Why ultra-processed foods are a bigger problem than you think – and 10 tips for cutting back at home
In general, when we talk UPFs, we are referring to foods that are highly altered, highly palatable and contain unrecognisable ingredients you wouldn't add when cooking at home. Think confectionary aisles, fizzy drinks, some ready meals, ready-to-eat sauces and pastes and most of the supermarket's breads and breakfast cereals.
The damage to our health from eating high levels of UPFs has been highlighted in a new study, which suggests that consumption of processed food contributes to almost 18,000 premature deaths in the UK each year.
It's important to highlight that UPFs are a broad category of foods and not all UPFs are the same. I eat small amounts of some UPFs and I don't wish to demonise them all. It's our government, policymakers and the big food industry players who have the power to curb their rapid spread and reorganise our food system for the better of everyone in society.
I worried about what I could do to be part of the change. After becoming a parent last year, I was even more committed to coming up with a hopeful, healthy, helpful antidote to all the alarming statistics.
So I wrote a cookbook to help make home-cooking as convenient as buying convenience foods. It's called Real Healthy: unprocess your diet with easy every day recipes, and as well as quick, delicious and doable meals, it's your go-to guide for cutting back on UPFs.
The easiest way of reducing UPF consumption is to cook more and prioritise whole and less processed foods eg fruits, veg, grains, beans, lentils, herbs, spices, nuts and seeds. This is easy to say, but can be difficult to put into practice when we are time-poor and high on stress. We need sustainable swaps, shortcuts and solutions that slot into our busy lives so we can make simple changes for our long-term health.
I want to help you rely less on UPFs so I'm sharing my top 10 tips to reboot with real meals. From how to stock up on healthy staples, to recognising UPFs, to not getting overwhelmed about how many you're consuming, I hope this will help you create some life-friendly and life-changing eating habits.
Don't pressure yourself
We know perfection is the enemy of progress so a good place to start this reboot is to try not to stress about it – this isn't a new diet or regime, it's not about all or nothing and no one is telling you what rules to follow. If anything, the only guide I'd offer is 'make more of the foods that make you feel good'. Go for delicious and doable recipes that you enjoy eating.
Stock up for success
Build up a foundation of real foods by prioritising some affordable storecupboard staples and particularly some freezer essentials (I always keep bags of frozen spinach, mixed berries (so much cheaper), mixed quick cook veg like peas, edamame and corn) so you've always got the building blocks of a quick meal on hand for those evenings you get caught short and don't have time to dash to the shops. For example, a tin of chickpeas and your favourite spice mix in the cupboard, greens in the freezer and tomato purée and yoghurt in the fridge.
Get to know your food better
Turn the packet over and read the label. Prioritise doing so with products you eat a lot of or eat daily. Different brands of products may mean that you can buy a UPF or minimally processed version of the same ingredient (sliced bread, which is one of the most bought UPF foods). Once you get into the swing of it, you'll find it easier to look out for products that you DO want to take home with you.
Containers
Stock up on reusable jars (old honey or jam jars or mustard jars work well) to use for breakfasts on the go or to store layered-up lunch salads which I like to call jalads (aka salad in a jar). You might also find it useful to invest in a flask for homemade smoothies and for taking hot food on the go. One of my lunch favourites is the White Chicken bean Chilli on page 62. I have a few leakproof containers for freezing or safe fridge storage. Always try to label with the date, you always think you'll remember and then you don't! Trust me.
Team up and share the load
Join forces with a colleague, friend or flatmate to share food here and there. We know from making fitness and other life commitments that it's always easier to create a new habit or try new things with someone else involved. One of you could make snacks for the 4pm slumps and the other could make a delicious big salad to enjoy as a working lunch, then the next week you swap around.
Make a meal plan
Some of us like plans and some of us don't! I'm not suggesting you need to suddenly sit down every Sunday and write a meal plan for the week, every week but a flexible-ish and gentle guide to the week that suits your schedule is going to hugely help your week's shopping list and help you add more wholefoods to that list and less UPFs.
It also will likely help you save money by wasting less food! If you don't fancy being prescriptive every day, how about prioritising the times you find yourself leaning hard on UPFs to help you avoid the same pitfalls each time (eg working lunches or breakfasts)? Letting your kids choose a dinner recipe each week might help encourage them to try new ingredients or get more interested in cooking.
Prioritise a bit of prepping ahead...
