Sick of comments about how I eat :( does anyone else do this?

[upstairsdownstairscardboardbox]

I will start by saying I am a size 8, 5 foot 2 woman with no ED and no issues with over or under eating at all. I am very healthy at 50, and happy but am looking for others similar so I can better understand my eating.

I grew up in a very large family by usual UK standards. I was the only girl with 14 brothers. Food was basic, nutritious. A lot of boiled floury potatoes and bread and butter etc. Treats were few and far between but arrived all at once in abundance. So no fruit for months then 30 unripe peaches my dad snagged from a farmer type of thing, or the raspberries we grew came to fruit all on one day. Never any sweets or chocolate bought in but I'd make a cake and we'd eat it before it cooled etc. We were ravenous and constantly looking for opportunities to blag food, we'd even take our cute youngest brothers all clean and smart with picked wild flowers to the neighbours to blag kitkats and jaffa cakes -god what must they have thought 😂

Does anyone else struggle to eat slowly and put the cutlery down between bites, chatting and well, being civilised. I do this, of course, but feel like I am being restrained and I do not really enjoy meals as a consequence.

If I eat alone or have a sandwich in front of the TV with DH or DC I eat really quickly and then I thoroughly enjoy it. My fav is to put whole things in my mouth and this has started to attract bemused comments from adult DC who have apparently never need another living sole (other than my bros) put a whole chocolate in their mouth at once or eat a whole profiterole in one. A bag of crisps eaten politely I always refuse, but alone, when I can stuff them all in my mouth in 3 goes I enjoy little more.

I know I am odd, it's ok, I am happy as I am and make myself behave well enough to get invited to fancy restaurants and parties, but I think this eating came from my competitive childhood and wondered if anyone else had the same?

Thanks for reading my waffling on!

Queen Victoria used to eat very quickly. Etiquette dictated that as soon as she had finished the course the servants removed all the plates. So the courtiers had to also eat very quickly before their plates were whisked away. By contrast Queen Elizabeth II was considerate of her guests' dining pace. While the long-standing royal rule states that everyone must stop eating when the monarch does, she would reportedly
pace her meal or subtly push food around her plate to ensure others had enough time to finish

My partner is kind of similar in that his childhood massively influences his eating habits. He doesn't eat very quickly, I think he's trained himself not to, and he doesn't eat massive portions of food at mealtimes but treats, he will eat everything. He can't pace himself. So if we have say a multi pack of crisps he will eat three or four packets at a time. Anything in the kitchen that isn't bog standard food is fair game. He had brothers and says it was literally a fight to get a fair share of food. They didn't have many treats and again it was a battle. Chocolate I hide from him and I do buy things I know he doesn't like so I get a look in. Jaffa cakes he loathes. I strangely am now very partial to a Jaffa cake.

I’m a fast eater - mostly because I find eating pretty boring; I always have something else that I’d rather be doing. If I’m alone, I do just stuff it in my face and will usually get on with what I want to do whilst still chewing my last mouthful.
If I’m eating with my family or guests I am aware that ramming food on my mouth is probably unpleasant to watch or listen to, and so I try to be a little more decorous.

Just as well I'm not in the archaic royal family than!

How can you chew your food properly if you eat it in as few bites as possible and as quickly as OP describes? Especially if you're a smaller person (OP says she's 5'2" tall). My mouth isn't big enough to eat how OP says she eats (although i'm much taller).

Throat hurts if one doesn't chew properly by swallowing too big chunks & stomach indigestion a risk too.

A lot of men eat like this and nobody says a damn thing. They call it eating with gusto. Women are expected to be dainty eaters. I am afraid that I am not. I have seen some people eat painfully slowly, putting tiny little pieces of food in their mouth and I can't believe they enjoy it, but of course we are all so different. As long as you aren't being impolite or messy in public I don't see the problem.

I'm a fast eater and although I enjoy long, leisurely meals I have to consciously slow down. Mine came not from family, but from going to a large comprehensive school where we often had 5 mins or less to queue up for food and eat it at lunch time. These childhood habits are very difficult to change and become very ingrained in our associations with food and sustenance.

Interesting! Yes, it's most likely from childhood, but my 28yr old dd, who had none of those issues, eats really fast, not chewing, shovels forkfuls in (surprised she doesn't stab the back of her throat!), and in particular, says she "likes to feel her mouth really full". She has a LOT of A.D.D. traits but not been diagnosed yet.

Get it. But it's actually a bit unhealthy to shove a lot of stuff in at once..It can cause stomach upsets, which on some cases over the long term can lead.to nastier things.

