Did anyone watch "What are we feeding our kids?" on BBC1

[MarchXX]

Here's link.

i astounded that there has been little to no research of the effect of UPSs on our brains and bodies. The results on Chris (after one month) were dire indeed.

Chris's brain scans before and after were shocking but not surprising as UPF food manufacturers spend multi££££millions on research to find the perfect bliss point to skewer and keep new addicted consumers eating their products again and again.

I was interested in the huge increase in our consumption of UPF foods since 1980 but would have liked to see the difference from 1970 or 1960 because when I was a child growing up (in 60s) there was virtually no UPF foods in our home, all meals were cooked using fresh meat/fish, eggs, veg and fruit with some dried/tinned goods and no ready meals/takeaways. Eating out (or takeaways) was a very rare treat indeed and snacking between meals was frowned upon and not encouraged.

The representative from the food industry was, not surprisingly, reticent about their role in the deteriorating health of our nation's population. Nestle's success in infiltrating remote communities with their UPF-packed supermarket-boats and creating new addicted consumers (and an obesity epidemic) was an eye-opener but not at all surprising seeing as their role in exploiting breastfeeding mothers in third world countries is well known, too.

Anyway, did anyone watch it. What did you think?

I've been forced into this way of eating due to health reasons (long covid) and coeliac disease.
Because of my food sensitivities I have to look at ingredients for anything packaged. It's shocking how maize starch/modified starch/corn starch has made its way into almost everything. Even pricey 'organic' items contain this.
What I have found is that while my shopping bill has gone up on an unprocessed diet , I feel so very much better. It becomes a habit to cook in bulk when you have time, or use a slow cooker. Then freeze leftovers.
I eat a lot of leftovers that have been frozen - things like beef stew, chicken curry etc.
Acknowledge that I am relatively financially privileged though. Lower than average income but I can put the majority of disposable income into fresh food - local veg box etc.
Agree with the points made about vegan food not necessarily healthier. Loads of additives in many foods. Gluten free is one of the worst too.

@MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously

There was a thread yesterday on why children/teenagers' mental health seems do much worse now than in the past. Watching the brain scans on Chris last night, I started wondering if all the crap our children have been fed has permanently altered their developing brains and led to this? I was shocked by the fact that his brain didn't return to normal. Is this why it's so hard to go back to a healthy diet - our minds have now been programmed to crave processed food?

Truly believe this is a thing. Not the only reason but a huge part of it. If you look at all the developing research on the gut/brain connection it makes total sense.

As I understand it, much of it has to do with an imbalance in omega 6 (too much, bad) and omega 3 (not enough, bad). Cheap seed oils (particularly sunflower) and animals fed on cheap soy feed rather than grass and pasture raised are the main offenders, rather than simply the fact that a food has been processed in some way.

Op v impressed you make your own cheese!

@Onawheel I can’t see there being a problem with cold pressed rape seed oil. It’s crushed at a low temperature and then filtered. That’s it!

We go for organic. Generally farmers spray off rape with glyphosate to kill it, this speed up the drying process. Obviously this doesn’t happen with organic.

@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere

Didn’t get round to watching the programme (thought it might be a trigger for my vulnerable teens to react in unpredictable ways). What exactly are they categorising as UPF? Genuine question - not being arsey.

We eat a lot of ready meals but I tend to operate a “do I recognise all the ingredients” principle (and I’ve got a science background, so citric acid for example would be fine by me). Something like Loyd Grossman / Seeds of Change pasta sauce passes the ingredients test (apart from a pinch of sugar), but is there something about the way it’s cooked that causes a problem? And if so, would a properly long slow cooked pasta sauce in your kitchen with a pinch of sugar, reducing the ripe tomatoes to maximise their sugar content have the same issues? Preserving techniques have been used for centuries to keep people alive during the winter - but of course it’s still entirely possible that they’re not optimal for our bodies because centuries isn’t a long time evolutionarily.

Lloyd grossman sauce I believe cooked in sunflower oil - is the difference.

Are some foods just ‘processed’ rather than ultra processed?