...both for foods you love to eat and foods you'd like to eat more of! Think of your favourite foods and the ones you make again and again. For example, do you enjoy lots of roast vegetables, tomato sauce or broccoli? Maybe make a big batch of them once a week to save you time. And are there foods that you'd like to eat more of but keep forgetting too? Perhaps salad and lentils.
Try prepping some of these ahead and making a jar of salad dressing (it can last for a few weeks in the fridge) so that you're more likely to enjoy them more often. On a day, I know I have a bit more time, like a Sunday eve, I make something like the one pot 'lazy lasagne' so that all I need to do is reheat it when I get back from work on Monday night. Or every week, I make a batch of muffins and freeze half – one week I go sweet and do lemon blueberry muffins for snacks, then I switch it up to make savoury muffins the next week like my frittata muffins which are ideal for breakfast (usually add some cottage cheese or feta, tomatoes, eggs).
Batch cook & freeze a fave
I don't mean eating the same leftover stew four nights in a row (unless you want to!). It could be as simple as doubling up your dinner so you have leftovers for lunch. Like many of us, I grew up with parents who both worked full time – a resourceful army father (who couldn't cook but couldn't stand waste) and with a thrifty Filipino mother who championed 'cook once, eat twice'.
I often find myself making a bigger batch of something so that I can freeze half for a rainy day (check out the big batch, lots of veg bolognese recipe on page 168). Or you can pick dinner recipes that will give you enough leftover to roll over for lunch the next day (like the throw-it-all-in lentils on page 144, I'll have these with rice or quinoa one day and with flatbreads another night).
Switch it up
We are creatures of habits so it's all too easy to get stuck in a shopping rut, so why not pick something in each weekly shop to swap out? One week it could be trying a different sort of salad leaf – watercress and rocket instead of lettuce, sweet potatoes instead of potatoes – then the next it could be trying a different grain like pearl barley instead of rice or those packet mix of grains for variety.
Not only does this keep us from getting bored of the same foods but means we are gaining so much more diversity in what we eat. Perhaps each week, you could challenge yourself to add one more whole food to the shopping basket and take out one UPF? In a month, you've eaten four less UPFs and added four more whole foods. In a year not only have you cut back on 50 UPFs but you've added 50 whole foods too!
Mindful eating
I know this term makes some people's eyes roll but we have a lot to learn from our bodies. I find it helpful to take a second to observe how I feel after eating certain foods. If I have an energy crash, get a headache, or find myself feeling jittery or have a bit of brain fog, then naturally I try to avoid eating these foods during the week when I'm juggling work, parenting and already feeling stressed.
I want food to nourish me, not tax me further when I'm already feeling pressured cookered! When I notice certain foods keep me energised, happy and satisfied until the next meal, I'm inspired to eat more of them. Real food is feel-good food.
Chocolate peanut butter (no-bake) bars
Makes 16
Takes 20 minutes, plus setting time
Keeps for 1 week, at room temperature
250g smooth peanut butter
100g ground almonds
100g porridge oats
6 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
Little pinch of sea salt
For the chocolate layer
180g dark chocolate, roughly broken
1 tbsp smooth peanut butter
Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling
1. Line a small tin or dish (about 15 x 8cm or square equivalent) with greaseproof paper, making sure it comes up high enough on the sides so that you can lift the mixture out of the tin once it's set.
2. Mix the peanut butter, ground almonds, oats, maple syrup, vanilla and salt together in a bowl. Transfer to the lined tin, pressing down with the back of a spoon or spatula to make it even and compact.
3. For the chocolate layer, melt the chocolate in a bain-marie (a heatproof bowl set over a pan of very lightly simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water). Once melted, stir through the peanut butter and pour this evenly over the base. If topping with the whole peanuts, scatter these over the chocolate layer.
4. Sprinkle over a little pinch of flaky sea salt. Set in the fridge for 1 hour or until firm, then cut into 16 pieces to serve.
