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!

But that's just the nuggets compared to the sausages. A meal of chicken nuggets and spaghetti hoops does not contain more fibre than a casserole made with a load of veggies in addition to the sausages, even if those veggies happen to come from a tin.

Thank you will have a watch now too

This is heartbreaking news.

Please find below the exact definition of UPF and why is not the same thing as processed food.
TL;DR : just jump to appendix that details the NOVA classification

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10261019/

Yes. Some people get to adulthood having eaten UPF all their lives, and have no idea of what's healthy. I once worked with a young married woman in her mid-20s, and one day she said she didn't know what to cook for dinner. So I asked what she had in the house, and it turned out they ate mainly UPF foods, as the choices were (frozen) chicken nuggets, fish fingers, pizzas, or burgers with frozen chips, or (tinned) soup, ravioli, chilli, beans, corned beef, peas or new potatoes. She would occasionally buy, and cook from chilled, bacon, sausages or steaks. Dessert was shop bought cakes, evening snacks were crisps and chocolate biscuits. Never bought fresh vegetables or fruit. Her packed lunch was often jam sandwiches on white bread, and she took 6 sugars in her tea. Weirdly, she was very slim, and her husband wasn't overweight, but that was 35 years ago. I do wonder how her health is now.

You can still eat healthily on a budget, so money is not an excuse. Cutting down on portion sizes is a big factor. People choose the easy option, as they are either too tired from working to keep their heads above water or just lazy!

😂

Yes there is

how about people worry about what they feed their families and let others worry about theirs, the snobbery on here is rife. woopy doo your kids eat well and you cook all wholesome food , you don’t know anyone elses story so why judge
my oldest has an awful diet as a child , we visited drs, nutritionists the lot due to his avoidance of food and fussiness ,so many judged us with what he ate.
but that being said he is now a strapping 6ft odd young man , never been overweight , healthy , but still has a restrictive diet. a banana is also not same cost as a cheap bag of crisps ,

@Zet1 unfortunately he got into drugs at 15 and he didn’t learn to cook, he was in and out of our house then went to college at 16 and lived in halls. He met his girlfriend at college and moved in with her when they left, he was 18. His late Dad did try to teach him to cook but he wasn’t interested, my son was 22 when his Dad died. He stopped the drugs and cigarettes about four years ago, he is now 32, but still vapes. He does make spag bol and chili from scratch, his girlfriend has no interest in cooking. I do worry about him.

Thank you for the empathetic response. Totally agree with this. You never know what is going on in someone's life.

There are all sorts of reasons why people eat poor diets, bit I find the "an apple is more expensive than a packet of crisps" arguments really silly as that's not the sort of choice anyone is making.

People aren't standing in the fruit and veg aisle going, "oooh, not sure we can stretch to both apples and bananas this week - better put both back and get some wotsits instead. And while we're at it let's put those porridge oats back and get some pot noodles".

For many (disclaimer - many, not all) of these people the affordability point will be a red herring because they haven't even thought about whether they can afford the healthy option - they want the crisps so that's the aisle they visit and that's what goes in the trolley.

I remember when we lived in a shared house at Uni and my friend started seeing a lad. We were cooking one night and he just couldn't get his around what we were doing. Chopping onions, boiling potatoes etc. He had never seen it, he thought that was for chefs to do, he only ever ate something out the freezer with chips. Never had fruit in the house, it just wasn't the norm.

I know people will say but we have so much more info now about food but I grew up in a house that always had fruits and veg and home cooked meals but I see some of these food messages online and think what the fuck are you in about. It's so confusing so without the background knowledge I can see why people may struggle.

That lad by the way never had any type of weight problem, he actually married my friend and eats very well now as she is an amazing cook and he has picked that skill up as well. But I think the problem with obesity now actually has a lot to do with availability of takeaways. Chicken nuggets, chips and beans may not have much nutritional value but it won't really make you fat. Constant takeaways have so many calories though.

I don’t think people who eat like this are in a minority.
All of my in-laws do a big supermarket shop every week.
There’s no fruit & veg. Most of it comes from the freezer.
They are all overweight, including the kids. That’s just what they eat. None of my SIL can actually cook. It’s not uncommon.

I eat what i want when i want.
I cant stand the word cheat days.

Oh don't be so puritanical! There is nothing wrong with eating at McDonalds every now and again, and I find their food perfectly acceptable.

It's not always about the food costs. Sometimes it's about having access to the means to prepare it.

I don't think every overweight family don't know how to cook and live on upf nor every slim family is healthy and cooks from scratch. I thought the show and presenter were quite patronising. I don't understand why people get quite deep into a problem like hoarding, cleaning, weighr, or illness then go to a show like trust me im a doctor or whatever, it's like they want to be publically humiliated. The sad thing it doesn't even work out for them longterm, but thr channel and presenter made their money out of mocking their 'stupid' life like, haha look at them, dear watcher you will never be stupid as they are, and the watcher feels smug because they aren't as bad. The whole thing is revolting.

The link between obesity and poverty is well known.
You manage because you manage. Other people fail to manage for many other reasons.

It’s not as simple as saying people eat the way they grew up. There didn’t used to be processed food and takeaways available when I grew up (70s-early 80s). DH and I reminisce about when yoghurt became a thing. Then came Findus crispy pancakes. But it was rare and most people couldn’t afford much processed food and no way takeaways. Affordable junk is a relatively recent phenomenon. Some people carried on eating as before - home cooked dinners and the odd takeaway - and others ditched it for convenience and stopped cooking. No one in their 50s grew up on processed food.

Agree @fishingoutofthewater . Think OP needs to sort out her judgemental thoughts!

I agree about the TV shows, there’s something of the Colosseum about them. It’s very uncomfortable viewing. Supernanny was exploitative in the same way, along with that terrible programme where Kris Murrin told parents they were literally killing their children, complete with age-progression photos of the kids looking like they’d done a life sentence with hard labour.

Omg I forgot about that one were they aged the kids! Terrible

I have no idea whether the meals I cook would be considered good or bad on this thread...can you guys give examples of what you think are healthy meals cooked from scratch?

I'd be scared to! I made a chicken, veg and lentil soup tonight from scratch but I'll admit I did use a couple of stock cubes so I guess that's not so good 😂