Do you have "junk" food in your house on a regular basis?

[Ilfurfante]

Just had a debate with my teen DC who argue that we don't have enough variety of food in our house. When asked what they mean, they actually are just referring to what I perceive to be junk food - so crisps, biscuits, chocolate and sugary cereal.

I try to provide a healthy balanced diet but I don't buy these types of foods as routine because actually they just eat them and leave the stuff which is healthy. For instance, they have a choice of porridge, Weetabix or unsweetened muesli for breakfast or they can have eggs, toast, greek yoghurt, fruit etc (in fact the 12 year old made waffles from scratch and had them with blueberries and maple Syrup this morning). If I bought the sugary cereal, they would eat that - they would never choose any of the above options over that so I don't buy it.

I have just made a delicious home cooked lunch (lamb kofta kebabs, bean and tomato salad, homemade focaccia, green salad and tzastiki) which was full of flavour. They all enjoyed it and ate it but they just don't perceive that this as something of value.

We do have what I would consider "treats" but just not as a matter of course (fizzy drinks if it's a special meal, crisps with lunch sometimes, Greggs etc). I don't want them to think these are part of a normal diet on a daily basis. They think I am totally unreasonable.

Am I?

We're similar to you OP. We don't have junk food around the house routinely anymore (we used to). DC used to grumble a bit but actually, they are good at knocking up more filling and nutritious snacks now (something more protein heavy). I will occasionally buy hobnobs /ice cream or something if they get put on the shop list - so they are not 'banned'. But this isnt routine now. DC will also spend their own money on additional treats if they want them -fizzy drinks for example, which is one thing I just don't buy.

I don't know - there are a lot of overweight 80s children with diabetes, IBS, heart disease etc 😕

There are always a lot of people with health conditions in middle age, from any decade. It’s what aging is all about!

I always had them in the house and it was up to the kids, once they were teens, to self regulate. Once the treats were done they were done.

And god help them if they ate my stash of galaxy.

Totally agree with you and I do this too. Mine are a bit older than yours and they don't complain and don't tend to buy junk snacks themselves. I do bake snacks for them like cake bars or flapjacks. I keep a load in the freezer so they always have something sweet if they want it. But it's not processed food.
Educate them on UPFs and how harmful they are, and explain you wouldn't give them food that harms them. Junk snacks aren't a treat IMO

During the summer holidays I do tend to have more treats in than usual. The kids are by no means allowed to help themselves but they know where the crips and chocolate is kept and it's not out of reach. There's something about the summer that I just like it to be carefree and fun before they go back to serious school days. I like the running in and out of the house, going to bed at late hours, sleeping in, having maybe a bit more chocolate than they should or the odd meal that isn't completely balanced or eaten at a table etc.

Once they go back in September, there wont be as many treats and everything will be to a strict routine. Meals will be healthy and sensible so they can focus well at school betimes will be strict etc, so there's sensible healthy snacks in and not so many chocolates and crisps

My children are grown up but we always had a cupboard full of chocolate, cake, biscuits and crisps. If they wanted something they just took it but I don't remember any of them eating huge amounts of it. Maybe a chocolate bar a day. All grown up and eat well, all very slim and active.

I have an age range of 26 to 8 years old and it’s so sad to me that some of your kids have to ask for permission to take food In their own home do they have to ask to use the bathroom too ?

It's not really a matter of reasonable or unreasonable diet.

By your own admission you've managed to place yourself at war with your offspring, and having us "endorse your virtue" won't change that.

according to my teens we only have ingredients in house. not actually food. whine whine.

very rarely, tbh for occassions only we buy actual snacks/junk. but not for every day.
eggs, toast, pickled veg make great sandwich maker food.

I compromise with my ds17 who is endlessly hungry. I cook all meals from scratch except his Friday night pizza & garlic bread.

I buy some biscuits & crisps for him to eat. Once the week's supply has gone, I don't buy more.There is an endless supply of eggs, cheese, salad, bread and fruit instead.

I don't buy fizzy drinks ever. Thankfully he hates the feel of carbonic acid on his tongue so only drinks water.

I actually disagree with this. I think a lot of the time if children grow up in a home where there are always crisps, biscuits, etc then this becomes the normal for them and they thunk a normal diet is full of UPFs.

My DC was not denied those foods - we just didn’t have them at home - and has grown up to be an older teen who has a really healthy diet.

I don’t buy ‘junk’ food often. But I do usually make something sweet each week. Scones one week, tray bake or cookies another.
So once a week we have something treaty. Often I do just before we have people visit so it’s shared also.

