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?

There was no distinction between them, just that most cereals are ultra processed and therefore bad.

Frosties for example have a much higher sugar content as well as much less finer than Shreddies. Are they both processed? Yes. Does that make them equal, no. Does ‘being processed’ make all other nutritional information we have null and void. I wouldn’t have thought so. I’m turning this program off now. My BMI is 20, I’m fit and healthy, I cook plenty from scratch but I also enjoy the odd cheese string meant for my son’s packed lunch as well as having crumpets for breakfast...
But I wonder if anyone else is wondering what category wine comes under (sulphites are often added don’t you know - won’t find that in your kitchen cupboard.)

I didn't watch it but I've always been aware of the problem, I tend to think of these foods as ultra palatable foods

What category does wine come under? It comes under the category of alcohol which under my classification system is in the category of poison ....ymmv!

@FishyFriday yes indeed! 🙄

Incidentally I don't actually eat cereal for breakfast. The baby and I have Greek yoghurt with fruit and seeds, or scrambled eggs on toast, or French toast with Greek yoghurt on top, or oat porridge I make myself (with water and a bit of cinnamon). Sometimes pancakes, fruit and yoghurt. Or oaty bars I've made myself. It's all a bit baby led weaning in my kitchen at the moment.

I'm not going to sit here and get cross at someone who does have shreddies for breakfast though. I'm not sure they desperately need to be redirected to something just because it's less processed.

@QioiioiioQ that’s right, it does contain actual poison... I wonder if that’s considered better or worse than UPF though. If no sulphites are added and it’s made in a ‘traditional’ way then I guess it belongs in that second category - partly processed? Which makes it much healthier than UP Shreddies. From what this program has taught me today wine and beer is healthier than Shreddies and I won’t be told otherwise.

Whilst alcohol can be converted to carbohydrate and burnt as fuel surely it is primarily an intoxicant not a food?

I’m more concerned about the wine

Though the yogurt is often ultra processed and so is white bread in plastic

Don’t be annoyed at those pointing this out though, be cross with food manufactures who make this stuff ultra processed. The governments of the western world for being in collaboration with these large food many factors and allowing it to happen

Yogurt is supposed to be natural ffs not stuffed with other stuff, look at the label of white sliced bread and there is more than 12 ingredients where only 5/6 should be and not stuff you’d find in a nirmal baking cupboard

[quote Pinkblueberry]@QioiioiioQ that’s right, it does contain actual poison... I wonder if that’s considered better or worse than UPF though. If no sulphites are added and it’s made in a ‘traditional’ way then I guess it belongs in that second category - partly processed? Which makes it much healthier than UP Shreddies. From what this program has taught me today wine and beer is healthier than Shreddies and I won’t be told otherwise.[/quote]
Well, wine for breakfast it is. 😂

This is the problem with oversimplifying nutrition and diet. You can have a bowl or Frosties within an otherwise varied and nutritious diet and it's all absolutely fine. Whereas someone might eat a much less nutritious diet composed entirely of minimally processed foods.

The level of processing in individual foods is not a sufficient measure of 'healthiness'. Nor is fat content. Or whatever else you've decided to reduce the whole complexity of human diet down to. It might seem like an easy shorthand, but it just distorts the actual issues in a different way.

@ivykaty44 I’m not annoyed at all - you’re not telling me anything I don’t already know 🤷‍♀️ You do sound overly annoyed with flavoured yoghurt though.

A major part of the message was surely the proportion of the ultra processed / palatable foods in our national diet and that of our children (teens had highest proportion which wasn't a surprise!,😂. I do let my teen make unhealthy choices at times but I'm using this as a programme to chat about.)

So they were absolutely not saying a bowl of shreddies and an evening meal using a stock cube is a "problem" diet.

Don't mess about with yoghurt, go straight for the hard stuff, make your own kefir

@4PawsGood

Cheese strings are just cheese?

I guess it’s good to be suspicious about food that last oddly long, eg wraps. I might have a rethink about them.

They suggested that you read the list of ingredients. If the ingredients listed arent things that you normally have in your kitchen to cook with, then the food is ultra processed, eg most of us have salt and sugar in our kitchens but not food colourings, preservatives, things with chemical names, E numbers , artificial flavourings , modified starches, palm oil etc etc etc .

After a month of eating ultra processed food they did a second brain scan on the presenter and found that his brain was making the same connections to the areas of his brain that relate to pleasure as the brains of people addicted to tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, ie the brain liked the pleasure those foods gave him and was actively sending messages to other areas of his brain asking for more of the same.

It was a shocking programme, apparently there is next to no research done on the way these foods affect children’s bodies, let alone their developing brains, and for many children they are 80% of their diet.

ivykaty44 . Bread only needs three ingredients. Flour, yeast, water.

