Ultra-processed food study - are you changing the way you cook/eat in your house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw this study, and yes, I want to cut down processed foods in my families diets. We regularly pack granola bars or things like Cher it’s or chips in kids lunches and also sandwiches with cold cuts. Here’s what I struggle with personally. I grew up 100 percent vegetarian, not vegan. My mother, who was even more orthodox than I (for instance not eating eggs), made and ate mostly home cooked meals. We are South Indian, so those meals included white rice, whole wheat chapatis (rotis), veggie stir fries, stews etc. my mom died of stomach cancer. Ever since she got sick, I’ve been questioning a lot. I let my kids eat meat, cold cuts etc, but I do want to cut back. I just don’t think a vegetarian home cooked alternative is that much better. Plus, diabetes runs in my family. It is highly genetic and I am prediabetic already, though not overweight.

Cancer link is with sugar, carbs. I have been trying to follow a person who advocates - PBWF, IF, 10K steps a day and green juicing. Only drinking water and coconut water.

We are non-veg n.Indians. I think that rotis, bread, white rice is somewhat dicey in our food. We have moved to organic quinoa, millet, barley, amaranth etc, and when we do eat rice, we make it traditionally taking out the starch and then adding a lot of veggis in it. Similarly the chappatis has a lot of oat flour, millet, besan, flaxseed etc added to it. I have moved away from cold cuts, pepperoni and bbq stuff. I will frequently make curry's and kebabs with organic meats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We already mostly eat minimally processed as well. Dinner is typically a meat with a side of vegetables or a salad, meat and veggie stews or chllis in the colder months. Leftovers for lunch. We do still eat bread and pasta occasionally - my typical breakfast will be egg on toast. We buy plain greek yogurt. My wife makes homemade ice creams (often yogurt based, sugar free, flavored with fruit) for the kids and seems to think its pretty easy.

That sounds great! Would it be possible for your wife to share her recipe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pp here— also my mom made homemade yogurt every single day. And she ate out much less often than we do.

Our power over diseases like cancer is so limited; lots of people get sick despite doing everything "right." Fate dealt your mom a cruel hand. I'm so sorry for your loss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw this study, and yes, I want to cut down processed foods in my families diets. We regularly pack granola bars or things like Cher it’s or chips in kids lunches and also sandwiches with cold cuts. Here’s what I struggle with personally. I grew up 100 percent vegetarian, not vegan. My mother, who was even more orthodox than I (for instance not eating eggs), made and ate mostly home cooked meals. We are South Indian, so those meals included white rice, whole wheat chapatis (rotis), veggie stir fries, stews etc. my mom died of stomach cancer. Ever since she got sick, I’ve been questioning a lot. I let my kids eat meat, cold cuts etc, but I do want to cut back. I just don’t think a vegetarian home cooked alternative is that much better. Plus, diabetes runs in my family. It is highly genetic and I am prediabetic already, though not overweight.

Cancer link is with sugar, carbs. I have been trying to follow a person who advocates - PBWF, IF, 10K steps a day and green juicing. Only drinking water and coconut water.

We are non-veg n.Indians. I think that rotis, bread, white rice is somewhat dicey in our food. We have moved to organic quinoa, millet, barley, amaranth etc, and when we do eat rice, we make it traditionally taking out the starch and then adding a lot of veggis in it. Similarly the chappatis has a lot of oat flour, millet, besan, flaxseed etc added to it. I have moved away from cold cuts, pepperoni and bbq stuff. I will frequently make curry's and kebabs with organic meats.

My inlaws are also non-veg n.Indians. The eat all the traditional foods, including tons of rotis, etc., as well as American processed foods like bologna. They are both still active, strong, and sharp and pushing 90. On the one hand, I want to encourage them to eat more "healthy" food. On the other hand, whatever they are doing is clearly working for them! So, I just keep my mouth shut and ask them to please pass me another roti.

[Anonymous]

I myself have changed. I try not to eat packaged foods/snacks. It’s harder with the kids bc I rely on those snacks for their school lunches. I don’t do anything super horrific like luncheables, but I do packaged hummus and pita chips, SunChips, Tate’s cookies, store-bought bread (usually Dave’s brand), I get deli meat (Turkey, Salami), snacks like Taki’s. So it’s all bad, I get it. It’s much easier for me to change.

[Anonymous]

meh. we're all going to die anyway. rather i enjoy life and eat the things i want (in moderation obviously) than get too worried about this stuff

[Anonymous]

I've always avoided ultra-processed foods. Sure, occasionally I consume them, but definitely not on a regular basis. I'm vegetarian and have a great diet, I don't do any meat substitutes, people are fooling themselves by thinking those are healthy.

[Anonymous]

I’m good for myself, for the kids with breakfast and dinner. I struggle with school lunch and school snacks.

[Anonymous]

I posted a thread before about how disappointing that article was.
I do try to avoid processed foods and cook from scratch where possible. You really need to read labels as some convenience foods are fine while others disguise lots of bad stuff. It’s hard with the kids because they generally want processed crap for lunch because it stays so much better than fresh food.

I still come back to that wise food advice—“eat real food. Mostly plants.” It really is the best diet. I do eat my share of crap but I keep this as my guiding star.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m good for myself, for the kids with breakfast and dinner. I struggle with school lunch and school snacks.

