Do people really not know what to eat?

Come on now, yes there is! There are lots of “bad” foods that people could simply just choose not to buy!

I never got the ignorance argument I know a mother who feeds her obese toddler family size bags of sweets and chocolate.
I had my first child at 16 and always fed him healthy and knew too, surely it’s just common knowledge and no I did not have my mum cooking everything I didn’t even live with her.

How do some people feed their kids huge bags of chocolate and claim not to know why their kid is fat?

I disagree. 6 Pink Lady apples in Aldi costs about £2.50 whereas a multi-pack of 6 crisps is about half that price.

I got a chicken salad sandwich from Greggs and it was approx £3 but I could've got 4 sausage rolls for £2.

Yeah I did a chilli last night. Mostly stews, chillis, soups, stir fries, lasagne, cottage pie etc. Pretty boring but always have veg with meals although a lot of the time that is frozen veg.

That is basically what I was brought up on though so I can totally see how you just fall into what you know.

I haven’t seen the programme but this thread does feel unnecessarily nasty. The fact that they were on the programme shows that they were willing to make the changes.
People only know what they know, and can only do what they can do.

This thread is horrible. The people in the show were a lovely family. Just knackered from working minimum wage shift work and caring for 4 young children. The children were not remotely overweight. The parents were suitably horrified by what they learnt and turned their lifestyle around in a few weeks. The kids were lovely, well parented and embraced their new healthier foods.
In the UK we have a situation where lots of people are on the poverty line, needing 2 wages to survive. We’re both poor and time poor. Our Supermarkets are full of UPF with ready meals and snacks. You don’t find this in Spanish supermarkets, for example. But their working lives are easier, fruit is plentiful and cheaper in sunny climes etc.

I worked in the nursery of a school in a really rough area and would sit with the children once they went into reception to teach them how to use cutlery, as most lived on McDonald's and other crap at home. Most did not have tables to sit at.
It's not lack of money, but something that went terribly wrong somewhere in producing home cooked meals. I grew up in a poor area, but we all had homecooked meals, sitting at the table and had to all wait for the last one to finish before we got down.
We had 3 meals a day and nothing in between, now they graze on snacks etc. There are even parent classes to teach parents how to cook.
It's very sad.

Haha well that's sounds delicious! Ours really vary, tonight it was chicken and cheese orzo, often it's risotto or spaghetti bolognese...I also do a soup once a fortnight! Occasionally we also get a curry which the kids love!

I'd be scared to! I made a chicken, veg and lentil soup tonight from scratch but I'll admit I did use a couple of stock cubes so I guess that's not so good 😂

I have no idea whether the meals I cook would be considered good or bad on this thread...can you guys give examples of what you think are healthy meals cooked from scratch?

Omg I forgot about that one were they aged the kids! Terrible

I agree about the TV shows, there’s something of the Colosseum about them. It’s very uncomfortable viewing. Supernanny was exploitative in the same way, along with that terrible programme where Kris Murrin told parents they were literally killing their children, complete with age-progression photos of the kids looking like they’d done a life sentence with hard labour.

Agree @fishingoutofthewater . Think OP needs to sort out her judgemental thoughts!

It’s not as simple as saying people eat the way they grew up. There didn’t used to be processed food and takeaways available when I grew up (70s-early 80s). DH and I reminisce about when yoghurt became a thing. Then came Findus crispy pancakes. But it was rare and most people couldn’t afford much processed food and no way takeaways. Affordable junk is a relatively recent phenomenon. Some people carried on eating as before - home cooked dinners and the odd takeaway - and others ditched it for convenience and stopped cooking. No one in their 50s grew up on processed food.

The link between obesity and poverty is well known.
You manage because you manage. Other people fail to manage for many other reasons.

I don't think every overweight family don't know how to cook and live on upf nor every slim family is healthy and cooks from scratch. I thought the show and presenter were quite patronising. I don't understand why people get quite deep into a problem like hoarding, cleaning, weighr, or illness then go to a show like trust me im a doctor or whatever, it's like they want to be publically humiliated. The sad thing it doesn't even work out for them longterm, but thr channel and presenter made their money out of mocking their 'stupid' life like, haha look at them, dear watcher you will never be stupid as they are, and the watcher feels smug because they aren't as bad. The whole thing is revolting.

It's not always about the food costs. Sometimes it's about having access to the means to prepare it.

Oh don't be so puritanical! There is nothing wrong with eating at McDonalds every now and again, and I find their food perfectly acceptable.

I eat what i want when i want.
I cant stand the word cheat days.

I don’t think people who eat like this are in a minority.
All of my in-laws do a big supermarket shop every week.
There’s no fruit & veg. Most of it comes from the freezer.
They are all overweight, including the kids. That’s just what they eat. None of my SIL can actually cook. It’s not uncommon.

I remember when we lived in a shared house at Uni and my friend started seeing a lad. We were cooking one night and he just couldn't get his around what we were doing. Chopping onions, boiling potatoes etc. He had never seen it, he thought that was for chefs to do, he only ever ate something out the freezer with chips. Never had fruit in the house, it just wasn't the norm.

I know people will say but we have so much more info now about food but I grew up in a house that always had fruits and veg and home cooked meals but I see some of these food messages online and think what the fuck are you in about. It's so confusing so without the background knowledge I can see why people may struggle.

That lad by the way never had any type of weight problem, he actually married my friend and eats very well now as she is an amazing cook and he has picked that skill up as well. But I think the problem with obesity now actually has a lot to do with availability of takeaways. Chicken nuggets, chips and beans may not have much nutritional value but it won't really make you fat. Constant takeaways have so many calories though.

There are all sorts of reasons why people eat poor diets, bit I find the "an apple is more expensive than a packet of crisps" arguments really silly as that's not the sort of choice anyone is making.

People aren't standing in the fruit and veg aisle going, "oooh, not sure we can stretch to both apples and bananas this week - better put both back and get some wotsits instead. And while we're at it let's put those porridge oats back and get some pot noodles".

For many (disclaimer - many, not all) of these people the affordability point will be a red herring because they haven't even thought about whether they can afford the healthy option - they want the crisps so that's the aisle they visit and that's what goes in the trolley.

Thank you for the empathetic response. Totally agree with this. You never know what is going on in someone's life.

@Zet1 unfortunately he got into drugs at 15 and he didn’t learn to cook, he was in and out of our house then went to college at 16 and lived in halls. He met his girlfriend at college and moved in with her when they left, he was 18. His late Dad did try to teach him to cook but he wasn’t interested, my son was 22 when his Dad died. He stopped the drugs and cigarettes about four years ago, he is now 32, but still vapes. He does make spag bol and chili from scratch, his girlfriend has no interest in cooking. I do worry about him.

how about people worry about what they feed their families and let others worry about theirs, the snobbery on here is rife. woopy doo your kids eat well and you cook all wholesome food , you don’t know anyone elses story so why judge
my oldest has an awful diet as a child , we visited drs, nutritionists the lot due to his avoidance of food and fussiness ,so many judged us with what he ate.
but that being said he is now a strapping 6ft odd young man , never been overweight , healthy , but still has a restrictive diet. a banana is also not same cost as a cheap bag of crisps ,