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 ?

yes, to your body upf’s are more harmful than non upf’s (to the gut biome)

non upf crisps are potato, oil and salt. Upf pasta has all sorts of lecithins, preservatives etc. Your gut doesn’t like them.

Pasta is not upf. It’s a pf if made in a factory but usually only durum wheat and water.

He raves about Cacao. I struggle with it as it’s a really strong flavour to me but the deliciously Ella recipe of dates/nuts/cacao balls are good. My friend made some for me and I could manage them.

I think that by the time we get sick it's too late. You probably have to eat non-UPF for years. Even then there is no guarantee that we're not going to get sick. That's the human body for you. Hope you are OK.

landlordhell
I had chat gpt go through the pastas I had in my cupboard, they were all upf’s (clearly I’ve been buying cheap pasta 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️)

It might depend on the person? I cook meals from scratch but not afraid of any UPFs in my ingredients, I use shop bread, crisps etc. I do varied exercise including plenty strength training several times a week. I never have issues sleeping or have aching joints, and I’ve always been a slim healthy weight.

Plain supermarket dried pasta is just wheat and water. Were you buying it in a ready meal?

Yup, it’s amazing!!

I’ve been non-UPF all this year. For a long time I also did 30 fruit & veg a week, not expecting much impact, but it was life changing.

For example, I used to always have stomach issues, gas etc, which I thought was just normal life. Non-UPF and I’m never, ever bloated. Literally never.

Also, feeling really balanced and so much energy all the time, the afternoon slump and sugar cravings are not a thing. No aches, pains, skin breakouts… nothing.

I’ve re-introduced some UPFs to see how I get on… while I do like something like a Kinder Bar or supermarket ready meal, this week I’ve had a week of eating mostly UPFs or restaurant meals, and in all honesty, I feel a massive difference in my body. Instant slight weight gain of 4lb although I’ve not eaten much, bloated, low energy, wanting more UPFs as opposed to the good stuff.

Well done OP!! Food as medicine is so, so underrated. I didn’t realise it until I experienced it.

IME it has to be a full UPF cull though, eating less UPF probably makes some difference but a full cut makes a huge noticeable difference. It’s also much easier and cheaper than people make out

We eat largely upf free & I'm not sure I feel much healthier. I've lost weight though & ds2 who was overweight has also lost quite a bit of weight.
I make my own sourdough pizzas if we want pizza now as they taste a lot better. I also make sourdough naan flatbreads to freeze for wraps. Also a lot of home made pesto & green sauce, home made mayo & aoili.
I don't buy crisps any more but bake up some homemade oven chips or some sourdough discard crackers ( delicious) if I feel like a salty snack.
If we want cake we normally bake it ourselves.
All my kids have learnt to cook from scratch and eat very healthily. Ds1 still has bacon though for breakfast as he's egg allergic whereas I've stopped eating bacon. I crisp up Prosciutto instead.

I also had chat GPT tell me how long to change the gut biome (the whole point of a non upf’s diet) and it said 3 months and plotted a time line for me of what I could expect.

As I said I already notice the difference in just over a week. And crucially for me it’s not felt like a detox - you know headaches, tiredness etc

I cut out the ones containing citric acid which is manufactured from black mould. It was causing me reflux and cutting this out has stopped it.

True, you need exercise alongside to get rid of bellies etc
That’s fantastic OP! And I know what you mean about the late realisation.. I’ve had the same thing with exercise since January and can’t believe how much it’s changed my body. Mid 40s and I have a better figure than any other time in my life. Why did no-one tell me 🤣

Some of them are!

One of my big annoyances is how much I dislike yogurt or anything in that half sour sort of family, kefir, kimchi etc. Life would be so much easier if I thought Greek yogurt was tasty! Cuts out a lot of options.

That said I cook most things from scratch other than the obvious few condiments needed. But it's easy for me I have time and trained in catering, not the same for a busy working parent!

This is really useful, thanks. Is there a thread or an IG page for easy swaps like this? I’ll admit, I’m not personally massively fussed about giving up UPFs, however if I could find more easy swaps like this then I’d definitely swap them out.

I'm a bit curious about some of the foods you mention, OP! Normal pasta, even cheap supermarket own-brand, is just wheat flour and water. Is it maybe that your app or Chat GPT is defining it as UPF unless it's wholeweat (brown) pasta?

Also surely boight pasta salad with industrially-made mayo is UPF?

Yes, I needed swaps for what I ALREADY eat. And I bought a months worth of them so it was easy to access.

Yes, I’m confused about the pasta. This is the ingredients list for Tesco 69p pasta:

This is the same for virtually all dried pasta!

Have you ever read the ingredients in "normal" pasta? It's only ever wheat and semolina. Far fewer ingredients than a ready prepared potato salad from M&S, and less heavily processed than a bag of deep fried crisps

I'm glad you're feeling better, but you seem to have latched almost obsessively on to some slightly random "rules" here? Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe that ultra processed foods are not healthy, but I'm also a big fan of commonsense.

So I had loads of what I thought were healthy dried pastas in the cupboard - protein pasta, low calorie pasta made of gums etc. all bought from Holland and Barrett/health food stores.

all ultra processed because of the additives 😊

I’m glad you’re feeling better op but I’d not rely on chat gpt for health advice. It just finds info from the internet and collates it. I’d find a reliable up to date source that you can trust .

Great that you can buy ‘normal pasta’ and it’s fine. I asked chat gpt for the healthiest after it scanned all mine and that’s what it came up with.

Pasta is just wheat and water, it's not a UPF (unless you're talking about pot noodles etc.).

Not many people know that mayo can be made in small quantities - just use part of a yolk instead of a whole one. It's fiddly of course but there's no waste.

The point is that these Frankenstein foods are what I had in my cupboard thinking they were healthy. Using chat gpt to scan them was useful.

Although I am largely upf free I found the greatest health benefits came from getting my blood sugar under control and reducing my hba1c from 38 to 30. This means cutting out sugar and flour. Although not ultra processed I don't think our bodies evolved to handle these in such large quantities.