Yes today I was discussing how people need to think that a dish *is something* to make it. I put potatoes and onions in a skillet most days and it turns out different everytime. Always delicious. Today I was making bread with my baby, how is that not a beautiful memory? Keep preaching
I love that it feels like you're directly talking to just me. You just write so perfectly.
I super struggle with buying the quick option, which tends to be the cheaper option too. I love to cook, however lost that spark or urge to get cooking with the rise in food prices, less "me" time and just overall burn out. I am an extremely picky eater so I also tend to get overwhelmed with new recipes. I know, all excuses and mental hurdles i'm more than capable getting over. Thank you for the small kick in the butt to keep trying :)
I have to subscribe after reading this. There are so few people who are against UPF and also vegan. Because usually they fall into the raw dairy, raw steak, slather yourself in tallow crowd. I’ve been vegan for 8.5 years, I love to cook and yet I’m still overweight (was thin and had disordered eating…gained weight once I stopped doing the crazy behaviour…it’s a work in progress).
I learnt about UPF last year and have started cooking even staples like sourdough bread from scratch. I’ve also gotten into fermentation (primarily kombucha and water kefir and lact-fermented veggies). I haven’t eaten at fast food places for nearly a decade but struggle with plant based milks and vegan butter. I tried replacing it with olive oil but as someone who was raised with butter, it’s hard to give it up (the vegan version, I ditched dairy long ago).
I never understood people who didn’t learn to cook. I find takeout boring after even a few days - it’s always the same options, the same flavours. Even if you look to discover a new cuisine, all the Thai restaurants have the same Thai dishes. All the Indian restaurants have the same Indian dishes. As someone who is in a relationship with a man who comes from India, I have been introduced to so many dishes that aren’t on the menu at places. Cooking is a way to try new things. Or it can be quicker than ordering takeout, and wayyyy cheaper.
Thank you so much for subscribing! It’s always a process but avoiding UPFs will pay off in the long run. Congrats on healing from disordered eating. It’s so hard but you’re doing what’s best for your body, regardless of size. Keep kicking ass, you’re worth it ❤️
What a great piece on UPFs, we recently wrote on them too. Love that you stress the simple art of how to cook - especially love that Simpson’s meme! Thank you!!
This post was so well timed!! One of my hubby's favorite comfort foods are the vegan "sausages" (field roast is his fav brand), and I was all set to do a Father's Day bbq with the sausages. After reading the post, I changed my mind, and I made Isa Chandra Moskowitz's baked falafel instead. The most processed part of the dinner was the pita bread, and it was awesome. Thanks for the inspiration!
Michelle, this is such a powerful and much-needed message! Your passion for real food and cooking from scratch really shines through. I couldn't agree more about the dangers of ultra-processed foods and the importance of reclaiming our kitchens. Cooking isn't just about feeding ourselves; it's about nourishing our bodies and creating memories. Thank you for the inspiration and the practical tips. I'm ready to boil those beans and steam that rice!
the conversation around UPFs is much more nuanced. It's great to encourage people to cook more food at home -- but not everyone has the time/resources and ability or even access to these foods. By the Nova definition, Ultra-processed foods can also include supplements and tube feeding that are critically necessary for individuals experiencing various health issues as well as infant formulas for infants with a variety of medical and health problems....so it would be a mistake to automatically demonize anything that is ultra-processed.
I mean, I think we both know I wasn’t talking about tube feeding or infant formulas for sick babies. UPFs don’t need defending. Blue Takis aren’t helping anyone. We need to advocate for universal access to real food as a basic human right, teach people how to cook for themselves, while using their budget to get as much real food as possible. I think we can do all of that at the same time.
Love this post. As the only cook in our house I’m constantly getting “there’s nothing to eat”. There is plenty of food I say — “you just have to put it together.”
For me it's very simple: I need tons of calories + I love food + I'm vegetarian = I cook every day. It helps not to have kids, for sure. Oh also I live in Switzerland. Restaurants are super expensive and almost always incredibly disappointing. PS: Yey! I'm one of the winners! Thanks so much for everything, Michelle. Especially for pushing us to focus on healthy behaviors, and not just the food but all the way from pre-farm to post fork.
