To feel down about food this weekend

[Megapops]

The heatwave seems to have brought with it tons of sugary/fatty food adverts everywhere, and everyone talking about BBQs and all the delicious food and booze they're going to be having this weekend. I feel really overwhelmed and bombarded by it (I don't even have social media or anything.)

I'm not overweight (BMI 21) but have a high risk of getting diabetes (rife in my family) so I eat very plain foods, no sugar, no booze. I also put on weight incredibly easily. It's a real burden for me as I love food.

Just been to the supermarket and everyone is piling up their trollies with ice cream, cream cakes, crisps, sweets, fizzy drinks. How comes everyone else can stuff their faces with sugar and fat with no consequences? Makes me sad.

I sometimes eat crap but mostly eat well. I also exercise.

I noticed today that everyone was staggering around carrying multipacks of beer, but that's just the heatwave (and I'm not drinking today). I don't think it means literally everyone is a raging alcoholic all the time and I'm the only one who isn't!

Hey OP I have a health condition that I manage by the way I eat and have had great results with a high fat, no processed food diet and I also don’t eat potatoes, white bread or white pasta. I have to eat like this for life.
Something that works well for me is the knowledge that I have a choice. I could choose to eat those things any time I like. But I am choosing to take care of myself and look after myself. I see eating well and exercising as a treat to myself not a deprivation. If I ever do eat a doughnut or chips, even if I enjoy it at the time, it’s never worth how shit I feel as it digests. For as long as you look wistfully at food, telling yourself you are ‘depriving’ or ‘punishing’ yourself, you will continue to feel this way.

This honestly sounds like you have anxiety issues with food. If you love food, go and eat some of what you fancy and then tomorrow go back to plain food!

Life is too short to spend it in utter misery, trying to avoid something that might happen not ever happen. A few treats at the weekend isn't going to make you ill.

I get it. I can’t have any of those things because of my reflux (which is bad enough to have caused health issues). And if I do, I mostly just either vomit them straight up, or it triggers an asthma attack. I miss cheese! And chips, and ice cream 😞

You don't have diabetes, just a family history? You can still eat treats. You can eat interesting healthy food.

If your diet is so plain and miserable that you're getting upset at adverts and other people's shopping baskets, you sound at risk of an eating disorder. You can be healthy without being obsessive. Having an ice cream or piece of cake or meal with sauce on will not give you diabetes.

This exactly how I am actually. I always feel dreadful (physically) after I eat a cake or something so I just don't.

This.

You don't have diabetes. Minding your weight is sensible if you have a history of type 2 in your family, avoiding foods is not.

You can mind your weight without deprivation. Eat what delights you, when you are hungry, in a sensible amount.

Sorry OP but sounds like you want a self pity party. I'm at t1 diabetic and have to inject insulin everytime I eat carbs but still manage not to eat a plain diet without treats, it's all about moderation.

If you are going to get diabetes because of your genetics, you'll get it regardless of whether you have a burger once a month. No need to deprive yourself, just be sensible. And you can't be that prone to weight gain else you wouldn't be a BMI of 21, the odd treat occasionally isn't going to make you morbidly obese.

Plenty of diabetics arent perfect 100% of the time, just be sensible and low carb most of the time.

I understand why you may want to avoid sugar but why do you have to eat plain foods? Herbs and spices are fine aren't they?

And a trick I've been taught is if you do want a little treat, eat it behind or with protein or fat as it won't spike your blood sugar as much. Not talking bags of sweets obviously but a small ice cream I find I can get away with (just don't do it all the time)

OP, have you been told by a health professional that you will develop T2 diabetes unless you never, ever eat any unhealthy/sweet foods?

It sound to me as if you have misunderstood sensible advice to maintain a healthy body weight by making sure your diet contains mostly healthy foods, and limiting portion sizes, and you have adopted a very simplistic, fear-based approach to eating. An ice cream once a week won’t give you diabetes. Neither will a beer and a burger at a barbecue. Just don’t eat burgers and ice cream for every meal and you’ll be fine.

