My UPF-obsessed husband is making mealtimes a nightmare

There are plenty of families overhauling their store cupboards and re-writing meal plans since the latest scary headlines about UPFs (ultra-processed foods) did the rounds. 

Our family is no different except my husband has gone hardline. I know it’s a huge issue and one which seems to be transforming the nation’s eating habits, if we and our friends are anything to go by. Out with Coco Pops and fizzy drinks and ready meals and in with fresh produce and an astronomical bill from the butcher. Clearly, removing processed elements from all of our meals is going to be gradual as we all educate ourselves bit by bit – and try to use up all the contraband ingredients in our cupboards. 

I am trying to move our family in a healthier direction, I honestly am. But it’s hard work – something my husband does not seem to appreciate. Unless I dish up meat or fish with a sauce made from scratch and approximately 17 different vegetables, I am made to feel like I am endangering our family’s lives. 

Perhaps this level of home cooking would be doable if I wasn’t attempting to hold down a career. I resent how being the UPF monitor seems to fall to me – the time-consuming scanning of food labels, researching of recipes and the endless peeling of veg – meaning passing comment and judgment is something my husband feels entitled to do. 

He’s taken to “advising” me about food shopping but unless I’m popping out for groceries on a daily basis, I cannot fully buy into his new unprocessed ideology. He also has little to no genuine understanding of just how much food our growing children can get through – and what the till receipt would look like if we bought only fresh, unprocessed foods. 

When I grab a loaf of bread in the supermarket or pack the children off to school with ham sandwiches, there is a tut of disapproval. If challenged, he wrinkles his nose and says that whatever the offending item might be is “too processed”. But he’s nowhere to be seen when our son barrels in from school – claiming to be “starving” and when our veg-averse daughter is hungry yet without appetite for the pasta sauce or curry I’ve made from scratch. 

I’m trying to take the latest news with a pinch of salt (metaphorically of course) and by keeping things in perspective. I have clamped down on UPF-laden cereals, cakes and yogurts but removing every trace of processed food from our kids’ diets is nigh on impossible.

Our hungry kids still need to be fed and satisfied: unsurprisingly they aren’t as keen to forgo treats from the freezer and dinners they regard as their favourites. There was an outcry when their favourite pizzas were deemed contraband. To me, making sure our children have full tummies and enough energy is a priority, even if that means a processed morsel or two passing their lips. 

The UPF policing continues out of the house too. He’s sworn off packaged sandwiches so now any lunch on the hoof has become a pricey affair. And restaurants and pubs aren’t immune to criticism from my husband either. 

Going out for lunch or dinner – which should be a treat – ends up with him saying we could have cooked something healthier ourselves. Perusing the dessert menu leads to a sermon on exactly how bad for us ice cream is, and he grimaces when the children order a glass of Coke.

He’ll round off the meal saying we would have been better off staying at home, and as I surreptitiously roll my eyes, I end up wishing he had.