To not carry about endless snacks and things for my DC?

[AwfulMaureen]

I seem to be seeing an awful lot of parents with snacks in bags....I remember that I did do that a bit when the children were tiny...as in under 3...and their meal times weren't always regular. But now they are 9 and 6 I don't...however I see that the parents of their friends have things in their bags all the time....bags of cheese or chocolate bars...cartons of juice etc. This is not for long gaps between meals whilst waiting for swimming lessons or anything...it's constantly!

Walking about town with a friend and her bag is full of bloody food! Her son is NINE...surely he can wait a couple of hours?

Okay, sorry I assumed your grazing comment was in relation to my post saying that I grazed myself in evenings as standard. Apologies.

If I get hungry the signs are "ummm, I feel hungry" within 5 mins or so I start to feel faint. If I've not eaten within 45-60 minutes I will start retching or vomiting. A couple of hours is not possible. I notice with DS, he gets very bad tempered around 11, starts tantrumming for the smallest thing, refuses to walk any more and if I insist will start hitting/spitting/lying on the ground etc.

Leech - sounds to me like you are eating way too many carbs. Unless you have a medical condition? Anyone can go for longer than 2 hours without food. But if your DS is getting bad tempered at around 11, this is a classic time when blood sugar has dropped, because of high carb intake at breakfast.

I'm guessing that your DC are given cereal, wholemeal toast, and fruit juice (or something along those lines) at breakfast, because they are said to be healthy foods?

Thoughts Are your meal portions small? It's interesting to ponder...what sort of snacks do you eat that allow you to be a size 6?

I carry a snack in my bag for myself- generally fruit, or a cereal bar. I can become awfully bad tempered if I'm hungry at times. I use it about twice a month. Generally if I'm delayed on the way home from work.
For kids I always have a snack and plenty to drink (medical condition re fluids and a salty/dry snack if he is refusing to drink). Rarely do they eat between meals, but I like to be prepared bag can cater for all incase of the apocalypse

My DS has a 'snack plate' for supper.

I didn't say I couldn't go longer than two hours without food, I said those are the signs when I start to feel hungry (4or5 hours after a meal). DC rarely have fruit juice for breakfast, either milk or hot chocolate. To eat they have banana (occasionally other fruit) on porridge or cereal (weetabix or kids muesli type) or with toast (white toast because brown toast is revolting) or eggs and bread or toasted bread left over from the previous day (half white or dark). Am I doing the whole breakfast thing wrong then?

BIWI says it all, perfectly in her post of 22.03.

As a nation we have never eaten so many carbs, god they truly fucked up when they told us to cut natural fats and protein and fill up on "healthy whole grains".

Sugar (by which I mean all carbohydrate) consumption has shot through the roof in the past few decades, humans are not "designed" to eat this way. It is making us fat and sick and hungry.

Look round a supermarket with critical eyes and you will see about 80% of the food isn't food at all in any real sense of the word. Whole isles of extruded carbohydrate "product", cereals and biscuits of no nutritional value. Fridges full of fake dairy products (fake butter, fake cream, fake yogurt). Start reading the ingredients and look at how much sugar there is in all these "fat free" concoctions! No wonder we are pretty much all on the road to diabetes and other metabolic diseases... Most of these "foods" did not even exist 50 years ago.

Pp should note that migraines and headaches, being irritable when hungry are symptoms of metabolic disorder. Too much carb causing spikes and crashes in blood sugar, causing hunger, it's a vicious cycle.

Cut the carbs, increase protein and fat and blood sugar will stabilise which will reduce snacking.

Today's healthy eating guidelines are a sick joke - but it's no joke they are making us sick. B

*steps off soapbox and puts on flame proof coat.

Awful I don't think our portions are small.

If we look at things that are easy to size, such as eggs for example, I would eat 2 boiled eggs and 2 slices of toast for lunch say, DD2 (7 years) the same, but DD1 (8) and DS (2) would only want 1 egg and 1 slice of toast.

For dinner, we might have salmon, adult portion for me, 3DC about half an adult portion, or more if they wanted or I'd eat the other half, often with roasted potatoes and carrots and mayo. I'd do 2 large baking potatoes cut into wedges, and probably about 5 large carrots cut into large strips.

