What was your diet like growing up and what is your diet like now?

[Chkchk]

As a kid growing up in the 80s/90s we ate a ton of convenience food masquerading as real food. Our dinner rotation was:

Mashed potatoes and sausages
Oven chips and beans or fish fingers
Pasta with sauce from a packet

Supplemented with school dinners (usually a greasy pastry supplemented with crisps and chocolate, I chose the very worst canteen stuff!). Never ever ate breakfast.

I think my parents were singularly unable to cook (I've never seen either of them chop an onion) but tried their best!

These days I wouldn't dream of using a premade pasta sauce. Even if I want pesto, I make it fresh. No judgement on anyone who does but I enjoy cooking and I enjoy eating fresh stuff even more! It's hard to say what a typical week's diet is because we get a seasonal veg box which dictates what we make, but in the last week our dinners have been:

Chickpea, beetroot and coconut curry with rice
Salmon, asparagus and rice
Mezze (hummus, flatbread, halloumi, salad veg)

And I've been making various soups for us all to have for lunch with bread. For breakfast we might have an egg on toast or yoghurt with seeds and honey.

So when did you grow up, and how different is your diet now from then? I'm wondering if this is indicative of a shift in how society eats overall, or if my parents really were quite hapless even for the time period!

Same era as OP.
Was raised on freezer to oven/microwave food exclusively apart from on the odd occasion my mum made a dinner on a Sunday. She was a single mum for a lot of my childhood and worked a couple of jobs.
Just very short of time and didn’t drive etc.
Most of our food came from Iceland because it was a) local b) cheap and c) easy.
Fast forward and I’ve never bought or eaten and ready meal ever since (Or a loaf of sliced white bread!!) - the idea of it turns my stomach now, all the E numbers and additives, salt and sugar. And just the flavour...
I don’t eat a perfect diet now but it’s very varied, freshly cooked evening meal every evening in huge part because dh loves cooking and we’ve got the dc involved in cooking from when they were little (dd is currently steaming her bao buns for our dinner tonight).
No judgement, I know Lots of reasons why people use pasta sauces/jars/packet meal type things, loads of people must use them as there is a lot of it available in the supermarkets.

One bad thing from my childhood diet though was daily puddings and I do give my own children pudding after dinner too. Usually a yoghurt a d fruit rather than jam Roly poly and custard though.

Grew up in the 90s. Ate mostly meat, veg and mash for dinner. Lunch was tinned soup and bread/ or something on toast like egg or beans. Breakfast was toast or cereal.

I am a more adventurous cook and only do a “traditional” dinner once a week or so. Still eat a lot of carbs though.

During the 70s my mother worked part time in a local shop ( mace) I think, staff were allowed to take home any packets/ tins that were damaged/ dented or tins which had lost their labels ( imagine hoping for rice pudding and discovering prunes😆) so our diet was very much pot luck, and a lot of convenience foods.
If any of the staff fancied something in particular for their tea, they would “ accidentally “ drop it or stand on it 😆
As an adult I eat much healthier food.
Just too much of it!

Growing up:
Home made English food-I was a teen (at school) before I had anything as exotic as pizza! We didn't even have pasta (it was a craft item as far as I was concerned).
Very much meat, mashed potato (always mashed) and 2 veg and not a lot of variation, and sandwiches (brown bread) for lunch.
Never had bought cakes and ice cream was a birthday only treat.

Now:
We have exotic food like lasagne(!), would rarely do mashed potatoes (can't stand them now, but my dc think it's a treat) and only meat and 2 veg on Sundays when we do a roast.

Interestingly I was labelled as very fussy as a child. Looking back I wasn't. I was far more adventurous than my siblings who "ate everything". But the reality was that they only really liked meat and 2 veg type meals, whereas I don't really like that, but would eat a much wider varity.

Grew up in the 60's/70's. Cereal or toast for breakfast, soup and sandwiches for lunch. Tea was usually meat, potatoes and veg. Fish and chips and pies too. Mostly cooked from scratch.

We didn't have the money to eat out. I remember my first Chinese meal when I was around 15. I opted for curry and it near blew my head off.

We now eat a lot of rice/pasta/couscous type dishes but i still like a roast dinner.

My school dinners were grim. I remember a particularly disgusting dessert called Jelly Whip which was a pink concoction. Home meals were typical 80’s. My mum used to make chips using a huge saucepan filled with lard.

Thursday night the “ chip “ van came and we had fish cake and chips.

Chips were a huge part of our diet.