But I haven’t teenagers yet.

You did indeed deny your DC these foods, by not having them at home. Their own food gathering resources would have been very limited.

That may well have been a wise decision, but why lie?

When deceit is so obvious, the story as a whole does not ring true.

I think you are totally reasonable and junk food, which used to be socially considered as a treat is now the staple of many cupboards. I’m with you though.

We never (honestly never) have: fizzy juice, crisps, sweets or choc other than if DC have had party bags/halloween etc in which case I keep it out of their reach and ration it out at other times.

We do have treats though but they’ll be made made desserts eg crumble, flapjacks, cakes etc. I think this is important as DC (primary ages) can now make most of these basic treats and see UPFs as party type treats rather than daily occurrences.

I think these generalised assumptions are quite insulting, like people don’t find their own way in life. Part of growing to is deciding how you want to live. Of course the way you are brought up influences you, but that can be to stay the same, rebel or somewhere in the middle.

life is long, food fads change regularly, it’s really not simple.

Crap like crisps, UPFs and chocolate all the time isn’t part of a normal healthy diet. We don’t have that stuff in our house and we generally don’t eat it.

We’ll make homemade cakes etc. sometimes, generally without refined sugars.

I agree with you OP. We do technically have chocolate in the house, but it's in a sideboard and for the occasional treat. We only buy biscuits when on holiday. We have some ice cream at the weekends.

I have a full snack cupboard my 14 year old can have whatever she likes. She has friends who come over and they're not allowed snacks or only fruit and they go mad.

My daughter has a better relationship with food than I do. I wasn't allowed anything so when I started getting money for lunch in secondary school I ate all the crap I could and I was overweight. I have had an unhealthy relationship with food all my adult life and I swing between binge eating and starving myself and feeling self loathing because I ate something considered a 'treat'.

No. Nowadays I only by things like that when I'm specifically going to consume them and I try to buy portions just for what's needed.

I have some 85% chocolate at the moment, but nothing else.

I generally only buy crisps if I buy wine, which I'm into my 2nd week of being off of until Christmas.

Although I might see if I can work in the odd glass of red. I normally drink fizzy moscato 😬 the only red I've ever had is tinto de verano.

I will buy junky quick food if having a drink though because I know I won't want to cook/will want to eat shite.

Ahhhh, 💡 What I should doooo is pre cook a curry and replicate a takeaway!

I try and limit crisps to once a week, but during the school holidays I buy crisps, fizzy drinks and sugary cereal. When they go back to school they will go back to crisps once a week, the odd fizzy drink at weekends and boring cereal.

we have made cake and biscuits and frozen them, if they want one they get it out and have it once defrosted. We do buy iced gems or nature valley bars, but they often sit in the cupboard.

I also buy super noodles and pot noodles in the summer, they have those for lunch a few times a week.

lunch tends to be toasties with cucumber and grapes, dinners are made from scratch and they happily drink water or milk.

im sure we could do better, but it’s fine.

I completely agree with you OP... healthy choices at home, anything goes when out and about/having meals etc.

We went through a phase of having lots of lollys in the freezer for DC to help themselves to. They were eaten very quickly and then demanded again for weeks. They weren't a treat any more but an ordinary food. They are so sugary. So we stopped buying then to have in the house. There were protests but I said you can pop to the shop, a 5 min walk, and get one (for a much higher price admittedly) but they mostly don't.
I don't restrict my children's food. I just try to create good habits by not having junk food in the house.

That said we do buy a multipack of crisps and a few packs of biscuits and the rules is that when they're gone they're gone.... no top up shops for junk.

I was always a believer of not restricting any food to them. We had a large deep drawer full of chocolate stuff and crisps. Because it was there all of the time, they would very rarely eat anything from it, my eldest especially, he disliked sweet stuff from a toddler.
Now days in their 30s and nearly 40, their diet is amazingly 'strict' one trains daily and has a diet mainly of meat and green veg, the other one lives mainly on beans , tofu and veg.

It sounds a bit overly restricted to me, I'd buy a small amount each week and once it's gone it's gone. They are choosing the 'unhealthy' options because currently they are a big treat. It's better that they learn to make the choice for themselves as they grow a little older, rather than you doing that for them. If they were much younger it would be different.

I have normal plain shreddies for breakfast in the morning with a little sprinkle of sugar, they're acceptable in my book as they're full of fibre, but taste a little sweeter.