{"id":546162,"date":"2026-07-27T12:02:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/546162\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T12:02:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:02:27","slug":"cutting-down-on-ultra-processed-foods-isnt-easy-here-are-eight-tips-that-worked-for-my-family-well-actually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/546162\/","title":{"rendered":"Cutting down on ultra-processed foods isn\u2019t easy. Here are eight tips that worked for my family | Well actually"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been trying to eat fewer ultra-processed foods<\/a> with my family for five years, and it has been challenging.<\/p>\n

Many experts agree that ultra-processed foods (UPF) pose health risks, whether because of unhealthy ingredients<\/a>, links to disease<\/a> and environmental impacts<\/a>, or replacing more nutritious foods. Thus, some consumers \u2013 including me \u2013 are interested in removing them from their daily diet.<\/p>\n

Getting here took time, effort and consistency, but we have had some success. Here are some strategies we used in our family.<\/p>\n

1. Eat more plants<\/p>\n

Plant foods are some of the easiest, most plentiful substitutes for UPF. Most obvious are fruits and vegetables, but nuts, seeds, popcorn and roasted seaweed are other tasty, nutritious options.<\/p>\n

When it comes to introducing fruits and vegetables, the six to 12-month age is crucial, says Kary Rappaport, pediatric occupational therapist and the executive director of Solid Starts<\/a>, an organization that supports parents with feeding their children: \u201cIt is an exceedingly important window of time, when most babies are most developmentally open to a wide variety of foods and flavors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Introducing new foods to older children is similar: use small tastes, different preparations and a child\u2019s natural curiosity, she says. Focus on describing the food, rather than whether the child likes it \u2013 for example, encourage them to lick or take a bite and notice qualities like sweetness or temperature. \u201cIt\u2019s not a value judgment on the food,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Additionally, timing matters. \u201cWe are all more motivated to try and like things when we\u2019re a little bit hungry,\u201d says Rappaport. Try \u201cputting out a tray of raw veggies with hummus while you\u2019re cooking dinner, during that window where kids are looking to snack\u201d, she suggests. On the other hand, don\u2019t try to force a hangry child to try new veggies.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when you don\u2019t have great options that are fully non-UPF, incorporate vegetables and fruits and raw products as much as possible,\u201d says Julia Wolfson, an associate professor in public health at Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n

2. Buy the best ingredients you can afford<\/p>\n

At our local farmers\u2019 market, there is a stall selling fantastic apples. When in season, they are consistently crisp, sweet and apple-y. This is true for much of the food at the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever they have in your farmers\u2019 market is what is seasonal, and what is seasonal is going to be better,\u201d says chef Penny Stankiewicz. \u201cIf you go to a standard American grocery store and you buy a perfectly round, somewhat red tomato, it\u2019s going to have absolutely no flavor in January. But in August, when it\u2019s prime tomato season, you don\u2019t have to even do anything to that tomato to make it amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Produce is typically more expensive at a farmer\u2019s market, and not everyone has access to one. But the flavor payoff can be huge. Otherwise, try the produce at different grocery stores; additionally, frozen and canned produce is usually preserved at its peak. After you source your produce, learn the best ways to store it so it lasts as long as possible.<\/p>\n

3. Openly discuss food, its effects and its origins<\/p>\n

Part of my motivation to minimize UPF was not wanting to support powerful corporations that exploited workers, mistreated animals and harmed ecosystems. The more I learned about food systems, the less I wanted to participate in them as a consumer.<\/p>\n

Teaching children where food comes from and how to prepare it builds appreciation and understanding. Rappaport also suggests discussing how foods make their bodies feel: for instance, \u201cif I eat too many gummy worms or I only eat a bag of Flamin\u2019 Hot Cheetos on our car trip, I\u2019m going to feel bad. It\u2019s not gonna sit well in my belly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Familiarize yourself and your family with the definition of UPF, so that you can identify one by looking at an ingredient list, says Wolfson.<\/p>\n

4. Learn to cook<\/p>\n

I already knew how to cook, but I studied the science of cooking as we embarked on this project. Now, my from-scratch meals taste better than before, sometimes more so than UPF alternatives.<\/p>\n

Often the barriers to cooking are systemic: insufficient time and energy to cook. People may also lack confidence in their kitchen skills. \u201cWe need to make it easier for people to cook healthy meals from scratch, and that means making those scratch ingredients more available and affordable, and building those skills from a young age so that people have the confidence and self-efficacy,\u201d says Wolfson.<\/p>\n

