"It was the sense of palpitating trepidation felt when opening your school lunchbox, knowing that what lay within was going to be seen as weird in comparison with the sliced-white-bread-plastic-ham sandwiches, cheesy Wotsits and Club biscuits everyone else was gobbling. What's that? your classmate would ask, their nose wrinkling as they took in yesterday's veggie curry, crumbling homemade falafel or my mother's speciality a deconstructed sandwich of doorstop-thick fresh bread, filling of some kind (often cucumber) and attendant crumbs floating freely in the bag."
"Now, though, it's 2025, and the weird-lunchbox kids, but more importantly their parents, have been vindicated by continuing revelations about the dire health outcomes of eating ultra-processed foods (UPFs). Most recently, diets with high levels of UPF have been linked to harm in every major organ in the human body, not to mention a range of health conditions. News to some but not my mother, a pioneer of healthy eating and cooking from scratch, an early adopter of quinoa and reader of food-packet ingredients."
Growing up with a food-conscious mother created anxiety about opening a school lunchbox filled with homemade or unconventional foods. Classmates reacted with disgust to veggie curry, homemade falafel, or a deconstructed sandwich of thick fresh bread, filling and loose crumbs. A mother who resisted ultra-processed snacks like Cheestrings and Micro Chips emphasized whole foods, E-number awareness and unrefined carbohydrates. Recent research links high consumption of ultra-processed foods to harm in every major organ and multiple health conditions. Eliminating ultra-processed foods has become popular across books and social media, vindicating early adopters of home cooking and scratch food preparation.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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