At home from about the age of 8, a lot of processed foods like crispy pancakes, always homemade chips done in a chip pan, processed stuff for lunch at home with free school meals at home. My mum wouldn't eat red meat so it was always chicken or turkey, and no pasta or pizza Egg, chips and beans was a popular option on a Monday and sometimes we'd have a chilli made with baked beans and served with pitta bread. When I got older I used to cook a stir-fry on a Sunday, which was made with a jar of sauce. No takeaways or fast food. I had my first Chinese takeaway at my aunty's house when I was 11 and I was amazed.
At my dad's things were more adventurous. On a Saturday night it was often a spag bol, slow cooked for hours. I tried a lot of foods for the first time with my dad.
Now I love cooking, love pretty much all food, very rarely get anything processed in and I'm not a fan of fast food. We do get takeaways every couple of weeks and normally eat out a lot. My son's upbringing is worlds apart from mine when it comes to food! I definitely got my cooking instincts from my dad. My mum is still a fussy bugger now!

I grew up in the 50s/60s with traditional food that nearly all English ate then - meat and 2 veg, traditional meals such as roast dinner, shepherds pie, pork chops, stew etc. with home made pudding and no snacks, all home made and well cooked.
When I left home in 70s I started making different meals such as spaghetti bolognese and curry, both of which were new to most English people then. I've always tried out new foods but also liked the fast food such as Findus pancakes and burgers when I left home - it was pretty new then but now I think it's rubbish.

Traditional and not very exotic or adventurous. Meat and veg casseroles; roast dinners; corned beef hash, fish on Fridays; sausage, beans and mash; slow cooker imitations of very inauthentic curry. That sort of thing. Breakfast was always a “worthy” kind of cereal like cornflakes, weetabix or shreddies. Lunch was pretty much always a sandwich with ham, cheese, tuna or marmite. We didn’t have a lot of sugar and we didn’t snack - I don’t recall snacking really being a “thing” when I was younger, except for elevenses. We ate out on special occasions only.

Exactly the same as this, except no curry on account of it being some sort of foreign food and my parents being inexplicably scared of food with any real flavour. Meat was always overcooked and under seasoned.

80/90s diet too but it was fairly healthy Always plenty of fruit and veg. We probably had more processed food in the 80s but moved towards home cooked in the 90s along with a few treats.
I try to do home cooked at least 5 nights a,week but I wouldn't say I'm that adventurous, mostly casseroles. We do have more treats than I used to as a child though.

Crispy pancakes, fish fingers, frozen sausages and burgers, oven chips (no frills kwik save range). My step mum had one chicken curry she would make from a very old, sticky cookbook that lurked in the back of the cupboard. I remember it being an all day affair and we had to vacate the kitchen so she could 'concentrate'.

Now I love fresh salads, vegetables, legumes, stir frys and pasta. Still eat the occasional beige food as I have young dc and can't be arsed to cook.

When I was very young through the 90s we ate lots of freezer food and batch-cooked casseroles. Then my mum hit her stride career-wise, we became better off, and moved on to m&s ready meals, pre-prepared salads and vegetable side dishes, which was tastier and healthier but a bit repetitive - every week would include an m&s lasagne, moussaka, stir-fry etc. We also ate out fairly often, and had takeaways maybe once a month.

It was a combination of lack of time to cook with both parents working long hours, and a bit of reluctance to learn. To be honest I dreaded either of them cooking from scratch, which meant raw potatoes, over or under cooked meat depending on whether mum or dad was in charge, and neither of them would handle raw meat or fish so it was usually un-trimmed and gristly/bony. I was loved and fed, but home cooked food was a point of contention, and I was always called picky.

I started teaching myself to cook in my teens from recipe books and trial and error - from basics like pasta sauce from scratch, finding the right cooking style for a particular cut of meat etc, to making jam, confectionary, and baking. At university and through my early twenties I learnt to cook frugally, then widened my repertoire later as I could afford more ingredients and to risk trying new things. I enjoy the cooking process and eating good food at the end of it, and my partner is similar, so we eat a wide range of mostly home-cooked food with the occasional short-cut.

This all sounds a bit smug (and it is a bit, my cooking skills are hard-won and I’m proud of them), so I’ll add that we don’t have children and realise this allows us time and flexibility when it comes to food!

Similar here. Our favourite dinner growing up was “cheesy pasta” from a pack - the thought of it makes me queasy now! Also making a regular appearance: chicken dippers, instant mash and about the healthiest thing we ate - frozen peas! I don’t know why, as my mum is a great cook and loves good food! I was a reeeeally fussy child and refused to eat anything with tomato or onion in it, including pizza, ketchup, lasagne, bolognese, etc.

Nowadays I eat pretty well, love cooking. Like op we get a veg box so it’s pretty varied, mainly vegetarian, lots of curries, soups, pasta with a home made sauce etc. I love Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s book “veg every day” and most of what I cook these days is modified from that or “light and easy” and “love your leftovers”. I pride myself on never throwing away food. Have been even more anal about food waste since Coronavirus hit. I make veg peel crisps and

Oops posted too soon
... stem soup.

