for getting fed up of people using term "bad foods"

[mummyonvalium]

it seems to have become endemic to use the term bad foods to describe things like chocolate cake, crisps and good foods to describe fruit and vegetables. At our local playgroup, nursery and even the dietitian at our local toddler boost well educate friends use the term bad foods. It even seems to be endemic in schools that no biscuits / crisps allowed ever.

I was brought up with the belief that there is no such thing as bad foods just bad diets and it is a symptom of our nutrition obsessed / kooky society that causes eating disorders. I am trying to drill this in to my DCs as well but I think I may be the only mother in the UK that does this.

What happened to the message eat normally, exercise and let your weight take care of itself. Does anyone else agree? Please join my grumpy bandwagon.

The trouble is our definition of good and bad foods changes regularly. In the 50s good food was milk, butter, and eggs. In the 70s eggs and butter became bad food and margarine with loads of trans fats was good. Now butter and eggs are good again, margarine with trans fat is very very bad and mild, if skim, is OK. I like the balanced diet, everything in moderation plan myself.

I started a thread a few days ago asking how much bad food is acceptable in a blanaced diet and didn't get very many responses

My understanding is that ideally it should be a small part of a meal as in for desert - from what I remember the portion size should be about 10g of chocolate (one large square). Ice cream I would say one level scoop. Cake not so sure of. Ideally no more than twice a week.

I do agree that there is so much more choice than there used to be, I just actually think that it sends a negative message about food to be continually referring to "bad" food.

I still think there is some bad food. Turkey twizzlers (RIP) list of ingredients...

Turkey (34%),
Water,
Pork fat,
Rusk,
Coating (sugar, rusk, tomato powder, wheat starch, dextrose, salt, wheat flour, potassium chloride, hydrogenated vegetable oil, citric acid, spices, onion powder, malt extract, smoke flavourings, garlic powder, colour [E160c], mustard flour, permitted sweetener [E951], herb, spice extracts, herb extracts),
Vegetable oil,
Turkey skin,
Salt,
Wheat flour,
Dextrose,
Stabiliser (E450),
Mustard,
Yeast extract,
Antioxidants (E304, E307, E330, E300),
Herb extract,
Spice extract,
Colour (E162).

No, just no.

Yes, conclusion was less than 10% of your daily intake, so about a bag of crisps a day etc. So was helpful, but if I had asked how many portions of fruit and veg I should be serving a day I think I would have had a lot more responses, because a lot more people know off the top of their head.

Really that is what has made me think most adults don't really know and do need to be told that X foods are sometimes or bad foods. I know my DH has a packed lunch for work and if we have the things in the house he will have a bag of crisps and a little chocolate bar and a cupcake as well as his sandwiches etc, when really to be eating everything in moderation he should only be having one, and filling up on the other parts of his lunch.

When we discussed what we thought might be the right amount for our 3yo (before I asked on MN!) his estimate was about the adult allowance. By contrast mine was a bit low.

So while I don't agree with the idea of bad foods, essentially speaking (sometimes foods is much more up my street) the public in general probably does need more education, and education in lots of different forms so that everyone can access and understand it also makes sense.

folkgirl, the voice of reason as usual. I am fairly obsessive about factory farming and cruelty so naturally manage to avoid most of the places that serve rubbishy fatty meat. I can easily down a six pack of cheese and onion walkers lites though.

I like refined sugar almost as much as I like drinking wine and smoking.
I don't really share the "sugar is poison" opinion but each to his own.

YANBU that labelling food in black and white terms such as good and bad is unhelpful in promoting healthy eating.

YABU to directly link this as a cause of eating disorders. Eating disorders are much much more complicated than that and come down to a huge amount more than good foods and bad foods.

I completely agree with FolkGirl.
Unfortunately there are some bad foods around.
I think it's absolutely fine to have things like chocolate, cakes, butter, chips,etc in moderation - but highly processed foods are very harmful and they are BAD.