Protected: What’s All the Fuss about Ultra-processed?

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  The world has changed from when we were kids and sat down to eat homecooked breakfast, lunch and dinner and good riddance, you might say, to those bowls of porridge and meat and 3 veg every single day.
  
  After a long frenetic day and a hectic commute, you want to relax, not cook - and a prepacked meal lets you change, throw on the laundry and catch up on Facebook while it's cooking.
  
  Most of us have tried to be virtuous and prepare lovely quinoa salads and soups for lunch breaks at our desks, but after a while, those tasty prepacked wraps and the packs of crisps can look tempting.
  
  Our shopping baskets are over half full now with ultra-processed foods, the ones that give us the chance to get out the door on time and mean we don’t have to spend our precious leisure hours stirring pots.
  
  Everything from the packet of bagels and the ice cream in your freezer to your breakfast cereal, or the fruit yoghurts in the fridge, the noodles and chicken nuggets you served for dinner, and that yummy packet of biscuits you brought to work, are ultra-processed. A good rule of thumb is that if it has more than 5 ingredients (some of which you can’t pronounce) and it’s in a nice packet with a far off ‘use by’ date, then it’s probably ultra-processed.
  
  Better for you
  It’s not that all ultra-processed food is bad, but food that is whole and natural is better. Whole food has more vitamins and minerals, has more fibre, less sugars and added chemicals. So, as part of a healthy, balanced diet we all should be loading up on the whole foods and eating the ultra-processed less.
  
  Better for your pocket
  Ultra-processed foods can appear to be the cheapest option when we are low on time. Yet, by making simple food choices with whole ingredients, you save in the long run by filling up quicker and keeping you healthier.
  When we eat ultra-processed it takes longer to feel full and that can lead to eating about 500 extra calories a day, which is basically another meal!
  
  Better for the environment
  Your ultra-processed biscuits, cakes and crisps, cereals and frozen meals have done all the work for you of picking, preparing, chopping, cooking and, in some cases, even digesting the food. All that’s left to go into them are tiny bits of the natural food – but a whole lot of time, energy and factory costs, plus transporting the food all over the world which adds up to serious carbon footprint for ultra-processed foods.
  
  The upshot
  Eating ultra-processed isn’t all bad; it's convenient and helpful to have quick things to eat when we need a meal in a hurry. We just need to balance the convenience with our bodies’ need for whole foods too.

  Healthy Swaps for ultra-processed in less than 10 mins (and easy on your pocket)

  
  Get the best out of dairy
  A pot of natural yoghurt and chopped up fruit with some seeds and nuts or a few slices of cheese can go a long way to making a meal – melt on toast, on baked potatoes, over pasta to name a few.
  
  A few eggs
  Make a meal in less time than it takes to microwave a prepacked dinner. Scramble, boil, poach, fry or try an omelette. Add flour and milk to make a pancake – all in less than 5 minutes!
  
  Great Carbs in Minutes
  A loaf of fresh bread can be sliced and frozen - why not use it to toast, make sandwiches, cover in nut butter and banana, mash an avocado, chop up a boiled egg... you choose your favourite filling.
  
  The mighty oat
  So many options for the oat – bake it into granola with a dash of honey or maple syrup, soak it overnight with some milk and fruits, add it to a smoothie to make it extra thick. Grind it up to make cereal and of course, you could always make porridge!
  
  The humble noodle
  The things that can be done with the wide variety of noodles and spaghetti can all make a meal in 10 minutes. Try noodle soup with frozen veg – toss everything in the pot and cook as per packet instructions and add some soy sauce. Try the craze for 10-minute pasta with a sauce cooked in the pot – such as peas, spinach, lemon, asparagus, beetroot.
  
  Make it on the weekend
  A great bowl of soup can be jazzed up for a different dinner all week, with couscous, as a pasta sauce, with some tofu or meat as a stew, over noodles… just think of all the possibilities out of one pot of soup and one lot of cooking and a little reheating can feed you for the week while saving you money.
  
  Make double (or triple) and freeze
  Next time you make a lasagne, or even your favourite pasta sauce, freeze an extra portion, or two, for those days when you have no time and energy to cook.
  
  Swap the ultra-processed snacks
  Think nuts or homemade popcorn instead of crisps and rice cakes.
  Eat a piece of fruit instead of a fruit drink or yoghurt or wholegrain bread rather than packaged breakfast cereal.