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?

Isn’t this what pocket money is for?

I try to cook decent meals but rushing round with work all the time doesnt make it possible. Id say half the week at least he eats something like chicken goujons from the freezer with pasta/rice/waffles etc. We do have a snack cupboard too.
The other day i brought my 13 year old some iced finger buns when I went shopping, I took them up to him in his room thinking he would have one or two. Went back up later and he'd eaten the whole packet!!

Love how a big long list of breakfast choices, akin to what you would find in a hotel or b+b for breakfast on a menu is 'restriction'

Only here would someone make such a laughable comment.

I believe in everything in moderation and whilst I generally prefer savoury food, I love (and would miss) something sugary in the morning.
I also think the odd packet of crisps is fine ( they’re so small nowadays) that it’s not an issue.
Your meals sound DELICIOUS though!! And homemade focaccia especially

We do, we don’t see certain foods as treats or forbidden, our range is more limited due to allergies etc, but we don’t ban any type of food.

Wow, they would absolutely hate my house. I don't have grains, carbohydrates of any kind including potatoes, seed oils, processed food of any sort including chocolate, cereals, porridge, anything at all.

There are NO convenience foods in my house. Oh, that's not true 100%. I do have a bag of ice I bought and did not create and freeze myself.

The only exception is the last few weeks I've been on a VLCD via New You Plan, which I do NOT consider healthy or long term, so exiting that in just over 3 weeks from now. Temporary route to a particular goal.

Show them this post and maybe they will consider themselves lucky! But, they are already lucky because it sounds like you are looking after them!

Do you live alone? What do you eat?

Hi, no I don't live alone and I eat meat, eggs, fish, non starchy vegetables and fats like butter, olive oil, tallow, coconut oil, avocado, avocado oil etc.

I make desserts using coconut flour, almond flour, cocoa powder. I make my own butter, ketchup (which I rarely eat) mayo and peanut butter etc.

Unless I cook from scratch, we only have ingredients!

So a keto diet then?

Not necessarily keto. Keto would want to be less than 20g carbs a day and my carb intake is regularly 50-70g so I would say, possibly low carb, but more clean eating, I guess?

For example, there are 'keto' bars and cereals you can buy but I wouldn't buy them because they are still processed foods.

But you wouldn't buy potatoes? I thought they'd be considered ok if you are clean eating?

We actually don’t.

I’m on Mounjaro and DH isn’t a bit junk lover, so we just don’t buy it.

Children are none the wiser!

I don't like them. I buy parsnips, sweet potatoes etc instead.

I agree with this, I’m in my 30s now and have 2 children and we have a chocolate drawer at home. It was the same when we grew up and I don’t consider it the forbidden fruit, can quite easily regulate what sweets to eat etc! Who knows if it wasn’t in the house what I would be like now!

my parents didn’t have a sweet chocolate drawer and I don’t have a sweet tooth.

I always have snacks and treat foods but try to make them good quality

No not really unless it's for something specific, but I don't really have a sweet tooth so it wouldn't even occur to me to go down those aisles in the supermarket. When I shop I usually just buy the ingredients for meals and plenty of fresh fruit for snacking, along with things like bread, eggs, yoghurt, cheese. Real food basically!

My daughter is only 4 so she hasn't really started asking for much, apart from ice cream if we are out which I always say yes to.

I haven't thought much about how we will handle her wanting more junk food when she's older, but we've just been away for the week with some friends who are 'don't restrict anything, let them learn self regulation' people and I found it WILD. They (adults and kids under 10) were constantly drinking cans of fizzy drink, kids snacking on those packets of sugar that come with a lolly you dip into it and other sweets and biscuits. To be fair, one of them really does seem to be able to regulate herself well and would stop part way through eating a donut if she was full but the other just seemed to guzzle shite all week. We would take our water bottles out with us on day trips whereas they'd take a load of cans of pop. I'm not a judgmental person and I understand the logic behind it but I'm not sure that approach is for us.