I have my first grandchild (13 months and eating solids) I'm trying to find and make healthy plant based goodness for her to help her mommy out. Veggie nuggets are winning 😊
I think Ultra processed and prepared are not always the same thing. Just like weight and health. But we do need to call out these 'food' companies that have so much power and make so much money at the expense of our health. Learning to cook - like managing money - should be taught at school, In a real way that is not about making a roux or that BS - how to make food we each to live. I love to cook and I have always made food for the people I love because I want them to have nourishing home made food. not heavily salted sugary processed crap.
Unfortunately they remain one of the highest valued Swiss stocks and most people keep preferring dividends over companies that actually care about not killing us. It also doesn’t help that the ESG rating mafia keep rating them well despite their atrocities to people and planet. Grrrr.
Exactly! UPFs aren't food. There's a huge difference between prepared foods, processed foods, and UPFs. The other two have their place and have value but UPFs only make us sick and giant corporations richer. Learning to cook and doing so as much as we each can is how we opt out of this system that wasn't made to benefit us.
I agree in some ways, but always find myself offput by the "UFP's are killing us" argument because I always see obesity listed as a negative health outcome. I've been following Ragen Chastain and Virginia Sole-Smith for years, have read a little (but not all) of Lindo Bacon's Health at Every Size, and have been in fat activist spaces as well as weight-neutral health spaces for years at this point. It was a turning point for my health and my relationship with food (and cooking), and every time I see the act of simply existing in a body like mine listed as a negative health outcome, I feel angered with the system and questioning how much of the study can be trusted. It's nearly impossible to determine how much of the health outcomes are associated with weight vs. how much is associated with weight bias.
I also have trouble with demonizing food because I have difficulties eating. Both of my sisters have had eating disorders and the way I've put it is that I've "dabbled" with disordered eating in the past. One of the reasons I've never been able to go full vegan/vegetarian has been my black-or-white thinking on food.
It also depends on the definition of processed - I try to use less-processed food when I'm cooking for my community, but do end up leaning fairly heavily on canned beans and canned or frozen veggies. When I've got the time/other people available to help with chopping veggies etc. I'll happily use fresh, but chopping enough veggies for 9 people, or remembering to soak 9 people's worth of dried beans the day before, can be a daunting task on my own.
(In addition to having to cook vegetarian for 9 people, there's a mix of food sensitivities - my body has trouble processing spinach and sometimes other leafy greens, blueberries, and oats. One person can't do bell peppers, one hates mushrooms, and two are gluten free. It's definitely improved my creativity in the kitchens!)
I guess all that is to say - I do think people being able to cook is important. But a lot of people don't have the time, freezer space, or energy to do homemade sauce instead of jarred, or make their own bread. And I don't think that relying on those things is necessarily bad.
Yes, there are dangers to UPF's. And I think a lot of that comes from the fact that food companies are not out to feed you, they're out to make the biggest profit they can from the least amount of cost. Their focus is profit, not food(I'll save my capitalism rant for another day). But for me and a lot of people I know, I feel like the best food is the food you will actually eat - not the food you'll get the ingredients for and then let waste away in the produce bin of guilt because you though you'd have more energy this week than you actually do.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still a hardcore nutritional yeast, beans and rice, chickpea fan. I'm one of the main people to cook house meals in my intentional community; I absolutely love cooking and am thinking of working on a House Basics cookbook so people know some of the basics, especially when it comes to vegetarian cooking. But I'm not going to judge anyone, including myself, for grabbing an Uncrustable when life doesn't allow for time in the kitchen.
Yeah, there are 31 other adverse health outcomes related to diets heavy in UPFs that have nothing to do with obesity, like cognitive decline, depression, and other mood disorders. Obesity isn't the problem at all, hence me not talking about that. I love Virginia Sole-Smith's work and Kate Manne's new book Unshrinking is incredible. Health and size aren't as related our skinny obsessed culture wants us to believe. But UPFs are terrible for so many reasons that have nothing to do with size. They have warning labels on "foods" like this in many South American and European countries for a reason. The science is absolutely in. They are killing us.
