To be slightly horrified now by what I ate as a kid in the 80s?

It was definitely a different time. We used to have a pop man that came once a week with loads of bottles of fizzy pop that we’d guzzle. I absolutely loved it as a kid of course, but had at least 4 fillings before I was 10.

I had identical lunches to you by the sounds of it OP. Also lots of puddings and processed food at home. And it fucks me right off when people on these threads flippantly say "well you're still here" or "it didn't do us any harm" because actually, it bloody well did. I was a fat child and have remained a fat adult with an extremely unhealthy relationship with food that I have not yet conquered. And now I'm getting older I'm suffering all the health issues and joint pain that go along with that. I don't blame my mum because she was just poorly educated on food and nutrition, but I'm not going to pretend it hasn't impacted every single day of my life in a huge way.

It has made me absolutely determined not to repeat the same mistakes with my own children and whilst we aren't obsessive, they have a very balanced diet which doesn't resemble my own as a child whatsoever.

@Shudacudawuda i was early nineties and was desperate for a Dairylea lunchable and a ribena 😂 I once pretended my water was actually lemonade! But yes I agree I’m very glad of the habits my mum instilled and pretty impressed she managed to not give in to convenience food as a single parent with three children

Plenty of kids still eat like that and that’s exactly how their packed lunches look.

My dc were born in the 80’s and certainly amongst my peer group we were almost evangelical about giving our dc a healthy diet.
I made everything from scratch and we had an allotment.
My ds complained bitterly that I wouldn’t buy him freezer dinners.

I don’t think op is saying it was too many calories (which your right if your more active you can eat more calories) more they are referring to the food being processed, full of additives and lacking in fresh nutrients

I agree op, and I wouldn’t say it’s parents fault it’s was the norm at the time (also the clever marketing on marg etc being ‘lower in fat’ than butter made us all believe the health claims) we are now so much more educated on upfs etc and like you say the lunchbox letters from school! But like you I grew up (90’s) on processed cereal, chemical bread, processed meats, fizzy drinks etc. at school break we got a fizzy pop and a Freddo! And lunch was turkey twizzlers etc! By today’s standards and education it is shocking!

My kids have jam sandwiches on white bread 😨 in their lunchbox at least once a week, and a bag of crisps daily... they are slimmer, more active and have healthier teeth than many of their peers. They do have veg sticks (carrot, cucumber and pepper) daily and fruit too.

I think the 80s and 90s were a weird time for food - lots of processed stuff, but not the variety we have now and an over reliance on artificial sweeteners, trans fats etc. It was neither the lard and sugar but meat and two veg dinners of the 60s and 70s - which was ultimately fairly balanced and in quantities that were enough to sustain but not fatten us - nor was it the global diet many of us eat today.

A relative was a dentist in the Hebrides 30+ years ago. Apparently the standard drinks were genuinely only tea, Irn Bru, beer and whisky. Many children drank Irn Bru and many men only beer and whisky. Most people were unwittingly dehydrated all the time.

It’s mostly an old persons disease.
The peak cancer age is 85 to 89 years old.

However, there is a trend of cancers increasing in incidence in the 0 - 24 age group which means that it’s not just bad diet.
Something is going on possibly environmental.

Kids also don’t go outside anymore and schools seem to think 45 minutes of physical exercise a week will suffice. Exercise is practically non existent with some parents for their children

I follow a homestead blogger in the US (on youtube) and she cooks like this. They raise and butcher a couple of cows a year and she cooks everything in the lard. Everything- even the home made granola she makes she uses lard. Plus she never washes the frying pan because the lard apparently seasons the pan and to wash it ruins that. It makes me shudder. All her (many many) kids are slim because they are working so hard every day on the farm but I do wonder about their arteries.

I remember there was approximately one DC in each year group who was overweight, so 1% of DC.

Exactly. Kids are so much fatter now. You can see it with your own eyes. We’re doing something wrong.

TBH what’s more worrying is the over-anxiety around food that is absolutely fine. Cereal for breakfast - so what. A sandwich - it’s hardly arsenic.

MN seems to be full of people who seem to want their eating disorders validated

And children were largely way healthier back then, spent way more time outdoors and ate more calories due to their increased activity levels.

Judging by the amount of overweight kids I would say no. Foods are more processed now and have extra ingredients in them too.

I’ve worked with children for many years in different roles but what many mumsnetters won’t acknowledge is that actually many kids still eat like that now: cereal for breakfast, some still have sugar in breakfast. Many have a Greggs sausage roll when out and about for Kids will still be eating chocolate and crisps, i see it daily. Many eat very little in the way of veg/fruit and much more freezer dinners than we had. My mum had more time to cook from scratch as she wasn’t working till we were older.

I do work in more deprived areas but children aren’t regularly eating hummus and carrots when i see them. They’ve got bags of crisps, biscuits and so on. Teens go out and get mcdonald’s or chips while mooching about or even now order it in. Even those whose parents pay themselves on a back and their healthy strapping teen would never…..

It was compulsory, but in practice it depended who was on duty!

I reckon I tried hummus along with tzatziki and taramasalata from supermarket in about 1991 when we were doing the ancient Greeks at school. Definitely more of a curiosity/world food then in an English surburban town at that point

OT but I misread this as have you suffered lasting Ham!

I grew up similarly and as an adult gained weight, and had to do some work on changing my attitudes towards food. It is what it is.

My Mum tried to do this when I was 10 in 1990. She gave me an orange tupperware bowl of carrots and celery. I hadn't heard of hummus.

I hid it was acutely embarrassed and played it off. A few kids laughed at me. I also told my Mam I was still hungry without my crisps and yogurt and I was so embarrassed and picked on. She never did it again. Bless her.

I’m 66F and when I was a child most meals were rustled up in a frying pan and cooked with lard! Both parents worked hard and this was a quick way for my Mother to put hot food on the table. But once a week we had a Sunday roast with all the veg. She continued to cook this way and use lard right up into her 90’s. She is now 94 and living in a nursing home and still going strong. When I left home I vowed never to eat fried food again. I won’t even have a frying pan in my house. I’m sure that you will survive , and I think I would have preferred your diet. 😄