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?

@ShockOche

Wraps are easy to make. Or our local Turkish/ethnic shop has flatbreads without the chemicals at £1 for 5 which we use instead. Or Waitrose sell some posh ones just made with flour/salt/olive oil

Shop bought wraps just smell of chemicals to me, I won’t use them.

Do you know what the Waitrose ones are called?

I think she might mean the Italian Piadina, which aren't really wraps, in that you can't wrap them, you fold them. They are bascially flatbreads used in Italy to contain prosciutto or stracchino and rocket. The flatbreads are lovely, very basic and tasty, but what you traditionally put in them would be classed as ultra-processed I presume.

Why not just cook a load of sauce at the same time then freeze it? Freezer space permitting.

OMG why didn't I ever think of that (or read one of the million MN threads suggesting the same whenever anyone mentions bloody ragu and evil jarred sauces)

I personally can cook, I do cook, I quite enjoy it. There isn't actually a massive problem with my family's diets, we are all slim and (touch wood), healthy, I bake bread every other day we have a full roast dinner twice a week, I make yoghurt, we grow a lot of our own fruit and veg and we have chickens for fresh eggs and bees for honey (which we use in place of refined sugar in pretty much everything requiring sweetness). I'm making the point that in today's society many people don't have time to cook and so they reach for the jarred sauce and even people who do and can cook will often do that too for convenience and speed. A suggestion to cook sauce in bulk and batch freeze is not a revelation and is not the solution here!

The programme is interesting. I've just had it on in the background but I don't think lack of awareness is the biggest issue. I think its convenience and time pressures.

@BigWoollyJumpers

I think she might mean the Italian Piadina, which aren't really wraps, in that you can't wrap them, you fold them. They are bascially flatbreads used in Italy to contain prosciutto or stracchino and rocket. The flatbreads are lovely, very basic and tasty, but what you traditionally put in them would be classed as ultra-processed I presume.

Ok, I just need an alternative for my 15 year old who eats two wraps a day! I get 2good2go bakery bread and freeze it but he loves wraps.

@dozer I went through an agency. Paid a one off cost finding fee. Now pay the chef by the hour. He also goes to local markets for all the produce. I pay for the ingredients. It has improved my mental and physical health. Plus physical health of the kids. And after a full on day at work it’s great to sit down with the kids and chat properly.

The rest of HasaDigaEebowai's food/lifestyle is obviously good so the occasional jar of sauce is not going to change that. It's more about people who have this stuff day in day out.

That family on the programme yesterday said they couldn't afford to eat healthily but give their kids things like cheese strings, peperami and microwave kebabs - those things are not cheap are they?Certainly not as cheap as a bag of carrots and potatoes.

It's not panicking. It's just realising that a lot of foods marketed as healthy are little better than the foods you'd consider to be junk food.

I’d still call it panicking. I’ve just watched some of the program and I’m not particularly convinced so far. It’s really simplifying foods into 4 categories of ‘very good’ ‘good’ ‘ok’ and then ‘very bad this is making you fat stop eating this’, but nutrition is much more complex than this. A wrap really is not akin to a freezer donner kebab meat with chips microwave meal and eating a bowl of Shreddies for breakfast is not the same as having cake for breakfast (because if you eat Shreddies every morning you can easily maintain a healthy weight - if you eat cake it’s unlikely...). Putting all these foods in one category seems a bit ridiculous.

I'm so jealous Blessex that must be amazing.

@Pinkblueberry

It's not panicking. It's just realising that a lot of foods marketed as healthy are little better than the foods you'd consider to be junk food.

I’d still call it panicking. I’ve just watched some of the program and I’m not particularly convinced so far. It’s really simplifying foods into 4 categories of ‘very good’ ‘good’ ‘ok’ and then ‘very bad this is making you fat stop eating this’, but nutrition is much more complex than this. A wrap really is not akin to a freezer donner kebab meat with chips microwave meal and eating a bowl of Shreddies for breakfast is not the same as having cake for breakfast (because if you eat Shreddies every morning you can easily maintain a healthy weight - if you eat cake it’s unlikely...). Putting all these foods in one category seems a bit ridiculous.

