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Original poster

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

410 replies

NotWantingToBeRude · 12/04/2025 02:47

Breakfast was a bowl of either Coco Pops, Frosties or Sugar Puffs. (At least they didn't sell Froot Loops over here I suppose).

Packed lunch in my My Little Pony or Care Bears lunchbox was a sandwich (usually some form of processed meat, occasionally even jam), a pack of crisps, a chocolate bar and a juice box (Ribena or Um Bongo). Never any fruit.

Snack on arriving home from school would be not crisps and chocolate, possibly a Pepperami. Sometimes we’d stop off for pic ‘n’ mix.

Dinner included a full dessert every single night, usually with custard or cream.

Is it just me or would this not be considered so acceptable now?

OP posts:
neverwakeasleepingbaby · 12/04/2025 06:47

I agree OP. And exercise doesn’t offset the detriment to health that ultra-processed food has. I wonder if this is why there is a much higher prevalence of cancer etc in people in their 30s/40s now.
Having said that, I’m no angel with my own kids diet and they have their fair share of processed food. I kid myself that my choices are slightly better than the properly fake food they could have, but tbh the food environment is so bad these days with additives in basically everything that it’s hard to do the right thing! That’s a separate topic though!

Icebreakhell · 12/04/2025 06:46

Same as you op. I would also get an apple in my lunchbox though. Only the occasional child would have ‘posh’ lunch, such as a chicken leg and veg sticks. Didn’t get a pudding every night but if I did it would be processed- Angel Delight. Remember also getting Findus Crispy Pancakes for dinner. I think it got worse as time went on and more processed stuff came on the market.

We were very active though, especially pre teen years, out all day playing.

Cosyvibes · 12/04/2025 06:44

Trumpsgoneloco · 12/04/2025 06:39

Logically an everyday food needs to be available en masse. Google will tell you when it was introduced into supermarkets.

What proof do you have that it was an everyday food?

So for thousands of years its eaten but its not recognised until supermarkets put it on shelves 🤣

I am out of this thread due to the absolutely none two way thinking 🤪

Ineedthesun80 · 12/04/2025 06:43

We also used to get toys in the cereal,loved that.

HelenWheels · 12/04/2025 06:41

we always had vegetables and probably apples and seasonal fruit

Ineedthesun80 · 12/04/2025 06:40

That was a typical kids diet in the 80’s,I did eat fruit also though,im not overweight ,we actually played out as kids,im fine,don’t get ill,I did have a lot of fillings though.

Thegreyestate · 12/04/2025 06:39

OMG OP, same!! Not a veg in sight.

Hopefully it won't have any lasting damage on long term health, but who knows.

Trumpsgoneloco · 12/04/2025 06:39

Logically an everyday food needs to be available en masse. Google will tell you when it was introduced into supermarkets.

What proof do you have that it was an everyday food?

Original poster
NotWantingToBeRude · 12/04/2025 06:39

Trumpsgoneloco · 12/04/2025 06:30

@Cosyvibes it was first introduced in 89 by Waitrose. No way was it a common food 🙄

Yes I was just about to say that I don’t think I’d even heard of it until at least the 90s. My family were fairly comfortable and definitely couldn’t have claimed poverty.

OP posts:
Cosyvibes · 12/04/2025 06:37

Mmm do you have proof it wasn't a every day food or just takin mumsnet as verbatim?

Trumpsgoneloco · 12/04/2025 06:35

The Egyptians invented hummus in the 13th century.

It was homemade and in shops forever...

No one is disputed when it was invented, you are the one claiming it was an everyday food in the 80s when it clearly wasn't.

Original poster
NotWantingToBeRude · 12/04/2025 06:34

CurlewKate · 12/04/2025 05:54

Would it have been less horrifying in a different lunchbox?

Well yeah, it would have been preferable if it had come in a brown paper bag obviously.

OP posts:
FeedTheRoses · 12/04/2025 06:34

NotWantingToBeRude · 12/04/2025 04:55

Well there was virtually no fresh fruit or veg in there plus an awful lot of refined sugar and empty calories.

Yes, those things have been demonstrated to have negative impacts on long-term health.

Just because families have different budgets surely doesn’t mean that encouraging healthy food choices in children becomes irrelevant and can’t be discussed?

I’m not blaming my parents as virtually everyone I know lived like this then. I would have stood out a mile of I’d shown up at school with organic oatcakes, carrot and celery sticks and houmus. Just as my own DC would stand out now if they showed up with a jam sandwich, a pack of Monster Munch, a Club biscuit and an Um Bongo (wouldn’t that warrant a letter home now?).

You probably had meat and vegetables for dinner, so it doesn’t seem to have done much harm.
Pretty sure your lunch is still considered a good packed lunch here. Countless times the fruit comes back

Trumpsgoneloco · 12/04/2025 06:33

@PopeJoan2 probably a snack. On a Friday after school I used to sometimes get a McDonald's cheeseburger & have dinner. Skinny though as I did a lot of sport.

Cosyvibes · 12/04/2025 06:32

The Egyptians invented hummus in the 13th century.

It was homemade and in shops forever...

Trumpsgoneloco · 12/04/2025 06:32

Tesco didn't even start selling it until the late 90s.

PopeJoan2 · 12/04/2025 06:31

What I find horrifying is that a lot of kids round here seem to hang around in the chicken shop straight after school, buying bags of chips. Does this mean that they are not going home to dinner or are the chips just a snack?

Trumpsgoneloco · 12/04/2025 06:31

You may have been able to get it in small non supermarket shops before then of course but it wouldn't be something loads of people were consuming.

Trumpsgoneloco · 12/04/2025 06:30

@Cosyvibes it was first introduced in 89 by Waitrose. No way was it a common food 🙄

Trumpsgoneloco · 12/04/2025 06:28

i dont think people had carrot sticks and humous in the 1980s

Hummus wasn't even in supermarkets until the late 80s, I tried it as a tween in the mid 90s.

Cosyvibes · 12/04/2025 06:28

@Helenwheels they truly did. Fresh foods were more available in season then. Hummus has been about before Jesus was born.

The 80s/90s was the very beginning of fast food/packaging foods and very expensive at that.

Trumpsgoneloco · 12/04/2025 06:26

My dc normally have school dinners & that comes with pudding.

HelenWheels · 12/04/2025 06:24

i dont think people had carrot sticks and humous in the 1980s

Finallydoingit24 · 12/04/2025 06:24

Loads of kids still eat this way or worse today. Loads. Don’t kid yourself.

Trumpsgoneloco · 12/04/2025 06:23

Of my dc have a packed lunch they will have a cheese or ham sandwich, crisps, penguin or similar. Maybe a juice carton & some extra fruit & veg. Is it that different?