It's very difficult to avoid UPF.

I can minimize it, but sometimes there is no choice.

And to think 50 years ago, they had to sell cake mixes by ads having the husband say things like, “This cake tastes so great! What did you do?” And the housewife shared her little secret with the TV audience, not her husband — the cake mix.

Before that, people made cakes from scratch, which is a bit more time-consuming. But better. However, repeating the lie that the mix is better sold the mixes.

To find the ingredients to replace many UPFs with real ingredients, is difficult, and probably in many cases impossible.

Of course, that was the era when being a housewife was common. Not so much anymore. My wife has a career, so she doesn't have that kind of time anyway. It also takes two paychecks to make ends meet these days.

We shop the perimeter of our grocery stores, but that represents a tiny fraction of what is in there. And there are things we can't get on the perimeter, and can't make ourselves. We minimize those choices.

Example: If I am going to need food on the run, I might pick up a Quest protein bar. I may have to be on the job site for a long time with no break, so it'll give me enough protein to keep me from getting too hungry.

It's easy, portable (pocketable) and non-perishable.

But I minimize those instances the best I can.