Ultra processed foods, do you eat them, avoid them, or limit them?
- Thread starter Windigo
- Start date
It',s why we drink gin and tonicAnd plenty of gin, alcohol kills most things right?
The quinine in tonic prevents malaria
(I actually calculated it one day and you had to drink something like 9 litre tonic daily to be effective. Combine that with the gin and I am sure it's not malaria that will kill you)
And sadly quinine has to go on the baddies list too!
- Joined
- 11 Oct 2012
- Local time
- 2:35 AM
- Messages
- 19,404
- Location
- SE Australia
- Website
- www.satnavsaysstraighton.com
We have cut back on the UPFs considerably. It used to be on the plate maybe 4 times a week as a source of protein. Now it's lucky to see a plate once a week. Hubby caught me off guard tonight cooking a meat free burger he wanted to get out of the freezer. I had actually planned 2 boiled eggs each, but despite having boiled the eggs yesterday, he didn't serve them today. 
There are one or two items (the chia seed nuggets come to mind or the Ikea veghie balls) that I could make at home without too much effort but don't, but most of the time our food is pretty healthy here.
There are one or two items (the chia seed nuggets come to mind or the Ikea veghie balls) that I could make at home without too much effort but don't, but most of the time our food is pretty healthy here.
Windigo
Kitchen Witch
- Joined
- 29 Jul 2019
- Local time
- 5:35 PM
- Messages
- 8,095
- Location
- The Netherlands
- Website
- www.instagram.com
Since I stopped eating UPFs I can report I am less hungry during the day and as a result lost 3 pounds already without effort. Curious to see what the long term effects of this are.
janine05
Member
Avoid processed foods I've always been told, only use cuts of meats, not processed meats etc...
Janine
Windigo
Kitchen Witch
- Joined
- 29 Jul 2019
- Local time
- 5:35 PM
- Messages
- 8,095
- Location
- The Netherlands
- Website
- www.instagram.com
Of course it's a great and healthy habit to have.
However it's not easily possible for everyone to avoid UPF's, frequently for people on low incomes they're unavoidable. I've lived below the poverty line for years and without some UPF's I wouldn't have made it.
Some UPFs are worse than others. This article has more detail. Ultra-processed foods: how bad are they for your health?
From this website:
"Ultra processed: Ice cream, ham, sausages, crisps, mass-produced bread, some breakfast cereals, biscuits, carbonated drinks, fruit-flavoured yogurts, instant soups, and some alcoholic drinks including whisky, gin, and rum."
I would seriously question this source. Even though commercial sausages, especially things like Oscar Meyer wieners, are heavily processed, many countries are proud of their sausages. British bangers, Spanish chorizos, German Wurst, Czech klobása, Lebanese makanek, French andouille; these are proudly home made by butchers, from fresh ingredients.
The Scots make whisky (by law) with water, malted barley and yeast. That's it. Blended whisky will have whisky made with other, cheaper grains (ie. maize or rice) but they're still the same 3 ingredients. They brew it to make beer, then distill it to make "low wine" (c. 27-35 degrees of alcohol), then distill it again, and maybe a 3rd time. No additives, or it's not whisky. The same goes for Bourbon, except they use maize instead of barley.
Rum is made from distilled cane sugar; again, that's it. Venezuelan rum, for example, is protected by law. Once it goes into the barrel, no-one can touch it except a professional auditor from the Ministry of Health. He/she samples it every 4-6 months, until it is allowed to go on the market after a minimum of 2 years.
Not a gin expert, but the process is similar; distilling.
Ultra-processed foods, to me, are things like Cheez-Whiz, bouillon cubes (I've got some in front of me: Salt,MSG, vegetable fat, hydrolised vegetable protein,meat and chicken fat, sugar and spices) or the artificial cream I accidentally bought the other day (water, palm oil fat, milk protein, permeated, powdered buttermilk, modified starch, soy lecithin,stabilisers, carboxymethyl sodium, disodium phosphate and gum arabic). Not a single natural ingredient in sight!
Sugar and spices may not all be great, but can they be considered ultra processed? Should you not distinguish between refined and unrefined? Natural versus refined sugar: What’s the difference?
I buy unrefined sugar such as this. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CL2GW...&s=grocery&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw
In my chocolate quinoa recipe, I used to use 20g sugar and 12g truvia as I was afraid of putting on weight. I now use 30g sugar and my weight has remained the same. This is possibly because the recipe has lots of fibre and protein with the cacao, macaroot and tahina. The key thing is moderation. I have this twice a week for dinner. Breakfast and lunch hardly have any sugar.
Last edited: