Do people really not know what to eat?

I grew up in crappy food (70s) I don’t remember eating anything that wasn’t processed, apart from salads once a week, although we always used to have either luncheon meat or corned beef with it 🤮. We only ever got fresh fruit as a treat at Christmas .

I think as others have said was we never snacked at home or out, we never had biscuits or fizzy drinks in the house and where I grew up the only take away was the chippy and that was a massive treat. We were out all the time when we were younger.

But I suppose times change, I live in a city and my kids are out a lot but I wouldn’t have wanted them
being outside all day like I was and the snacking was my fault because I used to give them to them at a young age (albeit what I would think of as healthy snacks). As a family we do eat healthily and I really try to keep UPFs to a minimum but I find cooking easy and between us DH and I luckily have time to make dinner from scratch every night. But not everyone does and I think most people do a bit of both, and UPFs in moderation is fine I would say.

My eldest is a healthy weight, I suspect my youngest (20 months) is 'overweight' but he's not super active yet. He's also obsessed with food which I find difficult to know how to manage, whereas my eldest will happily stop eating if he feels full and has that natural 'self regulation'. Its definitely made me realise how different children can be with their attitudes towards food. But of course, feeding children unbalanced diets is a different thing altogether

We are vegan so I have to consider our diet more than most. I'd say we eat fairly average with plenty of freshly made meals, and a few 'easy'/processed food meals too.

Also I know this is only a fraction of what a child eats, but I do wish kids places e.g play centres had healthier snack options. There is rarely fruit for sale but plenty of chocolate/crisps

Cooking isn’t hard. Getting it right, making it taste nice, thinking how to use up ingredients, thinking x will go with y does take practice and a bit of research and also eating nice food cooked by other people.

Real yoghurt and real cheese are not UPF.

There is a difference between processed and UPF and that difference is very important.

An ordinary block of cheese like cheddar, Brie or ball of mozzarella is not UPF. Bags of grated cheese, cheese spread, cheese strings etc are UPF.

Plain Greek yogurt is not UPF. Flavoured yogurts are.

But yoghurt and cheese are UPF, so yes, they have a point

Unless the parents opt out (I did for my ARFID AuDHD child)

All dc are measured and weighed at school in year reception and year 6. That’s where the data comes from.

The judging on here by those who know nothing of the struggles/experiences of others is dreadful.
Your family is fed. It may be less than ideal in the opinion of some but they have no clue how your life is on a daily basis so their opinion doesn’t matter.

I think we all do the best we can depending on the time, money, knowledge and ability we have and the situation we’re in.

I don’t judge anyone for what they eat/feed their family and nor would I tolerate anyone judging me.

We’re just doing our best regardless of how that looks to everyone else. Shaming people for it is wrong.

She does want to. She asks for help sometimes, and we try. It's like there's some kind of blocker in her brain. Doesn't matter how often we talk her through it, do it with her, show her cheats (pre-prepped veg, garlic paste/jarred garlic etc), it just falls straight out the second we leave.

It's the strangest thing. We worry, because she lives on chips, beans on toast and ready meals. But there's only one so often we can fill her freezer with batch cooked food and then see her ignore it because she panics about "getting it right" when she has to reheat it.

It seems to me she doesn’t want to? And that’s okay. It’s her life, her choice.

It's not excuses because we don't understand.

I cook, from scratch, daily (especially at the moment as we're on a very tight budget while saving). I saw this growing up anyway. As did my younger sister, who has the same parents and grew up in the same house seeing the same stuff.

Cooking to her is something she cannot convince herself she can do. She finds it terrifying. If it can be quickly warmed up in the microwave or at a stretch in a pan (think beans), she'll do that. Otherwise it's on an oven tray, 200°C for 20 minutes and that's it.

She was taught. She lacks the abilities and the confidence to learn.

Maybe for a small minority, but for most that is just another excuse. How much trial and error is there really when you have a step-by-step recipe sitting in front of you? And even if something doesn't turn out perfect it's unlikely to have to be thrown out. And no, you wouldn't know that if you had never tried, but it's another convenient excuse not to try - they've convinced themselves that it's all just to haaard and they couldn't possibly have tiiime* so they don't bother trying.

*And yet all these people with so little time are always up to date on the Traitors/football/soaps etc

I’m a bit like this with making my own pizza or chicken nuggets. Yes I can, and do, and yes, they are way nicer when homemade, but most of the time if we’re going to have pizza or chicken nuggets it’s because we’re pushed for time and need something quick and easy. If I have time to spend on cooking I’d rather the resulting meal was something better than chicken nuggets!

(You can make a great chilli with not much prep though as long as you cook it long enough imo)

It's the trial and error that is the problem for many. If you can't afford to throw something away if it doesn't turn out right then you are not going to make the attempt.

They make excuses because they don’t understand people who do this.

They are fine eating whatever and don’t want to change. They won’t go to farmer markets that you place near their communities, they’ll ignore the fresh produce sections for their usual food. You have to want to eat healthier food, and many of them just don’t want to put that kind of effort into it. Really that simple.

I really do wish everyone would stop banging on about not being taught to cook as an excuse.
I wasn't taught to cook by anyone.
I taught myself from cook books and magazine recipes. All in pre Internet days.
Everything was trial.and error.
In this day and age of Internet, Youtube, tik tok, Facebook, TV streaming and the media attention on healthy eating, UPFs, basically news headlines shoved in our faces and everything we need to know at our fingertips.... there really is no excuse whatsoever.

a raw potato is ' unprocessed'
and 'inedible'😁
Much of what we eat needs to have something done to it so that we can access the nutrients, aka digest it!
And there's that whole thing about how the ability to cook meant that our species (or rather the progenitors thereof) could focus on activities other than chomping raw food 24/7 just to survive.

Cooking of any kind is processing. As is chopping, grating, boiling etc… and it all changes how the food interacts with the body (yes even just chopping).

Processing is not always bad. In fact, some is required to remove anti-nutrients and toxins etc like with beans and legumes or eggs (raw egg whites bind Biotin and stop it being absorbed).

I think its processed because its been ' 'processed' in some way- ie cooked, wheras a raw potato is ' unprocessed'. Neither are ultra processed though. upf's contain ingredients not found in a domestic kitchen.

A jacket potato is surely just cooked? Im not convinced thats even processed...

I typically refrain from judging others' eating habits or body sizes. As a child, I was chubby, and my mother, an excellent cook, showed her love through food. Over time, I have undergone therapy, adopted healthier eating patterns, and exercised to stay in shape. Despite being slim now, I find it difficult to feel completely at ease with my eating habits, as this remains a complex issue.

This absolute rubbish. Washing, peeling and milling does not make food UPF. They would make the food processed. There is a huge difference between processed and ultra-processed. You really need to pay attention.

100%.

I have managed to get myself off them (highly addictive industrial food -like substances) with a lot of education, support and effort…. and I can only stay off them with the continuing support of a Twelve Step fellowship.

But it means I am the “odd” person who doesn’t eat puddings, biscuits, snacks….. no, not even because you made it specially for me, or because everyone else is having one, or because it’s Christmas. I simply cannot afford to start again on what took me so much effort to stop.

It’s worth it to me, for the benefits of maintaining an 8 stone weight loss since my peak, and getting off all my medication after 28 years with type 2 diabetes.

How much easier it would have been if the stuff was subject to the same sort of restrictions we have on cigarettes or alcohol. And with all the restrictions and taxation we put on both of those, there are still 12-14% of adults addicted to each.

How many people would be able to do similar (with or without WLI as an aid) if the addictive nature of UFP’s was accepted, and public policy was used to move people away from them?