Stankiewicz offers the following tips for newer home cooks:<\/p>\n

Learn techniques: \u201cOnce you know how to saute, it doesn\u2019t matter what you put in the pan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Develop knife skills: \u201cIf people want to get more comfortable in the kitchen, they should take a knife skills class. Those skills are a massive upscale for confidence in the kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Know your taste: \u201cKnow what you like, then create that, because that\u2019s the starting place. Don\u2019t start by making miso brownies when the core is to make a really good brownie that you like, because then you\u2019ll do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolfson found in her research that \u201cwhen people cook more at home, they consume fewer ultra-processed foods.\u201d She notes that even when people are cooking frequently, the majority of their calories often still come from UPF. Try not to feel defeated if you notice something similar; this speaks to the ubiquity of UPF, she says: \u201cIf you picture a typical American grocery store, almost 70% of the foods in the store are ultra processed \u2026 that\u2019s what\u2019s mostly available to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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5. Learn to bake<\/p>\n

In terms of replacing UPF, replacing desserts and snacks was an easy sell. I wasn\u2019t replacing cookies with carrot sticks; I was replacing them with cookies \u2013 sometimes better ones.<\/p>\n

Stankiewicz says to approach baking with fearlessness. \u201cMessing up is part of it and is really how you learn,\u201d she says, telling me that brownies were created by accident when a baker didn\u2019t add enough flour to the cake.<\/p>\n

The next step is to find trusted recipe sources. Start with recipes that are not overly intimidating or complicated. Read the recipe through before beginning, then gather the ingredients. Organize the ingredients (mise-en-place) \u2013 and then just do it!<\/p>\n

6. Make cooking at home easy<\/p>\n

Consuming UPF is easy. It takes very little time and mental capacity to, say, unwrap and heat something. Try to make cooking and baking at home similarly easy.<\/p>\n

First, master a few dishes. \u201cFind a handful of recipes or techniques that are accessible in terms of ingredients, cost, number of ingredients, and how long they\u2019re going to take to make. Then just get really good at those,\u201d says Stankiewicz.<\/p>\n

Second, build a pantry. Keep a stock of frequently used ingredients. My husband and I maintain a shared shopping list, and if we notice something running low, we update the list.<\/p>\n

Third, make more than you need. Leftovers are great. Even better are meals that can be frozen and reheated because your past self did all the work.<\/p>\n

7. Prioritize mealtimes<\/p>\n

We have a rule at the table: no phones or toys during mealtimes. We have conversations instead (often mundane and not terribly deep). Our meals aren\u2019t long; they usually take 20 minutes from when we sit down to when my youngest is done.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe research is really clear that family meals, where people are eating together, have a huge positive impact on child development across many different areas in terms of school performance, mental health and social engagement,\u201d says Rappaport.<\/p>\n

It can be difficult when schedules are varied. Rappaport has older children and strives to fit in three dinners together each week around work and extracurriculars. It\u2019s less about \u201chaving a Norman Rockwell meal at the dinner table\u201d than finding opportunities to engage, she says. \u201cIt can be burritos that we got for takeout while we\u2019re all sitting at the park waiting for practice to start. I can still find those same benefits, which are that I\u2019m asking about their day. I\u2019m showing interest in them. We are connecting around the food.\u201d<\/p>\n

8. Be relentlessly consistent \u2013 and don\u2019t be too hard on yourself<\/p>\n

We have not completely eliminated UPF. But for the most part, I try to cook, choose whole food items and purchase better-quality ingredients. Over five years and thousands of decisions, our palates have shifted to prefer non-UPF foods. Cooking and baking have become routine. When you reach the stage where UPF is no longer desirable taste-wise, and regular cooking is as habitual as brushing your teeth, opting out of UPF becomes less daunting.<\/p>\n

Without fail, every expert I spoke with emphasized the structural factors that make it difficult for consumers to reduce UPF consumption. Their prevalence, coupled with time and cost pressures mean that UPF often makes the most sense. There will be unexpected work emergencies or illnesses that make cooking from scratch impossible. Some days are full of extracurriculars and social events, and you won\u2019t have time to bake or cook. You may attend catered events, meetings or functions where you have no control over the food.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of us will eat at least some UPF. Your children will eat UPF \u2013 especially at birthday parties and play dates. But that\u2019s not failure, just reality. Being realistic about your options can help you stay consistent instead of giving up entirely, and that\u2019s ultimately what got me and my family to this point. When it comes to UPF consumption, don\u2019t let perfect become the enemy of good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I have been trying to eat fewer ultra-processed foods with my family for five years, and it has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[134,111,139,556,69],"class_list":["post-546162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nutrition","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}