To think others eat like me?

[Lis1992]

Does anyone else have a diet like mine? Yes I’m a fully grown adult and I’m aware it needs to be better. I do eat fruit and veg but Not enough. I ’m really fussy with ‘normal foods’ my lunch daily is cheese and toast. Literally I wouldn’t want anything else. I eat cheese and crackers a lot too. Breakfast is a yogurt maybe some seeds/granola or porridge. Dinner usually chicken and rice or pasta & pesto or something like that. I have crisps and chocolate daily. I could have two bags of crisps easily. Normally just a chocolate bar (or two). On a weekend I might have large bag of chocolate like maltesers or even a large size bar of choc. I also have lots of tea daily. Anyone else eat like me a lot of processed junk? I know I need to make it better.

Are you overweight? Healthy? Unhealthy?

Why are you posting?

I eat crisps and chocolate every day (sometimes 2 of each as well)!

But I also eat lots of fruit, veg and protein!

are you happy with your diet? Do you feel healthy? If it works for you I wouldn’t worry!

People have their own habits. I sometimes realise it's about 4 or 5pm and I haven't eaten a single thing since I woke up that morning. I'm not really a person to snack either. You do need to do better, as should I, but it's more easier said than done isn't it.

I think the contents of most supermarkets, and that two thirds of the population are overweight or obese, are testament to a diet including quite a lot of processed food and junk being typical for many people. Ain’t nobody getting fat on too many carrots.

If you want to change, gradual changes are a good start. Swap out one bag of crisps for e.g. whole grain rice cakes and nut butter, one bar of chocolate for fruit so you still get the sweet kick, and so on. If you eat pasta then blitz more vegetables into the sauce, start adding a handful of peas into your rice and so on.

Your diet doesn’t sound dissimilar to mine. I also get a lot of takeaway. I know it’s not healthy and that I should eat more fresh fruit, veg and home cooked veg but I find meal-planning, shopping for the right ingredients for the right meal and then the effort of cooking overwhelming and so tend to just eat easy foods which I don’t have to think about like pasta or food I can bung in the oven or I’ll default to foods like toast.

I don’t eat bread or cheese unless for a treat because eating them regularly upsets my stomach. When I lived in the UK I had constant heartburn and stomach issues, but since living abroad in Asia (where bread and cheese is not part of the regular diet) those issues have disappeared, so I avoid these things. Still buy bread maybe twice a month and cheese maybe once every 6 months or so as a treat. I don’t eat crisps at all and chocolate again a very occasional treat. For breakfast I drink coffee or have a couple of boiled eggs, walnuts/Brazil nuts for a snack. Lunch will be something like quinoa/rice/pasta and veggies and/or beans/lentils and sometimes meat or fish. Same for dinner. But this isn’t a health decision as such, it’s more that my husband is Indian and he’s the cook so he decides what we eat and it’s usually Indian/Asian. I will say that I feel much better since eating like this - I have so much energy, sleep well, wake easily, etc. I’d recommend trying to make some changes if only to make yourself feel a bit better (assuming you want to? Perhaps you feel fine? I just assumed maybe you don’t feel entirely great since you are posting this?). Do you exercise a lot? Because I know some people who eat similarly but exercise a lot and they feel great. So maybe it’s down to the individual!

I envy you. If I ate like that I'd be the size of a house.

I have the other (unlucky) type of metabolism, where i gain weight if I eat more than 1400 calories a day.

My typical diet is:

Porridge (with water - i.e. gruel) with a few berries

Black coffee

Fish or chicken salad

2 egg omelet and veg.

Do you feel well? How old are you?

Your asking a weight/food question on mnet.you will hate yourself by the end of the thread and possibly be triggered into disordered eating op.
You'll be told your an unhealthy fat pig.
You eat shit
Chocolate how dare you you needs to stop
Everything will be bad unless it "healthy" by some arbitory standards.
You will be told totally false food beliefs.
Mumsnet is a fatphobic,disordered food rules eutopia. Run now if you want to not be made to feel shit.
Good luck.

Forget what your eating specifically it’s the limited types of food. My MIL eats very healthily but it’s very limited. She eats veg, fruit, meat and eggs, nothing really processed passes her lips. So it’s obviously healthy but it’s all very controlled and is linked to the state of her MH.

Hello, fatty liver disease. Not to mention, welcome, type 2 diabetes. Your diet is ridiculous and will cost you in the future, if not now. It is not that unusual, though, hence record numbers of people with diabetes, prediabetes, and non-alcoholic fatty liver.

Since you asked, no I don't eat like that. I eat lots of unprocessed grains, lean meat, dairy, fruit & vegetables. I might have a couple of squares of chocolate a day, but would never eat a whole packet of crisps (let alone two a day!). Not sure what the point of your post is, but if you're interested, I think you could (and should) eat more healthily.

What a pointless thread. There's nothing special or interesting about your diet. It sounds like you're proud of eating like a five year old. Good for you, I guess?

I suspect the majority of the population eats like you.

Honestly, you could make your diet far healthier just with a few tweaks. Breakfast- add some fruit to your yoghurt or porridge. Lunch- cheese on toast is fine, with good quality wholegrain bread and decent cheese, add grilled tomatoes? Add more veg to your dinner or a big mixed salad. Brown rice not white. Cut out the daily chocolate and crisps and make them once a week instead.

I'm sure there are tonnes of people who eat like you, but it's also the case that we are an overweight nation (and one where overweight is so normalised a healthy weight is often seen as skinny!), and there are also tonnes of people with type 2 diabetes and other issues made much more likely through unhealthy diets.