I agree, any food is better than no food but UPFs aren't food. There's a difference between processed foods and UPFs. There are 4 tiers to the NOVA food classification. Canned beans and veggies, jarred spaghetti sauce, all things with ingredients that we recognize and could make at home if we had a little more time are very different that the lab created "food" that I'm discussing. They shouldn't be allowed in our food system and they aren't allowed in many, many other counties for a reason. I completely understand why people make those choices but I don't think the difference between UPFs and processed foods are understood by the general public. That's why I wrote this post.
I spent the first part of the day organizing my pantry. It’s truly part archaeological dig, part organization… I made a huge batch of garbanzo beans to freeze and some to make hummus. I am making a small batch of pinto beans. My bean, rice and pasta shelves are less messy and look like they can see me through a few months of good food. My canned goods are still a disaster but at least I don’t feel like a total mess. I made a batch of soymilk and am planning on making another. I will use some to make some soft silken tofu, which I love to use to make fake sour cream. And tomorrow I am making chicken (fake!) out of white beans and seitan, so I can make vegan Fesenjon. I had two huge bottles of pomegranate juice so made Rob e Anar, pomegranate paste, and I have a big bag of shelled walnuts, so… I need fake chicken. We will see if it works.its delicious with rice and a salad shirazi. So, reading this made me feel like I am part of something. Unprocessing my food.
This arrived on the same day as a news update telling me that "Processed vegan alternatives lead to disease." I suspected as much but preferred to turn a blind ear. Anyhow, after reading your essay I'm like, fuck Daiya, I'm out! (Vegan pizza is so good with just olive oil and avocado, or pesto, or romesco... any fat works, doesn't need to be cheeze.)
Vegan options can be just as bad or worse than omnivore options.
I know I frustrate everyone the store aisle. But I am reading the freaking nutrition and ingredients on everything! Low fat, which fat, and how much fiber. What have they included or done to make it. And I don’t care. I only have one life and this is my only body.
Agreed! My first year as a vegan (I’ve been GF for over 10 yrs.) I ate the Daiya, the occasional impossible burger, etc. Loved the coconut yogurts, etc. Not often, but enough. Then I found my blood pressure was through the roof! Now I’m pretty strictly WFPB and very little tropical oils (coconut was supposed to be okay, amiright? Nope.) Anyway my blood pressure is way way better now, still trying to lose weight but glad I can avoid medication or worse…
It is so hard to avoid these foods for my kids. I prepare mostly homemade at home, but at school and parties they are bombarded by processed food. And I can tell you as a teacher that my students eat absolute crap everyday, and it is reflected in their behavior. Sure, eat somes blue takis and try to focus on science after. UGH.
It’s almost impossible with kids. Perfection isn’t the goal and any effort in the right direction is better than nothing. Those damn Takis should be illegal!
This line sums it up. “Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are industrial products made from substances that have been extracted from food or other manufactured ingredients.”
It puts the SAD in sharp relief. They make money by feeding us stuff that should go to the trash.
As I age (55) I have begun to redistribute my time and focus. Of doing way less in the world. And doing much more at home. I put more thought into to what I actually do. And if It truly serves my needs and desires. I can do a few things well, or do everything poorly. I choose to cook because that is the basis for health. And it gives me the energy to do what’s necessary and what I desire.
Or to put it more quotable. “Trash in equals trash out. And I am not trash.”
Yes today I was discussing how people need to think that a dish *is something* to make it. I put potatoes and onions in a skillet most days and it turns out different everytime. Always delicious. Today I was making bread with my baby, how is that not a beautiful memory? Keep preaching
I love that it feels like you're directly talking to just me. You just write so perfectly.
