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 ?

I used to eat peanut butter on upf bread for breakfast, a cheese and salad sandwich, piece of fruit and packet of crisps for lunch and home cooked dinner although often followed by a gu or other upf dessert. I also regularly snacked on crisps as I always felt hungry. I lost 15kg switching to my new diet over 6 months or so.

On my new diet (which I have been eating for around 2 years) I eat for breakfast a bowl of walnuts and pumpkin seeds, finn crisp rye crackers with goats cheese, wild salmon, capers and brocolli sprouts and apple with peanut butter

For lunch I have chicken or fish with a large salad and saukercrat followed by mixed berries and for dinner some sort of protein and veg combination followed by fruit and dark chocolate.

I probably have 1 portion of bread or a grain/starchy carb a day. I no longer snack because I am never hungry now outside of meal times. I put this down to a high fibre diet and more stable blood sugar. My hba1c is now 30 down from 38. It is probably around 1800 kcal and I maintain a bmi of 19 on it.

As my posting traffic indicates, I’m interested in food and eating. I was brought up E number free, brown bread, rice and lentils, so I have never eaten that much UPF, so my diet was tweaks mainly but it was surprising how much mission creep I’d allowed.

I had stopped making bread once the kids were older, fruit yoghurts, cheese crackers with crap in, condiments with ‘extras’ in, cereals that had ‘extracts’. I switched a few cheaper products (soy sauce) for better quality ones without crap. I do t use stock cubes, I use miso.

I’ve never bought crisps and biscuits (we eat what we bake) or used freezer food (beyond fish fingers), but I really upped my nuts and seeds, added kombucha, and then carried on.

I do buy (gasp) buy the odd can of drink for the kids if we have a party, but have never bought squash as we drink sparkling water.

Quoting myself just to add that one of the biggest game changers for me has been switching from low fat yoghurt to full fat, and I alternate cows milk yoghurt and goats milk yoghurt (I'd be fully goats milk* but I am on a budget). I actually feel full after a reasonable, normal sized portion with some berries and nuts, and not raiding the cupboards for more straight after a giant bowl of flavoured fat free with fruit.

*because a friend suggested it was better for the menopause, and now just because I like it

Hi. Out of interest, what fermented food do you eat?

My diet hasn’t changed that much but I have never tried hard to avoid UPF, I don’t think it’s possible tbh. Even plain old salt contains an anti-clumping agent, otherwise it would be a block.

I used to eat more meat and much more dairy. For me the change was making sure that half of my plate was plants: leaves, stems and flowers such as various types of cabbage, leek, cauliflower, broccoli, onion, kale, lettuce, various types of seaweed and so on.
I also started eating the same boring breakfast everyday: rolled oats with various seeds and nuts soaked overnight in some kind of fermented milk and a banana. I only change the seeds and the type of ferment (kefir/långfil/a-fil/yoghurt etc).

What flour are you using?

@CortieTat
i have oats/chia/hazelnut/maple syrup/milk every morning for breakfast and I don’t mind having the same everyday

However your suggestion of using kefir had never occurred to me before so I will be trying that! Thank you

Oh, me too!!! I actually noticed the link when I was still a teenager. I remember loving Sara Lee frozen cheesecakes (not in the U.K.) but then realising I could not eat them as I had terrible acid reflux after eating them.

Heinz Ketchup is definitely UPF because it contains herb and spice extracts, no idea on Sainsbury’s.

(this is according to the NOVA scale, don’t shoot the messenger)

We make kombucha at home (starter from Amazon), I use miso paste (both red and white) for cooking too. Various fermented milks (kefir, filmjölk, yoghurt - we have several different types of buttermilk where I live) and I also ferment vegetables at home: homemade kimchi, cucumbers, cauliflower, carrots, beetroot and sprout beans. We make them all year round.

How is herb and spice a upf worry? Not that ketchup isn’t . I probably eat 1 tbsp a year !

I first pour hot water over oats and once they cool down I add chia, pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, hemp etc, and then add some kefir. I leave it overnight in a cupboard outside the fridge. If you add 10% fat yoghurt instead of kefir it will be very creamy too!

I don't honestly understand how people are consuming the vast percentages of upfs claimed on this thread.

Ok bread and pasta, I get it. Cereal maybe - though personally I wouldn't touch the stuff with all the added salt and sugar.

After that, though, isn't a meal meat, veg, potatoes, maybe rice? Cooked in olive oil, maybe a bit of butter (sauteed mushrooms: mmm!).

Ok, we've all picked up a takeaway or ready meal once in a while, but that's not going to be 80 percent of a diet!!? How many people are using jar sauces etc?

I feel the same but you only have to look at the high streets to see all the food chains and how busy they are!

With love, if you think most people are cooking from scratch ingredients for all of their meals each day I think you're being naïve.

Most breakfast cereals, even ones marketed as healthy, have UPF ingredients. Most supermarket bread does. Most people don't use real single ingredient (plus salt) butter on it. and so on.

A lot of people have toast and spread for example for breakfast or cereals, sandwiches for lunch, meal deals with pre-made sandwiches, crisps, chocolate bar a day, jar sauces and pre-made ingredients for dinners, flavoured water made with sweeteners, fizzy drinks. I think you are underestimating how poor the average diet in the UK is. We have one of the worst diets in the world.

Yes I dont have any time for that scale, so I wont shoot the messenger!

But extract? I have almond and vanilla and coconut extract in the cupboard.

We do

Its actually very very difficult to avoid artifical sweetners if you need to buy drinks other than water out and about. Its my bug bear and my soap box. I am furious about their use. And how restrictive it is for me to get drinks out and about and buy nice flavoured drinks for the home.

I swear the sweeteners just make you crave more sweet things.

And you're right about the full fat yoghurt, too. So much more filling.

I know, I can’t drink artificial sweeteners, but they are in almost everything now. I would rather have a full sugar Coke every so often than drink any of the artificial sweetener stuff, but it’s increasingly difficult to find drinks without it when out and about and in restaurants etc.

If you want to make it yourself, people often give away grains on Freecycle or Gumtree. They grow prolifically.

Back in the 80s when calories were king and fat was demonised, sweeteners and replacement foods with lower fat and sugar were produced. Now we know different but in the meantime the public got hooked. I used to drink Diet Coke and think it was fine as no calories or sugar. Wouldn’t touch it now.

I dont drink fizzy drinks as I cant have carbonated drinks but, I know from looking that you cant buy any lemonade that I know of (apart from those posh ones) that doesnt have sweetners. Also tonic waters for gin, unless you go for the fancy ones which cost a bomb, you're forced to have sweetners. I do have tonic now and then even though its a bit carbonated.

Yes that sugar tax has a lot to answer for

I would much rather a full sugar Coke than anything with sweetener (which is everything else) as I can’t bear the aftertaste and it gives me a headache

There's evidence that artificial sweeteners wipe out the healthy bacteria in your stomach thereby detrimentally altering your metabolism. The same happens with all the beige food that lots of kids live on. The range of healthy bacteria is very limited & this is thought to contribute to the rise in obesity. It's also increasingly being linked to the rise in mental health issues. There's a huge gut brain link.