That said, why are you asking? If you were the only one vs you were one of thousands, what matters is how you're feeling in yourself surely?

I understand where you're coming from. One of my sons, and I, eat very similarly. I also have other children who do not eat this way.

Our diets are very restricted and make it hard to live a normal life. I am always thinking about how I can avoid social eating so as not to face the usual judgement or accusation of attention seeking, when that couldn't be further from the truth. It is a daily anxiety.

We find anything other than bland food, overwhelming, though try to stick with the healthier foods within our limited tolerances. Mostly fresh meat, potato, carrots and broccoli, home made pies and sauces. We eat a lot of bread products and dairy. Neither of us are overweight, in fact we are very slim, however I do worry about the impact on our long term health. We wouldn't be this way by choice, it is a pathological condition and in my long experience, most people cannot comprehend this. In different circumstances, we wouldn't have survived.

My son has an ASD diagnosis and I am undiagnosed, but I think it likely I also have an ASD. Do you think this is a possibility for you?

God no. I'm no paragon of healthy eating and am a bit overweight, but I eat 3 proper meals a day, every day. Much as I love chocolate and find it very hard to resist if it's in the house, I would never ever eat a bunch of chocolate instead of a meal. Same for the rest of my family. My teenagers eat most things now, but still have quite a few foods they don't like. Dh and I enjoy cooking, have broad tastes and will eat almost anything.

I have lots of sympathy with people who have a restricted diet though. There's always a reason for it, whether health-related or due to upbringing or neurodivergence. Nobody would just choose to eat like that for fun!

Well, I don’t eat like you. Do you exercise? Are you overweight? Unwell? Lazy? Why did you post?

Well, I’ve had the wake up call from my GP that she’s worried about my blood sugar in relation to the possibility of developing type 2 diabetes, which has given me the kick up the arse I desperately needed to sort out my food habits. If that’s what you mean by telling the OP false food beliefs, you crack on in your delusions.

I didn’t think it would ever happen to me, either.

I think it sounds basically fine. Porridge, granola, yoghurt for breakfast. Cheese and bread for lunch. Chicken and rice for dinner. I’m assuming there’s some veg alongside. Plus a couple of snacks, crisps, chocolate. Just add some more fruit and replace some of the snacks with healthier ones if you want. I don’t know your portion sizes, but that wouldn’t be enough food for me, and my BMI is 19. I have chocolate every day too.

I ate like that till I was 30. Up to that point, I could eat what I wanted with no obvious consequences.

Then the pot belly appeared. So now my diet is much more balanced, though I will never lose my love of crisps.

OP I was under the care of a dietician for a while and learned alot through him about the ideal diet. Basically for dinner you want 1/3 of your plate carbs, 1/3 protein and 1/3 veg. You should also have fat too. Ideally most of your carbs should be complex carbs with fibre included (wholemeal stuff, oats etc) but simple carbs are still part of an ideal diet. One small desert a day is ideal. You should get 2 portions of dairy a day (milk, yoghurt etc.). Ideally your diet should include alot of variety in order to get enough micronutrients. In terms of quantity you should be able to moderate via appetite - sometimes you need more or less.

Alot of people (especially those who post on MN threads) are fairly disordered and not particularly educated on diet. They tend to exaggerate how important an indicator weight is to health and also imagine that being at a lower weight is healthier (If you're naturally curvier and pear shaped you may be much healthier as a size 14 than a size 8). Unless you have been advised by a doctor you shouldn't cut out any food group - especially carbs. Most of your energy should come from carbs which are important for brain function.

Most people's food issues are actually emotional and tied up with anxiety - either specific food anxiety or using food as a way to manage external stress or low self-worth. Food shouldn't dominate your life. It should be both a source of fuel and also an enjoyable part of your day. If these issues become overwhelming it's worth looking into getting help through a dietician or therapist who specialises in food issues. If this isn't possible/necessary you could simply try meal planning and expanding your repetoire of foods slowly. Look into intuitive eating. Pursue mindfulness or ACT techniques. Don't look at it in a black and white way. You don't have to have a nutritionally perfect diet just aim to make gradual, sustainable improvements.

Your asking a weight/food question on mnet.you will hate yourself by the end of the thread and possibly be triggered into disordered eating op. You'll be told your an unhealthy fat pig. You eat shit.

What over-dramatic bollocks! On MN there are no doubt some people with disordered views about food, both at the under-eating and over-eating ends of the spectrum, just as there are in real life, but most people fall somewhere in the middle. To suggest that all of MN is 'fatphobic' is absurd. I have never seen anyone call anyone an 'unhealthy fat pig' or tell them they 'eat shit'. If anything, when someone posts about wanting to lose weight, they are often encouraged not to use such negative and horrible words about themselves.

Of course there is a lot of agonising about weight loss on here, because it's a topic a lot of people worry about and find it really hard to do anything about. If people ask for opinions or advice about their diet, replying (politely) is not 'fatphobic'.

This. Why eat in a way that will make you ill. It makes no sense.

You should get 2 portions of dairy a day (milk, yoghurt etc.).

There’s no “should” about dairy. It shouldn’t be consumed at all.

Why don’t you squeeze on orange every day. That would give a small refreshing drink to take before your lunch. Slice up and core an apple hand have a couple of bits with each meal. Then some broccoli/ cabbage/ kale with your main meal -done!