For snacks usually bananas, cereal bars and chocolate/biscuits (just for me)! The children also have raisins and fruit bars.

Leech, you are prob like me and 5-10% of people who are hypoglycaemic.

With most people, if you fast the blood sugar stabilises at a low level. Others ( like me, and maybe you) the blood sugar keeps dropping lower and lower causing you to feel unwell ( DS and I go dizzy, hot, shaky and retch). If can be remedied by eating a cracker, and is NOT a medical condition or sickness.

Low carb is bad idea.

Slow release carb ( wholegrain, oats) are great to keep blood sugars stable .

Sorry for hijack!

Leech I don't think you're doing breakfast wrong...we have porridge and fruit some days (not toast too) but I reckon they need more protein so eggs might be a good thing...saying that, they can't have eggs EVERY morning and mine are vegetarian (their choice, I'm not) and they can't have bacon or ham or anything...they won't eat beans...cheese could work...but for breakfast?

I stick to porridge and some days offer them scrambled eggs and toast.

Fiscal yes this is me too.

Thoughts see I think that two boiled eggs and toast for lunch is not enough.....and I'd be eating snacks too if that's what I ate.

For lunch I have rice, tuna and salad...which fills me up a lot...eggs don't seem to do it for me.

I get irritable shaky feinty and feel sick when I'm hungry to leech

Thought I was the only one,

But you just suggested eggs for breakfast to Leech.

I probably couldn't eat or rather wouldn't want to eat more than 2 boiled eggs and 2 slices of toast in one go. I am then just comfortably full, not stuffed which I think I would feel if I ate much more, but yes a few hours later feel I hungry again.

The eggs were just an example, I do eat other things.

thoughts no...I never suggested them...I said that some people say you should have protein...and that I offered scrambled to my children with toast for breakfast...sometimes...once a week tops...as I don't think it's healthy to have them daily. If I scramble them I think we're eating more than two apiece anyway! For lunch I need more than 2 eggs! Not sure if that's why I don't snack or not....

What is it with mn tonight?

Fiscal, I can assure you, excessive carb consumption is what is causing the hypoglycaemia, what happens is high carb consumption causes the body to ratchet up production of insulin, you start to produce a lot of it to deal with all the sugar, but this can overshoot, dropping the blood sugar too low and causing the symptoms, making you reach for the carbs again to raise blood sugar.
This is the start of metabolic syndrome (eventually over time it can develop in to diabetes and other conditions).

Low carb is not a bad idea, it's a fantastic idea as it will reverse the situation. However, it may make you feel very unwell for a few days (carb flu) if you feel that bad when hypo (Before I went low carb, I was like that, I could actually throw up and feel so shaky I thought I would pass out on a regular basis. I NEVER feel like that now even if I fast, I just feel hungry, not ill!). Cutting carbs gradually over a couple of weeks might be better than going cold turkey, it will let insulin production fall more gradually.

but I reckon they need more protein so eggs might be a good thing really this wasn't a suggestion?

Oh yes I probably have about 5 eggs scrambled.

But actually does it matter if you eat a bigger meal and don't snack, or a smaller meal and do snack? But 2 eggs is actually probably considered the correct portion for an adult.

Some people say that it is better for you to have more smaller healthier meals and snacks throughout the day, than 3 big meals.

You asked what I snacked on to remain a size 6, implying that snacking was not conducive to being slim. Are you slim with as you say your much larger meals but no snacking system?

Not a suggestion....a ponder.

Yes...I am a size 10...

I also think.that many people are giving unhealthy snacks in addition to large meals.

It was written as a suggestion.

I have a small Ziploc bag with tiny boxes of raisins and organic lollipops in my purse. My kids are 15, 12, and 3, and I have probably had the same bag in there for six months, untouched. I just like to have something in case we get stuck somewhere unexpectedly or who knows what. It's the same reason I keep bandaids - I don't HAVE to keep them in there, but if I ever need them, I have them.

Thoughts no it wasn't. You read it as one.

Steff I don't think that's the same as packing up actual food on a daily basis.