To be slightly horrified now by what I ate as a kid in the 80s?

[NotWantingToBeRude]

Breakfast was a bowl of either Coco Pops, Frosties or Sugar Puffs. (At least they didn't sell Froot Loops over here I suppose).

Packed lunch in my My Little Pony or Care Bears lunchbox was a sandwich (usually some form of processed meat, occasionally even jam), a pack of crisps, a chocolate bar and a juice box (Ribena or Um Bongo). Never any fruit.

Snack on arriving home from school would be not crisps and chocolate, possibly a Pepperami. Sometimes we’d stop off for pic ‘n’ mix.

Dinner included a full dessert every single night, usually with custard or cream.

Is it just me or would this not be considered so acceptable now?

Have you suffered lasting harm? I don't see why your lunch box is relevant. I doubt if children nowadays are any better nourished on average then they were then. I suspect they're less active. I grew up before that, had similar breakfast cereals and desserts with custard too. I'm still here to tell the tale.

Not sure what your point is op. A lot of kids then and all through the ages had much less to eat never mind fake foods.

“Horrified?”

you were fed. There is a cost of living crisis where people are currently choosing between heat, transport and food.

read the room

Back then any calorie heavy food would have been offset by the freedom children had back then and playing out all day and getting far more exercise than children today.

A minority are, very much a minority so totally not a "read the room" situation.

Some people are having to make difficult choices but by far not everyone so sick of this narrative, yes we all get it we all appreciate some have less than others but why such a harsh opinionated and misinformed post?!

Yes, it doesn’t sound like your parents were educated about food/had the means or ability to provide healthy meals. I have friends who were similar. They don’t blame their parents but they try to be better for their own kids. There’s a lot more knowledge about it, now.

It sounds exactly like my diet only I was faddy and for months only ate boil in the bag fish. That was it. No vegetables on the side. Part of me does occasionally wonder who lets a child decide they will only eat one thing and then let them do that.

I don’t dwell on it really because it did have some health implications but I will never know if they would have happened anyway.

Also, you have to look at where my parents came from..my mum was so poor. One of multiple children she barely had clothes, had to share a bed and very little meaningful education. It’s sort of amazing the different world me and my children inhabit now.

You’re still here. Parents do the best they can. You could compare the diet of the last generation with the comparative reduction of physical activity (generally) in the current world. I don’t know that either outdoes the other.

Oh for goodness sake 🙄

It says “slightly horrified”. Which to me reads as a bit lighthearted, as opposed to ~HORRIFIED~

Of course there are people having an awful time as the moment due to cost of living and I’m sure OP is not insensitive to that. But that’s not really the point of this post. Most people these days would probably not feed their children the same way described by OP, simply because of ways in which society has changed. A lot of schools now have healthy packed lunch policies. Breakfast cereals have changed and now contain less sugar. Nobody is suggesting OP’s parents weren’t doing their best. It was just a different time and it’s interesting to look back on.

Also, I’m sure plenty of children in the 80s did have a healthier diet than OP. And a lot of children nowadays may eat better in school, but not at home, with the rise of UPFs etc. it’s not clean cut.

I grew up in the 80s too. We survived. I'm sure this generation will look back and think similar.

I grew up poor in Singapore in the 1980s - 5 siblings, single working mother - and every meal was homecooked. Lots of carb from rice and bread but also loads of veg, fish and meat was more occasional. Seafood like crab and prawns for special occassions. Cereal would have been a luxury - my mum cooked dosas with fresh coriander chutneys for breakfast! Dessert was a foreign concept and we had plenty of fresh fruit. We only had soda for special occasions a few times a year. I would say that I had a great childhood diet compared to the kids now. Our school canteens sold freshly cooked rice and noodle dishes - it is still the same. We also learned to cook for ourselves and fried rice was the first survival dish most of us learned.
When I first visited the UK in 1989, I was pretty disturbed that toddlers were being fed fish fingers as a meal. Where I come from, toddlers were cooked a rice porridge with veg and meat.

My diet was the same as yours OP in late 80s /early 90s. Think with my parents it was a mix of lack of knowledge plus being very time-poor.

thing is I’m now a healthy 40 year old, eating properly and doing well in life, so it does make me wonder why we worry so much about healthy food for kids? I was active as a kid but not overly so. My kids are active too but I don’t let them have sugary cereals or put chocolate bars in their lunch box (not allowed anyway at SC school).

it does make me panic less when dc refuse to eat anything other than pasta or toast - at least they’re not eating pick n mix, crisps and cake every afternoon, like I was!

