SW and UPF

[DinosaurQuilt]

Is it possible to follow SW and avoid all the ultra processed foods such as the fat free yoghurts, fry spray, cereal bars etc? IIRC a lot of menu plans rely on these?

[sleekitbeastie]

I don't eat any of that stuff on SW. Natural fat free yogurt is not UPF by the usual definition I think? Just the sweetened/thickened/flavoured gloop.

[pelagra]

It's easier if you avoid all the UPFs. Many of them have syns, but real foods are mainly free, so you can eat almost anything.

Today I'm having porridge with blueberries for breakfast, left over mushroom risotto and salad for lunch and roasted squash with chickpeas and feta for dinner. Snacks will be fruit, ham (bit dodgy, but it could be cold chicken instead) and griddled peppers, and Greek yoghurt. All free, apart from a squirt of real oil, all real food cooked from scratch, and leaving me with scope to have panettone or a mince pie this evening if I fancy them.

I do think it's hard to follow SW without eating meat though. I was down to only two servings a week, but I find it much more complicated to produce vegetarian meals that taste good without using fats for the texture and flavour.

[sleekitbeastie]

For veggie meals @pelagra I use eggs, lentils, pulses, beans, tofu. Also tempeh (is that syn'd? Not a member and it's not on my old books), cheese (as a HexA). I love paneer!

[matthewstirling]

Slimming world is perfect for not eating a load of ultra processed food because at the basis of it is meat, veg, pulses, grains, pasta, rice. Avoid using syns for low calorie crisps and crap and use them for a bit of extra cheese or some extra virgin olive oil instead. Healthy extras could be cheese, dried fruit, ryvita etc and you've cracked it.

[DinosaurQuilt]

Thank you for your replies. IIRC is a tablespoon of olive oil a Healthy Extra B?

[Wilma55]

No @DinosaurQuilt hex b are
High fibre cereal
Wholemeal bread
High fibre/wholemeal crispbread
Some nuts/seeds
Dried/canned or cooked fruit

Hope that helps

[AHelpfulHand]

It’s along time since I did slimming world, I found it very restrictive as you couldn’t have cereal and bread on the same day (unless you syn the bread.

most people have cereal in the morning and a sandwich at lunch, but if you did this then you wouldn’t have hardly any syns for stuff outside of the free foods.

when I went to group, it was a lot of low fat aspartame ladened stuff, lots of cooking from scratch.

i lasted 4 months

[DinosaurQuilt]

Thanks, Wilma. I think everything has changed (again) as a friend did SW and had carbs and protein on the same plate😱

[suki1964]

I use olive oil and put it in a spray bottle, I refuse to use fry light

I make my own FF yoghurt - no sweeteners or thickeners, just skimmed milk, fermented and strained over night and its as thick as clotted cream which then makes it a good base for dips and dressings

I dont buy any of their products but I do use their recipes, most I have tried are very good, all passable :)

Im a scratch cook anyways so its been easy to make the changes without making a big deal about being "on a diet"

The whole family have got to like air fryer chips :)