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!

Haha well that's sounds delicious! Ours really vary, tonight it was chicken and cheese orzo, often it's risotto or spaghetti bolognese...I also do a soup once a fortnight! Occasionally we also get a curry which the kids love!

I worked in the nursery of a school in a really rough area and would sit with the children once they went into reception to teach them how to use cutlery, as most lived on McDonald's and other crap at home. Most did not have tables to sit at.
It's not lack of money, but something that went terribly wrong somewhere in producing home cooked meals. I grew up in a poor area, but we all had homecooked meals, sitting at the table and had to all wait for the last one to finish before we got down.
We had 3 meals a day and nothing in between, now they graze on snacks etc. There are even parent classes to teach parents how to cook.
It's very sad.

This thread is horrible. The people in the show were a lovely family. Just knackered from working minimum wage shift work and caring for 4 young children. The children were not remotely overweight. The parents were suitably horrified by what they learnt and turned their lifestyle around in a few weeks. The kids were lovely, well parented and embraced their new healthier foods.
In the UK we have a situation where lots of people are on the poverty line, needing 2 wages to survive. We’re both poor and time poor. Our Supermarkets are full of UPF with ready meals and snacks. You don’t find this in Spanish supermarkets, for example. But their working lives are easier, fruit is plentiful and cheaper in sunny climes etc.

I haven’t seen the programme but this thread does feel unnecessarily nasty. The fact that they were on the programme shows that they were willing to make the changes.
People only know what they know, and can only do what they can do.

Yeah I did a chilli last night. Mostly stews, chillis, soups, stir fries, lasagne, cottage pie etc. Pretty boring but always have veg with meals although a lot of the time that is frozen veg.

That is basically what I was brought up on though so I can totally see how you just fall into what you know.

I disagree. 6 Pink Lady apples in Aldi costs about £2.50 whereas a multi-pack of 6 crisps is about half that price.

I got a chicken salad sandwich from Greggs and it was approx £3 but I could've got 4 sausage rolls for £2.

I never got the ignorance argument I know a mother who feeds her obese toddler family size bags of sweets and chocolate.
I had my first child at 16 and always fed him healthy and knew too, surely it’s just common knowledge and no I did not have my mum cooking everything I didn’t even live with her.

How do some people feed their kids huge bags of chocolate and claim not to know why their kid is fat?

Come on now, yes there is! There are lots of “bad” foods that people could simply just choose not to buy!

It was the two family sized bars of chocolate per person per evening that got me! How they were simply unaware what healthy eating and portion control looked like. Baffling!

Pink Lady apples are not the cheapest though, there are cheaper varieties, and will always be a better choice, for myself, anyway.

Interesting assumptions on this thread, I was raised on the 80s aunt Bessie’s, Frey bentos and Findus shite. My first foray into cooking was when a friend mentioned making spaghetti bolognese and googling it.

I have my food shop delivered by Asda, I don’t have time to shop multiple times a week for fresh stuff. Peppers, cucumbers, onions, potatoes, spinach, salad leaves, all day 4+ days in the fridge.

if you’re in a home with an over/hob, you can make decent food very easily. We camp and DH & I still feed the kids good meals with some veg and fruit. We make burgers from mince, salt and pepper, not UPF ONES. We make pizzas from scratch, the dough is yeast, flour and water.

I think the rush not to judge, means we’re now completely reluctant to say when someone is not doing enough to feed their families well.

They knew they weren’t doing enough to feed their family well, that’s why they went on to the programme and have made steps to change it.

I think people have often lost the ability to give a shit about the latest food fads.

It has to be really clear the risks of eating certain foods and probably fairly imminent consequences for people to understand.

As was discussed up thread, lack of fibre is a massive cause of bowel cancer. Wholemeal bread, whole grain cereals and baked beans are really good sources of fibre but are also upf. They are cheap, fairly easily accepted by kids and readily available.

The whole upf thing is a new category of shit and it’s confusing and frustrating to navigate.

m&s are cashing in by selling lots of products with limited ingredients, replacing the shelf space all the vegan stuff of the last fad took up probably.

UPF is a bit of a red herring in a way, it should be about encouraging more whole foods, fibre and lean protein. There is much to be said by encouraging positive changes over telling people everything they eat is shit and going to kill them.

Lots of family centres used to run family cooking classes, but they’ve closed. This thread is telling me some schools have abandoned teaching basic nutrition and food skills.

Perhaps supermarkets could use their massive amounts of profit, end of product life items and real estate to engage communities in cooking and food education?

Alongside food banks can they run sessions on eating seasonally and fresh food?

Could schools and communities start community allotments / market gardens where they make seasonal dishes together and learn to grow and produce their own foods?

I think there is such a thing as 'bad food'! Most UPF's are bad food. I don't think you should be stoned for eating it, indeed, I occasionally have it myself, but it is objectively 'bad' as in unless or actively detrimental calories.

@FurForksSake I know what you mean; things like baked beans or a higher-fibre cereal have some dietary merit. Although many people don't feed their children the higher fibre cereal, I used to be cross as my children's breakfast club for feeding them white sugary carbs first thing, although I suppose the milk was better than nothing. It's not a 'good start to the day' though.

There are lots of different factors but a few points based on comments I've read.