I agree with this. I'm not sure making people panic over UP wraps is that helpful really. It's oversimplifying the issue (as everything related to diet seems to be these days: it's all about lists of 'good' or 'bad' and focused in the micro-level, rather than thinking about diets as a whole and over time).

If you're eating several wraps every day, then maybe you'd want to think about having a more varied diet. But it really isn't the same as eating several packets of Jammy dodgers every day (for example).

My middle son has to have a GF diet. We have a tub of xanthan gum in the house because GF does not perform like wheat flour. Yes, that's highly processed and barely 'food'. But he likes to eat pancakes along with the rest of us.

Thanks for the link OP, I will definitely watch this tonight.

I think this is a much better way of helping people to be aware of their food choices than telling people to eat low fat / low carb / whatever. From everything I have read it seems to be that some people’s bodies function best with lots of protein in their diet, some with lots of carbs - basically all bodies are different and the issue is not the ratio of macronutrients. What is totally clear is that NOBODY does well on a diet that is full of UPFs. But the addictive nature of them mean that it is very hard not to overdo it and, as PPs have said, they are cheap and that is always going to be an issue for families struggling to make ends meet.

Great programme last night. Dr Chris is highly watchable and gets his message across in a clear way.

Although our family diet is reasonably ok I was shocked that shreddies were in the ultra processed category as my kids love them and I had presumed they were a healthier option to some of the other cereals.

To me it's akin to the pension thread running on another board - you can do all the right things but it doesn't guarantee you anything. Ultra fit and healthy runners can and do drop dead in their thirties, and obese smokers could live to 100. Obviously we should all try and be healthier but eating UPFs, even at the 'top end' of moderation isn't going to kill you. I can't get worked up about how many ingredients are in a wrap, as long as shit or cyanide aren't included amongst them. It'd be a miserable existence to be obsessed over food and ingredients and that in itself is unhealthy.

@PrincessScarlett

Great programme last night. Dr Chris is highly watchable and gets his message across in a clear way.

Although our family diet is reasonably ok I was shocked that shreddies were in the ultra processed category as my kids love them and I had presumed they were a healthier option to some of the other cereals.

But they are a healthier alternative to Frosties.

Didn't watch. I have a neurodiverse child who is underweight, we're lucky to get him to eat anything much at all to stress over ultra processed. Just live on a different plane due to parenting him.

I watched the programme last night .It was very good but left many unanswered questions. The main problem is that in our society, poorer families often turn to UPF because they have not been given the tools to create healthy food for their families. Healthy can be cheaper but if you dont have the ability to cook,own a kitchen(and many people dont ) and the ability to plan then the soft option is to take the expensive option of UPF. They should bring back Domestic Science in schools and teach children and invite their parents along.
When my children were small we had very tiny disposable income almost on the poverty line but there was ha hot meal on the table every day with lots of Veg and Meat sources from the market at the end of the day when Traders were selling it off cheap. We never had takeaway food and I cooked alongside my children who are now wonderful cooks. Use your slow cooker,get those casseroles on the go and stop using Working Full Time as an excuse. I worked full time and my kids were always clean,well fed,healthy and not obese.

I’m going to have a watch of this tonight

The thing is 'processing' is what we do to to food to make it more interesting to eat. I can go to the shops and buy a bunch of unprocessed ingredients but I'll take them home and process them in all sorts of ways to make dinner.

I'll peel and chop potatoes. Then boil them in salted water. Then I'll warm through some milk and butter (both pre-processed in various ways) and mash the potatoes with that in it. I might add some nutmeg and pepper. I might grate some cheese (itself pre-processed).

I might brown some beef mince (pre-processed in the sense it's been minced) in some olive oil. Peel and dice an onion and a couple of carrots. Dice some celery. Throw them in with the mince. Add some dried herbs, some red wine, maybe a stock cube/some fish sauce (some highly processed ingredients there), a tin of tomatoes, maybe a bit of sugar. Cook it all on the hob and then assemble it into a pie with the mash on top. And serve with some (frozen) peas or (topped and tailed) green beans that I've steamed.