Extracted from Real Healthy by Melissa Hemsley (Ebury Press, £26). Photography by Lizzie Mayson
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My veggie burgers are so often underwhelming, or they simply fall apart. Where am I going wrong?Beth, Newark'Veggie burgers are often lacking in everything that's good about food,' says Melissa Hemsley, author of Real Healthy, and for her, that means texture, flavour and satisfaction. 'They also tend not to have those key flavour highs – the fat, the salt – that you're after from a homemade version.' For Lukas Volger, author of Veggie Burgers Every Which Way, texture is by far the complaint he hears most often: 'The patty is too moist, and glops out of the other side of the bun when you bite into it.' Veggie burgers often behave like this, Volger says, because vegetables contain water, so you'll either need to cook the veg in advance or add something to the mix to soak it up, whether that's breadcrumbs or grains. And remember, size isn't everything: 'I used to love the look of a thick, substantial burger,' Volger says, 'but I've come to realise that they function much better on a bun when they're thin and seared until crisp on each side in a hot pan, smash burger-style.' (Alternatively, bake in a moderate oven to 'help them dry out a little' before grilling.) This will also help if you've ever fallen victim to burgers falling through those barbecue grates. Volger's burger vision often starts by giving a vegetable 'a point of view', which is to say a flavour pairing: carrot with almond, say, sweet potato with sesame, or kale with ginger. He builds from there with spices, fresh herbs, a flavour bomb (think miso or harissa) or nut butter, plus 'something to provide body'. For Hemsley, that might mean chickpea flour ('it's cheap and naturally gluten-free), an egg ('that's always good'), or beans or lentils, although the latter will need 'bags of flavour' to keep the burgers from being boring. 'That's why Bold Beans are so good,' Hemsley adds, 'because their beans have a lovely, salty brine.' On to the specifics, and Hemsley always flips out over a black bean and feta number: 'It's one of my favourite burgers ever, and I'd happily eat it instead of a meat one any day of the week.' Her patty also has onions and grated garlic in there, plus dried oregano or thyme, sun-dried tomatoes ('for juiciness, flavour and salt'), and jalapeños ('for the brininess and hit of chilli'). 'I usually add an egg, too, to up the protein. I hate to be that person who talks about protein, but I do think it helps keep you sated.' As a bonus, these burgers freeze well, too, and Hemsley often turns the base mix into meatballs to eat with tomato sauce and couscous or rice. Volger, meanwhile, is 'very into' a grated halloumi burger, for which the cheese is stirred into softened onions with garlic and harissa, then combined with beaten egg, panko breadcrumbs, minced herbs (parsley, coriander, mint, dill) and cornflour. 'My next plan is to make a red lentil and sweet potato Thai red curry burger,' Hemsley says, 'so hold the front page.' She's planning on serving thatwith a coriander, mint and coconut chutney, which is a good lesson never, ever to forget the importance of your burger accoutrements. As Volger puts it: 'A slice of cheese and a mess of burger condiments can salvage most veggie burgers.' Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@
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My veggie burgers are so often underwhelming, or they simply fall apart. Where am I going wrong?Beth, Newark'Veggie burgers are often lacking in everything that's good about food,' says Melissa Hemsley, author of Real Healthy, and for her, that means texture, flavour and satisfaction. 'They also tend not to have those key flavour highs – the fat, the salt – that you're after from a homemade version.' For Lukas Volger, author of Veggie Burgers Every Which Way, texture is by far the complaint he hears most often: 'The patty is too moist, and glops out of the other side of the bun when you bite into it.' Veggie burgers often behave like this, Volger says, because vegetables contain water, so you'll either need to cook the veg in advance or add something to the mix to soak it up, whether that's breadcrumbs or grains. And remember, size isn't everything: 'I used to love the look of a thick, substantial burger,' Volger says, 'but I've come to realise that they function much better on a bun when they're thin and seared until crisp on each side in a hot pan, smash burger-style.' (Alternatively, bake in a moderate oven to 'help them dry out a little' before grilling.) This will also help if you've ever fallen victim to burgers falling through those barbecue grates. Volger's burger vision often starts by giving a vegetable 'a point of view', which is to say a flavour pairing: carrot with almond, say, sweet potato with sesame, or kale with ginger. He builds from there with spices, fresh herbs, a flavour bomb (think miso or harissa) or nut butter, plus 'something to provide body'. For Hemsley, that might mean chickpea flour ('it's cheap and naturally gluten-free), an egg ('that's always good'), or beans or lentils, although the latter will need 'bags of flavour' to keep the burgers from being boring. 'That's why Bold Beans are so good,' Hemsley adds, 'because their beans have a lovely, salty brine.' On to the specifics, and Hemsley always flips out over a black bean and feta number: 'It's one of my favourite burgers ever, and I'd happily eat it instead of a meat one any day of the week.' Her patty also has onions and grated garlic in there, plus dried oregano or thyme, sun-dried tomatoes ('for juiciness, flavour and salt'), and jalapeños ('for the brininess and hit of chilli'). 