How often do you eat ultra-processed or fast food?

I think of ultra processed as food that our great grandparents would not have eaten.

Gotcha!

Actually not very often.  My parents were big on healthy home grown vegetables and Dad loved to cook.  Then when I got married, I tried to be the perfect little wife by baking bread and cooking nightly.  My ex used to brag about it and I realized years later that it was one of the few compliments that he gave.

When my son was born, I continued to cook for him.  And he loved helping me in the kitchen.  Then when he was diagnosed with cancer, I went into hyperdrive with making sure everything that he ate was good for him.  He  would be best.would come home from his Dad’s house with stomach aches and I would ask what he ate that day.  Let’s just say it wasn’t good.

I went off the rails when I was engaged to my fiancé.  He loved eating out every night.  And I got into the bad habit of drinking Diet Coke at restaurants.  I would go out with coworkers for lunch and that wasn’t always he best of places.  I turned to cokes because the water in California tastes horrible and I didn’t think it would be good to bring in my own water.  At home, I used a Brita so it tasted better, but it was still not great.  I had a water service for a while and that was nice.

Now, I eat fairly well, no sodas, fries, energy drinks, donuts, pastries, cookies, etc.  But I do love my chocolate, although I try to eat it responsibly.  I make a lot of homemade soups, chicken breasts with vegetables, and homemade egg sandwiches for breakfast.  I do think the Canadian bacon in them is not a good choice.  Better than regular bacon, but neither would be the best choice.

I looked up some lists of what an ultra processed food actually is and chicken nuggets, like those little things I bought at Costco need to fall out of my diet.  I knew the type that they sell for kids at the fast food places were bad, but it didn’t transfer over to realizing the Costco little bitty chunks were bad too.  And I guess I am surprised that my fake burger meat is not good for me.  I thought it was a better choice than beef, which I haven’t eaten in years, but it was right there on the list.  No more Impossible burgers.  Or at least very few. 

Some things are obvious but some are surprising.  But, when you know better, you do better!

Oh, and the only fast food I ever eat is Chipotle and I thought I might have to stop getting it too, but Chipotle says they don’t use any ultra processed foods in their restaurants.  Yea!

I think most people wouldn’t think a lot of the things they eat are processed/ ultra processed when in fact they are, even things some might consider to be healthy options. It’s not just the total junk (pizza, chips, ice cream, candy, snacks, anything out of a box or a can) which is obvious.

We (meaning as a family, I can’t speak for DH who spends his days on the road) probably eat drive through food maybe once a week or less. DD eats lunch at school every day so no doubt some of every one of those meals is probably UPF. We do have storebought bread, cereals and crackers in the house most of the time, plus things like salad dressings, mayonnaise, noodles, frozen or occasionally canned beans or vegetables, storebought yogurt, ice cream, chips, popcorn or other snacks. Even the stuff I bake myself is made from processed wheat flour, processed sugars, storebought butter, etc.

I really think that unless you are making the item yourself from the whole food, raw ingredients without any other additives, then sorry but that’s also processed. My tin of homemade chocolate chip cookies probably has just as many additives from the commercial ingredients as a pan of Hamburger Helper does. That’s just reality.

My husband eats very clean: very little meat, no caffeinated drinks, no fast food, no processed snacks. He mainly subsists on water/tea/cider, nuts & different nut mixes, dried fruits, protein bars & shakes, and some carbs or the sides for the main family meal. He has digestive issues that make a lot of foods painful for him to eat. 

Don't worry; I make up for what he doesn't eat.   I usually eat fast food once a week for lunch (I work from home) when I'm out running errands or going to an appointment. Many of our dinners are from scratch but not all. We don't eat fast food as a family unless it's a last-minute emergency situation but we have UPF in our home for snacks. I already drink Diet Coke every day so I'm past the point of saving, anyways. 

I just don’t really like ultra-processed or fast food. That said, I end up eating it occasionally because I have kids and they want Chipotle.

All the time. 

I put other…

No traditional fast food, but I do eat quick serve like chipotle, cava, piada (no tortillas/chips) and Jersey Mike’s but I don’t consider those in same category. Nothing is fried and I eat veggie options 90% of the time.

