Do people really not know what to eat?

[WilderHawthorn]

Watching ‘what not to eat’, and the family they’ve found are just hopeless. Four small children all shovelled full of UPF junk, parents both obese, freely admit to eating crap constantly.

How adults choose to feed themselves is their choice, but to feed four small kids that much junk? It’s bordering on abuse. An apple/banana costs the same as a packet of crisps, jacket potato is one of the cheapest meals you can make, basic porridge oats and milk for breakfast, it’s not difficult to eat whole foods, so why rely on packaged things?

Freely admit I judge those who feed their children this way and truly despair over childhood obesity stats. I work full time, have 4 DC, DH works full time and I volunteer. I’m very time poor and partially disabled, I still feed my kids well and it doesn’t cost me a fortune. Taught myself to cook. There’s no excuse!

I don't think it takes a huge amount of imagination to think about what the barriers might be to eating a healthy diet, especially if on a low income.

If you don't have much money, you might not actually live very near shops selling much healthy food (food deserts are a thing). The bus to get to a bigger shop might feel expensive and it'll take longer/be more awkward than going by car.

Not everyone grew up with home cooking. If you don't know anyone who cooks, it's not necessarily going to come easily.

Not everyone has a well equipped kitchen or well stocked food cupboard. Building that stuff up is expensive. Batch cooking is of limited use if you don't have much/any freezer space.

Research shows that families on very low incomes worry about trying new foods because they will go hungry if they don't like it: they can't afford to waste food.

Cheaper food often needs cooking for a longer time - it's pointless buying lentils if you then can't afford the gas or electricity to cook them.

People have all sorts of struggles that take up headspace and might leave less capacity for meal planning, shopping and cooking.

Wasnt there another thread recently where OP was complaining that her kids eat her out of house and home and just happened to mention that they like eating frozen peas. My god, you would have thought she was abusing her kids!

Apparently not buying them enough crisps and snacks and forcing them to eat frozen uncooked food!!!

Don't know - but they do💁

Screenshots from the Yuka app

My wider point was that there are barriers to people cooking fresh food or buying some convenience foods that might seem an obvious course of action to some of us.

So true. MN is not the place to discuss healthy diets.

For me it's the opposite. I generally see food as fuel so care more about it. I always add flavour to what I add and make sure it's appetising, but I always consider macro and micronutrient content. I've learnt to be this way over time through endurance and weight training. I think people who exercise regularly do tend to care more about their diet.

I like your style!

Yes I was agreeing with you

Im going to add it to my healthy eating meal plan!!!

If you aren't a confident cook, it is going to be more time consuming as well as also struggling to know how to adjust recipes and again, having the confidence to do that and know you aren't about to ruin dinner which is incredibly important if you are on a strict budget and need to make sure that your kids are fed.

I make a lot of soup too, it’s such a good way to use up veg that’s about to turn. And it’s quite often an unplanned thing so it’s handy to grab a bit of soffritto mix from the freezer rather than think “crap I don’t have an onion/celery/carrot”. I’ll usually fry that up, add the main veg and some stock then once it’s cooked blitz it up.

Im a very confident cook, I have never and will never make pasta.

Didn't George Orwell nail this back in 1937 when he wrote "The Road To Wigan Pier"?

“A man dies and is buried, and all his words and actions are forgotten, but the food he has eaten lives after him in the sound or rotten bones of his children. I think it could be plausibly argued that changes of diet are more important than changes of dynasty or even of religion....Yet it is curious how seldom the all-importance of food is recognized. You see statues everywhere to politicians, poets, bishops, but none to cooks or bacon-curers or market gardeners.”

and

“And the peculiar evil is this, that the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food. A millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita biscuits; an unemployed man doesn't. Here the tendency of which I spoke at the end of the last chapter comes into play. When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don't want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit 'tasty'. There is always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you.”

Sorry, I misread.

yes! I remember that!

Afraid this was my only contribution to this thread.. both my kids have awful diets, but both have diagnosed ARFID, so i'm just happy when they're eating, even if it is bland, UPF freezer fare.

I'm having home made, cooked from scratch, beef stew for my dinner.. neither of them would touch it if they were starving.

