When I first decided to quit ultra-processed food 15 months ago, there were three things I could never have imagined. Firstly, I didn’t think I’d still be doing it well over a year later. Secondly, that I’d feel confident that there was no way I’d ever go back to eating UPF. And thirdly, that the impact would have been so positive — and dramatic.
Unlike quick health resets like Dry January (nothing wrong with them, by the way) the changes I’ve made to my diet are sustainable and will hopefully drive long-term health benefits well into the future and lead to living more healthy years. Also unlike Dry January, it’s not even been that hard – I’m definitely not eating less, I’m just eating differently. And the main changes I’ve noticed are:
- weight loss: I’ve lost 1.5 stone and now consistently weigh around 10 stone
- there is a whole world of food and flavour combinations out there that I never knew about
- exercise is easier
- I’ve learned so much about what goes into our food and how food manufacturers get us to eat more unhealthy food than we should
What are ultra-processed foods?
Harvard University says: “They most likely have many added ingredients such as sugar, salt, fat, and artificial colors or preservatives. Ultra-processed foods are made mostly from substances extracted from foods, such as fats, starches, added sugars, and hydrogenated fats.”
Dr Chris Van Tulleken, an infectious diseases doctor at University College London, a BBC science presenter and New York Times bestselling author, boils it down to this: “If it’s wrapped in plastic and it contains at least one ingredient that you don’t typically find in a domestic kitchen, then it’s ultra-processed food.”
Some giveaway UPF words to look out for in the ingredients list on a product’s packaging are:
- emulsifiers
- stabilisers
- dyes
- flavour enhancers
- lecithin
- xantham or guar gum
And some of the most common ultra-processed foods (or UPFs) are:
- packaged bread
- breakfast cereals and granola
- flavoured yoghurt
- chocolate, biscuits and crisps
- energy and granola bars
- fizzy drinks
- ready meals
(For years, granola and flavoured yoghurt were my go-to breakfast – I thought I was being healthy! I was actually eating a breakfast massively high in added sugar and UPFs).
Just to be clear, though: no one should judge what anyone else eats. Our busy lives and food prices all heavily influence how we shop and eat. It’s also fine to enjoy treats once in a while (even Dr Sarah Berry, chief scientist at science and nutrition firm Zoe and a leading advocate of cutting out UPFs, says she loves a Dairy Milk!) I have much more of a problem with the cynical ways the world’s major food producers use our busy lives, our squeezed budgets and even the science around how our brains work to make us eat more food that’s bad for us. Fighting back against them is also now one of my main motivations for eating how I do.
How did I cut UPF out of my diet?
Supermarket shelves are full of ultra-processed foods but it’s not as hard as it seems to avoid them – and it definitely doesn’t involve eating like a rabbit. In a nutshell, here’s what I did:
- stopped eating my main sweet treat, chocolate, unless it was dark chocolate with a high cocoa content (90% or more, though 70% is a good start)
- ate no other ultra-processed foods or ingredients, like supermarket bread, granola, crisps, biscuits or ice cream
- ate less red meat and no ultra-processed meat
- ate more legumes (chickpeas, lentils, beans) and more nuts
- cooked with extra virgin olive oil and used this instead of butter too
- ate at least 30 different plants a week
- followed guidance and advice from trusted sources, especially the Zoe Science and Nutrition podcast.
Weight loss
(
Steffan Rhys)
Perhaps the most noticeable way my life has changed is the weight I’ve lost: around a stone and a half in the last year (down from 11.5 stone to 10 stone). Ultra-processed foods are calorie-dense and tend to be high in sugar, salt or unhealthy fats but low in nutrients. A recent clinical trial studied what happened when people ate a diet high in ultra-processed foods and found that they consumed around 500 more calories a day than those following an unprocessed food diet, leading to an average weight gain of two pounds in two weeks.
Learning to cook with new foods and flavours
Far from being difficult, buying, cooking and eating new foods has probably been the biggest pleasure of my new way of eating. I’ve discovered so many new flavour combinations and rely these days on foods I almost never ate in the past, like chickpeas, beans, lentils, aubergines, nuts and Greek yoghurt.
And don’t stress about fat – healthy fats are good for you and you’ll find them in foods like nuts and avocados. They won’t cause weight gain. It’s the unhealthy fats found in processed meats and foods with added sugar that are the problem.
What I eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner
Breakfast: Almost always the same thing: Greek yoghurt with nuts (almonds, Brazil, walnuts, hazelnuts or cashews), seeds (like chia, pumpkin or linseed) and a mix of fruit (usually raspberries, strawberries, bananas and blueberries). If not that, I might have some avocado on a slice of wholemeal sourdough bought from a local bakery.
Lunch: Usually lentils with a selection of vegetables and hummus, often homemade with chickpeas or butter beans . Another option would be an omelette with onions and peppers.
