Do people really not know what to eat?

Yes there is

😂

You can still eat healthily on a budget, so money is not an excuse. Cutting down on portion sizes is a big factor. People choose the easy option, as they are either too tired from working to keep their heads above water or just lazy!

Yes. Some people get to adulthood having eaten UPF all their lives, and have no idea of what's healthy. I once worked with a young married woman in her mid-20s, and one day she said she didn't know what to cook for dinner. So I asked what she had in the house, and it turned out they ate mainly UPF foods, as the choices were (frozen) chicken nuggets, fish fingers, pizzas, or burgers with frozen chips, or (tinned) soup, ravioli, chilli, beans, corned beef, peas or new potatoes. She would occasionally buy, and cook from chilled, bacon, sausages or steaks. Dessert was shop bought cakes, evening snacks were crisps and chocolate biscuits. Never bought fresh vegetables or fruit. Her packed lunch was often jam sandwiches on white bread, and she took 6 sugars in her tea. Weirdly, she was very slim, and her husband wasn't overweight, but that was 35 years ago. I do wonder how her health is now.

Please find below the exact definition of UPF and why is not the same thing as processed food.
TL;DR : just jump to appendix that details the NOVA classification

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10261019/

This is heartbreaking news.

Thank you will have a watch now too

But that's just the nuggets compared to the sausages. A meal of chicken nuggets and spaghetti hoops does not contain more fibre than a casserole made with a load of veggies in addition to the sausages, even if those veggies happen to come from a tin.

I agree 100%.

If you don’t know that UPF’s are addictive, you have no reason to do anything about your consumption of them. Although if you’re overweight and trying to lose, you would naturally try to cut down on a lot of the problematic foods.

But even when you do know, it’s very difficult to eliminate them, because…. They’re addictive. And considered normal.

The thing is that that you only know what you know. If you don't know that porridge microwaves in a couple of minutes then it doesn't look like it's a quick easy option - it could easily be as faffy as risotto. We weren't really a porridgey household growing up so as a young adult I thought those sachets were the only way to make quick porridge, before I discovered you could do the same thing with just the oats.
If you haven't got the time, energy or capacity to find out the holy grail of cheap, easy, healthy and tasty foods then it's easier to stick with something reliable from a packet.
We do have an obesity problem but it's not going to be solved by labelling parents as hopeless any more than it's solved by calling fat people lazy. It needs a holistic solution. Food standards so less addictive UPFs are so easily available, more mass better food and physical education, less judgement of obese people, more time for people to cook. It all needs addressing but just telling people they should know better and they should just be less fat clearly doesn't work.

Don't know the show but UPFs are known to be addictive, the more you eat the more you want and struggle with the taste of normal food.
Then you stop buying food your family don't enjoy or won't eat and you feel crap about it and your energy is fecked and you probably look for comfort in food and it's rinse and repeat.

There is so much junk food and upfs everywhere I feel sorry for people who are addicted rather than look down on them.

Just watch or read Dr. Chris van Tulleken's stuff on it - scary. :-(

right?! fucking HELL. Mumsnet is wild

This is not the case sadly. My DS only had six weeks of food tech in Y8. That’s it.

I work in a grammar school myself, and we have food tech in the curriculum from Y7 to Y9. With proper weekly practicals. After Y9 it’s a CGSE subject only.

By your thinking a poached egg is Ultra Processed. 🫤 Peeling a carrot and cooking it doesn’t make it UPF 😖

I can understand why you think that but actually it's vegetables and cooking things in the right order and on time. I'm also really bad at food waste. I just find the whole process mentally exhausting. When people talk about the holidays they would go on with a lottery win, I'd rather have someone do the food for a year. Also I don't find gousto meals particularly fancy. We have a lot of chicken and potatoes!

My repoitoire is shepherd's pie, baked salmon with broccoli and carrots, eggs in purgatory (thanks nigella), french vegetable soup and prawns with salad. I can't even roast a whole chicken (I have literally NEVER done it - i just buy the ones in a bag.) and I have only learned how to successfully make gravy that's not instant on Christmas day.

It is a set of skills that I don't have. My brain just goes to mush and due to my mum's control issues, I left home only having cooked in school.

Finally on the education bit. Having had the privilege of knowing what coca cola.a does to teeth, it never occurred to me to mention it to someone who is pregnant as a reminder. That's how it gets missed. Plus being unable to read.

What was his diet like at home and did he learn to cook?

Hope you don't mind me asking.

I hear you on the disability front. That is why I batch cook, and freeze portions of food, so that when I am not feeling too good, due to my disability, I can still eat well. It is important to me, I know that I am going to have times, when I cannot stand to cook food, so I plan ahead for those times. Eating poor food, low in nutrients, is certainly not going to help me.

Of course people know what to eat. It’s the addictive nature of UPF that’s the problem. It’s engineered to make you crave more
and more. It takes a great deal of effort to change someone’s diet, especially a child.

I rarely eat UPF, but on the odd occasion I do, the effect is immediate. I just want to keep
eating it. I continue to crave it for days afterwards. Eating junk isn’t just laziness (although that plays a part). It’s an addiction.

So what's your point? It doesn't matter because it's only the poor people?

My dd is similar, she spent the last year of uni living on Greg’s and pizza, she knows what’s good and what’s bad but just doesn’t care. It worries me a lot and I try hard to get her make better choices but now she’s an adult it’s kind of out of my control.

thank you. Like you i was ok (well, okish) when they were little, i've always had spinal problems, its only in the last 3 years i've needed mobility aids and a perch to park on while cooking if i have the energy for the prep... but i'm still responsible for feeding my DS19 as he wont/can't cook for himself at all. DD can at least put a microwave meal on, or bread in the toaster for herself!

This thread reminded me about my chicken bones so Im cooking them down for stock. The smell in the house is phenomenal. The cat is very interested. Walking around with her nose in the air.

It's on channel 4, I'm watching it now on the app

Where can I watch the programme mentioned in the op?
i have googled… it says Netflix or channel 5 but can’t see it on either

Inreresting views. I have my own childhood issues with food.

Regarding money. If we are all totally honest with ourselves it is easier to eat healthy when you have a well sticked, decent sized fridge and freezer, a well stocked cupboard abd enough money to buy an appealling variety of fruit and veg.

Take it from soneone who knows, it feels phycologically very different fo feed your family porridge or lentils when you are worrying where your hext meal will come from, compared with knowing you can splurge on mangos, berries etc the following day.