Ultra-Processed People

[Fairislefandango]

Anyone read this? I'm currently listening to it as an audiobook and it's really enlightening, if depressing! After spending years on and off various diets and ending up back where I started, I'm thinking that cutting out UPF is the only sane thing left to try.

I've really cut down on buying bacon/ham etc. but I buy the nitrate-free bacon for making bolognese etc. In something like this it does the job of adding flavour absolutely fine. The Better Naked brand is really thin and I find it sticks to the pan and is a bit dry so not much good for a bacon sandwich. I see M&S have brought out nitrate-free bacon which looks thicker so I might try this next time.

I’m about halfway through reading the book and finding it frightening. I was very much a sceptic before thinking that it was more the high fat/sugar content of UPF that were the problem not the UPF.

I thought my diet was fairly reasonable but I use stock cubes and casserole mixes plus the odd ready meal. I’d conned myself that because I was buying M&S or Charlie Bigham meals they were ok.

Would these be an ok option? Birds eye wholegrain fishfingers - Alaska Pollock (65%), Wholegrain Breadcrumb Coating, Rapeseed Oil, Wholegrain Breadcrumb Coating (Wholegrain Wheat Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast, Malted Wholegrain Wheat Flour).

They're not bad as far as processed freezer food goes. Rapeseed oil is ultraprocessed. It's all a balancing act. DD and I enjoy fish fingers from time to time so I just accept that we will have some UPF that day but buy the best I can.

You can make your own quite easily by dipping fish into egg, flour and breadcrumbs but obviously that doesn't tick the box for a quick dinner you just shove onto a tray in the oven.

I'm not buying ham any more. I may venture into M&S to try their nitrite-free bacon as recommended upthread (and hope it's not toooo expensive), as we eat a pea/bacon/creamy pasta regularly.

I am still reluctantly buying Lidl's Deluxe chorizo for my son to cook for himself, tho this does have nitrites in it 😵‍💫

Maybe I should ask my (very good) butcher if their chorizo sausages are nitrite-free - tho they're the type you cook rather than the already-cured one.

why is rapseed oil ultra-processed food?

@MedSchoolRat
Conventional canola oil is produced using the industry standard method of solvent extraction. A solvent, typically hexane, is added to the canola seeds to remove the oil stored in the seeds. The oil is then refined, bleached and deodorized to give it a light color and flavor.

I knew about the solvent extraction, thanks.
But I didn't want to assume what others meant, how they decided what is UPF.

AFAIK, solvent extraction process applies to all the seed oils, and any olive oil that's not labeled virgin or is labeled pomace, or any oil not labeled cold-pressed. Is the UPF label because the oils might still have traces of solvent in them, and traces of the clays used in bleaching? From what I read, the deodorising happens by super heating the oil. I kind of suspect all commercially produced food oils have some trace contaminants in them, so the real question is what % contaminants.

I've always been suspicious of spray oils, or any oil labeled "light". is something added to make them easy to spray.

I would say it is in the name itself UPF: A food that needs solved, high temperature, high pressure , let alone bleaching, is the definition of UPF.

@HBGKC https://www.ocado.com/products/brindisa-nitrate-free-alejandro-chorizo-slices-100g-81569011 I get this

Thank you - but £50/kg!!! I had a look around Ocado, and also found this one, which is a bit more affordable (and still nitrate and nitrite-free):

www.ocado.com/products/la-gloria-riojana-spicy-chorizo-ring-551692011

ooo Ty

Hear, hear! It’s a fantastic book. But it’s also funny, shocking, mind blowing and non judgmental.
Weight loss is just a natural effect associated with not eating the UPF. For me the thing I’d get hooked on was chocolate and other sweet things. The amount I’d eat would steadily increase until I’d make a supreme effort to stop. Then the next birthday or Christmas I’d restart.

Now it just disgusts me. I can swan down the biscuit or chocolate aisle or actually don’t even bother going along it. I’m not using any self restraint, I just genuinely have no urge to eat it whatsoever.
This is what he says about the disgust making it easy for him not to eat fast food which is what he loved. I still enjoy home baked sweet things but find I don’t overeat them.
I’ve researched emulsifier-free chocolate but not bought any online yet. Haven’t found any in a shop yet. I guess that would be a good test 😂
I found after initially checking food and ingredients that avoiding UPF at home can be done as long as you leave yourself time to prepare food. Eating out is extremely difficult. A salad or veg and simple protein seems easiest but you have to avoid most dressings or sauces. Maybe this will improve with demand.
As one reviewer on the book cover says we need to read it and fight back! And not buy it.
Definitely not a “diet” book.

Hi, hopefully it's ok to revive the thread.
I'm just starting the book influenced by people's comments on here.

Have you made changes to your eating habits and kept them up?

Hi @halfwayacross yes I have made a few changes and kept them up. Even the kids (teen and tween) have accepted the changes. No longer have packets of biscuits and crisps in the house. It is quite a lot of extra work and we haven’t replaced everything with non upf but definitely improved things. It’s hard to avoid upf bread especially as it’s everywhere. And the kids are both growing a lot and permanently hungry. We had home made burgers and chips the other day. But the kids won’t accept having them with home made buns. As apparently it ruins it. So we had to have soft upf brioche buns.

I haven’t even read the whole book yet, just the first few chapters were enough to shock me in to changing things

@pimenttel01 that’s great. Liking your list

Thanks that’s great.

@pimenttel01 - loving your lists and am now following your Insta and FB page. But I’ve noticed a lot of the products you are recommending have rapeseed oil which I thought was one of the highly processed ingredients? I will use a cold pressed rapeseed oil at home for cooking but the rapeseed oil used in food manufacturing is highly processed I thought? Am prepared to be corrected as it’s all such a minefield!

I noticed that too about the rapeseed oil. I think it is upf. But in my mind not one of the worst upf ingredients.

That’s interesting @pimenttel01. Thanks. I think I’ll keep trying to avoid it where I can but if it’s quite far down on an ingredient’s list not worry too much.

Would the same apply for sunflower oil?

@Bartg - to my mind yes. It’s the processes the oil goes through and the ingredients used in the processing that make it UPF. The CVT book details the process for palm oil on page 28 and I think the processes for other oils are the same or similar. So I’m avoiding any mass produced oils other than cold pressed where I can.

thanks, must read book properly. I have moved the kids to plain crisps with only sunflower oil and potatoes. If anyone finds crisps made with olive oil (or another non upf) please let me know. I doubt it exists though. Previously we used to buy various flavoured crisps, so I think it’s an improvement from where we were at before.

@Bartg - every little helps as they say. I think it’s impossible to remove all UPFs at the moment but switching to less processed has to help. But at the end of the day a packet of crisps is a treat and the odd treat isn’t going to hurt. Crisps with just sunflower oil and potatoes has to be better than some of the alternatives out there.