
• Lunch: Egg, tomato, and cucumber salad with a side of whole-grain bread.
• Dinner: Beef and vegetable stir-fry with peppers, onions, and ginger over brown rice.

Day 5: Comfort Food

• Breakfast: Poached eggs on whole-grain toast with sliced tomatoes.
• Lunch: Tuna and avocado wrap (use whole-wheat flatbread or lettuce wraps to avoid UPFs).
• Dinner: Homemade meatballs in a scratch-made tomato and basil sauce served with mashed potatoes.

Day 6: Family Favorites

• Breakfast: Oat and banana pancakes topped with fresh berries.
• Lunch: Quinoa salad with black beans, corn, and a lime-cilantro dressing.
• Dinner: Roasted vegetable rice bowls with grilled chicken strips and a dollop of plain Greek yogurt.

UPF-Free Preparation Tips

• Avoid Pre-made Sauces: Use olive oil, lemon juice, honey, and fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary) to flavor meals.
• Stock Alternatives: Avoid bouillon cubes, which are often highly processed; use water or make a quick "zero-waste" vegetable broth from veggie peelings.
• Whole Grains: Stick to rolled oats, brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, and quinoa to ensure high fiber and minimal processing.

Following as this is something I’d like to start, fed up with eating too many processed foods

I've just invested in a NInja blender and soup maker (£110 just now) to be able to do this cheaply and to fit in with my busy life. I plan to make a couple of soups a week to have for lunch with sourdough bread (Jasons/Aldi etc are UPF free). Will also use it to make my own pesto, hummus, pasta sauces etc.

I've previously had cancer so really need to lower my risk of it returning!

A little update.
It’s going pretty well! It’s taking a lot of time to read labels on everything I buy, but that’ll probably get quicker over time.

Can someone please advise me re citric acid.
It’s in a lot of the cheaper tinned tomatoes, and I can’t afford to buy the more expensive ones all the time.
Some people online say CA is yet another preservative and some say it’s fine because it’s found in citrus fruits naturally.

Whats the general opinion? And if I’m wanting to avoid it, where can I get cheaper ones without it?

I’d love to hear how the soup maker goes. Do you just chuck stuff in and leave it?

I tend to buy these tinned tomatoes whenever they are on offer (they do have a tiny bit of added salt)

Personally i don't stress too much if my tinned tomatoes have citric acid added to them - but something you may want to look out for is various tins of kidney/black beans and chickpeas etc often have firming agents and antioxidants added so they are the things I'll spend extra money on tp buy the non upf version

I avoid the citric acid ones and buy the mutti brand but they are very expensive! I haven't yet found a cheaper alternative.

I started this last year, it's surprisingly easy. I generally stick to the same meals.
Eggs and mushrooms for breakfast
Veg soup or prawn salad roll for lunch
Meat or fish and veg for dinner

I have a butchers cash and carry near me where they do amazing deals on eggs and excellent quality meat in bulk. I buy different frozen veg. Rarely drink anything other water or tea.

I made some FB marketplace purchases of gadgets which are a godsend for me for low UPF:

• Breadmaker to make dough then bake rolls in the oven. I can then freeze all but 2, I love fresh bread but rarely can eat it all before it goes stale. I do make pizza dough in this too.
• soup maker. I use this weekly, bung a load of frozen veg with veg stock and hot tasty soup made in 20min with no input from me.
• smoothie blender. Easy way to intake fruit for nutrients and fibre and use up old fruit out of the bowl. Load up with frozen fruit and fresh apple juice.
• ice cream maker (I have the lakeland one). A little bit of faff with this one as you have to pre freeze the machine for 24hrs, so need a bit of planning. But wow, the pay off is incredible. Fresh cream, sugar, vanilla and any other ingredients makes the most incredible ice-cream. I make a biscoff one that is devoured by my family in minutes. I've had to store it away for a bit as I was putting too much weight on.

It's been brilliant so far! I had a basic Morphy Richards one years ago but didn't like it all that much but the Ninja is amazing. I've made a veg/lentil and a green veg soup so far and both have been so easy and very tasty. I know its easy to just make it in a pot but this really does free up some time for me and helps me eat healthier.

These are a good chopped tomatoes choice from Lidl. 99.7% tomatoes. Think about 75p a can - more expensive than ‘standard’ tins of tomatoes but way cheaper than mutti ones etc.

Attached is a screen shot from the Yuka app.

@Lifeisntadressrehearsal thank you, Lidl for the win! I’ll pop in when my current stash is depleted.

Tim Spector is on Channel 4 tonight talking about processed foods. I'm planning on watching this as I love following him on the Zoe Instagram account . He actually knows what he's talking about, unlike the current crop of wellness & health influencers.

There is nothing wrong with citric acid.

I make my own wholemeal bread in my bread maker. It takes literally five minutes to add the ingredients, then wait.

I might try the pizza type thing with
mushroom , onions and cheese (is cheese just processed, or ultra processed?)

The Batch Lady has a fair few prep in advance recipes and she has a cook book too. I’ve not used her but her recipes are family friendly, slow cooker friendly and (from memory) fairly UPF free.

Often mayo has a lot of dodgy ingredients and if you have a stick blender, it takes about (real time) about 3 minutes to make. I usually start with the freshest eggs as I reckon the time scale of keeping it in the fridge depends on the egg use by date.

You can add lemon zest, chives or other seasonings to it.

downshiftology.com/recipes/how-to-make-homemade-mayonnaise/

Does anyone know where i can catch this on repeat? Maybe YouTube has it? I'll try and find it because I'd love to watch it :)

@Nevertriedcaviar cheese is just processed, not UP. As long as you dont get the ones with added things like dried fruit in etc.

@WideOpenBeaches i am currently using Hunter and Gather avocado oil mayo and really adore it, but its quite expensive! I dont use mayo very often so i dont think there is any point in making my own as i would never eat it in time.

Eating non UPF (well, more like low upf i think) is going reasonably well. I miss the convenience of certain items, and food shopping is taking so much longer, but i knew that would be the case for at least the first few months.

For sweet treats i have been buying medjool dates, pitting them, filling with almond butter and drizzling with dark chocolate. Absolutley divine!

It is time consuming at the moment, but i am hoping that over time i will just adapt and get to know the foods i want to avoid and what brands and foods are ok.

@Bookaholic73 it's a short series I think of 3-4 episodes. Hence it should be available on channel 4 od if you're in the UK.
Zoe have discussed cheeses & apparently fermented cheeses bring benefits as they're considered a healthy food for your gut. Even cheese that isn't live brings certain benefits, right down to baby bels. Zoe have covered this in great depth in one of their podcasts.