My father has a tendency to be like that. He grew up with a largeish family of brothers and it was very a case of "eat quick or dont eat". I suspect that its more common that you would think especially in large working class families (his family were catholic, very working class and large families were the norm). Every meal was padded out with bread and butter.

Like you he has to make a concerted effort to not be like this and age has slowed him down a lot too.

Many people will eat fruit after dinner, and that's generally a bad idea. Fruit is not digested in the stomach; it will go through to the small intestine pretty quickly where digestion takes place. If fruit is eaten after a meal it can't do this and it 'hangs around' fermenting and being generally unpleasant. It's much better to eat fruit on an empty stomach.

I think we all are a bit weird around food in our own ways.
For example, I will never ever accept a biscuit at a friend or relatives house. Why you may ask! Its because I never ever eat 1 biscuit. I usually eat at least 6 or 7, maybe even the whole packet in one go. Having said that, I rarely want biscuits, maybe 2 or 3 times a year, but yeah, I'm weird

@Beeloux @GalaxyJam DC are both very slim, and gorgeous (I might be biased on the latter)
@Gerwurtztraminer spot on
@UneAnneeSansLumiere My parents are remarkable people and they did an exceptional job. Yes there were a multitude of us but we had holidays, a lovely home with loads of space to play (farm), we were all very well educated and offered opportunity and theu taught us to help each other. I really see how hard being an only child is for SIL who recently dealt with her parents serious illness death, even thou she had a wider network siblings are a huge source of support. Serving 17 is always going to be tricky in a domestic setting and even with the best will in the world there will be competition and opportunistic behaviour.

My 3 greedy guzzler brothers in law, who throw food down their gullets, then proceed to do lots of burping that they attempt to conceal. One of them takes antacids on the sly too. I simply can’t think why. 🤨

I feel sorry for their mannerly wives who must endure this ghastliness all year round.

It’s just general knowledge that that’s how they were made. It is widely stated in culinary circles that profiteroles are designed to be a one-bite (or at most, two-bite) treat. The small size of the classic French choux pastry is intended to be eaten in one go to best experience the contrast of the crisp exterior and the creamy filling simultaneously.

Google it…

@Friendlygingercat that is really interesting. I went to see the Crown Jewels last year and we played a game where we each chose one item but had to wear it every day for a month to be allowed to keep it. I wanted QVs mourning crown - so elegant and it would look a treat on me. Maybe we're kindred spirits 😂😂😂😂😂

DW has ADHD and I think that explains why she eats quickly, she will hyper focus in her food.

Can people please stop blaming ADHD for a lack of manners? It’s incredibly offensive as well as factually inaccurate.

@upstairsdownstairscardboardbox

most people wouldn’t like that behaviour at the dinner table, it would be very off putting …let’s not pretend otherwise.

@Twinkletoes127 I rarely eat any treats at all but if I do, like you, I have a bunch. Last night I had 2 of these monsters https://www.fortnumandmason.com/toffolossus-biscuits-600g then a fancy mashmallow tea cake. I have literally not had a biscuit since last Christmas! I can't resist those fortnum and mason bad boys when DS brings them home.

@Cherrytree86 which is why I don't do that , if you read the OP 😂

But if you eat socially it can be off putting to others.
The Op has worked that out and saves eating the way she enjoys for home.

My father really loves eating with his hands. It can be gross watching him with greasy fingers wading through food. So he uses a knife and fork in company.

Food is fantastic, OP, and I'm glad you have better access to it nowadays than you once did!

Re manners, eating nicely is such a subjective thing. I think as long as you're not suffocating as you inhale the next plateful, or stabbing your fork into the wrist of anyone reaching for the shared bowl, you're doing OK.

Nah. I want the most vulgar and OTT bling the Tower of London has ever seen. 🤣

Hello fellow fast eaters!

Yup. All my food issues I have stem from childhood too. Eldest of 5. Poor, but not poverty. Enough to eat, but what we had to eat was more of a chore than a joy. Talking and drinking (even water) was discouraged during mealtimes.

It was never a case of "eat or don't eat" as food thieves were punished harshly. But that wouldn't stop sibling chancers from asking or looking dolefully with puppy eyes at you while you were still eating your share. Jealous that so many of you are slim. Adulthood and obesity have been hand in hand for me since I moved away from home.

@upstairsdownstairscardboardbox

i didn’t say you did, but it was wrong of you to say that that poster doesn’t like her (deceased) mother because she found her abhorrent table manners off putting.