I’ve gone non UPF, I just can’t believe the difference it’s made in a week

[LaurieFairyCake]

I feel like such an idiot. I can’t believe how well I feel, how much I’m ready for bed and how much better I sleep.

this shit is radical. I was eating 40% upf (a teenagers diet is 80% 😱) and I feel brand new.

i have zero pain in my joints, during the day loads of good energy

does anyone else do this ?

Sorry read on and realised what you’d said.

And please remember there’s a big difference between processed and ultraprocessed. They are not synonyms.

Lots of noodles are UPF, you def need to check packets. I’ve moved to rice noodles for that reason.

follow https://www.instagram.com/michela.chiappa?igsh=MTJ4amJtMTU5c2wzcQ==

she has a no knead focaccia I make weekly.

I make bread regularly too, once you get into the habit it doesn’t take too long!!

Just remembering that recently I got myself some plant milks because Im also trying to reduce my GERD and reflux symptoms and the acid watcher diet is what I was trying to follow and it recommended these

I obviously bought the wrong ones and started a thread about how much rubbish there was in them!! There are ones you can buy which dont have UPFs in them but they're quite expensive

Im back to bog standard milk now.
I will try the diet again but really need to go whole hog with it for it to have any chance of working

On that same similar note, over the years Ive been really disappoitned with how many cream cheese brands, supermarkets also, have guar gum in them. It really doesnt need it and I dont like the texture of it when it has.

I think people assume it must all be "junk food" but if you have a sandwich and a packet of crisps for lunch (as many people do) and muesli or granola for breakfast its quite likely already 50% of your calories might come from UPFs as that's entirely UPFs.

I don't understand this remark. This is the muesli I buy for my household (Mornflake Classic Fruit & Nut Muesli). OK, it contains a minuscule amount of preservative, but the rest is minimally processed. My husband adds lot of jumbo rolled oats to it and then also adds some extra nuts, seeds and various different dried fruits to slightly adjust the flavours and textures.

Mixed Dried Fruits, Nuts & Seeds (38%) (Dried Dates (10%), Raisins (8%), Sultanas, Coconut (4%), Sunflower Seeds, Dried Apricot (2%) (contains Preservative Sulphur Dioxide), Almonds (1%), Hazelnuts), Oatflakes, Toasted Wheatflakes, Barley Flakes

This is the granola he has sometimes instead (Mornflake Classic Granola Raisin & Almond):

Oatflakes (65%), Sugar, Raisins (13%), Rapeseed Oil, Almonds (2.5%), Honey, Sunflower Seeds, Natural Flavouring

I suppose here again there is a minuscule amount of natural flavouring, which could be anything. If it was vanilla essence, which I always have in my kitchen, they would say so. However, on the whole that seems fine to me.

I think says it all about how we have sleepwalked into a food environment where we don’t actually know or understand what’s being put into our food.

CVT refers to it as “industrially produced edible substances” which I think is a very good was of describing them. Edible yes, but so is cardboard.

Honestly, just read the labels, it becomes extremely obvious. If it has weird-sounding shit you’ve never heard of, gums, the word emulsifier, then dollars to donuts (the UPF kind) it’s ultraprocessed.

But understand what the terms mean as often they sound innocuous but aren’t (milk protein sounds alright, yes? Except it’s UPF).

Many people cooking ‘from scratch’ gave no idea how many UPFs they are consuming

jars of pasta sauce , stock cubes or pots, ketchup, supermarket breads, cereals, fruit yoghurts, most sausages, plant based milks, some cheeses, store bought breadcrumbs,

The number of smug people I’ve come across announcing that they cook everything from scratch with no idea of how much of their foods are UPFs astound me.

The thing is, you’re eating good granola, plenty have malted this, dextrose that and stray gently towards UPF. That said, Natural flavourings are also a misnomer, nothing natural about them.

I buy Dorset Cereals simply muesli, or the nutty one, and both are fine.

Thanks for this. I've found it really interesting - I would have automatically assumed that all chocolate and crisps were UPF, so seeing that you can make very simple swaps is neat.

Jars of sauce - how is that scratch cooking
stock cubes and stock pots - meh, so small as to be insignificant in the bigger picture
ketchup - what? Not UPF
supermarket bread - where is this used in scratch cooking, bread pudding/bread and butter pudding/crutons?
cereals - most are not UPF and how do you use these in scratch cooking unless you mean just breakfast
fruit yoghurts - often full of shit but dont need to be, avoid the ones with artificial sweetner
sausages - need preservative in them, cant avoid it
plant based milk - full of rubbish
cheese - only if significantly processed, most cheese is not UPF

Its Aldi or Lidl isnt it Mornflake

Just bog standard supermarket stuff.

I think people really like to overcomplicate all this.

Don’t know if it has been mentioned but the peanut butter from Lidl and Aldi is just peanuts and superior to all other peanut butter (IMHO!)

Yes they also do an almond one as well. There really isnt a need to get a load of fancy stuff to eat well

No, not complicating reading a label, ‘good’ meant not too much crap, and Aldi is much better than many with its food products as the Germans don’t like eating shite food.

Aldi and Lidl are far superior in my opinion. I sometimes have to get certain bits in other shops but virtually all my food comes from them.

When I say overcomplicate, what I mean is, people seem to present this issue as that you cant buy just normal bog standard food. Look at the post above someone claiming plain old ketchup is a UPF.

I make a loaf in the food mixer, v low hassle. I use Anna Jones's recipe and chuck in a load of seeds. 2lb loaf tin from Amazon. Any other bread tastes nasty now!

Most people are also incredibly confused about what is actually UPF, as illustrated in this thread. Blanket assumptions for all food groups.

Most prepared food is processed (not fresh meat, fish, eggs, veg etc), it has to be in order to be tinned, or Jared, or packeted. BUT if it consists of two or three ingredients, it is not bad for you. Pasta, tinned tomatoes, olive oil, pesto, mayonnaise. All are fine. They are just preprepared for you with the ingredients you would make them at home. Even bread.... There are many breads available that are just wheat, yeast, salt and water. That is not UPF.

Put on a pot of brown rice. Takes about 15/20 minutes. While it cooks, butterfly and season a chicken breast (when I shop, I buy a load, bash them flat, rub them with a seasoning and freeze, so I can take one out in the am and it's ready to cook) I griddle that. When the rice is nearly done, I put some broccoli in a steamer basket and put it over the rice, or cook some peas in the microwave. Dress with a little olive oil and lemon and job done. Very tasty and quick, I often don't even bother with the rice.

Can you post the recipe for this

Not strictly correct. The number of ingredients can be an indicator of UPF but not necessarily. And a significant amount of shop-bought mayonnaise is also UPF: https://world.openfoodfacts.org/cgi/search.pl?search_terms=mayonnaise&search_simple=1&action=process

As are pestos: https://world.openfoodfacts.org/cgi/search.pl?search_terms=pesto&search_simple=1&action=process

Plenty of ketchup is UPF, because it contains artificially extracted flavourings or artificial sweeteners.

This is according to the NOVA scale, the only scale (AFAIK) currently being used to measure ultra-processed food. Sauce Shop ketchup isn't, but it's bloody expensive.

My friend batch cooks so makes at least double of a lot of dishes and freezes them. She does a weekly planner of menus for four people. Weekend is more relaxed.

I only checked Heinz and Sainsburys to clarify and neither have those in. Not going to go through the entire supermarket ranges.

If people are silly enough to buy 'low calorie' or 'light' products then yes they risk consuming artificial sweetners.

They can be if it is just potatoes salt and oil.