If any one is interested in further reading, Tim Spectors books The Diet Myth and Spoonfed are interesting. Not just about UPF but also about other so called healthy food that is pushed.

I’d love to improve my diet but I can’t imagine.not eating chocolate ever. Plain dark chocolate won’t cut it. Is all chocolate UP?

To those who don’t eat any UPS? What do you do when you eat out?

@Onawheel

Can anyone who knows about rapeseed oil explain which one is bad? The stuff that goes into veg oil? And does that mean the cold pressed stuff is ok

Thanks

As I understand it, cold-pressed organic rapeseed is more of a neutral oil (not good but not awful) so eg the few crisps cooked in rapeseed are not nutritious but not so bad (eg eat real crisps) - but ev olive oil or coconut are better.

Horrifyingly expensive to eat like this though as pps have mentioned.

@bendmeoverbackwards yes, there's low processed, processed then ultra processed

This BBC article lists the four categories.
www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/what_is_ultra-processed_food

Thank you @Shinesun14 I assume things like cheese and yoghurt are not UPS so ok?

I'm reading this thread and cynically wondering how many people smoke or partake in other highly unhealthy habits.

Of course we need to cut back on some "ultra processed food" but panicking about a wrap seems excessive to me.

It's not feasible to cut out All UPFs because if it was we wouldn't need to eat them in the first place. Modern life simply doesn't give anyone enough time to prepare everything you eat from scratch and let's not even get started on the cost.

I've recently changed my diet to include animal fats and full fat dairy. What I've found is that they're much more satisfying than than seed oils and reduced fat products,so much so that I've inadvertently become an intermittent faster.

I'm not advocating intermittent fasting,but this thread has made me wonder if by switching to animal fats food consumption and therefore food bills would automatically reduce.

Thank you @FourWordsImMuNiTy

I’m very impressed with those who have removed UP food from their diet. I’d love to do the same or cut down but I have no willpower and enjoy rubbish food too much, I cook a healthy family dinner each night and try and eat plenty of fruit and veg but I also love chocolate and cake!

@namesnamesnamesnames Don't feel bad for doing your best.

Do you have a garden? A balcony? And are your children able to eat strawberries?

My mum bought 2 strawberry plants one year and they produced runners and by the end of the summer we had a garden half of which was a strawberry field.

I have a pear tree in the garden, it took a couple of years to start producing but I get more pears than I can handle.

I realise that if you do grow some of your own you it won't save you much money but it does save a bit and you know what has gone into the production of them.

For a while I’ve been trying to take Mr Pollan’s advice because it boils down simply to Eat Food, Mostly Plants, Not too much. (By his philosophy UPS isn’t ‘Food’ because it isn’t something that was in your Grandma’s larder - meaning when she was young not last Thursday! )
Must see this program because I think it’s easy to let creep set in. Also might let us know about some things that we thought were ok and maybe not.
It gets very tricky around processing though - as previous poster said - i’d never give a second thought to citric acid for example.
For allergy sufferers ingredients like carrageen are very familiar ( thickener ) and while some on the internet claim its satanic, my old nan and her nan before here ate plenty ( common in west of Ireland) so really not that simple.
It shocking how having captured Western consumers, these companies have apparently targeted people from developing countries. It looks like big tobacco all over again. Here’s the rub though - if we remove all the preservative laden UPS and turn everyone into home cooks, all individually cooking stuff on millions of stoves, is there really enough food and fuel to sustainably keep everyone fed and are the logistics for getting enough fresh food to where it needs to go, up to it.
Slow cookers / solar cookers, micro farming, vertical farms, reduced dependence on animal products and all that are great - but will it work for 7 billion, most of whom will live in mega cities?
We could afford to push the tobacco guys off the nearest cliff, but I think we do need big efficient food companies. So what to do if they are untrustworthy?
Another previous poster made a great point about the cost to the NHS maybe tipping a balance - at least on a country wide level having a nationalized health service might be the key to laws ensuring safer food.

