‘I gave up ultra-processed food for a week, here’s what happened’

We’ve been warned that ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are potentially harmful to our health. But is following a UPF-free diet in 2024 realistic? How much extra does it cost and is it time consuming?

By Lauren Potts

There’s an increasing awareness of how ultra-processed foods may negatively impact us. In fact, recent research linked them to 32 potential health risks including heart attacks, strokes, obesity, type 2 diabetes and anxiety - a sobering thought when you consider that UPFs account for 57% of the calories consumed by the average UK adult and 65% of a child’s diet.

Some of the UPFs we consume will be conscious choices: Fast food, crisps, confectionery and soft drinks are things many of us knowingly indulge in.

But preservatives, flavourings and stabilisers have become so commonplace in shop-bought foods, sometimes we’re not even aware we’re eating UPFs.

I was curious, with a bit of time, attention and inclination would going entirely UPF free be easy to achieve? I gave it a go for a week.

Unpicking my usual diet

There are different definitions of what UPFs are, but a simple explanation is, if they contain ingredients you wouldn’t normally find in home cooking, they’re probably UPFs – for example chemicals, colourings, or sweeteners.

I cook from scratch most of the time, partly because I prefer it and partly because I follow a gluten-free diet and can’t always rely on convenience food. But I have my vices. I consciously get my UPFs from blackcurrant squash, chocolate, sriracha sauce and protein snacks.

What I didn’t realise was how many store cupboard essentials and seemingly ‘healthy choices’ contain ultra-processed ingredients. I found myself inspecting the contents of my kitchen and wondering why there was maize starch in my yoghurt and potassium metabisulphite in my mustard? What was soya lecithin and why was it in my chocolate? Did my pasta really need mono and diglycerides of fatty acids? Don’t even get me started on the stock cubes I buy.

I was surprised I’d been eating these strange ingredients and looked forward to a week without them. Here’s what I found…

Going UPF-free was far more expensive

It was shocking how costly going UPF-free was for me. Replacing my regular mustard to make salad dressings, required buying an organic version; ditto baked beans, which cost four times more than my typical tin and were, it turned out, extremely bland.

Not wanting to forgo my squash habit, I bought a pricey sweetener-free cordial and switched my milk chocolate choice to a bar with 80% cocoa content.

My weekly supermarket shop ballooned from £40 to £100.

Going UPF-free is time consuming

I do meal plan as standard, but I’d overlooked snacks that I usually grab from the cupboard. When I didn’t want yet another banana, I found myself grumpily baking oat cookies at 9pm (they were delicious though).

I missed the spice of hot sauce and found myself pickling red onions on my lunch break to throw liberally on my savoury dishes. My blender seemed in constant use - batter, sauces, a roasted red pepper hummus that, admittedly, made me swear off shop-bought it was so good.

Every food container was in use and the dishwasher was constantly on.

I missed bread

Bread items were easily the hardest things to forgo. While most people can make a fresh loaf, most gluten-free recipes require an additive called xanthan gum.

An attempt to make a pitta bread alternative from chickpea flour just didn’t hit the spot when it came to texture. I desperately missed not just the crunch of toast with my eggs but the ease of whipping a slice out of the freezer and having it ready in minutes.

Simple UPF-free meals

Breakfast was the easiest time to avoid UPFs. I make homemade granola anyway but for variety I baked a batch of buckwheat sweet potato muffins and alternated them with berries and Greek or kefir yoghurt. Tiring of both towards the end of the experiment, I made buckwheat pancakes instead. It was a bougie way to start the day and wouldn’t be possible if I didn’t work from home.

Lunch slipped into a rotation of omelettes, sweetcorn fritters and leftovers from the night before. No sandwiches or shop-bought coleslaw here, just a carousel of salads that made me feel smugly virtuous.

The UPFs I didn’t miss

Towards the end of the week, I realised I had stopped automatically reaching for the sriracha and didn’t miss it.

I also found myself pouring a glass of water with my meals instead of blackcurrant cordial and was genuinely shocked my squash-addiction had so easily been curbed. It not only tasted less synthetic, but I found myself not needing to chug pints of it like I would the UPF version; instead, I was satisfied with one 250ml glass a day.

The biggest surprise at dinner was the reflex to chuck a stock cube in everything I cooked. I either went without, added a bit more salt and didn’t notice a difference anyway, or went to the effort of using the rosemary and bay from the garden and made a homemade version to poach some chicken. It didn’t taste the same as the supermarket crown-in-a-bag that had xanthan gum in the seasoning, but it did the job.

UPF-free = difficulties socialising

Where I really felt the impact was my social life. When my in-laws wanted to go out for dinner, I simply couldn’t face the hassle of trying to find somewhere I could eat. Instead, we invited them over for a BBQ, where I could be sure everything would be UPF-free. I made burgers with good quality mince (using the rest in a chilli afterwards) and a watermelon salad, which we paired with their homemade potato gratin.

Though I missed the accompaniment of my favourite can of elderflower lager (contained sweeteners), I was happy enough with my non-UPF wine. And just when I thought ice cream was a no-go, I found a brand whose vanilla had an ingredients list as pure as snow and happily demolished a scoop in the sun.

How I felt by the end of the experiment

I was relieved when the experiment ended. Not because I didn’t enjoy the food or notice that I did feel slightly less sluggish but because the mental effort of thinking about every single crumb was time-consuming and a little obsessive. I’ll happily stick to the occasional cordial and look closer at the ingredients lists to buy better where I can.

But therein lies the rub. It’s a privilege to be able to eat non-UPF, both in terms of time and cost. I don’t have a family to feed, I don’t have kids nagging me to eat it, I can afford to buy the organic mustard.

If I worked in an office, I’d fall off the UPF-free bandwagon by lunchtime because supermarket shelves offer few options. To truly avoid UPFs in 2024, you also need cooking and planning skills, knowledge and the motivation to do it all the time and make sacrifices in some areas of your life.

The happy medium lies somewhere in between. Dietitian Nichola Ludlam-Raine, a spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, agrees an “all or nothing” approach can be unhealthy.

“In my opinion, it is extremely hard to eat a diet 100% free-from UPFs in 2024 while maintaining a decent social life,” she says.

“UPFs come on a spectrum of health and itʼs about reducing our consumption of the less nutritious varieties and using the more nutritious options for convenience as is needed. If you're eating mainly UPF-free at home, the odd gin and slimline tonic or ice-cream at the weekend isn't going to be an issue from a health point of view. In fact, avoiding or denying yourself could be damaging for your mental health.”

Ludlam-Raine, who has written a book about how to avoid eating ultra-processed foods, suggests instead following an 80/20 rule.

“We should focus on including more nutrient-rich foods such as fruit, vegetables, legumes, whole-grains and protein sources that promote beneficial effects on our physical and mental health approximately 80% of the time.

“Then, 20% of the time, we can include less nutrient-dense foods such as biscuits, cakes, ice creams and chocolate bars which provide energy and can also benefit our mental wellbeing by providing a sense of enjoyment and balance.”

She adds there’s no such thing as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods - it’s about finding a middle ground.

“The key is to avoid ‘all or nothing’ thinking. What matters is the quantity and frequency in which we have all foods. If you have a particular goal in mind, a slip-up in your balanced eating plan isn’t a problem, but your reaction could be. Instead, pull out the 80/20 card, remember life is about balance and go easy on yourself.”

Sounds like sensible advice to me.

Originally published July 2024