Guess which country has the most ultra processed food as a share of household purchases?

Europe only, I see - since the US is not included. I dare say their figure would be rather higher, though how they can claim any sort of accuracy for these figures, I do wonder.

You need Mediterranean weather for a Mediterranean diet, I suppose. Where I live-scotland - it's too blooming cold and dreich for a truly, plant based, healthy diet. Porridge, unless it's the prepackaged sort and warming stews and casseroles are the order of the day. I suppose there's fish, but it needs to be served with chips 😂
I am being a tad light hearted

I thought USA would top the list but if it’s only Europe yes I guess Uk probably would
However who knows how they sort these statistics out because you would need a back story for purchases and know how they chose the stores they were looking at etc etc or even how long a period over and when that period was summer/ winter? might be very different with veggies and salads and fruits in season in summer and more stodgy food in winter was it a cross section of working people / age groups etc etc all could make a big difference

Grandmabatty

You need Mediterranean weather for a Mediterranean diet, I suppose. Where I live-scotland - it's too blooming cold and dreich for a truly, plant based, healthy diet. Porridge, unless it's the prepackaged sort and warming stews and casseroles are the order of the day. I suppose there's fish, but it needs to be served with chips 😂
I am being a tad light hearted

Quite easy to have an mediterraanean style diet in Scotland. Just adapt it to eat local foodstuffs.

All those lovely warming stews packed with local veg, root veg, vabbages, onions, leeks etc. Ditto porridge, does it come whole meal, good for the heart, providing you do not put too much sugar or salt on it.

A meditteranean diet can be adapted to fit the food available and tastes of aany culture or cuisin.

The meditteraaneaan diet is one rich in fresh fruit and veg and whole meal carbohydrates, not one full of mediterranean food stuffs.

Putting lots of veg in a stew can lead to smaller portions of meat being eaten. plus, plus, plus.

Soup, Grandmabatty, can be made using roasted mediteranean vegetables. Lots of quick easy recipies online.

M0nica is right. Partly because there is no such thing as a Mediterranean diet. There are lots of Mediterranean diets, starting in Spain and travelling all the way round clockwise to Morocco. They are not all the same.

Scots survived for centuries on food available in Scotland. Why not just carry on, wherever you are, with what have been known to be nutritious foods for centuries. There is nothing wrong, for instance, with traditional porridge; it's the sugar-loaded 'convenience prorridges that are a the problem. Traditional porridge is also very easy to make. How else would poor people have managed?

A lot of what we are told about the 'unhealthiness' of various foods is rubbish.

I did say I was being light hearted! I frequently make stew full of root vegetables and barley- a Scottish staple. Scotland is well known for fish and seafood and I eat loads of both. In summer, you can't beat Scottish grown raspberries etc and I regularly eat proper porridge albeit with a little honey, not salt. Aberdeen Angus beef is unsurpassed.

It’s a well known fact that Mediterraneans live off pizzas and pasta, Scots live off fried Mars bars and whisky, Brits live off fish and chips. Americans live off corn syrup, beef burgers and lots of poisonous chemicals.

Dinahmo

The UK is the highest at 50.7%, followed by Finland, Ireland, Belgium and Germany with purchases between 40% and 50%. The lowest is Portugal at 10.2%, followed by Italy 13.4%, Greece, 13.7% and France 14.2%

I find France rather surprising since there a quite a few overweight people here and they have a liking for McDonalds, or McDo as they call it. There are 1485 McDos in France.

Figures taken from an organization called Amazing Maps

I'm amazed Finland is second, having spent time there and seen all the beautiful fish and other fresh food in the markets.
Mind you, there were several McDonalds in Helsinki even years ago.

It was interesting that people (including us) bought bags of peas in their pods as a snack rather than crips etc.

I wonder who is buying all this ultra processed food, seeing as it's not any of us, or anybody we associate with.

Its the people in front, and behind me in the queue for the person operated checkout.

What's ultra-processed?
Is it Charlie Bigham? Is he ultra-processed?
If so, guilty as charged

M0nica

Its the people in front, and behind me in the queue for the person operated checkout.

Allira

What's ultra-processed?
Is it Charlie Bigham? Is he ultra-processed?
If so, guilty as charged

I have just checked the ingredients of one of his pies. pretty good, but still contains ingredients our grandmothers would not recognise as food (given as a definition of UPF by the US food writer Michael Pollan)

M0nica

Allira

What's ultra-processed?
Is it Charlie Bigham? Is he ultra-processed?
If so, guilty as charged

I have just checked the ingredients of one of his pies. pretty good, but still contains ingredients our grandmothers would not recognise as food (given as a definition of UPF by the US food writer Michael Pollan)

Pies?

Fish pie contains a couple of ingredients I don't use
Yeast, Caramelised Sugar, Colours: Paprika Extract, Turmeric Extract) although they seem fairly recognisable but apart from anchovies, I'm familiar with most of the other ingredients.

All food even if not recognised by Michael Pollan whoever he might be.

still contains ingredients our grandmothers would not recognise as food

My Grandma, born in the 1870s, would not recognise an advocado, mango, garlic, rice as an accompaniment rather than a pudding, plus many ingredients we take for granted now.

Who the eck is Charlie Bigham and is his ham big 🤣

Ready meals for lazy people.

Or people who, for whatever reason, cannot spend a lot of time cooking from scratch every day.

I'm surprised to see Ireland is so high up there. We were in Dublin 23 years ago and it was my niece's 1st birthday. I went in a large Tesco to buy her a birthday cake and couldn't see any. When I asked a shelf-stacker, she replied "We don't buy birthday cakes! We make them!". Things must have changed a lot since then!

23 years is a long time ago we probably made our birthday cakes here too

No, there was a range of birthday cakes available in UK supermarkets at the time. I know it's a long time ago, but just a marker of how radically things have changed.

I don't buy hardly any processed food I cook from scratch still but I always have, know I have the time as now retired, but I did it when I worked.


full time

So did I.

Strangely enough I saw a similar chart showing sugar consumption and England’s consumption is quite low compared to many countries. ( I think it was England and not the UK but I could be wrong) which quite surprised me.