'I usually add an egg, too, to up the protein. I hate to be that person who talks about protein, but I do think it helps keep you sated.' As a bonus, these burgers freeze well, too, and Hemsley often turns the base mix into meatballs to eat with tomato sauce and couscous or rice. Volger, meanwhile, is 'very into' a grated halloumi burger, for which the cheese is stirred into softened onions with garlic and harissa, then combined with beaten egg, panko breadcrumbs, minced herbs (parsley, coriander, mint, dill) and cornflour. 'My next plan is to make a red lentil and sweet potato Thai red curry burger,' Hemsley says, 'so hold the front page.' She's planning on serving thatwith a coriander, mint and coconut chutney, which is a good lesson never, ever to forget the importance of your burger accoutrements. As Volger puts it: 'A slice of cheese and a mess of burger condiments can salvage most veggie burgers.' Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@
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Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have become a hot and horrifying topic of late, thanks to the fact that UPFs are linked to serious physical and mental health outcomes – and the fact that the UK population eats more than any other country in Europe. In general, when we talk UPFs, we are referring to foods that are highly altered, highly palatable and contain unrecognisable ingredients you wouldn't add when cooking at home. Think confectionary aisles, fizzy drinks, some ready meals, ready-to-eat sauces and pastes and most of the supermarket's breads and breakfast cereals. The damage to our health from eating high levels of UPFs has been highlighted in a new study, which suggests that consumption of processed food contributes to almost 18,000 premature deaths in the UK each year. It's important to highlight that UPFs are a broad category of foods and not all UPFs are the same. I eat small amounts of some UPFs and I don't wish to demonise them all. It's our government, policymakers and the big food industry players who have the power to curb their rapid spread and reorganise our food system for the better of everyone in society. I worried about what I could do to be part of the change. After becoming a parent last year, I was even more committed to coming up with a hopeful, healthy, helpful antidote to all the alarming statistics. So I wrote a cookbook to help make home-cooking as convenient as buying convenience foods. It's called Real Healthy: unprocess your diet with easy every day recipes, and as well as quick, delicious and doable meals, it's your go-to guide for cutting back on UPFs. The easiest way of reducing UPF consumption is to cook more and prioritise whole and less processed foods eg fruits, veg, grains, beans, lentils, herbs, spices, nuts and seeds. This is easy to say, but can be difficult to put into practice when we are time-poor and high on stress. We need sustainable swaps, shortcuts and solutions that slot into our busy lives so we can make simple changes for our long-term health. I want to help you rely less on UPFs so I'm sharing my top 10 tips to reboot with real meals. From how to stock up on healthy staples, to recognising UPFs, to not getting overwhelmed about how many you're consuming, I hope this will help you create some life-friendly and life-changing eating habits. Don't pressure yourself We know perfection is the enemy of progress so a good place to start this reboot is to try not to stress about it – this isn't a new diet or regime, it's not about all or nothing and no one is telling you what rules to follow. If anything, the only guide I'd offer is 'make more of the foods that make you feel good'. Go for delicious and doable recipes that you enjoy eating. Stock up for success Build up a foundation of real foods by prioritising some affordable storecupboard staples and particularly some freezer essentials (I always keep bags of frozen spinach, mixed berries (so much cheaper), mixed quick cook veg like peas, edamame and corn) so you've always got the building blocks of a quick meal on hand for those evenings you get caught short and don't have time to dash to the shops. For example, a tin of chickpeas and your favourite spice mix in the cupboard, greens in the freezer and tomato purée and yoghurt in the fridge. Get to know your food better Turn the packet over and read the label. Prioritise doing so with products you eat a lot of or eat daily. Different brands of products may mean that you can buy a UPF or minimally processed version of the same ingredient (sliced bread, which is one of the most bought UPF foods). Once you get into the swing of it, you'll find it easier to look out for products that you DO want to take home with you. Containers Stock up on reusable jars (old honey or jam jars or mustard jars work well) to use for breakfasts on the go or to store layered-up lunch salads which I like to call jalads (aka salad in a jar). You might also find it useful to invest in a flask for homemade smoothies and for taking hot food on the go. One of my lunch favourites is the White Chicken bean Chilli on page 62. I have a few leakproof containers for freezing or safe fridge storage. Always try to label with the date, you always think you'll remember and then you don't! Trust me. Team up and share the load Join forces with a colleague, friend or flatmate to share food here and there. We know from making fitness and other life commitments that it's always easier to create a new habit or try new