Well, on the one hand, one blow out won't give you diabetes or make you fat. On the other hand, 30+% of Britain's population is obese, so they don't forget on food and get away with it. They gorge and get fat and, often, diabetes.

No, I'm not overweight now, but that's the point. I have to work so hard to maintain my weight with diet and exercise every day. Both my parents are in their 60s, obese, do no phsyical activity, and have serious health issues along with their diabetes. They won't change. My mum's parents were the same. I'm not ending up like that.

Yes, there are plenty of elderly, overweight people about.

Both my granddads were clinically obese and lived until their nineties. IL's are in their seventies and both significantly overweight.

But if your parents are obese then their diabetes is linked to that isn’t it? So if you eat sensibly then you’re unlikely to suffer from the same conditions they will. But eating sensibly doesn’t mean extremely restrictive diets that drive you to miserable resentment over other people having an ice cream.

Don't unferstand ehy people would want to stuff their faces in this weather. Surely you'd feel more like salad and lots of cold drinks. Of course ice lollies but as you say they're mostly sugar. Once you cut out sugar when you try to eat it again then its too sweet. If you're really strict its possible to reverse this(know this for sure). Eventually you'll feel so much better you won't want to go back. Not all thin people are healthy. Not all people who eat shit are happy.

You won't end up that way just because you've had the odd BBQ or sweet treat, though.

I think you have some severe anxieties around food.

Honestly it’s not all or nothing
I’m pre diabetic after suffering with GD in pregnancy
this over the last few days to a week ish (to give the spectrum)
I’ve eaten
Breakfasts:
scrambled eggs with either homemade baked beans, toast with butter, or grilled bacon medalions
porridge made with water and a splash of oat milk and a dollop of peanut butter
boiled eggs

coffee with oat milk

lunch:
salad with chorizo and halloumi
lasagne using low carb sheets and a homemade bolognese with low carb garlic bread
a wrap
tuna jacket potato

supper
spag bol
chicken burgers with sandwich thin instead of roll
salads
fajitas
stone baked pizza (M&S low cal one)

snacks
ice cream on Tuesday some French cake a colleague bought in on Friday

I’m not deprived
I work shifts so often have a snack after supper if I’m working until midnight for example or at 3 am if on a night eg cereal veg and hoummus nuts etc.

you can eat what you’d like my BMI is 29.2 I’m 11.5 stone and gained a lot of weight due to complications and medication postnatally (I was 9.5 stone when I gave birth and always sat at 9-9.5 before that)
im losing weight eating this way

You don't have to deprive yourself completely. Moderation really is the key when it comes to sugary treats. Buy a cream bun, halve the cream bun. Buy crisps, take a small handful. Buy a bar of chocolate, eat a few squares with a cuppa. Sure, it's not as fun as stuffing your face with it all at once, but you don't have to go without ever having that stuff. BBQ are fine too. It's just meat. A tablespoon of relish on your burger isn't going to do anything.

There are healthy alternatives to everything you have mentioned but you are just choosing to make your own life miserable

In this weather I’d much rather eat healthily- loads of lovely salads, home made pasta sauce, omelettes, fish & veggies etc. I love the odd ice cream etc but I think summer lends itself more to healthy/light food.

Del Monte orange ice lollies have no added sugar. You’re welcome.

Theres 15g of sugars in a del monte orange lolly. I would not, that would require far too much insulin (though... I am a T2 insulin dependent, insulin resistant awkward git..). But 'no added sugar' does not mean the product is LOW in sugar. This one has quite a bit considering what it actually is... they just didn't add MORE.

Wtf has it got to do with you what everyone else is eating?

Sorry to be critical but orange juice (and frozen orange juice, which is a Del Monte lolly) is full of sugar... This is why we have a diabetes/obesity problem. People don't seem to understand the basics of nutrition and food labels. It's not fair though, they're quite misleading.