70s/80s child. My mum cooked plain boiled potatoes with virtually every meal (including with macaroni cheese!) I refused any veg apart from raw carrot until I was in my teens. Lots of convenience food from Bejam. Crispy pancakes, burgers, fish in batter. Three white bread sandwiches at school every day. Peanut butter, lemon curd and Marmite! Also Bejam crisps once a week. Roast at the weekend and a fry up on Friday in the lard filled chip pan that sat on the hob all week. Sometimes we would have fried liver sausage(horrible!) Oddly, we often used to have a dessert of Angel Delight with Weetabix crumbled over the top. Sometimes a Bejam choc ice. We would have tea on a Sunday evening which I loved. Tea from a big pot and crumpets or toast.
Nowadays I am veggie, as are my husband and one of my dc. I cook from scratch most nights, but nothing fancy. Pasta sauces, curries, jacket pots, risotto. Lots of fruit and veg but we always have goodies like crisps and chocolate biscuits in the cupboard. Pizza or something beige from the freezer about once a week. Mum now cooks fewer boiled spuds but my dad misses them!

Whilst my mum always cooked meals from scratch, her meals were considerably less healthy or varied than what I cook for my family now. Both of my parents are Irish and so her repertoire of meals mainly included classic hearty, meat and two veg style meals. Mainly an assortment of different stews/casseroles served with boiled potatoes, Shepard’s pie etc. I struggled to stomach red meat and hate boiled potatoes so dinner times would often end in huge fights with me being forced to clear my plate which left me gagging and sometimes even throwing up.

I got a part time job and turned vegetarian at the age of 15 as soon as I had enough money to buy my own groceries- I knew she would refuse to cook a separate meal for me so this was mainly done as an excuse for me to be able to cook my own food.

I cook a lot of Asian meals as I love spicy food with lots of flavour (all of which I was denied as a child!) and make most of my own sauces from scratch, even when it’s just for pasta etc. Both me and DH love cooking and are very experimental with it, luckily our 4 kids aren’t fussy eaters so I’m glad they get to enjoy trying meals I didn’t get as a child. We also have a rule that they have to try a new food 3 times and if they don’t like it by the 3rd meal time they don’t have to eat it- my mum forcing me to eat stuff I hated really impacted my relationship with food and I suffered from an eating disorder in my teenage years, so I’m keen to avoid forcing my children to eat something they really don’t like.

My mum has always hated cooking. When we were younger the only things she'd make from scratch were spaghetti Bolognese and minced beef curry. On Sundays we'd have a roast or a Chicken Tonight type casserole.

But mostly frozen oven chips with mini pizzas, fish fingers or turkey drummers on a rotation.

Now I eat a lot of fresh food and I cook most things from scratch. I love cooking and trying new recipes. And my mum loves it when I cook for her! 🙂

I was really lucky. We also had a rotation but my parents were both good cooks.

We rotated between homemade rissoles with gravy and mash; chicken schintzels; homemade semolina gnocchi with tomato ragu; homemade pies and crepes with chicken and vegetables. This was in the early 80s.

My DH had a mum who hated cooking but a dad who unusually for the time loved it. My FIl taught me some amazing ways to do salmon and salads and curries. He would have been 88 this year.

My childhood was the same as OP maybe a bit worse actually. My mum was a single parent working full time and she also hates cooking. We ate microwave meals a good few times a week, frozen pizza, deep fat fried chips. I don't remember eating any veg actually...my friends used to so jealous of my crap meals!
At the weekend, we got our 'home cooked meal' at the weekend was spag bol made with a jar of sauce!

My mum is still a crap cook and eats shite a lot of the time. Me and my brother both love cooking and would cook home cooked meals for our kids all the time.

Oh! My mum uswed to make a wierd curried sausage dish that featured pineapple juice and sultanas. Was amazing.

My dad's specialities were generally curries.

I love cookinga nd no-one in my family eats it. My oldest DS has autism and sensory issues and throws up and gags. Youngest Ds is on a beige phase and DH is vegan. (They might all be trying to tell me something mind- but I think i am a good cook!).

Growing up- balanced, but lots of traditional British type foods + some Italian. Typical meals were Sunday roast, spaghetti bolognaise, shepherds/cottage pie, meat, potato and 2 veg meals, fish pie, chilli. We often had dessert. Lunches were simple ham sandwiches, fruit + crisps. Breakfasts were cereal or porridge.

Now- still balanced but a range of cuisines and more plant-based proteins. Typical meals are curry, stir fry, fish tacos, lots of green veg and seasonal eating with spices and chili. Lunches are soup, open sandwiches, salads. Breakfasts vary a lot- porridge, greek yoghurt with fruit and oats, bagel (lazy days!), eggs.

Meat, veg, potatoes and gravy. Hate that sort of food now. Favourite meal as a child was Sunday tea- salad with sliced hard boiled eggs, salad cream, cucumber in vinegar. Favourite meal now- Greek salad with skinny fries

born in the 50s so its 60s food I remember my mom was a widow so didn't have a lots of money so we had home cooked meals toad in the hole, pigs trotters, braised liver, cottage pie, meat and potato pie sunday roast chicken all with potatoes and veg , supermarkets were still quite new so not much choice seasonal veg from the market, nowadays with all the choice I am an adventurous chef like different food that just were not there then