Do people really not know what to eat?

Solidarity 🫂

Solidarity 🫂 Edit - should have been posted in a reply but can't delete

i am 43, I never had a school dinner at primary school as they closed the kitchens. All our lunch boxes had crisps or penguin bars or sugary yoghurts in them. We had flasks filled with orange squash and sandwiches filled with ham or sandwich spread. Arguably the hot lunches would have been healthier!

That’s true, I am in that group myself and we did not generally eat between meals or have sugary drinks as a regular thing, and my parents attempted to limit the amount of sweets we ate. Most of our meals were cooked from scratch, and school dinners were as well. So what went wrong which resulted in me being an overweight child, obese teen and morbidly obese adult?

Two things, for me.

The first is that, from a young age, I was addicted to sugar. My parents tried to limit it, but I snuck extra behind their backs. Then when I left home and had my own income, I could do what I wanted. And I wanted to eat unlimited quantities of sugar, and other junk besides. It’s not that I thought it was healthy - although tbh my focus was on weight rather than health at that time. It was that I couldn’t stop myself. Few addicts can.

The other thing is the change in food culture - both the increase in UPF’s, and the normalising of snacking and consuming sugary drinks, caramel lattes and do you want fries with that. Availability definitely makes people more likely to consume something - especially when the “something” has addictive qualities. It has become normal to eat multiple times per day. Normal, but not healthy.

When I was at my heaviest (22 stone, 18 years ago) I was very unusual. I didn’t see many other people like me walking round. But now - and I am no longer like that - I see so many people who are morbidly obese. And younger people as well. I developed type 2 diabetes in my thirties, I was 21 stone. But I see youngsters in their twenties and even late teens who look like I did then.

My heart bleeds for them. But I don’t blame them - or their parents. I blame the ubiquity of UPF’s and the misguided low fat and “a calorie is a calorie” paradigms.

I think that to change this at a population level is going to take government action. Basically replicating the measures which have been used to reduce smoking, and applying them to UPF’s, especially sugar. Until that happens (I’m not holding my breath), there is individual learning and action.

And THAT is not helped by shaming people.

No the point is being made that the whole food culture and food landscape has changed, we are not eating like in the 70s and 80s, that is the whole point people are making, have you not understood that?

Haha a very good point people in that age group love going on about “back in my day we were all perfect no one was overweight” while being obese 😂

And yet people who were children in the 70s and 80s (those aged 50-65ish) are one of the most obese age groups in the UK with 73-80% being overweight or obese! So clearly those one off treats as a rule didn’t do anything to keep you all eating healthy…

No excuse for making your kid fat. I became a mum at 16 so pretty uneducated compared to all these older mums also lived in a homeless shelter because I was poor and none of my kids have ever been fat. Everyone knows eating a family size chocolate bar isn’t healthy no one’s that ignorant but they still do it, a form of munchausen by proxy it seems to be with some people I know.

Like others I would like to see the long term follow up, a years time

Yep.

Children eating UPFs doesn't necessarily mean that they are overweight.

My child has a limited diet too, eats UPFs the majority of the time and is also underweight.

I do find it hard to believe that both couples didnt really know much about food intake or nutriton, the first couple will have had very very recent midwifery and health visitor and ante natal care four times round within which there is a focus on nutriton and eating and lifestyle
The youngest 2 were twins so I could imagine they went from 2 to 4 kids and just tried to deal with it short term and it ended up long term. The 2 massive bars of chocolate a night though were ridiculous! I think sometimes with these programmes they have people who need such obvious easy wins. The kids going from that massive sweet bowl to eating the fruit was a real win for them I'd imagine.

Are you seriously comparing children with ARFID to cats?

I dont like Tim Spector. Even his book has a bit of a hectoring tone. It would be more relatable to have someone who actually understood the appeal of an artificial strawberry milkshake.

Fair enough. I've seem people complain of similar issues with fussy cats and recipe changes.

Unfortunately ARFID is very specific. If anything tastes different the food is rejected, sometimes permanently
My son will only eat quorn nuggets and m&s chips and only if fried in a particular oil and plated separately

His other couple of packaged cold foods are brand specific heck even his medically prescribed shakes are one particular brand and flavour only

The words I and other parents of kids like him dread are "new improved recipie"

Ive watched both episodes and neither family I would consider to be poor or poorly educated. They both appeared reasonable, connected and engaged people who are able to take on the information given to them.

I do find it hard to believe that both couples didnt really know much about food intake or nutriton, the first couple will have had very very recent midwifery and health visitor and ante natal care four times round within which there is a focus on nutriton and eating and lifestyle

The second couple as I say, have had major health incidents which would have had tons of follow up and engagement with health staff and tests of all sorts at all times. They were a very well to do couple by the looks of things and said they hadnt heard of some things like kombucha etc, didnt know what was in squirty cream etc

I think there is possibly a degree of exaggeration for entertainment purposes going on, which is ok, it is an information type show.

I was amazed that the second man lost 7lbs but 12 inches off his waist, just goes to show how the weight falls off men differently to women.

Im a bit sick of that Tim Spector being 'disgusted' with everything he sees which is UPF, the mass produced ham being one of them. Im a big believer in eating nose to tail, we should be using all parts of the animal. I dont like the chemicals in it but in the trailer for the next programme he's going on about chicken skin being 'disgusting'.

poverty and poor education is a real thing.

But yes go ahead and judge.

Hope that makes you feel nice and smug.

Just watched the first one. What a fantastic turn around. I hope they keep it up. I have a feeling they will.

Well yes of course, thats not what is being referred to here though, if kids will eat something home cooked, and the majority will unless there are special needs of some sort, then of course you'd cook it yourself.

I can take your point about the consistency issue, but if that was all my child would eat, and they would eat the home-made version, then I would definitely spend the time making it.

Other people have answered about the consistency issue but even though, like another poster says above, who wants to spend time home cooking nuggets and chips, when you could spend time cooking something nicer.

Exactly this.

I can’t (or couldn’t) guarantee homemade stuff would always taste the exact same.

I think they must be prepped before the programme though because Im not sure I believe that someone who had cancer and someone who had sepsis and nearly lost a leg hasnt had significant information given to them about lifestyle and diet information or blood markers etc

So the wife who drank a lot, I cant imagine she didnt have an understanding that was a bit too much. Also she said that she had never been given information about her fasting blood glucose levels, which I can believe because Ive just had a load of bloods done and they werent fasting

everyone is supposed to have an over 50s health check but I dont think many are called in for it.

A child with diagnosed ARFID who has chicken nuggets as a safe food will generally only eat the specific nuggets they are used to. Homemade ones will be rejected, however good they are. It’s one of the reasons why kids with ARFID often end up eating UPF or fast food versions of things - because they are consistent and predictable, as opposed to things like “an apple” which can be wildly variable in appearance, taste and texture.

You can make both nuggets and chips at home though?