CLEAR OUT YOUR STORE CUPBOARD

WHAT TO STOP BUYING

PACKAGED snacks (cereal bars, chocolate and sweets, biscuits, cake bars, salty flavoured snacks), mass-produced breads (buns, rolls, bagels, wraps, pittas), breakfast cereals (apart from oats, puffed wheat and Shredded Wheat), sauces (such as ketchup and mayonnaise, as well as cooking sauces in packets and jars), many plant-based milks (check the labels for chemical additives).

Avoid ready meals (including instant soups, pot noodles and tins of baked beans), powdered drinks (protein shakes, hot chocolate, meal replacement shakes), margarines, flavoured yoghurts (if artificially flavoured, sweetened, or with added thickeners to make it virtually fat free), processed cheese, ice cream, squash and fizzy drinks plus anything in a brightly coloured packet with a long shelf-life and a long list of unrecognisable ingredients. Spirits such as vodka, gin, whisky and rum are ultra-processed, too.

WHAT TO KEEP

DO KEEP and enjoy canned and jarred fruit (as long as it is canned in water or fruit juice and not a sauce), vegetables and pulses, salted and sugared nuts and seeds (also posh crisps), dried fruit, tins of fish (tuna/salmon), pickled or fermented vegetables, unpackaged bread, cheese, butter, natural yoghurt, ‘clean label’ foods (with five or fewer recognisable items on the ingredients list).

Pasta, couscous and polenta (if made only with flour and water), fresh and pasteurised milk, fruit and vegetable juices, tea and coffee. Wine, cider and beer count as processed, not ultra-processed, so can be enjoyed!