I will buy brown rice cakes, matzos, locally baked crackers. Most of my salad dressing is simple and clean but there are probably a few vinaigrettes that would qualify as processed. I make my own bread and meals are from scratch typically. If we eat dessert, I make it from scratch. That said, we do eat cheese and Skyr yogurt that is maybe not ultra processed, but definitely processed. I’m on vacation right now and working to cut out both of those, well dairy cheese, as an experiment.

I 100% think the processed food is a real issue for our health and if I could go back in time, I would have eaten very differently in my childhood and teenage years.

Exactly. It is very hard to avoid any processing but there’s a world of difference between using sugar, flour etc and a cookie/potato snack that contains emulsifiers, whey powder, reconstituted potato extract, cheese powder, xanthan gum, malic acid, annatto bixin, ascorbic acid, nitrates and the like.

That does help explain the differences. I have a very part time cottage foods business and part of that entails making ingredient labels for the things I make. While my state doesn’t necessarily require listing all the sub ingredients on the labels, I generally include them so if that law ever changes I won’t have to redo everything.

So instead of listing it like this: “flour, butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, semi sweet and milk chocolate chips, vanilla, salt, baking powder” which all sounds quite wholesome and pure, right?

With the sub ingredients listed out it ends up looking more like this: “wheat flour (niacin, reduced iron, thiamin, mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), butter (milk, salt), sugar, brown sugar (sugar, molasses), semi sweet chocolate chips (sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, milkfat, soy lethicin, natural flavors), milk chocolate chips (cane sugar, unsweetened chocolate, whole milk powder, cocoa butter, soy lethicin, vanilla extract), salt, baking powder (corn starch, sodium bicarbonate, anhydrous sodium aluminum sulfate, mono calcium sulfate), vanilla extract (vanilla bean extractives in water, alcohol)” which looks a whole lot like the ingredient label on a processed store bought cookie.

Now just for fun I compared the above to what I found online as the ingredients in Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix:

Not really all that different, TBH, and that’s just for a basic chocolate chip cookie. Some of my recipes have a whole laundry list of ingredients and it’s super fun trying to fit all of that on a 2” square label! 🤪

I guess my point is that until a person really dives into what is actually in each and every ingredient (even for things that are homemade), most people don’t really even think about what is in their food. I know for myself I never gave it a second thought until I had to start creating all of these labels. 

I am a very plain eater. Don't get me wrong, I love good food... but I'm the kind of person that loves brussels sprouts any way they can be made.. but especially steamed or in a salad raw. Same with almost every vegetable. Prefer raw, steamed, and not drowned in sauce or butter.

I like meat with minimal quality seasoning, and no sauces etc....

I don't get into chips or most other snacks (but can't have fruit roll ups, leather, gummies etc in the house because I will eat them all.) I love good breads, with good butter, I love bagels and I absolutely love a stack of french toast. But, all these things I would say aren't all that processed.

My downfall is that I absolutely love baked goods. Homemade, bakery, dessert at a restaurant.. LOVE!

As far as processed foods and fast foods... I don't really eat that stuff very often, although I tend to not get enough protein in my regular, not thinking about it diet, so I do use protein powder shakes every now and then, and I choke down a Barebells or RX bar every now and then. (I HATE protein bars!)

I eat fast food to be social every now and then, maybe 3-10x a year? I'm counting Buffalo Wild Wings wings in there too.

My guy and I are doing 75 Hard (day 54!) right now. We are following a whole 30 type of diet with very limited carbs (solidarity with him...) It hasn't bothered me a bit to give up all processed foods. But I do hate having to pay attention to how many radishes I eat lol

I just read an article today that listed all kinds of UPF - many of which people think of as “healthy” choices. The list included protein powders, yogurt with fruit in it, salad dressings, many oils, most beverages, most peanut butters, etc.

I think the definition is kind of murky and while I confess I eat too many things that would definitely be considered UPF, I also think it’s easy to go overboard with the idea that you have to avoid anything that’s already been processed more than a bit. For example, you can bread your own chicken nuggets, but chances are the breading ingredients could be considered UP. Is it a problem if you have chicken nuggets twice a day every day? Yeah, most likely. Once a month? Probably not.

I’m not going to set some kind of impossible standard of eating no UPF - because I know I couldn’t stick to it. I like chocolate. I like pizza, and I’m not making my own pizza dough and other ingredients.