Yes, whats my favourite flavour soup

'leftovers flavour'

I think people definitely need more education about sausages and bacon and the bowel cancer risks with some foods.

They mentioned it last night I think, but in a way that implied that people know about it now.

I usually cook from scratch but anyone who says they don’t have a back up freezer stash must by lying. Last night we had fish fingers, frozen peas and even (shock horror) frozen mash! Pure laziness I know but I was shattered! I’ll have to watch this show, love nosing into how other people live :)

I have two children with genuinely excellent diets. Easily 7-8 portions of fruit and veg a day, mainly veg. Plenty of protein. Decent carbs. Will eat most things, don’t eat sweets etc with any regularity.
I also have a child with ARFID. All rules go out of the window! If he eats at all we’re happy.

I think the biggest risk of bowel cancer is lack of fibre.

Lots of other countries eat high levels of processed meats, their health is better than ours

But now that I know chicken nuggets have great fibre in them, its all good!!

That's true, but we all learn somewhere. I haven't always been a confident cook; I grew up with very basic meals (home cooked but basic), that bear little resemblance to the meals I cook now. I'm also very financially stable now but haven't always been. When I was learning to cook I was on a very tight budget, but realised that if I wanted to eat well and enjoy it then I had to do something. It's actually pretty difficult to ruin a meal.

It's even easier these days with the sheer amount of access to simple recipes online. And I'm sorry, but anyone can fry onion, garlic, celery, chop some veg and make a soup. Stock can be as simple the saved veg water from previous meals. It's not difficult and it really isn't that time consuming at all.

I'm reminded of conversations with some of my coworkers about how there were times when they were young when schools would give the 'dessert', sometimes just toast with jam first, hoping to fill the kids up, because of difficulties sourcing of more nutritional foods - and some kids just not eating it.

Also reminded of discussions family members had when I was growing up, including those among the first to use ready meals - how it was considered a sign of making it, that no one had to go out and wring the chicken's neck, we can just pop it in the oven, pull it out or even better, having someone else cook it for you.

Now ready meals are treated as borderline abuse, and the only time I've seen discussions on encouraging jam on toast is in supporting those who've become underweight through loss of appetite.

I understand the importance of caring for ourselves and our kids, including though nutrition, and on the other hand that what is considered doing that has a cultural tint to it that changes with time as views towards and understanding of food changes. I do think for some there is confusion with the changes and with marketing around us around what to eat. I think for many others, there is knowledge, but a struggle in trying to get better foods to be palatable.

I was in my 30s before I enjoyed a salad. I'm still working on beans outside of a chili - I try something every week, and still struggling with it. Maybe I'm lazy - I mean, currently, my three teenagers each cook at least one night a week, and I let them cook what they want even if it's chicken nuggets and cheese chips - I think I'm just a finite person living with others with very different palates just having a go at it, when really, I prefer thinking about food as little as I can get away with.

There have also been studies in "food desserts" in America that parents living in poverty just junk food as a substitute gesture of love because they cannot afford anything else.

Food deserts aren't about not being able to afford anything else, they're about the separate issue of there not being access to shops that sell decent food within a particular radius of a residential area. People can't buy what the shops aren't selling.

Most of the writing on it was decades back before food deliveries became so common. It is worse in the US due to zoning laws and many areas far out not having deliveries. It also happens in the UK - I've absolutely lived in places where you can walk 30-40 minutes, visit each shop, and not see a single vegetable. Last month, I nipped out of a train station for some bread, and it took til the 4th shop to find any - the others, it was all pretty much UPFs. The train station was a near secondary and a college, and they were clearly going after the 'I just got free with some money' child demographic.

You should become a social worker specialising in children’s health, you’ll be great at it.
You have no idea of some families realities. Unless you want to help others, just worry about your own family.

Lots of people sounding very pleased with themselves on this thread. We just go for a balance in our home.

Apples last bloody ages. And the varieties taste so different.

I hate it when they put too much vinegar in the salt and vinegar McCoys. It makes my eyes water. Very rarely do they hit the sweet spot where the ingredients are perfectly balanced. And don't get me started on green crisps.

People need to learn to eat seasonally. It's cheaper, more flavoursome and better for you.
They also need to learn how to store food properly so that it doesn't go off so quickly/loose it's appeal.