Do you have "junk" food in your house on a regular basis?

My kids are all around 50 now but , yes , we had this moaning all the time but they said’ there’s never any food in this house 😂. They did this even after they had left home and my husband had died. I was having to keep an eye on my money so only bought what I needed. They would complain cos I had no crisps or biscuits in , I must admit it wasn’t my DD just my 2DSs .

I’m going to break this to you gently.. even Dr Chris van Tulleken (the writer) allows his kids to have occasional junk at home. Everything in moderation.

Its perfectly possible to become obese from home cooked food and home baking...I'm a great example 😂

It really is true and the effects - physiologically, psychologically and behaviourally - of restriction was first clinically observed and reported in the Ancel Keys/Minnisota Starvation Experiment. The impact of restriction in diet culture is a leading driver of disordered habits and behaviours including those experienced by people with Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating disorders. Combating and removing restriction is a key part of eating disorder recovery in both over and under eating disorders.

I agree. I grew up on home cooked meals and home baked goods. I don’t like shop bought cakes or biscuits, I don’t grab a packet of crisps or chocolate bar because I’m hungry. I feel really unwell if I eat junk food for a few days. And I appreciate good quality ingredients.

These are deeply ingrained habits from childhood so I don’t feel like I am restricting myself.

I think people can use either approach along with some anecdotal evidence to support whatever decisions they’ve made, understandably people get defensive about their own decisions and upbringing, but what we know on a population level is that being in an obesogenic environment with easy access to UPFs is no small part of the increasingly high levels of obesity we see in the western world. I don’t want my house to be an obesogenic environment I suppose, given everywhere else is.

We have a fair bit of junk food and I leave it to the individual to choose what to eat. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Absolutely this, I dont know why this narrative has traction, oh I do actually, its to convince people that feeding their kids a load of crap is doing them good because its going to benefit them long term

I like crap. I like home cooked food. I dont buy a lot of crap for myself, my OH on the other hand eats pretty much solely beige food, I cook from scratch but he turns up his nose pretty much most of the time. Apart from my baking which he and I both eat too much of.
But unrestricted access to junk simply means we eat more junk as humans

I dont notice europeans, who generally have better diets than us, going crazy if they're visiting the UK or America as an example, they (the ones we know) are horrified at what we serve up in restaurants and shops, particularly for children.

I think more people on this thread need to read Ultra Processed People - it should not be normal to have a cupboard of ultra processed food in the house in my view.

I don’t buy junk food and keep it in the house. If we want something, we buy it and eat it. It’s not on tap.

This is the way I was brought up myself so I wouldn’t think of keeping loads of junk food in.

We always have it in, but I’ve never “restricted” their intake they’ve always been allowed to pick and choose what they want to eat and when. I’ve actually now got two kids (12 & 18) who are not fussed if there is “junk food” in or not, it actually goes out of date sometimes! They see it as a normal part of a healthy balanced diet and lifestyle. It was never made into a “treat” or “pudding” or “naughty food” there was no “good and bad” foods in my house because I have severe body dysmorphia and a v restrictive ED and I was so concentrated on not passing food issues onto the kids. I wanted food to be that just food that gives their body energy but also they are allowed to enjoy their food too! My youngest has autism and is gluten free too and on holiday she eats one large portion of a particular crisp type every day and she doesn’t feel bad about it because well - she shouldn’t and it’s not a regular thing. She’s literally on holiday for days out of the year.

friends kids who have had it restricted or whatever seem to go mad for the junk food it’s fascinating to watch especially my two being like nah I’m ok!

No. We have ‘normal’ food but relax that in the holidays to have ‘treat’ food. I recognise most food experts probably don’t recommend seeing food in this way but I don’t think my eldest would self-regulate (autism). I just need it not to be ‘forbidden’.

We don’t have much stuff like that in. Not that bothered about them eating it in moderation and they eat plenty of it when out and about but no desire to have it in the house, for myself as much as for them! But my kids are young so it’s a different dynamic I guess.

