Cut out the chemicals and EAT CLEAN

In his new book, award-winning nutritionist Rob Hobson shows you how to eradicate ultra-processed foods from your diet – and ward off disease – by home-cooking healthy meals from scratch

How often do you look at the ingredients list on the back of a food packet? Not often enough if my experience is anything to go by. It was only when I started poring over the small print on food labels that I realised just how unhealthy some of my food staples were.

What I was looking for was those chemical-sounding names such as disodium inosinate or potassium sorbate, which you would never find in your own kitchen but which are added to a shocking number of everyday foods to enhance taste and give them a longer shelf life.

As I quickly discovered, these ‘ultra-processed’ foods (UPFs) are now everywhere — and not just in takeaways, fast food and snacks. They’ve also infiltrated our shopping baskets and cupboards in sauces, ready meals and even standard supermarket foods we consider to be healthy, such as wholemeal bread. Indeed, recent research has found that 50 per cent of the foods in the average shopping basket are now ultraprocessed.

But why does this matter? Because significant scientific research links diets high in ultraprocessed foods with serious health conditions including heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, dementia and cancers including breast cancer. And studies suggest that the more we consume, the greater the risk.

As a nutritionist, I’ve always been careful to choose foods that are high in fibre, low in sugar and saturated fats, and a good source of lean protein, as well as eating plenty of fruit and veg. But when I scrutinised the labels of everyday items such as the wholemeal bagels I was buying for lunch or the supermarket-packaged lean ham I put in them, I saw these were crammed with ultra-processed ingredients such as triphosphates, calcium propionate and sodium ascorbate, to name a few.

The fruit yoghurts and protein bars I loved to snack on after a workout were similarly loaded with man-made ingredients; in fact, I noticed the foods with the most health claims were the likeliest to be ultra-processed.

So I embarked on a mission to eradicate the UPFs in my diet by preparing my own food from scratch at home. The recipes I developed, along with advice and tips I learned from my own home cooking, form the basis of my new book, Unprocess Your Life, which I’ll be sharing with Magazine readers in this exclusive series starting today with nutritious, homemade alternatives for breakfast, lunch and supper. In next week’s Irish Daily Mail I’ll be offering you more simple, scrump

tious suggestions for healthy meals to whip up at home.

Clients who’ve adopted my unprocessed meal plans have reported improved energy levels, better sleep, a reduction in snacking — and as a result some have also lost weight. So how best to start?

I began by taking an inventory of what was in my cupboard. Not everything processed is to be avoided: tinned fruit, vegetables and legumes (chickpeas, beans and lentils) can be a great way to get your five-a-day and they are cheap too. Just avoid the brands that add sugar and salt.

Be honest and work out what you can’t live without and what you can swap with a homemade version. You may be unwilling to give up chocolate biscuits in front of the TV but can replace your Friday night takeaway curry with my Thai Green King Prawn Curry or a homemade Tikka Masala.

It’s also helpful to identify your weak spots. For plenty of people — me included — this is lunchtime. If you work in an office or are out and about, you may be forced to rely on whatever your local shop or cafe can supply. But what if a packed lunch for you (or for the children to take to school) meant a Chicken Shawarma Wrap or Grilled Peach And Feta Couscous Salad? You can easily make these in your own kitchen with wholesome ingredients.

Unprocessing your life does take a bit of organisation. Planning ahead, focusing on one-pot recipes and batch cooking, and freezing leftovers are ways to ensure you always have something good to eat that isn’t laden with unwanted chemicals.

It will involve more time in the kitchen, so try to see this as enjoyable ‘me’ time and put on some music or a podcast while you chop and cook. You’ll probably surprise yourself with how quickly you become efficient at preparing new dishes, as well as finding you lose your cravings for very sweet or processed foods.

Starting today, make it a resolution to break free from ultra-processed foods for good and you will reap the benefits for many years to come.

■ For more information visit robhobson.co.uk. Instagram @robhobsonnutritionist