I stepped into Aldi a couple of weeks ago and rounding the corner from the fresh fruits and vegetables and the fridges full of meats, yogurts and cheeses etc, I was met with this view of the next aisle.
This photo was one side ...
... and this the other.
I just said to myself, " Is this actually food?"
I think it's that over the last couple of years my eyes have been opening more and more to the ultra processed stuff that manufacturers are passing off as food, and that a large percentage of youngsters are now growing up thinking that these are their only food choices. At least the garish packaging makes it stand out from 'real food' I guess.
I'm completely honest and I hold my hands up and say that I do buy some things that are most definitely ultra processed, but I do try to keep this to a minimum these days. I definitely prefer something like this that at least contains vegetables and beans rather than fake meat.
But are these food?
Well, just about I would say, but I now tend to let the vegetables on my plate outweigh the processed item. Of course I could have a go at making veggie burgers myself, but I usually have these as a 'I can't be bothered to cook' type of meal, so unless I set to and make a big batch of homemade veggie burgers for the freezer ... which I definitely should do one day when there is a bit of space in there ... these are currently staying on my menu.
Do you find yourself eating less and less ultra processed food items, or did you never eat them to start with?
Sue xx
I've swapped out Pringles and swapped in nuts for when I need a savoury crunch, the trouble is Pringles are eaten one at a time while nuts can be eaten by the handful!
ReplyDeleteI have some small screw top jars, and decant the big bag of nuts into them when I
ReplyDeleteget home from Lidl. That makes a week's worth of snacking. Also trying to buy 'simpler' crisps. 30 years ago, when both girls were vegetarian and living at home, I used to batch make bean burgers and freeze them. Like you, I prefer a tasty bean recipe to "fake" meat. We ate a lot of quorn pieces back then in pseudo chicken pies!
I bought the book by one of the van Tulliken brothers about upfs. It was an eye opener. We grow a lot of our own veg as we are lucky enough to have had an allotment these last twenty years. I only buy butter now, not the butter spreads and only plain Greek yoghurt. The rest of our diet is good. I think seed oils are the worst culprit. Nairns do a lovely range of sweet and savoury biscuits that , even though slightly processed are pretty good. X
ReplyDeleteI rarely go down those aisles in your photo, but it is almost impossible not to buy processed food of one kind or another. I try not to buy anything with more than 3 ingredients listed but we do eat some bread and I buy jars of Mango Chutney to go with the curry we make. We don't eat jam or marmalade now, DH has organic muesli and I have porridge oats with almond milk topped with berries seeds and nuts. My freezer has a pizza on standby and some jamaican veggie pasties in case we are really pushed for time but no other ready meals as we usually cook from scratch. I do have tins of soup also in case we don't get to make our own and baked beans.
ReplyDeleteWe have been vegetarian for so long it is just normal for us to cook with nuts, beans and lentils as all these veggie processed ready meals were not available before.
My daughter has to plan school meals from the government guidelines but on the days when they make shepherd's pie or similar traditional meals many of the children have never eaten it at home so there is a lot of waste, only the days when pizza is on offer do they get cleaner plates. The children don't recognise many of the natural unprocessed foods and are reluctant to try them and all the allergies arising now makes it an absolute nightmare for the school meals service as they have to cook so many different options.
Trying to limit the processed foods and swap to better foods as Sue above has done with her Pringles is a good plan.
We mostly cook from scratch, but I do like baked beans, use the low sugar/low salt ones although they still have quite a few other ingredients. We really try to not snack but if we do it is a few almonds or walnuts. It is hard to completely avoid UPFs. Batch cooking is great and I try to have two or three made from scratch dishes in the freezer which really helps when I don't feel like cooking. Regards Sue H
ReplyDeleteI downloaded the Yuka app so that I could check how much UPP food we were eating. Norrie got a real shock as he likes a cold meat and salad sandwich for his lunch most days. When we checked the barcode on the meat he was horrified! We only buy the plainest crisps, cook with olive oil and have introduced butter back into our diets. I did better with my hummus as I either make it or buy good stuff with olive oil. We are trying to stick to the 8o/20 where we can and I use the soup maker so that I don’t buy tinned soup as it’s too salty for me. I’m just always grateful that we have the choice-I filled the food bank bag this week and it was just under £20 for a bag of basics and sadly quite a few UPFs on the list. Catriona
ReplyDeleteWe don't eat anything processed, all our meals are cooked from scratch as we're always trying to lose weight.
ReplyDelete