I would rather take them to the cafe down the road to get some nice cake or a hot chocolate than buy chocolate or crisps to have in drawer I guess.

We don’t have crisps and biscuits in all the time but my DD (5) has her own sweets/chocolates tin and she is allowed one thing a day from it. It’s in full reach but she always asks first and she is really good about it.

When I say 1 thing a day it’s things like a single toffee (she loves old fashioned toffee or fudge) or one of the teeny tiny bags of haribo.
She eats very well though, loves her fruit and veg so I don’t feel the need the demonise treats. They are all things she has been given rather than things we buy though. It all goes in the tin and then it’s one thing at a time. I think the fact that she could stuff her face when I’m not looking, but doesn’t, means she has a healthy relationship with treats.

No very rarely and it is much to DS annoyance that we are an ingredients household. My parents ran a restaurant and I just hate cheap processed food and cooking or making stuff is probably less bother for me as was helping in the kitchen from as long as I can remember. Also raised to believe that snacking was not good. We do have ice cream in the summer and very occasionally crisps. Say a six pack once a month. DH is English so does eat chocolate which I have no interest in at all and neither does DS .

Interestingly (or not) we very much favour small bags and individually wrapped bars to big share packs of snacks. Foods with natural end points and portion controlled packages make it much easier to eat treats in moderation. DH can easily smash a giant bag of crisps or half a packet of biscuits in a sitting. He does practice martial arts for 6-8 hours a week, but is easily tempted.

I also grew up with meals always ending in a dessert, jelly, yoghurt, frozen mousse, ice lolly or a hot pudding. My kids very rarely have a dessert and are aware that dinner is a one course affair with seconds of that if wanted. I’m sure they are less sugar obsessed than I was.

Exactly. I suggest that you take note OP.

No child benefits from a parents who is being hypervigilient about food, negatively exaggerating the threat of obesity and health issues and focusing their parenting philosophy on might what happen if they eat junk food.

The thing is, that if your offspring have reached teen/young adult age, and you can't keep some treat food in the house because you fear they'll eat junk daily, then you clearly neglected to teach them moderation and good dietary habits when they were little. We do have treats in the house, but I very rarely need to replensh them, as my children understand moderation. I need to replace the porridge oats and the branflakes far more frequently than the sugary cereal, because my (teen) children understand about making healthy choices. The sugar cereal, the crisps, the biscuits are there, but they don't consider overeating them, because they've learnt what good eating (and treating) habits look life.

If we'd never had treats routinely in the house, and had made them the forbidden fruit, how would we give taught them those skills?

In my experience, teens whose diets are restricted go mental as soon as they have control of their own diets, and end up with disordered eating, because they've not learnt the appropriate skills of everything in moderation.

We have crisps, biscuits, sometimes popcorn, ice creams (especially in summer), chocolate bars, cereal, sometimes cakes. We don’t keep fizzy drinks at home. Honestly we probably have at least one of these things each every day.
But we also have lots of fruit, yoghurts (inc Greek), nuts, porridge, ingredients for home cooked meals etc.
We’re active, not overweight and it’s what we enjoy. We don’t smoke & rarely drink alcohol.

I was a fat child and snack food like biscuits and crisps were restricted at home...it just created more problems and I would eat huge amounts of "proper" food instead which just made me fatter. It was terrible really.

I would suggest that you are not the norm either with your military style approach to your DC’s diet. Frankly it all sounds a bit depressing in your household - I suggest that you live a little and let go a bit. I’ve raised a slim young adult with a perfectly healthy, balanced attitude towards food. I don’t know many other 21yos who actively avoid UPF and make most of their meals from scratch so obviously my awful ‘nonchalant attitude’ 🤣 towards junk did no harm!

Op, why come here and pretend to want to know if yabu when really you just wanted to feel superior and talk about obesity? I really don’t understand why anyone really cares that much about what others eat. If you feel like you’re right, despite your teen expressing some unhappiness with the situation, then crack on. But then I suppose you wouldn’t be able to feel superior which is what your thread and others like it are so often really about. 🙄