@HasaDigaEebowai

I’m going to watch this today but the reality is that these foods aren’t going to disappear. Life is so busy that millions will grab a jar of ready made sauce rather than make one from scratch but still class themselves as having cooked a real meal from scratch because it wasn’t a full pre prepared meal in a packet. I’ll admit I have that mentality and Lloyd grossman bolognese sauce is a staple in this house as the basis for bolognese, lasagne, moussaka, chilli etc.

This is me! I make my bolognese with mainly fresh ingredients. I have to make two versions as one of my children is allergic to tomato but I start “from scratch” and fry garlic and mince, add mustard (is that processed?) and grated carrot and / or parsnip. But for the ones who like tomato I then add tomato purée and a jar of Lloyd Grossman sauce to half the mince.

.

Cheese strings must have been highly processed to make them behave in that weird bendy way. They behave more like plastic than cheese.

Are you sure? I heard somewhere they are made in a similar way to mozzarella, hence the texture. Could be wrong though. They contain just milk, nothing else.

and a jar of Lloyd Grossman sauce

Why not just add a tin of tomatoes though. Would do the same job.

A tin of tomatoes needs to be cooked for half an hour or more to taste nice, and have herbs/spices/puree etc added to taste. A jarred sauce has already been precooked for that time.

@MuthaFunka61

I've recently changed my diet to include animal fats and full fat dairy. What I've found is that they're much more satisfying than than seed oils and reduced fat products,so much so that I've inadvertently become an intermittent faster.

I'm not advocating intermittent fasting,but this thread has made me wonder if by switching to animal fats food consumption and therefore food bills would automatically reduce.

Yes, if anyone is interested in this, Lily Nichols' Real Food for Pregnancy has all the evidence about the importance of animal fat (and all parts of the animal) in our diets (amongst other things) and it's how the animal is raised not that it's an animal product that it is important (both nutritionally and for the environment too!)

I believe the fat is very important in terms of satiety and also keeping blood sugar stable (upset by carbs/sugar).

I think it's a tough read if you're a vegan, but there are some vege alternatives.

Of course we need to cut back on some "ultra processed food" but panicking about a wrap seems excessive to me.

I agree - UPF isn’t great, but neither is food obsession. I don’t think there’s anything healthy about thinking a wrap is somehow akin to poison. Our bodies aren’t so fragile that they can’t handle a bit of processed foods. We have a decent amount of healthy and fit people over the age of 80 in this country now, I don’t think they’ve all spent their lives avoiding crumpets. Besides, formula is processed too isn’t it? So is medicine. And multivitamins. And there must be difference between processed and ‘ultra processed’ other wise why the special name? I’m interested to watch the documentary though - who knows, I might eat my words later...

@MarchXX

I ditched UPFs five years ago and the effect on my mental health was profound (which I did not expect). Taking away sugar (in particular) showed me how toxic it was for me. Having stable mental health has been a godsend, not to mention that I don't need to overeat any more and managed to lose a significant amount of excess weight which I have maintained (a blooming miracle).

Yes, it means I have to buy fresh food a couple of times a week and cook a lot more using single ingredients and also make my own cheese and sausages. Still, worth it for the health benefits.

Incidentally, my dental health is awesome now (another side effect of no sugar/grains) and I thoroughly enjoy not getting fillings etc when I go for dental check-ups .

There’s been a small study recently that showed in their sample a diet of unprocessed foods reduced mh problems.

I eat mostly unprocessed foods now I’m over 40yo.

@Shinesun14

I do wonder if the studies that show veggie diets and Mediterranean diets as best is down to it being low processed rather then the meat and dairy element.

We always buy Allison's seeded bread or similar and I thought that was the best bread to buy (apart from fresh) but actually the ingredients in it are not recognisable. None of the 'normally bread you can buy in shops has any simple ingredients- but short of making my own I'm not sure how I can change that part in our diets. Dh and dc make sandwiches for lunch everyday, I'm guilty of an almost daily Costa cheese and tomato toastie. Making the change to no UPF is going to be harder then going veggie.

I use a breadmaker so 9/10 times make my own. In 3 hours you get a lovely loaf!