They come from the same companies and the same system of production that makes the other ultra-processed foods, so they are not manufactured with your health in mind," but with the purpose of making more money, claims Dr van Tulleken. When you create your lunchbox, centre it around a balanced plate of carbs, protein, veggies and healthy fats.

It's very easy to cook real food cheaply if you have a big kitchen and loads of Tupperware and a deep freezer and lots of time to do it. But if you don't have those things, real food is fantastically expensive," explains Dr van Tulleken. But low UPF recipes and diets have been on the rise lately, thanks in part to best-selling books like Ultra-Processed People, written by Dr Chris van Tulleken, an infectious diseases doctor at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London. If your next question is 'How easy is it to reduce my UPF intake?', it's important to note there are several factors at play and cost is one of them. There's a very long, formal definition, but it boils down to if something is wrapped in plastic and contains an ingredient that you don't typically find in a domestic kitchen, then it's almost certainly an ultra-processed food," explains Dr van Tulleken. The Cauliflower Mac and Cheese from that book (A Year in 120 Recipes) has been reworked into an equally delicious Parsnip Mac and Cheese, but minus the eggs and bacon, for example.Fridge pasta is another go-to for Suzanne Mulholland. “The oil means that pasta will last without being dried out. Then you can add feta or sundried tomatoes out of a jar to jazz it up. “Buying ingredients for salads that can be kept in jars is a great idea because they keep for so long without going off and add so much flavour,” she says. “Aldi has great jarred antipasti. Even seemingly luxurious items, like artichokes, are cheaper from budget supermarkets like Aldi, last a long time in your fridge and make a lunchtime salad much more exciting.” Thursday Soup His message reinforces what we already know: your diet has a big impact on your life. Research suggests poor diet is killing more people globally than tobacco, and when quizzed about what this entails, the author was very clear. "I think the evidence is very clear that by poor diet, we do mean an ultra-processed diet." Is all ultra-processed food bad for us? Below, Cosmopolitan UK talks to Dr van Tulleken about all things UPF, the benefits of reducing your intake, and why cutting out UPF might be easier said than done (but that doesn't mean you can't give it a go, if you'd like to). What is ultra-processed food? So, UPF often includes ice cream, sausages, crisps, flavoured yoghurt, and mass-produced bread, to name a few examples.

There is very good evidence now that many of these products for many people are addictive, and so some people may find it easier to just cut out ultra-processed food completely rather than try and be moderate. I don't give that as advice, but some people do find that. Of course, it is much more expensive to avoid ultra-processed food completely," notes Dr van Tulleken. What are the benefits of reducing UPFs? I didn’t have a plan. Poverty is lonely, and isolating, monotonous and hopeless and grim, so I wrote about it because I’ve always written about things. Its how I process them, and anyway, nobody read my silly little blog so it didn’t matter. I documented the drudgery, the fear, the immobilising helplessness and depression, and I did it because I was planning to kill myself, and as niche and secret as it was, I wanted there to be some kind of record left of this excuse for a life when I was gone.If you're vegetarian, you might opt for a meat alternative, but lots of these products also "meet the definition of ultra-processed."