Totally agree. Our school gives out breakfast to everyone and it’s such crap processed food, my DS already eats breakfast at home but at like 6am and lunch is so late that of course he eats the second breakfast too . And then wants to buy the school lunch half the time which is also crap. I try to find some solace in the fact that when I do pack lunch, it’s fairly healthy, and miles ahead of what I was eating in the 80s (bologna sandwich on white bread, canned fruit, little Debbie snack).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m good for myself, for the kids with breakfast and dinner. I struggle with school lunch and school snacks.

Totally agree. Our school gives out breakfast to everyone and it’s such crap processed food, my DS already eats breakfast at home but at like 6am and lunch is so late that of course he eats the second breakfast too . And then wants to buy the school lunch half the time which is also crap. I try to find some solace in the fact that when I do pack lunch, it’s fairly healthy, and miles ahead of what I was eating in the 80s (bologna sandwich on white bread, canned fruit, little Debbie snack).

Absolutely agree. We do really well on dinner at home for the family and when we pack lunch for the kids it ok (not perfect but better than the school offerings). But my older son refuses to bring a lunch to school and the things the kids snack on aren't great. I also am failing on breakfast for one of my kids who really likes to have some sort of breakfast meat with breakfast, which I know is pretty much the worst.

I don't eat any of these things, but I'm not sure what to replace them with to get my kids the quick calories that growing boys crave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From reading the article pasta and rice and such are not considered to be ultra-processed foods. I mean rice literally has one ingredient and pasta is just wheat and semolina.

A 5 guys cheeseburger would not be an ultra processed food either, ground beef, cheese, tomato, lettuce, pickle, etc. The only questionable item would be the bun itself.

Bun and the American cheese Are ultra processed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m good for myself, for the kids with breakfast and dinner. I struggle with school lunch and school snacks.

Totally agree. Our school gives out breakfast to everyone and it’s such crap processed food, my DS already eats breakfast at home but at like 6am and lunch is so late that of course he eats the second breakfast too . And then wants to buy the school lunch half the time which is also crap. I try to find some solace in the fact that when I do pack lunch, it’s fairly healthy, and miles ahead of what I was eating in the 80s (bologna sandwich on white bread, canned fruit, little Debbie snack).

Agree. I think the free food programs at school are terribly and aren’t battling hunger; just promoting obesity in kids when many are already high risk for obesity as it is.

We do well as a family overall, I think. I make them breakfast at home (breads are homemade or bought from local scratch bakery), pack their lunches, and cook dinner every night. I do use deli meat occasionally, but the organic nitrate-free kind. I also buy pretzels, crackers, and granola bars as snacks (kind bars, natural fig bars, perfect bars). I also buy plain Cheerios. But that is pretty much the extent of what we eat that would be ultra processed. We eat a lot of vegetarian meals, some chicken and fish, very little red meat, usually a whole grain item with dinner, lots of fruits and vegetables. Desserts are usually homemade or from a good bakery (that doesn’t use shortening or junk ingredients).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw this study, and yes, I want to cut down processed foods in my families diets. We regularly pack granola bars or things like Cher it’s or chips in kids lunches and also sandwiches with cold cuts. Here’s what I struggle with personally. I grew up 100 percent vegetarian, not vegan. My mother, who was even more orthodox than I (for instance not eating eggs), made and ate mostly home cooked meals. We are South Indian, so those meals included white rice, whole wheat chapatis (rotis), veggie stir fries, stews etc. my mom died of stomach cancer. Ever since she got sick, I’ve been questioning a lot. I let my kids eat meat, cold cuts etc, but I do want to cut back. I just don’t think a vegetarian home cooked alternative is that much better. Plus, diabetes runs in my family. It is highly genetic and I am prediabetic already, though not overweight.

For south asians diabetes is different, there's a study and speculation that the repeated enforced famine during the Raj altered our genetic makeup so we need very few calories and cant handle certain types f food, even those native to our cuisines b/c staple foods were withheld from so many South Asians repeatedly in a short period of time. This might be why the slow food movement started in India, wheat, sugar and rice were being requisitioned by the British and so we had more access to lentils and fruits they had never heard of which over the course of 5-6 generations has made us more insulin resistant and overly efficient at extracting energy from food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw this study, and yes, I want to cut down processed foods in my families diets. We regularly pack granola bars or things like Cher it’s or chips in kids lunches and also sandwiches with cold cuts. Here’s what I struggle with personally. I grew up 100 percent vegetarian, not vegan. My mother, who was even more orthodox than I (for instance not eating eggs), made and ate mostly home cooked meals. We are South Indian, so those meals included white rice, whole wheat chapatis (rotis), veggie stir fries, stews etc. my mom died of stomach cancer. Ever since she got sick, I’ve been questioning a lot. I let my kids eat meat, cold cuts etc, but I do want to cut back. I just don’t think a vegetarian home cooked alternative is that much better. Plus, diabetes runs in my family. It is highly genetic and I am prediabetic already, though not overweight.

Cancer link is with sugar, carbs. I have been trying to follow a person who advocates - PBWF, IF, 10K steps a day and green juicing. Only drinking water and coconut water.

We are non-veg n.Indians. I think that rotis, bread, white rice is somewhat dicey in our food. We have moved to organic quinoa, millet, barley, amaranth etc, and when we do eat rice, we make it traditionally taking out the starch and then adding a lot of veggis in it. Similarly the chappatis has a lot of oat flour, millet, besan, flaxseed etc added to it. I have moved away from cold cuts, pepperoni and bbq stuff. I will frequently make curry's and kebabs with organic meats.

Carbs don’t cause cancer. Perhaps there is a link to refined sugar and white flour- but those are also the main ingredients in most ultra processed foods, so hard to isolate and distinguish. But research has concluded that whole grains lower risk of many cancers.