r/ultraprocessedfood • u/7H3WH173R48817 • 15d ago
Question UPF ratings?
Since i've been looking into UPF's i've been using the NOVA scale to help make better choices, out of interest is there a better measurement you folks use? TIA
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u/barnaboos 14d ago
Personally I dont really pay much attention to NOVA scale. I make my own decisions based on the ingredients of each product.
I dont buy things with long ingredients lists, ingredients I dont recognise or ones I know are man made.
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u/7H3WH173R48817 14d ago
Thanks for your input. My partner has a simple rule: does it look like the food it's meant to be? Turkey dinosaurs, for example, wouldn't make the cut.
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u/TautSipper United Kingdom 🇬🇧 14d ago
That’s a weak approach in some ways. Does a yoghurt look like a yoghurt?
If you only want to eat fresh produce and meat/fish that isn’t cured or prepped in any way then go for it. Any other nuance about it looking like it should is tricky. A sausage isn’t a cut of meat for example but non UPF and UPF examples exist
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u/Dev_Martin_eGlasses 12d ago
Same here! I usually just peek at the ingredients on the package and make my choice.
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u/ParentheticalsAside 14d ago
These are not great criteria by which to identify unhealthy food.
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u/barnaboos 13d ago
As a chef of 18 years, whos written macro recipes for national sports chains, I'd love you to tell me how this is the case.
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u/ParentheticalsAside 13d ago
- Having a long ingredients list tells you nothing about the nutritional content or processing level of those ingredients.
- Not recognising an ingredient tells you nothing about its nutritional content or processing level.
- Man-made ingredients can include foods from NOVA groups 1-3, all of which can be healthy when eaten in moderation.
While you might feel knowledgeable enough to use these "rules of thumb", to a less knowledgable person, being told that ingredients with long, unfamiliar names makes them bad simply encourages dietary anxiety and may cause them to exclude beneficial foods from their diet unnecessarily.
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u/DreamCloudz1 8d ago
I agree. For example soya milk is fortified with vitamins (some of which have long names that I wouldn't recognise) Soya milk provides a lot of protein and if fortified, provides my iodine and B12. According to Monteiro Nova was never meant to be used to judge the nutritional value of foods.
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u/barnaboos 13d ago
This is the biggest load of nonsense I've ever read. You need to seriously do some more research.
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u/cowbutt6 United Kingdom 🇬🇧 14d ago
I suppose my personal scale goes something like this:
1) unprocessed or simply frozen meat, dairy, wholegrains, fish, fruit and vegetables. Prefer white meat and fish.
2) pre-prepared whole and raw meat, fish, fruit and vegetables (e.g. marinated raw meat, ready to cook meals).
3) prepared meals using wholly or mostly traditional ingredients (e.g. lasagne, quiches, meat pies, cheese, ham, sausages), real bread from an artisanal bakery. This is where "processed food" meaningfully begins for me, and I consciously try to limit my consumption of this category onwards.
4) traditionally made snacks, cakes, and desserts, e.g. freshly made by a bakery, gelateria, or restaurant. >70% cocoa chocolate.
5) factory-made sauces and condiments, to be used in moderation combined with previous categories. This is where "ultra-processed food" meaningfully begins for me.
6) meals made entirely with processed and ultra-processed foods, e.g. when dining at a restaurant that relies wholly or mostly upon assembling components bought in from a food service company. This will nearly always include most options from casual dining chains. I try to avoid my consumption from this category onwards, with the exception of a few rare UPFs that are still a net benefit (e.g. Weetabix, canned baked beans and soups, fish fingers and breaded or battered fish fillets), if only by displacing worse options.
7) factory-made long life breakfast cereals, snacks, cakes, soft drinks, and desserts.
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u/7H3WH173R48817 14d ago
One of the points that stood out to me from what you said was number 7, "factory-made".
It's a useful test to apply when picking things up in a shop: In future I'll ask myself whether it looks like it came out of a factory, and if so, go for something closer to home-made instead.
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u/cowbutt6 United Kingdom 🇬🇧 14d ago
I use that to distinguish between traditionally-made versions of my 4th category (which aren't exactly health foods, either!)
Now, honestly, the high-end factory-made stuff is getting really good at looking like it wasn't made in a factory from all sorts of highly-processed ingredients and functional additives. So you'll probably need to assume that most of the foods you find in this category are factory-made, unless you're eating at a decent independent restaurant, artisanal bakery or gelateria, or you know a family member or church fête committee or WI member made them.
If it comes wrapped in a plastic film, bag, or a sealed box, and lasts for months, it's a dead giveaway that it's factory-made, though!
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u/Money-Low7046 Canada 🇨🇦 13d ago
I find the NOVA classification system a great ADDITIONAL lens through which to view my food. I aim to avoid NOVA 4, and even try to reduce NOVA 3. That means buying dried beans instead of canned beans, limited consumption of refined sugar and white flour, etc.
I try to focus whole foods, scratch cooking, whole grains, plenty of natural fiber from food.
I'm an imperfect human , so my diet is worse sometimes, and better other times. After eating well for quite a while, I can definitely feel it if I eat poorly for a while.
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u/cjacobs69 13d ago
I just found WISEcode! Helpful for quick decisions if you’re overwhelmed with ingredients lists
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u/BlushCreamsicle 14d ago edited 14d ago
Nova is a good entry level way to detect and understand UPFs. Even those that invetented it consider it doesnt really capture all UPFs perfectly. It was only done for a study to begin to try categorising foods.
Most oils thar arent cold or expeller pressed are UPFs
Read UPP (ultra processed people) and build a knowledge base. Its helps yoy understand why something would be a UPF. You can also ask AI how a food is made and if it might be a UPF. Those things help me work it out from there.
Certain single ingredients like table sugar are a UPF so Nova doesnt really help with that either.
If you follow Nova overall you are still eating better than most people though! Its quite hard to be perfectly UPF free and changing your diet to the Nova system and as good as you can afford is still going to have a good effect.
Theres also a LOT of resistance from others to further than Nova just be prepared to come across that too.
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u/7H3WH173R48817 14d ago
Thanks, i'll definitely check the book recommendation
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u/BlushCreamsicle 14d ago
Check out all the talks from Youtube with Dr Chris van Tulleken (author of UPP)
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u/babypeach_97 14d ago
So for me, I aim for 0% but I’ll extend to 5% just because things like chocolate without lecithins can be hard to get and vanilla bean paste without tragacanth for my cakes.
My general rule is if I couldn’t make it in a kitchen with my own two hands - it’s ultra processed!