I'm doing much of it, but the resulting dinner is most definitely processed in lots of ways. It's not simply the processing that's the issue - it's what you're processing and how much of it is in your diet.

I’m trying to get on board with this but still struggling... he’s doing an experiment to see the impact of a high processed food diet but he’s going for very typical unhealthy options e.g. fried chicken, coco cops, ready meal lasagne, bacon sandwich, pepperoni pizza... oh of course there’s a Big Mac. It does all seem a bit bias towards creating the results you want to get. He could easily have gone for porridge sachets, shreddies, veggie topped pizza, a stir fry ready meal, yoghurts and wait for it... wraps! etc. The results would probably be quite different. Obviously addictiveness of these foods can be an issue - but I’m not convinced by him saying he wants to eat more. He all bunged up and looks thoroughly fed up of this ‘diet’ and would enjoy a bowl of broccoli now.

But they are a healthier alternative to Frosties.

Using this reasoning as yard stick isn’t going to help

Move away from processed breakfast from a box & look at alternatives, buckwheat porridge, oats porridge, rice, last nights left overs ( which happens in many other countries)

Kellogg’s was a clever man

Great programme last night. Dr Chris is highly watchable and gets his message across in a clear way.

Although our family diet is reasonably ok I was shocked that shreddies were in the ultra processed category as my kids love them and I had presumed they were a healthier option to some of the other cereals.

How is it a clear message if you’re genuinely left thinking Shreddies are nutritionally the same as eating sugar puffs and coco pops?

@osbertthesyrianhamster

Didn't watch. I have a neurodiverse child who is underweight, we're lucky to get him to eat anything much at all to stress over ultra processed. Just live on a different plane due to parenting him.

I don't blame you. My friend desperately wanted to breastfeed but can't. She watched the show and is now even more down about having to give her baby formula (ie processed milk).

@FishyFriday yes, I get that shreddies are healthier than frosties but was just a bit concerned that in the ultra processed category it had shreddies and what looked like Coco pops and Cheerios. There was no distinction between them, just that most cereals are ultra processed and therefore bad.

I work with children and it's frightening that over half of the children I work with bring packed lunches that are full of ultra processed foods. It really explains a lot in terms of the children that are engaged and doing well and those that are not. The whole MRI scan point that Doctor Chris made is very worrying indeed.

@ivykaty44

But they are a healthier alternative to Frosties.

Using this reasoning as yard stick isn’t going to help

Move away from processed breakfast from a box & look at alternatives, buckwheat porridge, oats porridge, rice, last nights left overs ( which happens in many other countries)

Kellogg’s was a clever man

But shreddies are not an intrinsically horrible thing to eat. A bowl of shreddies with some milk and a bit of fruit is not a terrible breakfast. I'm not sure that boiling some oats in milk and then using sugar or syrup to sweeten it is any more impressive a breakfast. Even if I boil the oats and have them with nothing, it's just some oats. It's not incredible in its nutrition. Neither is a bowl of rice really.

The shreddies is definitely better than coco pops or Frosties though. Even if they're in the same category.

@Pinkblueberry I know that shreddies are a better option than sugar puffs or cocoa pops, just surprised they lumped all cereals in as the same and told us to avoid

[quote PrincessScarlett]@FishyFriday yes, I get that shreddies are healthier than frosties but was just a bit concerned that in the ultra processed category it had shreddies and what looked like Coco pops and Cheerios. There was no distinction between them, just that most cereals are ultra processed and therefore bad.

I work with children and it's frightening that over half of the children I work with bring packed lunches that are full of ultra processed foods. It really explains a lot in terms of the children that are engaged and doing well and those that are not. The whole MRI scan point that Doctor Chris made is very worrying indeed.[/quote]
I agree that's a big problem. But as you can see, people will insist that shreddies are almost indefensible. Unlike oats. But only if you buy them in a bag. Pots of instant oats are UPF and therefore like poison.