Obesity isn't necessarily related to money or IQ but lack of money or knowledge about food prep don't help. Plenty of middle class obese people about though and genetics will play a part.

Mental health and neurodiverity are issues for a lot of people, even more so as they hit their teens and in to adulthood and they impact how you feed yourself and how you feed your family. These things are not inherently conned to wealth/class.

Working full time, multiple kids activities, commute times - where are you finding the time to cook from scratch every day and do your kids not reject your healthy meals?

PE in state schools is still abysmal and puts a lot of people who are not naturally sporty off exercise, whilst the thread is about food, it's a factor in obesity and healthy habits

Stats for childhood obesity likely come from the weight measurements they do in reception and Y6. If it indicates a child is overweight a school nurse will call and offer help if you want it. A lot of the advice given will be undoubtedly towards low fat UPFs.

Food tech is still a thing and seems quite unchanged in the last 30 years, I suspect most kids give it up when it gets interesting at GCSE because remembering and lugging the ingredients in on the bus is such a pain.

School dinners in the 80s were virtually inedible, they moved to being over processed and now they seem vaguely better. Still a lot of all day breakfasts and fish fingers going on. My DC went to an event at a private school (one of those where they invite the poorer kids in) and he said the school dinners were amazing.

I'd note that I became overweight aged 16 mostly down to my 6th forms cheap sausage barms and probably over consumption of vodka red bull and beer 🙈 These things were cheap (maybe not the beer) and I was mostly in control of my own finances. Show me a teen that doesn't sometimes make dreadful food choices.

I recall most m/c kids in my primary eating a ham sandwich, club biscuits and ribena in the 80s/90s. I also recall having small chocolate bars and multi packs of crisps at home to have on moderation around home cooked meals as did most of my friends Maybe it was simpler less judgemental times 😂 Lot of judginess these days.

We can and do cook meals from scratch at least 5 days per week, free access to fruit, but I also buy hula hoops and biscuits. I think most people do a mix and generally the majority are doing their best with the time, capacity and resources they have, which may not be consistent day to day. It's not as simple as to say you must prioritise your kids health.

Beans on toast is a healthy nutritious meal in my view. You'll hear that shouted down with complaints about the bread, about the sugar in the beans etc.

Its cheap, filling, tasty, warming, good nutrition, low in fat, high in fibre and add cheese if you want more fat and protein. Plus butter, always butter. I also dont think the sugar it it is excessive.

I’ll bite - recent meals I’ve made:

Carrot and lentil soup

Chicken and leek pie (I make my own shortcrust) with cabbage and carrots

Tuna and minced vegetable salad with couscous

Turkey breast steaks with butter bean and tomato stew

Herb crusted cod with cheese and parsley sauce and rice cooked with carrots and cabbage

Roast chicken with polenta and roasted veg

Jacket potato with bean chilli

Potato cakes and poached eggs with salad

I think so long as it’s made from whole foods with no added nonsense and is relatively balanced then it’s good food. Whole foods can include tinned / jarred or frozen but not with added preservatives and flavour enhancers etc

I actually think beans on toast is a great dish. The lysine in the beans completes the protein in the bread which I think is cool.

These all sound delicious!! Can I ask when you usually cook dinner, and do you have kids? I get home at 6, dinner at 6:30 and feel like a jacket potato and chilli would take me 2 hours 😭

Now I will admit I have a lot of time compared to others as I’m currently back at university so I usually start cooking at 5 and serve around 6/6.15.

Microwave the potato for 5 mins then put in the air fryer (cover in oil first) for 20. Perfect crusty spud. For chilli throw a chopped onion and courgette in a pan, add a tin of mixed beans, paprika, cumin, salt, pepper, chopped tomatoes and cook down for 20 mins. Add coriander. Serve. Easy.

Would be nice if you acknowledged that for some of us it’s not that simple.

I think eating healthy is quite expensive, we get through a ton of fruit on a weekly basis. I try & make me own snacks as we snack to much but again it’s probably cheaper to buy biscuits as opposed to me baking them.

I make that exact meal a lot! Down to the same method for the jacket potato. Though I usually add frozen sweetcorn or peppers to the chilli.

I make extra chilli so I can take it to work for lunch the next day.

I agree with this.

I grew up very poor, but we all had 3 home cooked meals a day. Not a UPF in sight, no snacks. On occasion we'd get fish and chips from the chippy, or some penny sweets. Dessert would be homemade cake. Single dad, widowed. I'm in my late 30s so this wasn't that long ago.

There was only one obese child in my school. All of my friends ate like we ate, it was the norm.

These days kids are grazing all day long on snacks, and there's no need for it. In my DC's school alone, I know at least six obese children and we live in a "naice" area. One friend came to our house for dinner and had a tantrum because he didn't want homemade cottage pie, he wanted chips or to go to McDonald's! His mum just laughed. Next time he came, she sent him with crisps.

I know one woman who feeds her family exclusively off UPFs. Her family is obese, her child looks incredibly unhealthy and cannot run without wheezing. She works part time and simply cannot be bothered to cook - she jokes about it. It's pure laziness.

Something is going wrong somewhere. You mentioned cutlery; the amount of children at DCs school who can't correctly use a knife and fork astounds me. They use a fork and gnaw off it rather than cutting their food. If we'd done that when I was young, we'd have been sent away from the table until we could eat like we had manners!