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

I was brought up in the 80s in Australia. My standard breakfast was white toast with butter. Lunch was a white bread sandwich with ham, a pack of chickadees (like chicken flavoured wotsists) and a wagon wheel.

My parents were both very good cooks though and dinner was usually curries made from scratch (with sliced banana and desiccated coconut on the side) and casseroles, roasts and winter we always had a Sunday lunch of pumpkin soup of French onion soup with lost of crusty bread and cheese.

In terms of exercise neither of my parents were interested which I regret now as I never had the idea of exercise as a normal part of life. My mother might do those jane Fonda tapes. But there was never any swimming, or running or anything. I really wanted to go to Little Athletics on a Saturday but was not allowed to. Finally when i was 14 I got myself a job in a supermarket and bought a horse and that was my only exercise.

I think in the 80s a few things were better and many worse. I had quite a lot of fish fingers, added sugar to stuff (strawberries, cornflakes etc) but still probs had less processed food. I don’t think I would have EVER drank water the way kids do today. For me water was a last resort if I was super thirsty and no squash available. Also remember my primary school banning unhealthy breaktime snacks (weirdly forward looking) which had effect of all kids basically eating nothing at break times rather than eat fruit! 😂 and secondary school I had pizza for breakfast and chips & gravy for lunch every day….I also watched tv when I came home after school for hours each night. No after school sports for me at secondary. Most girls at ny school by about yr9 did absolutely anything to get out of PE, often succeeding, and loads of them were hooked on smoking….

Yes, I drank the milk. I remember how warm it was in summer too, definitely not nice to drink. Drinking it wasn’t optional though, I think you had to have a letter from home to be excused. Same with the school dinners, we had to at least eat a small bit of everything. I can remember trying to use my water to wash down the slimy stewing beef. I was almost sick.

We were still eating dripping and salt sandwiches. Now that was really bad. (Heart attack sandwiches!) We did have an apple and no chocolate or crisps.

I had it in East Anglia in the 1960s and 70s.

On a population level, people absolutely have been harmed. Bowel cancer rates are soaring because of crap diets like this. The harm isn’t immediate, that’s all

I do think that pre-prepared foods were heavily pushed on the convenience angle from the late 60s onwards when home freezers became more common and lots of women did embrace them as a liberation from the kitchen.

I remember when I was small and I'd go food shopping with my mother, pre the advent of large supermarkets and we'd go to the butchers, the health food shop, the fishmongers, the greengrocers and the grocers, then schlep to an Asian grocers for such exotics as fresh coriander, mangoes and ground spices, and then on to the tea and coffee shop. It's similar to how I shop now, but I can buy ingredients online at the press of a button.

It was a full-time job eating well in the 70's, so I understand that the advent of convenience foods felt like a revolution, and one that people rushed to embrace.

I don't think you can blame your parents too much.

Horrified? that seems extreme

my FIL had buttered weetabix in the 60s too! Would anyone who had this @InfoSecInTheCity@HelenWheels mind sharing what part of country this is? My FIL was Suffolk

’even jam’ 😱

Our dinners were pretty much always home cooked. Irish & french family so lots of stew, veg, potatoes but lots of cream, butter & cheese 😋

I didn't eat like that, but most of my friends did - my parents were ahead of the times I think.

Really you are shocked by sugar puffs? I think you are being ott, s your diet 100%better now because surely that's what matters .

Fruit in the 70s and early 80s was expensive and usually seasonal they were not thrown in lunch boxes to he wasted because a kid preferred a biscuit or took 2 bites and binned. You have not been harmed because of a ham sandwich.

I still have coco pops for my breakfast now and I’m 33 😂

Just popping by as someone who will give her daughter a jam sandwich in her lunch box around once a week…

No it wasn’t 😂

But laugh at this, my mum used to cut me up an apple or strawberries and put sugar on it!!! Was lush but I wouldn't dream of doing that with my kids.

But was the fruit more bitter then?

I'm not sure anyone worried about processed meat. I'm older than you but we just ate whatever really and my parents ate spam sandwiches to the end of their days (86 and 94). I'm not sure how much people worried about fruit, either. Likely a sandwich, penguin biscuit, apple or yoghurt in a 70s lunch and very few worried about white bread.

I'm not understanding how lower income families could afford all the kids to eat sugar puffs or cocoa pops every morning.

Homemade porridge was so bloody cheap! With the cream off the top of the milk poured ok top, it was so good too.

On the rare time we had strawberries with ice cream we did put sugar on them. 😂🙈

I know someone who works as a school lunchtime controller and she says more than half of pupils have processed crap in their lunch boxes, and plenty of sugary items too (despite the school policy on chocolate etc

I do school dinners 90% of the time but I don't understand why it's ok to have chocolate sponge & custard for school dinner pudding but no chocolate in a packed lunch.

Findus Crispy Pancakes…. They were bright orange! I loved them though. Our treat meal was fishfingers with cheese melted on top.

I had a wholemeal mum too.

Yes I think this is true.

My father was never overweight and as a child he even had sugar sandwiches

My 80s and 90s lunches and breakfasts were he same. From what i remember my friends were too. But our tea was traditional english meals like roasts, shepherds pies, meat and chips. We did eat lots of veg but not much. We were allowed one small choc bar and a packet of crisps a day. Times were tough for us money wise at times so i’m guessing parents were happy to just feed us. You also forget that many of the fruits/vegs were more seasonal/less imported or more rare.

I don’t really give it a thought tbh. I was a very active kids with lots of energy and did lots of outdoor/physical activity. As a 40+ adult i eat nutritionally better but i still love my crisps!