Avoid ultra-processed foods (UPF) (2024)

Unless you grow, forage or catch all your own food, almost everything you consume has been processed to some extent.Vegetablesmay be frozen, fish can be smoked, bread isbaked,and fruitcan be dried. Cooking is a process,as is fermentationso processingisn’talways ‘bad’.

However, ‘ultra-processed’ foods (UPFs) have crept onto our platesmore and more. AtOvercoming MSwe recommend trying to consume asmany wholefoods as possible, and that means excluding the ultra-processed foods as much asyou can.

Whatareultra-processed foods?

‘Ultra-processed’ food is “the processing of industrial ingredients derived from foods, for example by extruding, moulding, re-shaping, hydrogenation, and hydrolysis.Ultra-processed foodsgenerally alsoinclude additives such as preservatives, sweeteners, sensory enhancers, colourants, flavours,andlittle or no whole food.They may be fortified with micronutrients. The aim is to create durable, convenientready-to-eat food products.”

It’sone offourterms used in theNOVA systemto describe food preparation, theother threebeing:

Identifying ultra-processed foods

Ultra-processed foods usuallycontainingredients that youwouldn’tadd when preparing homemade food. You may not recognise the names of these ingredients as many will be chemicals, colourings,sweetenersand preservatives.

56% of calories an average person in the UK consumes comes from ultra-processed food. This is forseveralreasons including – convenience, cost and availability. A diet that contains too many of these kinds of foods means there is less of the more nutritious wholefoods present, so it is strongly encouraged to reduce the amount of ultra-processed foods you mayconsume.

Buying processed foods can lead to people eating more than the recommended amounts of sugar, salt and fat,as they may not be aware of how much has been added to the food they are buying and eating.There arelinks between this,weightgainand evenchronic disease.

The most commonultra-processed foodsinclude:

• Confectionery

• Biscuits

• Pasties,bunsand cakes

• Industrial chips

• Soft drinks, fruit drinks and fruit juices

• Salty snacks

• Saucesordressings

• “Other ultra-processed foods”:includebaked beans, tinned soups, meat alternatives, soy and drinks used as dairy milk substitutes.

Readingnutrition labelscan help you choose between processed products and keep a check on fat, salt and sugar content.These ‘hidden’ ingredients can promote inflammation and reduce the beneficial nutritional content of the foods we are eating. When living with a long-term health condition like MS, it’s important to consume foods that provide an abundance of nutrients to support overall health as much and as often as we can.

Most pre-packed foods have the nutrition information on the front, back or side of the packaging.

If the processed food you want to buy has a nutrition label that uses colour-coding, you will often find a mixture of red, amber and green,to help you recognise those products with the greatest health benefits.

Places whereit gets tricky can include:

1. Cereal:plain oats, corn flakes and shredded wheat are minimally processed, butwhen the manufacturer adds sugar, flavourings or colourings, they become ultra-processedcereals.Try sticking to cereals such as porridge, corn flakes, bran flakes,weetabixetc rather than the more processed versions

2. Bread made from wheat flour, water, salt and yeast is processed, but add emulsifiers or colourings and it becomes ultra-processed. Try choosing a wholemeal loaf from the fresh bakery counter in the supermarket

Meat alternatives

When we take meat & dairy products out of the diet, it isvery easyto replace these with vegan alternatives and many of these fitinto the‘ultra-processed’ category.Interestingly, nutritional studies have found that ahigher avoidance of animal-based foods is associated with a higher consumption of ultra-processed foods.These include foods with some additives (texturizers, dyes, emulsifiers, etc) made from textured soy protein foods, quinoa, corn, and other cereals,legumesor pulses.Some will also have a high oil content.

That’snot to say that weshouldn’teat them at all, but we do need to be mindful not to rely on them. Instead, look for the less heavily processedveggiealternatives – those with fewer ingredients, such as tofu, and try using fresh or canned beans and lentils more often.

Tips

• Eat whole foods whereverpossible andtry to reducethe amount of packaged and processed foods you buy. You will probably save money too!

• Try looking at food labels and avoid or limit those products that list more than 5 or 6 ingredients.

• Choose unflavouredtofu andcreate marinades withyourown herbs and spices.

• Try making your own meat-free alternatives, for example, burgers made from beans or lentils;or meatless ‘meat’ balls made from grated veggies, beans and ground almonds.

• Mushroom and walnut bolognese

• Best everbean burger

• What healthy, Overcoming MS-friendly meat substitutes can I have?

If you’re keen to make that first step in changing your diet – then make it by avoidingultra-processed foods, for all-roundbetter health and boosting your nutritional intake.

Related articles:

• Why wholegrain is the best choice

• Which oils are processed?

• What healthy OMS friendly meat substitutes can I have