Going Ultra-Processed Free as a Vegan
For the month of January I went ultra-processed free, and it was… hard. The term ‘ultra-processed foods’ comes from the NOVA food classification system. To me ‘ultra-processed foods’ are foods with a long list of ingredients mostly consisting of preservatives, artificial colouring and sweeteners. As a rule of thumb, if I didn’t have the ingredients at home it was ultra-processed. This led me to cut out fake meat, biscuits, crisps, fizzy drinks and hardest of all mass-produced bread. I also cut out most oils except for extra virgin olive oil and sesame oil. After one month of doing this, I must be honest, I felt lighter on my feet, less bloated, less tired and each meal seemed to fill me for longer.
Pizza, pasta and potatoes. Those were the three main foods that were my saviours throughout this month. The viral “Marry Me” pasta with pan-fried tofu bites, “Cheesy” broccoli pasta with sautéed leeks and homemade pizza topped with mushroom, sweetcorn and soy "“chicken” pizza, were just some of the wholefood meals made this month. Cooking food took more effort this month. A lot of it was making my own XYZ. Homemade pizza dough, kneading it, letting it raise and then shaping it myself. Homemade houmous, homemade BBQ sauce, sriracha and mayonnaise. Some of it paid off and I will continue to make going into the future, and some of it didn’t. For example, the BBQ sauce was simple, easy to make and tastes just as good, if not better than storebought. However, the sriracha, while simple and easy, fermented for five days and then had to be boiled to thicken, and in the end, wasn’t as good as Flying Goose. Similarly with the mayonnaise, the texture and colour was there but due to me using EVOO, it just tasted of oil. Now I will try the vegan mayonnaise recipe again but with a more flavourless oil such as avocado oil.
Some of the brands that helped out a lot during this time were Suma and Dr Will’s. Their soups and sauces made this month a lot more manageable, as well as bakeries such as Pollen for their fresh bread. Holland & Barrett was a huge help too, they offered a big range of dehydrated soy pieces, seitan and pre-made sauces. There are a lot of obvious ingredients that are ultra-processed free such as tofu, lentils, and fresh vegetables such as mushrooms, corn, and peppers and a lot of these provided the bases for many of the meals I ate. Scrambled tofu and potato hash, peanut butter korma, lentil shepherd’s pie, battered enoki mushroom. I’ll admit for each of these big homemade meals there was also a lot of jacket potato and beans and easy tomato pastas. Quick and simple, low-ingredient meals were a lot harder to come by but once I got more adapted to making quick noodle broths, making quick ‘nooch’, leek and mushroom pasta then it did get a lot easier.
A lot more work went into creating what I could normally get in a tin or a jar. Mushy peas for example are usually 95% Processed Peas, Water, Sugar, Salt and then Colours (Riboflavin, Brilliant Blue FCF). Brilliant Blue FCF is a synthetic dye produced from petroleum, so what in the heck is it doing in mushy peas?! Ultra-processed ingredients like Brilliant Blue FCF are what I was specifically on the lookout for. Similarly, shop-bought vegan brownies have the ingredients, Stabiliser (Hydroxypropyl Methyl Cellulose), Raising Agents (Calcium Phosphates, Sodium Carbonates), and Preservative (Potassium Sorbate). Hydroxypropyl Methyl Cellulose is a stabiliser similar to animal gelatine used in vegan and gluten-free baking but it’s also used in tile adhesives and eye drops. Whilst a lot of synthetic and semisynthetic polymers can be used in baking and cooking to stabilise food for store shelves, surely it can’t be good for us. Especially when there are recipes to make vegan brownies where you don’t need to go out and buy Hypromellose.
Going ultra-processed-free throughout January was hard, but it was manageable. Once I made it to the halfway mark it became a lot easier, I had a few go-to recipes and I knew going into shops what I could and couldn’t get. Whilst at times all I did want was a Rustlers burger or a microwave-able Quorn curry, it did feel very rewarding and I’ve genuinely never felt physically better. My gut health had never been better and for the first time in, what felt like a long time, I wasn’t constantly bloated. With all of that said, going into February and the rest of the year I will be a little easier on myself. I’m not going to go wild and suddenly stop eating healthier but I may order the occasional Nandos. Similarly, with sauces, I will go back to using Sriracha Mayo and ketchup. However, I have decided to stop buying tinned mushy peas and store-bought baked goods. I guess in the end all I want to say is, give it a go and try, even for a week, to do it yourself.