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!
ReplyDeleteIf you an eat one Pringle and put the lid back on, you have an amazing control over temptation!!
DeleteSiS - Putting the lid back on after one, or even a handful of Pringles used to be beyond me. I could finish half a pack with ease. No more buying them for me, I need to avoid temptation. 😄
DeleteBB - Exceptional control. 😄
DeleteI 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!
Yes, I always decant nuts, they do last longer that way. An open bag is a temptation. I have mostly switched to 3 ingredient crisps, just potato, oil and salt. It means I eat less of them too, which is a bonus. 😄
DeleteI 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 do love a Nairns cracker with cheese and grapes!
DeleteAngie
Christina - Yes Chris van Tulleken's book is definitely an eye opener. I had it in hardback, lent it to my Mum after reading it and she gave it to someone. So I treated myself to the paperback version when that came out. I need to have another read if it. 🙂
DeleteI do miss my large veggie patch and polytunnels, homegrown fruit and vegetables are definitely the best. 🫤
PP - Alan loves a Nairns Scottish oatcake with cheese, grapes and chutney. 😃
DeleteI 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.
Sadly, the way that Aldi is laid out there's no missing that aisle, but I rarely browse the shelves. It's getting extremely hard to avoid processed food, but I'm pretty good at ignoring the ultra processed food now, except for a few exceptions. 😄
DeleteWe 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
ReplyDeleteIt's funny I go for ages not even thinking about baked beans, then suddenly I really need some in my life. 😄
DeleteI 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
ReplyDeleteI've got the Yuka app it can put you off some things for life. 😄 I watched something that said that sliced roast beef is one of the best packaged sliced meats, just the beef and a tiny bit of salt. Alan seems to like all the hams with added sugar etc... naughty boy.
DeleteWe don't eat anything processed, all our meals are cooked from scratch as we're always trying to lose weight.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you are doing really well. ❤️
DeleteIt's hard to understand how governments can allow products like Pringles to be sold. The effects of UPF on us, and particularly on young developing brains, are now understood. People should be able to be confident that what is being sold as food is actually food and not harmful to them.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, but sadly we are getting more and more like the USA with junk food manufacturers sponsoring tests, trials and even ministers. 🫤
DeleteIt's a real head-scratcher to try and 'get it all right'. Add in 30g fibre per day, less than 10g sat fat, and whatever it is for sugar, plus 5 fruit/veg a day and 30 different plants per week, and I find myself rebelling and wanting to cook up a full English, with white bread toast and marmalade and big cups of tea!
ReplyDeleteI'm currently wrestling with iron tablets twice a day (take with food avoiding dairy, calcium supplements, whole grains and eggs) and various other meds to be taken with,before,after, or on an empty stomach and in the end I just want to lie down in a darkened room and ignore them all.
I was amused to see a slogan about 'quality ' above all the foods in one photograph; do they mean beat quality white sugar, which flour, emsified fats, flavouring and colouring? Definitely Not food!
All we can do really is our best. 🙂 Yep, I have the same tablet juggle, Saturday is the day that throws the routine out, when I have to take my osteoporosis tablet a clear half hour before all the others. So, I give myself Saturday off from my three regular vitamin tablets. It feels like a small win 😄
DeleteI was a teenager in the sixties when ready meals were just starting, they were revolting. In the early 80’s we left the UK due to unemployment so missed the rise in ready meals and low fat products, we would come back and visit parents who were into low fat foods etc which we could not understand as we ate a low fat diet but full fat dairy. Now it is UPF’s, we do eat ice cream and I always have tinned fruit in the cupboard as a standby for breakfast, but I think that is it. I have just had a hip replacement managed this week to make pate , shortbread for visitors, but so far no pies but hopefully chicken ones next week. I think the government and the experts have a lot to answer for for miss information re diet.
ReplyDeleteSorry I thought my name would come up it is Moira
DeleteI was a teenager in the seventies when Vesta curries came out. It's a good job for me that they did, as my Mum stopped cooking for me once I left school. So I alternated between chicken curry and beef curry every night for my tea 😄
DeleteIt sounds like you are doing well, I hope you continue to do so.
Thanks for adding your name. ❤️
DeleteI usually cook from scratch, but if unwell fall back on a couple of ready meals, or a can of soup. Tonight I am having boughten Spinach and Ricotta egg pasta (Tortellini) with home-made topping of tomatoes/onions/courgettes/mushrooms. Sometimes I will have chips from the chippy but that's if I'm very late back from a Fair or Tam's. Treats are plain crisps (just potatoes, rapeseed/sunflower oil/salt). Choccy bars are my downfall!
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen or heard 'boughten' for many, many years. Lovely expression.
