Ialmost always cook from scratch and avoid additives where possible, so giving up ultraprocessed food (UPF) was going to be a breeze for me. Wasn’t it? So I thought, anyway.
I started smugly, steering my supermarket trolley around the outer aisles where much of the fruit, veg, meat and dairy – whole, unprocessed foods – are stocked. But I quickly realised my household consumes far more UPFs than I’d considered.
My kids were coming home for the holidays and they love food that’s quick and easy to prepare before or after going out. That means pasta with pesto from a jar, fish finger sandwiches, baked beans on toast, instant noodles, frozen pizzas and breakfast cereal. We all love condiments, too, like ketchup, spicy sauces, mayonnaise and punchy chilli crisps. All potentially heavy UPF territory.
CHALLENGE NUMBER ONE: THE SUPERMARKET