I super struggle with buying the quick option, which tends to be the cheaper option too. I love to cook, however lost that spark or urge to get cooking with the rise in food prices, less "me" time and just overall burn out. I am an extremely picky eater so I also tend to get overwhelmed with new recipes. I know, all excuses and mental hurdles i'm more than capable getting over. Thank you for the small kick in the butt to keep trying :)
I have to subscribe after reading this. There are so few people who are against UPF and also vegan. Because usually they fall into the raw dairy, raw steak, slather yourself in tallow crowd. I’ve been vegan for 8.5 years, I love to cook and yet I’m still overweight (was thin and had disordered eating…gained weight once I stopped doing the crazy behaviour…it’s a work in progress).
I learnt about UPF last year and have started cooking even staples like sourdough bread from scratch. I’ve also gotten into fermentation (primarily kombucha and water kefir and lact-fermented veggies). I haven’t eaten at fast food places for nearly a decade but struggle with plant based milks and vegan butter. I tried replacing it with olive oil but as someone who was raised with butter, it’s hard to give it up (the vegan version, I ditched dairy long ago).
I never understood people who didn’t learn to cook. I find takeout boring after even a few days - it’s always the same options, the same flavours. Even if you look to discover a new cuisine, all the Thai restaurants have the same Thai dishes. All the Indian restaurants have the same Indian dishes. As someone who is in a relationship with a man who comes from India, I have been introduced to so many dishes that aren’t on the menu at places. Cooking is a way to try new things. Or it can be quicker than ordering takeout, and wayyyy cheaper.
Thank you so much for subscribing! It’s always a process but avoiding UPFs will pay off in the long run. Congrats on healing from disordered eating. It’s so hard but you’re doing what’s best for your body, regardless of size. Keep kicking ass, you’re worth it ❤️
What a great piece on UPFs, we recently wrote on them too. Love that you stress the simple art of how to cook - especially love that Simpson’s meme! Thank you!!
This post was so well timed!! One of my hubby's favorite comfort foods are the vegan "sausages" (field roast is his fav brand), and I was all set to do a Father's Day bbq with the sausages. After reading the post, I changed my mind, and I made Isa Chandra Moskowitz's baked falafel instead. The most processed part of the dinner was the pita bread, and it was awesome. Thanks for the inspiration!
I love her falafel and a little pita bread never hurt anybody. I'm glad you guys had a great Father's Day dinner.
Michelle, this is such a powerful and much-needed message! Your passion for real food and cooking from scratch really shines through. I couldn't agree more about the dangers of ultra-processed foods and the importance of reclaiming our kitchens. Cooking isn't just about feeding ourselves; it's about nourishing our bodies and creating memories. Thank you for the inspiration and the practical tips. I'm ready to boil those beans and steam that rice!
Damn right 👏👏👏
the conversation around UPFs is much more nuanced. It's great to encourage people to cook more food at home -- but not everyone has the time/resources and ability or even access to these foods. By the Nova definition, Ultra-processed foods can also include supplements and tube feeding that are critically necessary for individuals experiencing various health issues as well as infant formulas for infants with a variety of medical and health problems....so it would be a mistake to automatically demonize anything that is ultra-processed.
I mean, I think we both know I wasn’t talking about tube feeding or infant formulas for sick babies. UPFs don’t need defending. Blue Takis aren’t helping anyone. We need to advocate for universal access to real food as a basic human right, teach people how to cook for themselves, while using their budget to get as much real food as possible. I think we can do all of that at the same time.
Love this post. As the only cook in our house I’m constantly getting “there’s nothing to eat”. There is plenty of food I say — “you just have to put it together.”
Exactly!!!
For me it's very simple: I need tons of calories + I love food + I'm vegetarian = I cook every day. It helps not to have kids, for sure. Oh also I live in Switzerland. Restaurants are super expensive and almost always incredibly disappointing. PS: Yey! I'm one of the winners! Thanks so much for everything, Michelle. Especially for pushing us to focus on healthy behaviors, and not just the food but all the way from pre-farm to post fork.
I have my first grandchild (13 months and eating solids) I'm trying to find and make healthy plant based goodness for her to help her mommy out. Veggie nuggets are winning 😊
Congrats Julie!! It's so hard but I'm glad your family is trying. Helping hands always make things easier.
