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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think peoples attitude to food is bizarre

124 replies

lastqueenofscotland · 19/08/2015 15:54

It just seems to be on one extreme or the other!
All this "clean eating" which I think limits huge amounts of food groups. No carb/no sugar/no fat fads. Using things that should supplement a healthy diet (shakes/smoothies etc) as meals. Phobias of wheat, people offering dietary advice with no qualifications to do so other than they have found a few of their OWN issues were sorted out by a change. Totally loss if understanding of what healthy is... Colleague today saying she was having a healthy lunch (handful if carrot sticks!). All this guilt around eating various things that are FINE.
It is doing my head in! (Can you tell everyone in my office is dieting?!)

OP posts:
fredfredgeorgesnr · 19/08/2015 17:41

Sorry, YABU, whilst it is insanely annoying that people generate any sort of FAD justification and evangelise their view on what works for them. It's more important that it does work for them, reducing calories works, it doesn't actually matter how you're doing it. You're falling down the same route ("supplement a healthy diet....")

The actual evidence for what is "healthy" or not is very, very limited (few things are definitively unhealthy, generally the body works as long as it gets enough essential nutrients, often only over quite a long term).

So YABU, it works for some, let them be.

ElderlyKoreanLady · 19/08/2015 17:49

Well, I doubt your colleague's other meals of the day were quite that light. It wouldn't be enough for me but she obviously thinks it's ok. Does she need to lose weight?

GarminGirl · 19/08/2015 17:53

Which food groups does clean eating cut out then?

And wheat 'phobias'.... Or do you mean medically recognised intolerances?

Ma77Black · 19/08/2015 17:53

YANBU. I think the increase in the incidence of food allergies, intolerances, related diseases, veganism, etc. is understandable because they're down to either better medical checks or personal ethics. Everything else leads to an unhealthy relationship with food. Also, most of the healthy eating gurus out there are complete charlatans and should be expose for the nonsense they spout.

lndomitabIe · 19/08/2015 17:56

YANBU OP, I'm with you.

Everything in moderation, no guilt, no excess, no imaginary intolerances.

(disclaimer: that is not to say that all intolerances are imaginary, yes, some people do have genuine dietary requirements that must be adhered to but currently, the majority claiming to have them are victims of dodgy marketing and/or trendy diets)

lndomitabIe · 19/08/2015 17:58

Oh and on clean eating: I have no idea what it is but I can only conclude that my eating is dirty as f*ck, but I like it!

stripytees · 19/08/2015 18:06

YABU.
Another health shaming thread?

I've noticed it seems to often be those who eat their (ever increasing) body weight in junk food who are so offended by others eating vegetables.

GarminGirl · 19/08/2015 18:17

currently, the majority claiming to have them are victims of dodgy marketing and/or trendy diets)

Ooh really? Is there a link for this then?

Hiphopopotamus · 19/08/2015 18:31

I think a lot of the time when people find a way of eating that genuinely makes them feel better, it's really hard not to share it. And clean eating - basically cutting out all processed foods is obviously great for you and obviously makes you feel better. Good on them I say!

And I say this as someone who is at this moment eating Pringles dipped in sweet chilli sauce for dinner - so no angel!

GarminGirl · 19/08/2015 18:36

Hold on hippoh so clean eating is cutting out processed food??

Haha! The op said it cuts out whole food groups, I asked which food group... You say processed food .... So it's a food group now?? This is hilarious

lndomitabIe · 19/08/2015 18:40

Not to hand but there are a lot of articles written by health professionals explaining why things like the York Test for intolerances are not valid.

It's accepted that coeliac affects around 1 in 100 in the UK, there may be a similar number of people with legitimate non-coeliac gluten intolerances, and maybe even the same again who think they're intolerant to gluten but in fact are sensitve to high FODMAP foods. What is widely accepted (and backed up with data I can't be bothered to reference now - I feel ill and this is not a peer reviewed journal) is that these valid cases do not represent the 25-30% of the population who label themselves as "gluten intolerant".

But, the OP isn't criticising one or other practice/diet, simply expressing frustration regarding the current ubiquity of unnecessarily restrictive diets and clearly disordered eating which is reinforcing the unhealthy emotional associations with eating.

