Cutting down on ultra-processed foods isn’t easy. Here are eight tips that worked for my family

I have been trying to eat fewer ultra-processed foods with my family for five years, and it has been challenging.

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

Getting here took time, effort and consistency, but we have had some success. Here are some strategies we used in our family.

1. Eat more plants

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.

When it comes to introducing fruits and vegetables, the 6 to 12-month age is crucial, says Kary Rappaport, pediatric occupational therapist and the executive director of Solid Starts, an organization that supports parents with feeding their children: “It is an exceedingly important window of time, when most babies are most developmentally open to a wide variety of foods and flavors.”

Introducing new foods to older children is similar: use small tastes, different preparations and a child’s natural curiosity, she says. Focus on describing the food, rather than whether the child likes it – for example, encourage them to lick or take a bite and notice qualities like sweetness or temperature. “It’s not a value judgment on the food,” she says.

Additionally, timing matters. “We are all more motivated to try and like things when we’re a little bit hungry,” says Rappaport. Try “putting out a tray of raw veggies with hummus while you’re cooking dinner, during that window where kids are looking to snack”, she suggests. On the other hand, don’t try to force a hangry child to try new veggies.

“Even when you don’t have great options that are fully non-UPF, incorporate vegetables and fruits and raw products as much as possible,” says Julia Wolfson, an associate professor in public health at Johns Hopkins University.

2. Buy the best ingredients you can afford

At our local farmers’ 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.

“Whatever they have in your farmers’ market is what is seasonal, and what is seasonal is going to be better,” says chef Penny Stankiewicz. “If you go to a standard American grocery store and you buy a perfectly round, somewhat red tomato, it’s going to have absolutely no flavor in January. But in August, when it’s prime tomato season, you don’t have to even do anything to that tomato to make it amazing.”

Produce is typically more expensive at a farmer’s 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.

3. Openly discuss food, its effects and its origins

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.

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, “if I eat too many gummy worms or I only eat a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos on our car trip, I’m going to feel bad. It’s not gonna sit well in my belly.”

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

4. Learn to cook

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.

Often the barriers to cooking are systemic: insufficient time and energy to cook. People may also lack confidence in their kitchen skills. “We 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,” says Wolfson.

Stankiewicz offers the following tips for newer home cooks:

• Learn techniques: “Once you know how to saute, it doesn’t matter what you put in the pan.”

• Develop knife skills: “If 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.”

• Know your taste: “Know what you like, then create that, because that’s the starting place. Don’t start by making miso brownies when the core is to make a really good brownie that you like, because then you’ll do it again.”

Wolfson found in her research that “when people cook more at home, they consume fewer ultra-processed foods.” 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: “If you picture a typical American grocery store, almost 70% of the foods in the store are ultra processed … that’s what’s mostly available to us.”

5. Learn to bake

In terms of replacing UPF, replacing desserts and snacks was an easy sell. I wasn’t replacing cookies with carrot sticks; I was replacing them with cookies – sometimes better ones.

Stankiewicz says to approach baking with fearlessness. “Messing up is part of it and is really how you learn,” she says, telling me that brownies were created by accident when a baker didn’t add enough flour to the cake.

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) – and then just do it!

6. Make cooking at home easy

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.

First, master a few dishes. “Find a handful of recipes or techniques that are accessible in terms of ingredients, cost, number of ingredients, and how long they’re going to take to make. Then just get really good at those,” says Stankiewicz.

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.

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.

7. Prioritize mealtimes

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’t long; they usually take 20 minutes from when we sit down to when my youngest is done.

“The 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,” says Rappaport.

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’s less about “having a Norman Rockwell meal at the dinner table” than finding opportunities to engage, she says. “It can be burritos that we got for takeout while we’re all sitting at the park waiting for practice to start. I can still find those same benefits, which are that I’m asking about their day. I’m showing interest in them. We are connecting around the food.”

8. Be relentlessly consistent – and don’t be too hard on yourself

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.

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’t have time to bake or cook. You may attend catered events, meetings or functions where you have no control over the food.

The vast majority of us will eat at least some UPF. Your children will eat UPF – especially at birthday parties and play dates. But that’s not failure, just reality. Being realistic about your options can help you stay consistent instead of giving up entirely, and that’s ultimately what got me and my family to this point. When it comes to UPF consumption, don’t let perfect become the enemy of good.