The first question I had in my mind after reading the book Ultra-Processed People by Chris Van Tulleken, was how do I eat less UPF? Unfortunately, a very high number of foods in shops and supermarkets have UPF ingredients. When you start looking for UPF, you can see that it is everywhere. It can take a little time and effort, but there are lots of things that you can do to eat less UPF. Here are my suggestions.
1. Start with breakfast
Breakfast tends to be a quick and easy meal with little preparation required. A few small adjustments can help make this into a healthier meal. Here in the UK, a very common breakfast for adults and children alike is a bowl of cereal. Most breakfast cereals in the UK tend to be very sweet and contain a lot of additives. An easy first step is to replace a sugary cereal with one that has no added sugar such as Shredded Wheat. Adding fruit like bananas, strawberries or blueberries will add some sweetness while keeping your bowl UPF free. Greek yoghurt is another great alternative to sugary cereal, and also pairs well with fruit. If you have a little more time at breakfast, I’d also recommend cracking open a couple of eggs and adding some veggies for a healthy breakfast omelette.
2. Have realistic expectations
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the same will be true of your diet. It’s unrealistic to go UPF free overnight. It will take time, and many small changes will need to be made to your diet. According to a recent Guardian article, UPF on average makes up half of the UK diet. Moving from 50% of your diet being UPF to 0% is going to take a huge shift in behaviour, and drastic changes are unlikely to be sustainable long term. Instead of aiming for 0%, start with small changes and begin at 45%. One easy change is to stop drinking sugary soft drinks. Replace these with water, and if necessary a piece of fruit like an apple or banana to give you a hit of sugar. If giving up caffeine is difficult or not feasible, replace soft drinks with tea or coffee. By moving in the right direction with your diet, you can now be a bit more ambitious. Aim for 40%. Now 35%. Your body will thank you.
3. Stay away from lunch time Meal Deals.
For many workers in the UK, the easiest and most popular meal when you’re taking a lunch break from work is a Meal Deal. They are widely available, and competitively priced. Unfortunately, most items available contain UPF ingredients, and it can be a real challenge to find even one element of a Meal Deal that is not UPF. Meal Deal Mains tend to largely consist of sandwiches. These will contain emulsifiers to give a very soft texture, which can quickly and easily be chewed and swallowed. Meal deal Sides seem to focus primarily on a range of crisps/potato chips, which will often contain monosodium glutamate (MSG) and Maltodextrin to enhance flavours. Meal Deal Drinks largely consist of soft drinks or now increasingly energy drinks, which contain citric acid or high fructose corn syrup if you’re in the USA, to provide palatability. That’s already a good number of the top UPF ingredients to avoid.
4. Adapt what you already eat
Adapting what you already eat is a great way to start when trying to reduce the amount of UPF you eat in your diet. As mentioned earlier, it’s extremely difficult to eliminate all the UPF in your diet overnight. Small changes, are the best changes. Think about a typical evening meal, which elements are UPF and could be replaced with minimal effort? Oven chips are a popular part of dinner here in the UK. This recent article explains why rising oven chip prices was a problem for UK families in 2023. Oven chips can easily be replaced. One alternative if you’re really keen to keep chips as a part of the meal, is to make your own from scratch. It’s not particularly difficult, and the taste is a massive upgrade on oven chips. Don’t mind giving up chips but still crave potato? Go for roast potatoes or jacket potatoes. Do you want to be even healthier? Skip the potato completely, and put together a side salad instead. Just a few small tweaks to your dishes can help you move away from UPF.
5. Become a meal planning master
It’s boring, but having a plan for the meals that you are going to eat each week can make a huge impact on the amount of UPF in your diet. Most convenience foods tend to UPF, so planning can help you stay away from these. A great tip that has really helped me is to batch cook my lunches at the weekend. I can them be confident at work that I won’t need to hurriedly scoff down a Meal Deal or sneak into a fast food restaurant on my lunch break. I’m eating better, and I’m saving money – convenience foods usually come at a premium. Having a meal plan also means that it’s more likely that you are aware of the ingredients going into your food and gives time to check packaging for UPF ingredients.
In summary, changing your diet and moving away from UPF can be challenging. How do I eat less UPF is not always an easy question to answer! However, by starting small and making gradual changes to your diet, you can move away from UPF in a sustainable way. Today, it may feel difficult to start giving up UPF, but in my experience, usually in life the hardest steps to take are the first ones.