Rather than subscribing to a particular programme or ideology, most people would be far better off eating a range of foods in moderation. The necessity to brand your diet and exclude groups on spurious grounds (and this is opinion) I think must be quite damaging. I worry, like the OP, for my friends and colleagues who participate in this.

lndomitabIe · 19/08/2015 18:42

Regarding the op classing processed food as a good group, GarminGirl - maybe she didn't word the op properly in her frustration. (It happens)

lndomitabIe · 19/08/2015 18:44

(And have now discovered that I would mainly fall under the category of "clean eating", but haven't felt the need to post hashtagged dinner pictures all over social media. Maybe I'm missing out)

tametempo · 19/08/2015 18:45

Grr, wrote a post but it's not come up. But basically I was echoing what Hiphopopotamus has put.
I've seen people go from obese to fit and healthy with clean eating and a totally new outlook on life and I say good on 'em!

Skala123 · 19/08/2015 18:47

YANBU purely because it is so bloody boring listening to everyone's latest idea of healthy eating. Eat less move more. It really is very very simple and no amount of kale smoothies is going to change that.

WorktoLive · 19/08/2015 18:47

People on here are weirdly obsessed with healthy eating. On the weekly takeaway thread, they can't believe that anyone would have takeaways once a week because that would be sooo unhealthy.

Also balance and protein. All meals must be balanced and contain lots of protein or else they simply couldn't eat it. Do they never have a chip butty?

Mintyy · 19/08/2015 18:49

I quite agree OP.

For myself I wish I had the discipline not to over-indulge in the bread, butter cheese and savoury bits and bobs like peanuts and twiglets that undoubtedly make me fat.

But I would never ban them outright from my diet. Sure I might be able to live without all those for a year and lose a couple of stone, but what about the next 30 years?

Demonising any kind of food (unless its something completely horriffic like no added sugar soft drinks or margarine or fois gras) seems a pointless exercise to me. Few humans have the willpower to never go near them again.

I say all this with a full and clear understanding of what food allergy means and obviously I exclude those from the above.

lndomitabIe · 19/08/2015 18:51

I agree Work - I've always subscribed to the idea that it's not necessarily the meal that needs to be balanced, but the day's worth, or even over a longer timeline.

And, to further clarify, clean eating is to healthy eating as baby led weaning is giving a bit of finger food, or baby wearing is to carrying you child. I.e. Something people have always done that is having a resurgence under a snappy name.

stripytees · 19/08/2015 18:52

Skala if it's so very simple, why is there an obesity crisis in this country?

GarminGirl · 19/08/2015 18:56

Well yes. Obesity and it's resulting illnesses is starting to have an impact

But here on mumsnet it's not popular to remind people of obesity

GarminGirl · 19/08/2015 18:57

Taking the view it's a days worth of food that matters.... The op's colleague eating carrot sticks for lunch would be fine then?

Mintyy · 19/08/2015 18:58

Obesity is a mental health issue. This is why people are sensitive about it.

googoodolly · 19/08/2015 19:00

There's an obesity crisis because people eat too much and don't move enough. People are lazy - drive most places, eat dessert too often, watch too much TV and don't do enough exercise.

I walk a mile to work everyday and have colleagues offer me a lift and tell me it's too far Hmm - it's a mile not a marathon!

lndomitabIe · 19/08/2015 19:02

GarminGirl I know this is AIBU but I feel like you're deliberately being obtuse?

The way I read the OP it seemed that it's not that one person that the OP is complaining about but that colleague is just one example in an office full of people participating (vocally) in a range of questionable dietary practices. Maybe it was the carrot that broke the OP's back?

MagalyMaman · 19/08/2015 19:04

Everything in moderation and walking everywhere doesn't work for me. Well, it 'works' in that I'm very healthy and look well for my age (I think, but who doesn't think that) however I also need to count calories as well making the right food choices etc... in order to be slim.

I don't think people's attitudes are ''bizarre''. I think we (humans) were designed to survive in environments without enough food. We haven't evolved sufficiently yet!