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 this is what makes the idea of messaging use so complex. There is so, so much shame and guilt already attached to this topic.

We have to eat, but most wild animals don't routinely go for things that will actively harm them. They go for what their body needs.

The difference with humans is that we eat to survive AND to enjoy ourselves. It's a hard one to navigate, because we shouldn't deny ourselves pleasure for the sake of it but how do you prevent over indulging on things that are known to be harmful in this way without great will power.

What's silly, in my opinion, is learning that certain foods are carcinogenic, and making excuses to keep eating them 'now and again' anyway.

How would deciding not to eat processed meat give you anxiety?

In the wild there arent items to harm the animal. Once that animal is around built up areas where there bins, they eat any old crap, watch seagulls, Im not sure chips are found in their natural habitat but they love em.

Bears, racoons, badgers, foxes, any animal which has its habitat urbanised will be going through the bins and enjoying and heading straight for the fatty calorie dense leftovers from humans.

Its about opportunity. We have too much opportunity to eat, we weren't built for this

Very true. As demonstrated by the raccoon.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8jnxxm70jo.amp

We do, and that's not stopping any time soon. This is why I'm so grateful that WLIs came along when they did. We really would be screwed otherwise.

Poor little thing

This is us in racoon form.

There is. There's a lot of toxic plants, animals and insects.

Admittedly I'd forgotten that they come and eat our chips out of the bins though.

I never said I thought it was a good thing. Only that it worked to some extent, but I prefer that weight-loss medications were more widely used, since they can be tolerated by most people and seems to
be few drawbacks to it

It can be argued that even ‘good’ healthy food can be bad in some ways. People will clutch their pearls over sugar in fruit, but unless you’re eating tonnes of it the benefits outweigh the negatives.

People eat processed meat because it tastes nice. If you eat it regularly, it’s unhealthy. If you have a small amount every few weeks, it’s not going to do any harm. There is no shame in enjoying unhealthy food.

People are so hung up on being UPF-free, but where they believe it’s all or nothing they’ll just give up and go back to their ready meals. It’s nigh on impossible to eat 100% UPF free food without being utterly miserable. I reckon it’s far healthier to get most of your calories from vegetables, lean protein, pulses, grains and fruit and have a little bit of what you fancy now and again.

A spoon of ketchup or mayo, or a stock cube, or even a slice of salami or a couple of squares of chocolate every few days won’t make someone overweight.

Things like avocados are toxic, but only if the right quantity (read large) is eaten. Eating avo on toast (obviously home made sourdough in this example) once a week won't kill you but eating a hundred in one sitting could (numbers made up, mostly for dramatic effect).

The poison is in the dose.

Well obviously I didnt think I needed to spell out that they wont touch things that are going to poison them, Im talking about desirability

Humans are not unfit, fat, unhealthy because we reach for the white berries, we also have inbuilt sensors for things that will kill us and dont taste nice.

Alcohol and food tastes nice. Drugs are fashioned so that they are not unpleasant to take.

That little racoon is the state of humanity at the moment.

Does anyone remember the McDonald's fries experiment? I can't remember how long they lasted or if they ever rotted? Scary shit!

Actually, a cheap multipack of Aldi crisps will give you a pack at around 10p; an apple from aldi is more like 20p. So crisps are definitely the cheaper option, in addition to all the other advantages people have mentioned.

I use Asda because it is closest and I find their own range to be very reasonable and use it often for my son with a limited diet as I've found it to be good value for what he eats.

Some examples

instant noodles 25p
fish fingers x10 80p
crisps x6 85p
yogurts x6 95p
rice krispies 95p
sausage rolls x8 99p
pizza £1
chicken nuggets x20 £1

Just watching latest one. The ds definitely isn't overweight. Dreadful diet but not overweight yet the dr said he is?

in relation to this and @Notgonnalieaboutthis ’s comment - I eat very little UPF, cook almost every meal from scratch, plenty of fruit and veg and I’m still a high BMI. It’s not portions either - I eat far less than friends (I know because we’ve eaten together). When I’ve had to eat more UPF on occasions it hasn’t affected how I feel or my sleep. I have a BMI above 30 despite this and plenty of proper exercise. You can’t always judge how people eat from looking at them

You might get slated on this thread for sharing that meal plan

They are more than welcome to try and feed a child with suspected ARFID as well as a whole bunch of food intolerances.

Are you talking about the young man who was the stone mason?

Unless you know his height and weight you cant say whether he is or isnt overweight

People dont have to look like Michelin man to be overweight.

Yes Im going to say it... I cant stop myself...'we've lost sight of what a healthy weight looks like'.

His job probably made him have muscle. I know plenty of very healthy fit people classed as overweight because of this. He definitely didn't look it.

I thought he looked bloated and unhealthy at the start, in the face, obviously we didnt see much else of him. It might have been fat it might have been simple bloat.
Most young men have a high muscle count, but he didnt have the physique of a body builder so BMI having such a wide range would have accounted for his muscle mass and body type.

Obviously when someone is eating a huge amount of those sorts of carbs and sugar, they retain water and inflammation is an issue, so the 'weight loss' could well be water retention loss.

It was a hamburger, and it because of the shape and surface area. It dried out before it could rot. Just like dried fruit won't rot if kept in dry conditions at room temperature. Nothing to do with chemicals.

I was most amazed by the children. I cook from scratch most nights, the exception is Tuesday because we have such a busy evening. I rigorously followed the best weaning advice that I could, even paid for an NCT course. Started with bitter flavoured purees, quickly moved on to finger foods, made it fun. DD was EBM up until we started introducing food.

DH and I prefer healthier options and eat lots of fruit and veg. We're not evangelical though, everything in moderation, not neurotic about food at all.

She is so much hard work with food. Hates nearly all veg (will eat them under duress) hates any kind of sauce, hates even foods that she likes once they've been mixed together.

Our diet is much less healthy than it was before she was born because I'll leave out the courgette or the mushrooms or whatever from a sauce just so she'll actually eat it. And we have started keeping some unhealthy snacks in because she's always on the go and constantly asking, I suppose we should just stop buying any of them and deal with the tears.

Luckily she loves fruit, prawns and fish, but apart from that she only wants things like pie, pizza, nuggets, fish fingers, chips, crisps and sweets. She groans every time I tell her what we're having for dinner, despite the love and care I put in.

Seeing those kids who have been raised on pot noodles sweetly ask for more broccoli pesto pasta (a meal that has been roundly rejected by DD who gagged after one mouthful- despite the fact she likes pasta and walnuts and will even tolerate broccoli plain) made me feel a bit of rage, NGL.