Do people really not know what to eat?

There is bad food - it's literally the point of the conversation. Some food does more harm than good.

It has NEVER been easier to learn something new…..cooking, nutrition etc…..the information is all there at the touch of a button. People are just too lazy to do it. And fair enough if it’s just you..you do you….but if you’re feeding your kids the same crap because you can’t be arsed to learn or can’t be arsed to get off your bum and cook something then you should be judged and you should be doing better by your kids.

Well I dont know the percentages, so perhaps strictly speaking if we say its less than 50% then its a minority yes. But only by a few percent

More even stevens then.

Aren the majority of adults overweight?

Kids catching up quickly?

I think everyone knows that an apple is healthier than crisps etc. What varies is what people see as a normal amount of concern for health.

If you grew up with crisps and everyone around you eats crisps, the idea that you ought not to do it probably seems unreasonable- I imagine you see the apple-eaters in the same way I see instagram influencers who eat nothing but wheatgrass and egg white omelettes. Add to that the fact that manufacturers go to the absolute limit of what’s legal to present their foods as normal healthy choices.

What we should all be focusing on is a) shifting the norm away from upf and b) regulating advertising and marketing.

im not sure its in the basis of something or someone else 'fixing' the problem, because they dont see a problem in the first place, the idea of something being wrong isnt a concept they would acknowledge

The problem is judgement has become a dirty word, one mustnt judge apparently, its wrong. Its wrong to say 'this isnt ok, you need to do better'. Because then theres every excuse under the sun about MH, ND, time, money, jobs, stress. All these are valid problems but perhaps not excuses.

Its ok to say, you need to eat better without being accused of fat shaming or being ableist.

Unfortunately a lot of people have not had the luck of growing in a family that prioritised good health and nutrition. It doesn't make it right but there are a lot of nuances why a family are unable to provide a decent menu for their children. We can all sit in judgement and say oh it is so easy but if people have not been taught or informed they just carry on as they are

• If you grew up on instant mash, pot noodles and fish fingers then some people continue that cycle if they are not exposed to other ways of eating
• Poverty contributes greatly - as a previous poster said, fruit goes off where as UPF does not. Also you are more likely to get packet stuff from food banks than fresh food.
• Food costs to cook. People on electric meters that have to watch every single penny (and are likely to be in fuel debt) need to cok something that takes very little energy rather than a long time to simmer down etc.
• Costs - to initally buy all the ingredients - bottles of this and jars of that spice etc is more expensive than buying a ready made jar - those of us with well stocked cupboards are able to make tasty meals out of nothing.
• Some people have never been taught to cook. And that is not linked to poverty! DD has lots of friends who do not know how to cook, we were saying yesterday that they are going to have a shock when they go to uni in september!!! One of her friends mums even gets her toast or cereal ready in the morning.

It's not black and white and while a lot of people are able to break the cycle there are just as many who do need outside help to change their food habits. Of course there are plenty who know what to do but just don't.

@soupyspoon So over 50% of families are like this? I don’t believe that. I am inclined to believe it’s regional and is allied to intelligence and generations of poor parenting so good habits are never formed. I don’t believe it’s endemic everywhere though. Are 50% of dc overweight in private schools? I don’t believe it’s even 1%!

Buy frozen fruit then...Raspberries for example. Of just about its not a cost thing you actually want to eat UPF

I know the episode you mean and think you're being a bit judgy tbh. The parents bad habits (brownie/noodles and cookies for lunch and 2 big bars of chocolate each evening) were not being imposed on the children. The children were not obese or even remotely overweight and some of the families 'awful' eating was a jar of dolmio for their spag bol.

My kids probably have a terrible diet compared to a lot on here, it's a mixture of my terrible cooking skills, the fact that I hate cooking, the fact that they are all fussy with different things and lack of time. They often eat frozen pizzas, ready meals or microwave burgers. We have McDonald's once a week too.

I haven't seen the programme but I am similar to you OP in that I work full time, so does my DH (more than ft in fact), we run a business on the side, and we have three kids. And I have empathy with these families tbh because I know you're not supposed to say it on MN but I find the mental load of planning and shopping for and cooking meals from scratch every day of the week really wearing. Yes, I know our grandmothers and our great grandmothers could feed the kids for five days with a big sack of flour and a rolling pin but I am not them, I do find it really hard. I still do it because I care about their bloody health but I'm not bloody happy about it!

I dont think they're in the minority.

I think what no one seems to acknowledge or voice very much is that people like this sort of food. My partner enjoys a bland beige diet. He much prefers something out of a packet. He wont eat fresh cooked, colourful, flavourful food that I cook (and Im an excellent cook), wont eat veg very much unless they're mushy peas and even then most of them get chucked from the plate to the bin, often veg is on his plate as some sort of decoration. He loves things in tins, wont eat my lovely fresh soups for example, wants some rubbish in a tin. Wouldnt eat a fresh pasta or ragu sauce/curry sauce, would want it out of a jar (dolmio or Grossmans)

Theres a processed taste that people like I think. I cant stand it.

In 2022/23, more than 730 children were admitted to hospital with malnutrition, rickets or scurvy – all conditions that are entirely preventable.

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) now account for more than half (59%) of the daily calorific intake of 7-year-olds.

Obesity rates among children have risen to the highest level since records began. Almost 1 in 4 children (24%) are now overweight or obese by the time they start primary school, and more than 1 in 3 (36%) are overweight or obese by the time they leave it. Obesity-related complications already affect 1.2 million children.

All from the KingsFund.org.

I think perhaps people just need to try eating healthily with minimal UPF, for a few weeks say, to see how much better it is for them - weight, energy, skin, sleep. Then when they revert to junk they’ll see just how much diet contributes to how you feel. When I eat junk I feel like SHIT afterwards. Truly. That enough has been a deterrent against eating garbage on a regular or semi-regular basis.

Judging by the people I saw walking around a major northern city centre yesterday, OP - the answer is a big fat massive NO.

Lots of people also seem to think they can do/eat/drink/smoke whatever they want or parent however they want with no responsibility for the consequences because the nhs or the schools will fix it. I am old.

I suspect a lot of people just don't care that much about food - they see it as fuel and aren't that interested in whether it's healthy or not.

Some people go 'im rubbish at cooking' and then have babies and then dont have the time or mental energy to learn to cook. And cooking is trial and error when you first start out, which you dont really have the luxury of doing when kids will refect foods based on nothing. So the cycle continues.
Thats just one example.
Some people ARE just lazy, but there's plenty of other reasons too.
Some people also genuinely have no idea HOW bad upf are. They grew up with it and 'everyone was fine' so see no reason to change, change is hard and uncomfortable and a lot of people will simply take the easier route as its not as clear to them as apples = health, crisps = early death.

.... fuck, I want some crisps now.

However, I think the premise is good but they should push for achievable and sustainable changes.

I haven’t watched the first episode, only the second. It’s annoying that they’ve found some people to work with that are obvious extremes. I guess it wouldn’t have the same shock-tainment element and the results wouldn’t be as dramatic.

it’s a shame they felt they needed to attract viewers through sound-bites, social media clips and poorly disguised poverty-porn.

Actually a banana or apple costs far less than a bag of crisps or a chocolate bar.

There’s no excuse for feeding children junk.

It’s pure laziness to feed your kid such crap. Once a week is just about the limit, though it shouldn’t even be that much. Any more than that and you should be ashamed. Get off your arse and feed them properly. The statistics on the appalling diet that parents are feeding their kids in this country are shocking.

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