Not to fund teenagers fussy diet.

[confusedalso]

My ds has been following some ex bodybuilder online and now wants to eat cuts of meat, 4 boiled eggs etc in his packed lunch.
He wants only fresh organic fruit and vegetables and has cut out all forms of sugar, gluten, dairy and any junk food or processed food.
He used to take sandwiches which are much cheaper and eat evening meals that the family eats but now he's reading all labels and refusing anything with a sauce or an ingredient he isn't eating at the moment.
AIBU to say I don't want to fund him eating like a king? he's eating so much meat that would have fed the whole family and I've never bought organic options before so the food bill has risen enormously at a time when the cost of living is high enough.
I understand him wanting a healthy lifestyle and that's good but I don't consider the meals I usually cook to be unhealthy but his diet is so restrictive.
He says he feels so much better on this diet but he doesn't have any food allergies it's purely a choice after following this ex bodybuilder on Facebook that advises people what to eat and what not to.
I feel as though his new lifestyle is somehow my problem because I have to change the way I've always shopped/cooked.

I eat plenty of meat. Paul Saladino is a con man FFS!

I’d also agree be wary if it’s a slide into eating disorder territory. You may find he won’t eat rather than eat ‘wrong’ thing.
I’d try and see if you can compromise. Does he have a protein target? Then look at ways to get cheaper protein than eggs, meat.
At 16 he is old enough to work pt. Look for jobs that have perks like free food on shift, supermarket discount card etc.

@Vegetus

I presume you have seen some 'shorts' from Paul Saladino and made your conculsion from there. I'm not a super fan but I know what his core message is - processed seed oils are bad, UPF is bad, and you can be nutritionally optimised by eating beef, eggs, fruit & berries, honey and occasional organ meats. It's pretty basic stuff. It's really just the diet that humans evolved with. Strange how people get so worked up about it.

To all those saying it is unhealthy, it really isn't unhealthy physically at all - how can eating whole foods be bad for you?

Do some research into all the red meat he's eating. It should worry you.

I'm amazed this is still a thing for people

Unprocessed red meat is not bad for you - it is GOOD for you.

Processed meat is bad for you, period.

Lentil soup
Cottage cheese
Hardboiled eggs
Local apples

No fancy meat needed

Definitely some room for compromise. Spaghetti Bolognaise could easily fit into a healthy meal plan (where is the sugar coming from?

^^

Spaghetti = sugar.

The seed oil thing is wrong for a start, he cherry picks studies, lies and was in business with the liver king selling supplements to kids impressed by an obviously enhanced physique which Paul claims not to have known.

I get worked up because he makes money spreading lies and his type of content is fueling a rise in Orthorexia.

Anyone who can say with a straight face plants are trying to kill you is a moron and should be ignored.

If he wants a whole foods high protein diet OP, point him in the direction of the vegan body builders out there and tell you can afford for him to eat those diets, but not the meat based ones. Then start serving copious amounts of cheap beans and lentils. If he's serious about his health he'll thank you for it. If not, as my nan would have said "That'll learn him!" 😂

If he’s not buying school lunch, drinks or takeaways then I’d include that in his budget.
I know when I was dieting my supermarket cost was up but I was zero on takeaway, lunch meal deals and eating out.
If he’s adamant he wants meat & eggs then I’d encourage him to look for pt work in those areas - local butchers has teen serving Saturday staff and my milkman who does the best free range eggs has a Saturday lad.
Yellow stickers were my go to for protein and fruit, is he willing to hunt.

Unprocessed red meat, like most food, is good for you in moderation but not in excess. Some of these body builder types are eating it several times a day (although chicken with every meal seems to be even more the thing).

Be careful with any young person becoming obsessive with 'healthy' eating!My daughter had ED orthorexia and she was very unwell. Google it if not familiar with the name.

Agreed. A friend of mine is like this. She's obsessed with macros (which I assume are like 1980s calories) and she has an App on her phone where everything needs to be scanned and tracked or entered manually before she can eat it.

To say that she is beyond obsessive is an understatement. I do think that Apps like this should be banned. I've seen her more than once seriously depressed by information from this App and to me it seems that she is setting herself up for some serious future mental health problems.

I do think some of the technology today seems so short sighted.

Ate you using ready-made sauces then? If so, why not give ds a new job as family sous-chef in charge of sauces. He can batch-cook them and freeze portions and you'll all have tastier food out of it.

Oh dear.

My mother told an employee who was doing steroids that these cause impotence, which is true. He asked, “Does that mean what I think it means?” He quit promptly. Warn your son off steroids, which may be the next step.

Red meat is not bad for you per se. It is bad for you in the sort of quantities that your son wants to eat it.

There are some real bastards online seeking to get people on their vids to make money. They don't care whether it is good for your son or not as long as he keeps clicking and reading the ads.

All types of food are fine in moderation - it is when it becomes excessive consumption that the problems arise.

It’s the sauce he objects to though. Easy enough to replace white spaghetti with wholewheat, edamame pasta or courgetti

@ItsNotRocketSalad if you can show me any specific research about unprocessed red meat, please do.

The research must be specifically about unprocessed red meat, so can’t say “red meat and processed meat” in the same sentence as if they were the same thing.

Orthorexia is an eating disorder.

Give him a set (small) food budget, and get him help for his disorder.

How is he getting access to the 'wisdom' of this ex bodybuilder?

This kind of thing is precisely the reason why - take note @MNHQ - that so many sensible adults are dismissive (to say the least) about so-called influencers

I feel the same way about bathroom scales and refuse to own one. Too many good people have had their spirits broken by those simple little machines.

On the other hand I've found the food-tracking apps invaluablly helpful in my aim of hitting all my requirements for nourishment. Not only food groups but also vitamins and minerals that I was lacking and could only see that pattern over time by tracking my intake. A lovely side-effect is the excess body fat I was carrying is very slowly disappearing.

Perhaps its more about the person than the available tools?

https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/learn/by-eating-disorder/other/orthorexia

It sounds like he’s already ticking several boxes. Only Op knows how far it’s gone eg will he go for meals out, family Sunday lunch, eat differently on Holiday etc.

Why would I spend my time finding references for you? It's your son damaging himself- you do it.

I'll be honest, I don't really understand why people get very frightened of a diet like this which, while admittedly a bit restrictive, is probably considerably healthy than the standard teen diet of about 80% UPF.