I think Ultra processed and prepared are not always the same thing. Just like weight and health. But we do need to call out these 'food' companies that have so much power and make so much money at the expense of our health. Learning to cook - like managing money - should be taught at school, In a real way that is not about making a roux or that BS - how to make food we each to live. I love to cook and I have always made food for the people I love because I want them to have nourishing home made food. not heavily salted sugary processed crap.
Nestlé is in a ton of trouble (again) because it knowingly chooses to sell addictive crap https://www.ft.com/content/4c98d410-38b1-4be8-95b2-d029e054f492
They are one of the absolute worst food corporations out there and they just keep proving it
Unfortunately they remain one of the highest valued Swiss stocks and most people keep preferring dividends over companies that actually care about not killing us. It also doesn’t help that the ESG rating mafia keep rating them well despite their atrocities to people and planet. Grrrr.
Exactly! UPFs aren't food. There's a huge difference between prepared foods, processed foods, and UPFs. The other two have their place and have value but UPFs only make us sick and giant corporations richer. Learning to cook and doing so as much as we each can is how we opt out of this system that wasn't made to benefit us.
I agree in some ways, but always find myself offput by the "UFP's are killing us" argument because I always see obesity listed as a negative health outcome. I've been following Ragen Chastain and Virginia Sole-Smith for years, have read a little (but not all) of Lindo Bacon's Health at Every Size, and have been in fat activist spaces as well as weight-neutral health spaces for years at this point. It was a turning point for my health and my relationship with food (and cooking), and every time I see the act of simply existing in a body like mine listed as a negative health outcome, I feel angered with the system and questioning how much of the study can be trusted. It's nearly impossible to determine how much of the health outcomes are associated with weight vs. how much is associated with weight bias.
I also have trouble with demonizing food because I have difficulties eating. Both of my sisters have had eating disorders and the way I've put it is that I've "dabbled" with disordered eating in the past. One of the reasons I've never been able to go full vegan/vegetarian has been my black-or-white thinking on food.
It also depends on the definition of processed - I try to use less-processed food when I'm cooking for my community, but do end up leaning fairly heavily on canned beans and canned or frozen veggies. When I've got the time/other people available to help with chopping veggies etc. I'll happily use fresh, but chopping enough veggies for 9 people, or remembering to soak 9 people's worth of dried beans the day before, can be a daunting task on my own.
(In addition to having to cook vegetarian for 9 people, there's a mix of food sensitivities - my body has trouble processing spinach and sometimes other leafy greens, blueberries, and oats. One person can't do bell peppers, one hates mushrooms, and two are gluten free. It's definitely improved my creativity in the kitchens!)
I guess all that is to say - I do think people being able to cook is important. But a lot of people don't have the time, freezer space, or energy to do homemade sauce instead of jarred, or make their own bread. And I don't think that relying on those things is necessarily bad.
Yes, there are dangers to UPF's. And I think a lot of that comes from the fact that food companies are not out to feed you, they're out to make the biggest profit they can from the least amount of cost. Their focus is profit, not food(I'll save my capitalism rant for another day). But for me and a lot of people I know, I feel like the best food is the food you will actually eat - not the food you'll get the ingredients for and then let waste away in the produce bin of guilt because you though you'd have more energy this week than you actually do.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still a hardcore nutritional yeast, beans and rice, chickpea fan. I'm one of the main people to cook house meals in my intentional community; I absolutely love cooking and am thinking of working on a House Basics cookbook so people know some of the basics, especially when it comes to vegetarian cooking. But I'm not going to judge anyone, including myself, for grabbing an Uncrustable when life doesn't allow for time in the kitchen.
Yeah, there are 31 other adverse health outcomes related to diets heavy in UPFs that have nothing to do with obesity, like cognitive decline, depression, and other mood disorders. Obesity isn't the problem at all, hence me not talking about that. I love Virginia Sole-Smith's work and Kate Manne's new book Unshrinking is incredible. Health and size aren't as related our skinny obsessed culture wants us to believe. But UPFs are terrible for so many reasons that have nothing to do with size. They have warning labels on "foods" like this in many South American and European countries for a reason. The science is absolutely in. They are killing us.