Dinner: Crispy chickpeas, crispy kale, roasted aubergine and halloumi, with a sauce made from Greek yoghurt, tahini and harissa. Other healthy meals include this walnut, mushroom and cauliflower ragu, this vegan chilli made with lots of different kinds of beans, this homemade hummus and this healthy chocolate peanut butter bar that tastes better than Snickers.
Exercise is easier
I don’t exercise more now than I have for the last three years or so. I run when I can around work and childcare (which usually means once or twice a week) and do one or two 45-minute circuits classes a week at the gym. But I have noticed that I can handle the exercise a lot more comfortably, including two half marathon PBs in 2024.
Learning what’s in our food
My initial motivation for cutting out ultra-processed food was to improve my health and manage my weight. But the more I learned, the more I drew as much motivation from not giving my money to manipulative food corporations as I did from my own health.
The marketing and manipulation that goes into creating the ultra-processed foods that we eat is astonishing, including those bold health claims on colourful, eye-catching packaging which are often disguising its negative health impacts. For decades, food companies have invested heavily in the science that makes us want to eat more, from how a packet sounds when you open it to how a food feels in your mouth and that hyper-palatable taste which leaves you desperate for more. You are literally being tricked into eating more. I’m not trying to take all the pleasure away from eating – but I refuse to have my health used for profit by the world’s biggest and richest food companies. I recommend reading Chris van Tulleken’s book, Ultra-Processed People, to learn more. You can also watch his 2024 BBC documentary Irresistible.
How to eat 30 plants a week
Thirty different plants a week sounds like a lot. But it isn’t that many when you think that we’re not just talking about fruit and vegetables here. Also included are the many different kinds of beans (like butter, cannellini, black, kidney, pinto), grains (like oats, quinoa or bulgar wheat), nuts (like almonds, cashews, pine nuts, walnuts and pistachios) and seeds (like chia, pumpkin or sesame). Furthermore, herbs and spices also count, and plants like coffee and cocoa also contain good chemicals which help your gut microbiome. I eat 30 plants a week with two simple rules – you can read them here.
It’s all to do with boosting the health and diversity of your gut microbiome, a community of microbes which experts increasingly say is a key foundation of your overall health and can help you live more healthy years. I am a member of Zoe, and my gut microbiome score after eating this way for 12 months was 93 out of 100.
Sweet things aren’t off the menu
(
Steffan Rhys)
Most people enjoy the sensation of something sweet and it can be hard to go without. But there are lots of ways around this. One way is to make desserts from fresh or frozen fruit. You can also make a healthy chocolate mousse from just four ingredients: dark chocolate, olive oil, maple syrup and aquafaba – see the recipe here. It’s also possible to make a healthy granola using natural ingredients – see the recipe here. And there’s this healthy chocolate peanut butter bar that tastes better than Snickers.
The 3 foods I can’t live without – and 5 I’ll never eat again
There are three foods now that make up a huge part of my diet:
- Greek yoghurt
- Nuts
- Legumes
I have Greek yoghurt for breakfast every day, with nuts and fruit. But it’s also great for creaiting savoury sauces for dinner (try mixing it with tahini and harissa) and putting in curry. Nuts go with everything – sprinkle them on salads, turn them into sauces, make sweet treats out of them. They are amazing, and so good for you.
On the other hand, the foods I’ll never eat again are:
Flavoured yoghurt: while Greek yoghurt is “one of the healthiest you can eat”, it is hard to find other yoghurt that isn’t ultra-processed or contains synthetic ingredients, extra sugar, fake fruit or artificial flavours.
Cereal and granola: Dr Daisy Lund, an NHS GP, told The Independent: “When I read the labels on everyday breakfast cereals and saw the high sugar quantity of most, I decided to stop buying them for both myself and my family.”
Pre-packaged bread: Today, much of the bread lining supermarket shelves is mass produced and “contains additives that help speed production, extend shelf life, improve flavour and texture, and fortify against the nutrients lost during processing”, reports the BBC. But Giles Yeo, a geneticist and professor of molecular neuroendocrinology at the University of Cambridge and honorary president of the British Dietetic Association, says bread has a worse reputation than it deserves. He told the Zoe podcast recently: “Supermarket bread is still made largely of flour, salt, yeast and some water. And it’s probably not as bad for you as some people make it out to be.”
Cake, chocolate, cookies: Apart from sugar, these foods contain masses of different ingredients. For example, an Exceptional by Asda Chocolate Fudge Cake has 25 ingredients, like emulsifiers, preservatives, raising agents and many which you’ve probably never heard of. However, dark chocolate does have some major heath benefits.
Crisps: Generally speaking, most crisps will be high in unhealthy fat and salt. That’s not the end of the world once in a while. But even crisps you think of as wholesome and healthy, like Kettle Chips salt and black pepper flavour, contain ingredients like maltodextrin. And once you get into the likes of Pringles, you are talking a long list of ingredients that mean it is quite far away from resembling an actual potato.
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