Well there was virtually no fresh fruit or veg in there plus an awful lot of refined sugar and empty calories.

Yes, those things have been demonstrated to have negative impacts on long-term health.

Just because families have different budgets surely doesn’t mean that encouraging healthy food choices in children becomes irrelevant and can’t be discussed?

I’m not blaming my parents as virtually everyone I know lived like this then. I would have stood out a mile of I’d shown up at school with organic oatcakes, carrot and celery sticks and houmus. Just as my own DC would stand out now if they showed up with a jam sandwich, a pack of Monster Munch, a Club biscuit and an Um Bongo (wouldn’t that warrant a letter home now?).

Thanks for taking this post in the right spirit.

The fact that there was a breakfast cereal heavily marketed to children back then which actually had sugar in the title does feel slightly shocking to me on reflection now.

I agree OP. I was fed junk. I wouldn’t mind but it wasn’t a lack of awareness, it was laziness. My mum ‘didn’t like cooking’ so opted out of it (!), despite having a childhood of healthy home cooked meals herself. My dad wasn’t around. I have no doubt it will have impacted my health in the long term. I put it to the back of my mind and try not to think about it.

Pretty awful diet. I grew up in the 80s too..No one I know ate like this. Borderline neglect.
Even poor people can provide fruit and veg.

Also I’m afraid I wasn’t a very active child at all. I know earlier generations played out and could disappear off into the country all day Enid Blyton style. But by the 80s I’m afraid it was straight home in the car to flop down in front of CITV and a load of advertising for yet more heavily salted snack treat. For me at least.

We are all products of the times we live in, probably more than we’d like to think.

Oh, and we were poor too. My.mum never fed me that crap. An apple or a cheese and tomato sandwich is cheaper than all that processed rubbish.

Born in 1970 and I didn’t eat any of that stuff then or now. My mum was a war baby and was the most fantastic cook and baker

Nobody notice how many of the 80s generation ended up obese and/or with serious health problems? We are what we eat. And I'm the mother of a picky eighties child who also ate rubbish

Nope, not what I had (much to my irritation and disgust)...

Sandwich - Mighty White bread with Dairylea or Peanut butter or Marmite, occasionally cheese and tomato.
Apple/tangerine/pear
Yoghurt
Carrot sticks or pepper sticks.
Flask with Vimto (hurrah, the original sugar filled kind not the awful sugar free shit).

Sometimes Mother would get fancy and do a little salad or a fruit salad, rarely though. Sometimes it'd be a banana.

Breakfast was rice krispies, cornflakes, muesli or toast (peanut butter or marmite).
Dinner would be cheese omlette and salad or shepherds pie and veg or corned beef hash. Occasionally if she really couldn't be arsed it'd be eggy bread.

Dessert would be fruit or a yoghurt.

Snacks - sugary stuff only happened on long car trips or up a mountain/down a cave, but if we asked at home, then the option would be fruit or some yoghurt (live plain yoghurt, not flavoured/sweetened stuff with bits in).

I did stand out a mile at school, mm!

Poverty is often given as the reason for poor diets but it nearly always isnt the case in my experience.

Yes to the OP. That was pretty much our diet too. Anything that wasn't processed food was deep fat fried (sometimes both!). We are working class. Most people ate the same.

In fact it isn't far off the diet that my family still eat now. My mum genuinely believes that a shop-bought frozen lasgne counts as healthy food.

No poverty at all in my extended family. They are efucated intelligent people with sufficient time and money. They just don't really care about food.

I am not horrified by the 80s diet because everyone ate the same. There wasn't the same awareness as now. I am constantly horrified now by what they eat. I even buy and cook my own food when I go back. Otherwise i put on about a 2 kilos a week.

I was born in the 1970s and my diet was nothing like yours OP! We did have processed foods but never had sugary cereal, chocolate or crisps, let alone every day! My DC eat more treat food that I did (although less processed food).

I love sugar puffs and coco pops still to this day.

In fact this diet sounds exactly like what I ate in the 80s and my children also had lunches like this.