I agree, any food is better than no food but UPFs aren't food. There's a difference between processed foods and UPFs. There are 4 tiers to the NOVA food classification. Canned beans and veggies, jarred spaghetti sauce, all things with ingredients that we recognize and could make at home if we had a little more time are very different that the lab created "food" that I'm discussing. They shouldn't be allowed in our food system and they aren't allowed in many, many other counties for a reason. I completely understand why people make those choices but I don't think the difference between UPFs and processed foods are understood by the general public. That's why I wrote this post.
*UPF's, eek! Misspelling everything today.
I spent the first part of the day organizing my pantry. It’s truly part archaeological dig, part organization… I made a huge batch of garbanzo beans to freeze and some to make hummus. I am making a small batch of pinto beans. My bean, rice and pasta shelves are less messy and look like they can see me through a few months of good food. My canned goods are still a disaster but at least I don’t feel like a total mess. I made a batch of soymilk and am planning on making another. I will use some to make some soft silken tofu, which I love to use to make fake sour cream. And tomorrow I am making chicken (fake!) out of white beans and seitan, so I can make vegan Fesenjon. I had two huge bottles of pomegranate juice so made Rob e Anar, pomegranate paste, and I have a big bag of shelled walnuts, so… I need fake chicken. We will see if it works.its delicious with rice and a salad shirazi. So, reading this made me feel like I am part of something. Unprocessing my food.
These made me so hungry! You’ve got it dialed in. My about due for a pantry reorganization. Thanks for the inspo ❤️
This arrived on the same day as a news update telling me that "Processed vegan alternatives lead to disease." I suspected as much but preferred to turn a blind ear. Anyhow, after reading your essay I'm like, fuck Daiya, I'm out! (Vegan pizza is so good with just olive oil and avocado, or pesto, or romesco... any fat works, doesn't need to be cheeze.)
I’m with you, Anna. That fake cheez is garbage. And I love to blow people’s minds when I order a veggie pizza with no cheese. So delicious.
Yeppp so many vegan cheese alternatives are mostly oil 🤢 (And non-vegan things too. So much food flavored oil out there 🤢)
Vegan options can be just as bad or worse than omnivore options.
I know I frustrate everyone the store aisle. But I am reading the freaking nutrition and ingredients on everything! Low fat, which fat, and how much fiber. What have they included or done to make it. And I don’t care. I only have one life and this is my only body.
Agreed! My first year as a vegan (I’ve been GF for over 10 yrs.) I ate the Daiya, the occasional impossible burger, etc. Loved the coconut yogurts, etc. Not often, but enough. Then I found my blood pressure was through the roof! Now I’m pretty strictly WFPB and very little tropical oils (coconut was supposed to be okay, amiright? Nope.) Anyway my blood pressure is way way better now, still trying to lose weight but glad I can avoid medication or worse…
Amen 🙌 I’m always reading labels and slowing everybody down. Sorry not sorry lol
Even a nice tahini sauce drizzled pizza is amazing. We’ve just got to get creative!
It is so hard to avoid these foods for my kids. I prepare mostly homemade at home, but at school and parties they are bombarded by processed food. And I can tell you as a teacher that my students eat absolute crap everyday, and it is reflected in their behavior. Sure, eat somes blue takis and try to focus on science after. UGH.
It’s almost impossible with kids. Perfection isn’t the goal and any effort in the right direction is better than nothing. Those damn Takis should be illegal!
💯
This line sums it up. “Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are industrial products made from substances that have been extracted from food or other manufactured ingredients.”
It puts the SAD in sharp relief. They make money by feeding us stuff that should go to the trash.
As I age (55) I have begun to redistribute my time and focus. Of doing way less in the world. And doing much more at home. I put more thought into to what I actually do. And if It truly serves my needs and desires. I can do a few things well, or do everything poorly. I choose to cook because that is the basis for health. And it gives me the energy to do what’s necessary and what I desire.
Or to put it more quotable. “Trash in equals trash out. And I am not trash.”
Yes! I would much rather do a few things well than everything poorly. That’s a great perspective.