Is this way too much junk food in weekly shop?

[Lazyweekend]

Normal food fruit and vegetables etc.
In addition -

• multipack crisps (so 2/3 packets each in packed lunches)
• multipack chocolate bars (I each after swimming midweek)
• pack cheap biscuits for occasional supper/snack
• pack freddos for packed lunches
• sharing bag of something for weekend afternoon movie

What about getting a packet of popping corn (not the ready-popped stuff) and pop it yourself for your movie afternoons. A small quantity of unpopped makes a huge bowlful so a pack will last ages and it's easy to add flavourings.

We have caramel rice cakes and sugar free jellies for treats. DS can have a measured portion of chocolate on Fri/ Sat nights he's still making his way through his easter eggs 🤣 he has a bag of crisps on weekend days if he fancies it and we may buy ad hoc treats but at try to keep week days as healthy as possible so crisps, sweets and choc are seen as a treat. I don't buy biscuits or kitkats etc

I imagine some of the respondents on here don't have teenagers.

Seems OK to me. DS1 and I don't like chocolate but he used to have a packet of dried crackers in his lunchbox, which were quite salty. Not ideal but not the end of the world.

You can't take peanuts into a packed lunch for a school or workplace - it's irresponsible

That’s really NOT an obscene amount over a week for a family. We have more treats than that and I would say my family have good nutrition. Yes, they have sugar but they are healthy and teeth are healthy too. There’s plenty of fruit and veg in our diets as well as meat, fish and dairy. A bit of sugar isn’t a big deal!

op you’ve done well and you’re doing well. I think it’s amazing you can do your shop for £40!

I do have teenagers.

How old are they?

I’d drop some of it tbh, make lunch healthier

I've got a 14 and 11 year old, treats for their lunch boxes - 2 biscuits. Either bourbons, custard cremes, chocolate digestives, ginger nuts. Around 60p for the week. They also get a packet of crisps, sandwich/wrap/couscous/pasta, then some sort of fruit/salad.

Puddings - tinned rice pudding, jelly, bananas & custard, cheap vanilla ice cream with syrup/sauce or some leftover Easter chocolate.

We also do cheap meals - lots of lentils and beans! Lots of rice/pasta based meals.

We also utilise olio as someone local often collects from pret/Costa and tesco. So freebie treats!

That's fewer "treats" than we have each week. But then we're extremely active as a family and like to take snacky stuff when we're out and about - fruit as well as crisps/biscuits/cereal bars.
Our meals are generally very healthy, but I can quite easily demolish a fair few biscuits after a long run.

I have four DC who eat a range of these snacks regularly and are underweight still.

Waistbands too big on most trousers, eldest needs a belt to keep jeans up on his waist. Eldest is 16yo and eats a healthy diet, all home cooked meals done by myself but still enjoys sticky toffee pudding with double cream and ice cream. He eats chocolate, Haribos, crisps like Doritos. He needs to gain weight.

Not all children who eat crap are overweight. But you can't prevent them from eating this forever. At high school teachers often but Dominos pizza for the kids🤷

Mine are also underweight.

I didn't grow up in the UK so I have strong views against UPFs.

It's less than we buy.

The £40 is significant effort. Homemade and vegetarian so diet is very far from processed. Tasty and healthy but if i am honest the novelty is wearing off!! And I lose a chunk of my weekend.

The youngest isn't totally sold on the food at moment hence trying to add some fun bits in.

@SootspriteSearcher some good ideas thanks.

Olio is great but no one quite close enough to me. I see a lot of pret stuff, tempted to drive sometimes.

Doesn’t seem a lot to me, honestly.

We’re a family of 4 with teens and I buy a couple of packets of biscuits (one plain, like Rich Tea or Digestives, one like bourbons or cookies), then some sort of pudding like ice lollies or ‘corner’ yoghurts. There’s also maybe toasting waffles or crumpets for breakfasts/afternoon snacks.

Then one or two packets of wrapped snacks (like chocolate covered rice cakes or whatever) and juice boxes for packed lunches. Every so often some crisps or popcorn.

We might get a posher pudding or treats like chocolate or sweets or nice ice cream at the weekend.

If I bought more then they’d definitely eat more, I think it’s pretty restrained but they also buy food at school that I have no input into.

I think it is fine OP.

I grew up with no treats partly through poverty and partly because my DP's felt we should avoid all junk food.
I craved junk food and sought it whenever I could.

I think you are going for a sensible middle ground, your dc are lucky to have you as parent. Eating knitted yogurt type foods gets very old quite quickly as a kid.

Lol at knitted yoghurt.
We are also homemade and vegetarian.
Food bill is about £60 for 2 adults and a teen. £80 if other teen comes home from uni.

@MathsNervous The weight is only part of the issue.

It's the fact that UPF is basically bad on so many levels. It can even affect the brain ( look at the science on it) the new book out by Dr Chris van Tulleken - Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop?

Just because your kids are skinny doesn't mean it's okay to feed them UPF.
It's setting habits that will be harder to break.

It's really depressing so see the majority of parents saying that the list of snacks is okay and that lunch boxes and after-school activities need chocs, biscuits, sweets and crisps as 'treats'.

They aren't treats- they are food that's bad for everyone.

I think it's perfectly fine OP.Those who are saying they shouldn't be having any of it are being unrealistic. Growing up,we didn't have sweets,crisps,cakes etc,my mom just didn't buy anything like that,I remember going to a friend's house where they would always have penguin chocolate bars in the cupboard and I was so jealous!.
I was always a healthy weight growing up but as soon as I began earning my own money I bought so much junk food and sweet food as I'd never had it as a kid,hence piling on loads and loads of weight late teens to early twenties.
I think everything in moderation and I think you've got the balance right OP.

Check the ingredients list on cheap tortillas if you are trying to avoid rubbish, some are full of it!

No. My DC had crisps, chocolate and a flapjack in their lunch daily. They would then have a couple of biscuits when they came home. I would also buy extra snacks for the weekend.

Now they're at uni I don't buy any snack in the weekly shop. Just because I can't trust myself not to eat them. However if I've had an awful day I could demolish a sharing size bag of maltesers and a whole tub of pringles.

My kid’s school doesn’t allow crisps or chocolate for lunch. If children bring it in, the ‘treats’ are confiscated. They are given back at home time with a warning not to bring them in again.

So to me, yes this is a lot of junk food which is being used to replace proper food in lunchboxes.

Do you have high school aged DC? Do you police them at lunch break? You can't stop them from eating this crap. All in moderation. I think all you end up doing is making it more appealing by restricting it.

As I said, this food is available at high schools.

Yes I have heard van Tulleken's podcast on UPFs, and I hear you. It's a worry but I don't believe excluding it completely from a child's diet is the right way to go about it.
Just wait until you have teenagers yourself 😂

Cheap tortillas will have so much crap in them compared to crisps you can buy which are just potatoes, sunflower oil, and salt.

The thing is, you're going to die eventually no matter what you eat, so you may as well enjoy the few years you have on this planet. Humanity has created some truly wonderful things, and I count the simple, ready salted, good-quality crisp among them.

If eating them (or whatever else) in moderation gives you joy, why not grab on to that joy and take the consequences? Better that than to live with anxiety about not having made the absolute best possible choice with every bite.

5-10 boxes of ice lollies? A week?!