things with someone else involved. One of you could make snacks for the 4pm slumps and the other could make a delicious big salad to enjoy as a working lunch, then the next week you swap around. Make a meal plan Some of us like plans and some of us don't! I'm not suggesting you need to suddenly sit down every Sunday and write a meal plan for the week, every week but a flexible-ish and gentle guide to the week that suits your schedule is going to hugely help your week's shopping list and help you add more wholefoods to that list and less UPFs. It also will likely help you save money by wasting less food! If you don't fancy being prescriptive every day, how about prioritising the times you find yourself leaning hard on UPFs to help you avoid the same pitfalls each time (eg working lunches or breakfasts)? Letting your kids choose a dinner recipe each week might help encourage them to try new ingredients or get more interested in cooking. Prioritise a bit of prepping ahead... ...both for foods you love to eat and foods you'd like to eat more of! Think of your favourite foods and the ones you make again and again. For example, do you enjoy lots of roast vegetables, tomato sauce or broccoli? Maybe make a big batch of them once a week to save you time. And are there foods that you'd like to eat more of but keep forgetting too? Perhaps salad and lentils. Try prepping some of these ahead and making a jar of salad dressing (it can last for a few weeks in the fridge) so that you're more likely to enjoy them more often. On a day, I know I have a bit more time, like a Sunday eve, I make something like the one pot 'lazy lasagne' so that all I need to do is reheat it when I get back from work on Monday night. Or every week, I make a batch of muffins and freeze half – one week I go sweet and do lemon blueberry muffins for snacks, then I switch it up to make savoury muffins the next week like my frittata muffins which are ideal for breakfast (usually add some cottage cheese or feta, tomatoes, eggs). Batch cook & freeze a fave I don't mean eating the same leftover stew four nights in a row (unless you want to!). It could be as simple as doubling up your dinner so you have leftovers for lunch. Like many of us, I grew up with parents who both worked full time – a resourceful army father (who couldn't cook but couldn't stand waste) and with a thrifty Filipino mother who championed 'cook once, eat twice'. I often find myself making a bigger batch of something so that I can freeze half for a rainy day (check out the big batch, lots of veg bolognese recipe on page 168). Or you can pick dinner recipes that will give you enough leftover to roll over for lunch the next day (like the throw-it-all-in lentils on page 144, I'll have these with rice or quinoa one day and with flatbreads another night). Switch it up We are creatures of habits so it's all too easy to get stuck in a shopping rut, so why not pick something in each weekly shop to swap out? One week it could be trying a different sort of salad leaf – watercress and rocket instead of lettuce, sweet potatoes instead of potatoes – then the next it could be trying a different grain like pearl barley instead of rice or those packet mix of grains for variety. Not only does this keep us from getting bored of the same foods but means we are gaining so much more diversity in what we eat. Perhaps each week, you could challenge yourself to add one more whole food to the shopping basket and take out one UPF? In a month, you've eaten four less UPFs and added four more whole foods. In a year not only have you cut back on 50 UPFs but you've added 50 whole foods too! Mindful eating I know this term makes some people's eyes roll but we have a lot to learn from our bodies. I find it helpful to take a second to observe how I feel after eating certain foods. If I have an energy crash, get a headache, or find myself feeling jittery or have a bit of brain fog, then naturally I try to avoid eating these foods during the week when I'm juggling work, parenting and already feeling stressed. I want food to nourish me, not tax me further when I'm already feeling pressured cookered! When I notice certain foods keep me energised, happy and satisfied until the next meal, I'm inspired to eat more of them. Real food is feel-good food. Chocolate peanut butter (no-bake) bars Makes 16 Takes 20 minutes, plus setting time Keeps for 1 week, at room temperature 250g smooth peanut butter 100g ground almonds 100g porridge oats 6 tbsp maple syrup 1 tsp vanilla extract Little pinch of sea salt For the chocolate layer 180g dark chocolate, roughly broken 1 tbsp smooth peanut butter Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling 1. Line a small tin or dish (about 15 x 8cm or square equivalent) with greaseproof paper, making sure it comes up high enough on the sides so that you can lift the mixture out of the tin once it's set. 2. Mix the peanut butter, ground almonds, oats, maple syrup, vanilla and salt together in a bowl. Transfer to the lined tin, pressing down with the back of a spoon or spatula to make it even and compact. 3. For the chocolate layer, melt the chocolate in a bain-marie (a heatproof bowl set over a pan of very lightly simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water). Once melted, stir through the peanut butter and pour this evenly over the base. If topping with the whole peanuts, scatter these over the chocolate layer. 4. Sprinkle over a little pinch of flaky sea salt. Set in the fridge for 1 hour or until firm, then cut into 16 pieces to serve. Extracted from Real Healthy by Melissa Hemsley (Ebury Press, £26). Photography by Lizzie Mayson