I honestly think that some people are just lucky that they can resist that kind of food, I'm one of them. I don't feel like I'm restricting myself by not buying it because I genuinely don't even care about it. It has to be luck/genetics when you think about how they literally plough millions into designing these foods to be super palatable and addictive, bypassing all your body's internal regulatory systems to make you overeat (yes I've read ultra processed people!). My parents brought me and my sister up eating lots of homecooked, whole foods and although there was other stuff around it wasn't unlimited and they were big on balance and yes, some things were treats. I've got no food issues. My sister on the other hand is obsessed with being as skinny as possible and is constantly fighting her sweet tooth.

We were just having this discussion yesterday. My daughter says her friend's parents keep cans or bottles of fizzy drinks like coca cola, Sprite etc in the fridge and they are free to drink then any time. Whilst we only ever get that if we are hosting a dinner party or a BBQ. It's not something we normally get with our food shop. In terms of snacks it's all healthy apart from a multipack of 5/6 crisps a week per child - which I already think is more than enough, that's nearly one a day, some biscuits that we normally only have for visitors, and then some nuts, but we don't stock masses of snacks or sugary drinks. Turns out this is pretty abnormal 😂

She just explained it's because she doesn't consider them part of a balanced diet. She also said kids are free to buy their own if they wish. Which I think is fair.

Hi op its ok saying they can buy there own but maybe there thinking most parents would have it in the house and there money is for other things. It’s actually cheaper to buy chocolate in packs than individually. Kids tend to eat more of it if it’s not in the home. I don’t see the point of not having anything available just because you and your dh don’t eat it doesn’t mean your dc should go without. Schools give kids sweet stuff all the time or chips, pizzas so you’re doing well getting them to eat healthy but all in moderation is fine.

A starvation diet is clearly different.

We always have biscuits (including a chocolate bar type like take out or kitkat) and crisps (varies by what’s on offer but is usually skips, french fries or pom bears) in. And a box of coco pops. There’s also weetabix, porridge, muesli and eggs/bacon/toast/bagels. Crisps wise, only one really eats them and they prefer those I mentioned.

We don’t have to replace any of them very often because they can take them or leave them. My kids are mid and late teens now so will make themselves a bacon sandwich now and then, or bagels, porridge etc. There’re actually two boxes of coco pops in the cupboard because I didn’t realise we still had some left. Younger of the two was eating weetabix when I came back in earlier. They don’t guzzle down the sugary stuff because it’s always just been food, nothing special.

I’ve mentioned on here before about my nieces and nephew. Niece and nephew one side are allowed all foods and nothing is treated as better or worse than others. They have a massively varied diet, even being two and four. Sushi, curries, Thai food, veggies, fruit, they eat pretty much everything put in front of them. And at a picnic where there was crisps, cakes etc, as well as veggies, fruits, cheeses, they didn’t dive in and inhale the cakes and crisps first. They ate all sorts in no particular order.

Other niece, totally restricted by parents in terms of sweet stuff she’s allowed because they think it’s healthier. Diet has always been pretty beige otherwise and that’s all she really eats nowadays. Not to mention she is always searching and asking for the things she’s not allowed, particularly behind her parents’ back, often asking us to not tell them. I know which situation I’d rather have and which I think is the healthiest of the two.

But ‘starvation’ was actually 1560 cals, which some people think is too much these days.

Oh and in response to your other comment, there was an experiment done with children where they restricted sweets, cakes etc for a certain amount of time in one group and the other group were free to eat all the food types. They then had a party setting for both groups together and those that were initially restricted honed in on the forbidden stuff, whereas the other group just grazed on everything. Restriction makes you want something more, not having the thing in question.

I suppose those with 1560 calories were men though? It may be too few calories for an active man and those who think it's too many would be short, not very active women.

I heard about the experiment you mention with the children at the buffet.
However, I think eating a lot of snacks also makes you want it more. It's also proven that junk food is very more-ish.

We always have junk food in the house eg crisps / chocolate / biscuits / ice cream etc. DH also eats sugary cereal but the rest of us do not. I think the reason I am relaxed about having these things in the house is because the children just aren’t interested. One has 3 Easter eggs and the other 4 from Easter. I think the eldest still has some Christmas chocolates in her room. They eat their meals etc. we do routinely have a pudding eg Greek yogurt and fruit or sugar free jelly etc. I would say it’s normal to have it in the house daily but not eat it daily?