Deletejabblog - it's used a lot in Gloucestershire apparently. It hits the spot as a description doesn't it?
DeleteBB - Sometimes chips from the chippy just hit the spot don't they, and of course they are not ultra processed. 😃
Deletejabblog - I had never heard it. Yet I knew exactly what it meant. 😃
DeleteBB - It works well. 🙂
DeleteThe way things are going, we shall soon all be exhorted to go out and kill our own food, as well as growing all vegetables and fruit. 😉 Not ideal for those living in high-rise accommodation.😧
ReplyDeleteHaving to manage an unexpected kidney problem (husband's) has made us look very carefully at food now.
Health issues do make you look at food with fresh eyes don't they. 🤔
DeleteI definitely need to work on reducing the UPF even more. I’m a sucker for sweets and treats and salty snacks, do you think those of us that were children in the 60s/70s are worse in that regard to today’s youngsters or about the same……. Don’t know if I’ve explained that very well……😀
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
To be honest I think ours was the first generation with more pocket money spending power and a lot more availability of sweets, and our parents after being deprived of this during the war years almost encouraged us. Things have gotten worse with each generation as we relaxed more and more. For instance I just walked home from school on my own, so no-one to ask for sweets (and the answer would have been no anyway) whereas if I had some money I would buy my son a few penny chews on his way home. 🤔
DeleteThe Times had an article on Tuesday on a new promotion aimed at children. https://bellybugs.co.uk/why/ A glimmer of hope?
ReplyDeleteIs it food? Most of it is not food. Worse still, it is a combination of chemicals of unknown risk. Are we the last generation who learned to cook real food?
I think that Belly Bugs is brilliant, it should be a state sponsored thing. The books and charts could be used in schools all over the country, it could be fantastic. As it is the poorest children wouldn't be able to get access to the books etc. now and they are the ones that probably need it the most.
DeleteMy younger son says this frequently, that his generation is mostly the last one that grew up eating predominantly real food.
Those things look so tempting until you read the ingredients on the pack, don't they. We're guilty of eating UPF on occasions but we are trying hard to eat 'proper' food instead. We have a ready meal for tonight after a busy day and I've just checked the pack. Surprisingly it's not too bad and I am adding vegetables to the plate too.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder if Nelliegrace has a point. Are we the last generation to learn to cook real food?
Angie
Garish packaging is really turning me off most UPF these days, which can only be a good thing. I do think balancing the plate out with fresh food is a good idea. 🙂
DeleteI've been more aware for the last couple years, there is very little at the supermarket that is actual food, even some proper food has additives, bulking agents and the like to give it a longer shelf life. Takes me ages to shop because I read the packaging on everything. People should stop buying these things perhaps then they would realise that we are on to them.
ReplyDeleteI have spent the last couple of years reading ingredients lists, shopping takes so much longer until you learn what to eliminate doesn't it.
DeleteSo many people now have grown up with UPFs that I think they just buy what they saw their parents buy, or what is 'new and exciting' on the market promoted by advertising.
When the children were young and I was working I resorted to prepackaged meals far more often than I would like to do now. Young families are struggling to make ends meet and working parents are run ragged. Add in poor education regarding food preparation and storage. It all seems so wrong. Our government has a "market dollar" programme giving very low income families coupons for farmers market produce. In our community there is also a subsidized food box programme for getting fresh veg from local farmers but the families still have to pay a portion. These efforts are really a small drop in the bucket and I despair for the children.
ReplyDeleteThese little drops are good, but there needs to be so much more doesn't there. 😟
DeleteWhen I was feeding my two it was nearly always potatoes ... either mash, chips or boiled ... vegetables and one thing like fish fingers, tinned ravioli or sausages. Not perfect but they were both good vegetable eaters, still are in fact.
Probably much less than when I was working, but there is still room for improvement in this area.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
That's the best we can all do isn't it, be aware, and try and reduce our intake of the less healthy foods. 🙂
DeleteWe are doing our utmost to improve what we eat. In the last year we have grown more and also purchased more organic foods. I also take the time to examine the contents of things that I buy, sugar, palm oil and additives. We have finally come to realise that as you age your health is the most important thing because everything else in life hinges on that. 90% of the time I cook from scratch, but I really need to cook bigger portions to freeze, because let's face it, it does take an enormous amount of time.
ReplyDeleteYes, we are buying a lot more organic food these days too. It's scary how much foods are tinkered with and sprayed while they are growing isn't it. Health is most definitely the most important thing in our lives, why oh why does it take losing it to realise this. 🫤
DeleteI try to cook mostly from scratch using whole ingredients, but, I do buy and prepare some processed foods, too. Moderation is the key, I think.
ReplyDeleteYes exactly, moderation in everything is the best way. 🙂
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