So they were absolutely not saying a bowl of shreddies and an evening meal using a stock cube is a "problem" diet.

@PetuniaPot I don’t in all honesty think it was either but that’s what several people on this thread seem to have taken from it.

I have this bookmarked to try and watch. It sounds very interesting

I think on the general scale of healthy eating we do quite well. We try and buy local, bread from bakers, organic dairy, less processed. But we definitely so eat some processed, and we could probably easily reduce that by half if we looked at what carefully.

I’m not that bothered by things like wraps though. With a baby, speed to get food done some days is important. Using ready made wraps, with some kind of bean/ veggie/ cheese to make quesadillas with some sour cream/ avocado on the side, still seems far better to me than grabbing takeout or full on ready meal. But yes, I should look at making our own wraps for the times we do have more free time or see if bakery makes something a little less processed

Does anyone have any recipes for quick meals for the whole family that take less than 20 mins prep and generally liked by all ages?

I need to watch the programme in full. But the general jist I got was that if the ingredients aren’t things which are in a normal food cupboard then it is highly processed. Even things like spice extracts they said? Which is a kind of alarming thing to say and leaves so many unanswered questions.

Caspianberg for dinner tonight I am doing chicken with stir fry veg. For flavour I use frozen chopped ginger. Honey and soy sauce. So not a packet sauce. Although maybe soy sauce is highly processed ?
I usually use noodles but wondered if rice is better now ?

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.

True. It's probably better to focus on choosing as many non-ultra-processed foods as you practically can, rather than fretting about the ones that are difficult to avoid.

I just put crisps and/or biscuits in my dc's packed lunches without really thinking about it that much . But actually I could easily not, or only do so very occasionally. Or make my own flapjacks/cookies. I make their lunches, it's not them putting that stuff in there. My dc are slim, but it sounds like that programme was linking UPFs to more than just weight.

The homemade wraps I made the other day were a bit of a revelation. Not hard to make, only used plain flour, baking powder, salt and water, lovely and soft, and freezable. And they tasted really good!

Btw on the subject of wraps, has anyone seen the brilliant quarter-folded wrap method on 'Cooking With Ayeh'? I'm a bit obsessed with it . She's on Instagram and YouTube if anyone fancies checking it out.

@Vursayles

What I found hugely disturbing and incredibly depressing was when they visited that family in Stockport, and the dad saying when they buy more fresh and healthy food, it adds a third to their shopping bill. It was then confirmed that fresh foods are at least 15% more expensive than UPF’s (if I recall correctly).

That for me is the crux of the issue - the gap between rich and poor and how long you’re likely to live is hugely defined by income (of course we already knew this, but the UPF issue is a very obvious slap in the face).

A shitty, yet cheap, highly processed diet because it’s all you can afford, versus nutritious home-cooked meals more wealthy families have the time and money to prepare. How can we expect to change people’s habits while UPF’s are so cheap and readily available and so many families are facing financial hardship?

This terrifies me because it’s about so much more than simple personal responsibility or choice when it comes to food. The surgeon was right, that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the obesity epidemic.

This is a huge problem- if you can buy a bag of frozen chicken nuggets and a bag of chips for say £3, how far will that go on healthy foods - maybe a tin of chickpeas and some veg, but you then need to know how to cook it. The government should tax UPF, subsidise fresh fruit and veg, and think about cooking skills in schools/ communities

Does anyone know if crisps are upf is the ingredients are just potato sunflower oil and salt ?

Plain salted crisps certainly aren't as moreish as the multi ingredient powdered ones so that's an improvement.

They are still put into a crinkly pack though to trigger you! Same with biscuits apparently.

@Turquoisesol I wouldn’t have thought so. But in all honesty, how much of a significant nutritional difference in terms of health and avoiding obesity will that make? Instead of cutting down on things like crisps are we now saying it’s fine to eat more regularly if you make your own?
Is eating home made cake everyday rather than shop bought really the way to tackle obesity?

Fair point.

They are still put into a crinkly pack though to trigger you!shock Same with biscuits apparently.

That’s interesting... I always put mine in a bowl or on a plate, I don’t like eating out of a packet. Take that UPF companies, I guess.

Brought up on food cooked entirely from scratch apart from bread.
Am doing the same with my DCs. You couldn’t pay me to feed them the processed crap I see in the supermarkets. It’s something I feel very passionately about - good diet can be the foundations for a healthy strong body and ability to live life as fully as possible.
Breaks my heart to see overweight kids who can barely run, walking around with a bottle of fizzy junk clutched in their hand and an equally overweight parent struggling to keep up. Must be truly shit.