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!

And yet all these people with so little time are always up to date on the Traitors/football/soaps etc
@SchnizelVonKrumm perhaps because those with a preference for junk food are also likely to have a preference for junk television?

Steel cut oats dont generally but most people dont eat these so not always aware of what is being referred to. Also if you measured during pregnancy thts not necessarily indicative of the average effect on someone because of pregnancy hormones.

And overall some people dont respond the same way to the same things, generally steel cut oats are excellent for blood sugar regulation, good cholesterol and fibre.

Theres lots of threads where someone will set out that they minimise the intake of this or that food to be more healthy and they're berated by other posters that they're causing eating disorders and their children must be miserable, its awful

The irony is that most people tend to eat the way their parents and family do overall, and overeating can be disordered eating.

Why does seeing a load of pot noodles in your bath mean you're disgusted by what you're eating?

There is a big difference between sensible healthy nutrition lifestyle and obsessive behaviours that will cause people anxiety, stress and depression. Limiting or even restricting unhealthy food options especially for children is not sucking the enjoyment out of life. To me it is ingraining the good nutritional habits at a young age where it matters. It makes me sad seeing primary school children in the morning that are overweight and some obese. As a child born in the 80s; all these sweets and chocolates, confectionary, fast foods, fizzy drinks etc were occasional treats. It was not something we ate daily as portrayed nowadays. That historical observation is what guides my actions and choices.

Yes same here, foods that are regular now, were one offs or treats in the 70s and 80s.

This. No-one I knew grew up on ready meals every day. The odd angels delight or findus crispy pancake, but there really wasn’t that much stuff available in the shops. Now there’s aisles and aisles of it in every shop.

And there wasnt the endless choice of fast food options there are now. We had a chippy and a Chinese takeaway in my town and they were occasional treats. No Deliveroo offering a million choices 24 hours a day, No Greggs on every corner, no Starbucks offering “coffees” that are really desserts.

We ate three meals a day. We didn’t get to work and have a donut or a muffin because someone had brought a tray in, we didn’t eat pints of ice-cream in front of the TV.

Portion sizes when you did get a takeaway or chocolate bar or whatever were smaller.

I think this programme was great. There's so much nonsense pedalled online that it's nice to have someone who's qualified to know what he's talking about giving sensible nutrition advice.
The people in it were likeable people who'd lost their way a bit and wanted to improve their eating habits. Good for them.

You can make both nuggets and chips at home though?

A child with diagnosed ARFID who has chicken nuggets as a safe food will generally only eat the specific nuggets they are used to. Homemade ones will be rejected, however good they are. It’s one of the reasons why kids with ARFID often end up eating UPF or fast food versions of things - because they are consistent and predictable, as opposed to things like “an apple” which can be wildly variable in appearance, taste and texture.

I think they must be prepped before the programme though because Im not sure I believe that someone who had cancer and someone who had sepsis and nearly lost a leg hasnt had significant information given to them about lifestyle and diet information or blood markers etc

So the wife who drank a lot, I cant imagine she didnt have an understanding that was a bit too much. Also she said that she had never been given information about her fasting blood glucose levels, which I can believe because Ive just had a load of bloods done and they werent fasting

everyone is supposed to have an over 50s health check but I dont think many are called in for it.

Exactly this.

I can’t (or couldn’t) guarantee homemade stuff would always taste the exact same.

Other people have answered about the consistency issue but even though, like another poster says above, who wants to spend time home cooking nuggets and chips, when you could spend time cooking something nicer.

I can take your point about the consistency issue, but if that was all my child would eat, and they would eat the home-made version, then I would definitely spend the time making it.

Well yes of course, thats not what is being referred to here though, if kids will eat something home cooked, and the majority will unless there are special needs of some sort, then of course you'd cook it yourself.

Just watched the first one. What a fantastic turn around. I hope they keep it up. I have a feeling they will.

poverty and poor education is a real thing.

But yes go ahead and judge.

Hope that makes you feel nice and smug.

Ive watched both episodes and neither family I would consider to be poor or poorly educated. They both appeared reasonable, connected and engaged people who are able to take on the information given to them.

I do find it hard to believe that both couples didnt really know much about food intake or nutriton, the first couple will have had very very recent midwifery and health visitor and ante natal care four times round within which there is a focus on nutriton and eating and lifestyle

The second couple as I say, have had major health incidents which would have had tons of follow up and engagement with health staff and tests of all sorts at all times. They were a very well to do couple by the looks of things and said they hadnt heard of some things like kombucha etc, didnt know what was in squirty cream etc

I think there is possibly a degree of exaggeration for entertainment purposes going on, which is ok, it is an information type show.

I was amazed that the second man lost 7lbs but 12 inches off his waist, just goes to show how the weight falls off men differently to women.

Im a bit sick of that Tim Spector being 'disgusted' with everything he sees which is UPF, the mass produced ham being one of them. Im a big believer in eating nose to tail, we should be using all parts of the animal. I dont like the chemicals in it but in the trailer for the next programme he's going on about chicken skin being 'disgusting'.

Unfortunately ARFID is very specific. If anything tastes different the food is rejected, sometimes permanently
My son will only eat quorn nuggets and m&s chips and only if fried in a particular oil and plated separately

His other couple of packaged cold foods are brand specific heck even his medically prescribed shakes are one particular brand and flavour only

The words I and other parents of kids like him dread are "new improved recipie"

Fair enough. I've seem people complain of similar issues with fussy cats and recipe changes.

I dont like Tim Spector. Even his book has a bit of a hectoring tone. It would be more relatable to have someone who actually understood the appeal of an artificial strawberry milkshake.

Are you seriously comparing children with ARFID to cats?

I do find it hard to believe that both couples didnt really know much about food intake or nutriton, the first couple will have had very very recent midwifery and health visitor and ante natal care four times round within which there is a focus on nutriton and eating and lifestyle
The youngest 2 were twins so I could imagine they went from 2 to 4 kids and just tried to deal with it short term and it ended up long term. The 2 massive bars of chocolate a night though were ridiculous! I think sometimes with these programmes they have people who need such obvious easy wins. The kids going from that massive sweet bowl to eating the fruit was a real win for them I'd imagine.

Yep.

Children eating UPFs doesn't necessarily mean that they are overweight.

My child has a limited diet too, eats UPFs the majority of the time and is also underweight.

Like others I would like to see the long term follow up, a years time