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!

Yeah - you're right they are not comparable - from a UPF point of view, Chicken Nuggets and spaghetti hoops are much better nutritionally than the casserole recipe stated with the chicken nuggets having more protein, more fibre, less salt and saturates and fewer harmful additives.

(using Aldi as the supermarket for standardisation)

Tinned spaghetti hoops are rated excellent from a UPF point of view, just like beans.

Aldi's frozen chicken nuggets have 15g of excellent quality protein, 1.5g of fibre, 1.4g of sugar (low) 2.3g of saturates (low) and 0.83g salt (low), 265kcal. There are 2 additives, 1 low risk and 1 limited risk.

In contrast, Aldi's sausages (basic pork, but other varieties rate poorly too) have just 14.4g of excellent quality protein, 0.9g of fibre, 0.9g of sugar, 332kcal. However they also contain 6 additives - 3 risk free, 1 limited risk, 1 moderate risk and 1 high risk. They are also too fatty with 10.8g of saturates and have too much salt at 1.43g. Worcester sauce is also poor from a UPF point of view.

The casserole recipe in question does have a higher veg content from the variety - but that could be addressed through fruit as part of dessert or more veg in an earlier meal.

Sounds exactly like me and my daughter was also a pretty big motivation for me. I should get her involved in cooking more than I do, but she's definitely more involved than I was and has more knowledge. She's also sporty so I'm actively having to learn about nutrition for her specifically in a way I didn't need to although I don't beat myself up about it - there are people with degrees in this stuff and I don't have the time to get another degree 😆

I do see my daughter's school bringing in horrible substandard food from a third party provider and think how different things could be if it was made on-site with the kids' involvement from the very start. An integrated approach to health and nutrition.

No, they aren't. Apples are delicious. Crisps are ok as an occasional treat, but eating a lot of them is unpleasant as well as unhealthy.

I think per 100g they are much cheaper than fresh, they are nutritionally optimal unlikely fresh and easy to keep for a lenght of time. Im a massive fan of frozen veg, and pre prepped due to my disability but that does cost more which I resent so I try to balance it out. Ive stopped buying things like celeriac and butternut squash as its simply too diffcult to prep

There's nothing wrong with a packet of crisps and there are people on here who will tell you fruit is harmful because it contains sugar😅

No wonder people get mixed messages 🙂

I didn’t say I was incapable. I didn’t say it’s not possible.

I was pointing out that it’s materially more effort. Which you don’t seem to be disagreeing with. Given your proposed solutions both involve making more time available to do it.

Im also capable enough to know the difference between the diy version and the Sainsbury’s version and the massive health gain the diy version brings. Not everyone is.

Particularly as Theyre superficially the same.

So for some, they (rightly) dont think that there’s anything wrong with the kind of lunch they get re up on. And the supermarket meal deal offers something seemingly equivalent. But with a big time saving and relatively little cost difference on the grand scale of the weekly budget.

UPFs are very much an echo chamber topic. Theyre front and centre for some people and talked about a lot. They never come up in other circles.

I was in school in the 90s-2000s and there was very little food or nutrition education. Food 'tech' as you say, in secondary school, where we might have baked a cake or something once during the year, was about the extent of it.

Im so tight I simply will not use them!!

Im so tight I started a thread about how to rescue my stuck together onion granules!!!

I have 2 cupboards of spices and herbs and over time I really do want to try to get that down. But I genuinely use it all.

factually incorrect, unfortunately. pink ladies (obviously expensive but what my eldest DC likes, example 50p+, walkers £3.19 for 12 bags at tesco)

Fortunately I was taught to cook by 2 generations of good cooks, I'm not struggling in poverty and the DC (now adult) in question was willing to try things but try feeding a coeliac with additional allergies to tomatoes, apples, pears, peaches, apricots, tree nuts and parsnips.

Sometimes upf has to be the way to go because of cross contamination risks or just time constraints. I can make pasta sauce from pretty much anything but that gluten free pasta is always going to be upf.

YANBU. I do judge people who bring children into this world and are downright lazy as fuck to feed them properly and educate them on a healthy balanced diet and help them to form healthy habits.

I also judge parents who complain about fussy eaters and give their kids nuggets and biscuits and other crap.

I agree it isn't about money, it's about effort and education.

Did you see the snacks the kids were having after school? And that at least one or two of them were following the dad and eating pot noodles. Plus the bit where one meal a week would be McDonald's?
I'm not sure they were committed to making a meaningful change (I hope so) or just loved being on the telly.
It would be interesting to go back to them in a year's time.

To be honest OP, you are RIGHT!

I think it’s a generational thing as well. I am 35 (I don’t have kids yet), but I really care about nutrition. I was reflecting on my grandparents today, they’re late 80s and early 90s. Neither of them eat processed food! They’re in fantastic health - I am in awe of them!! I’m trying to live by their principles. UPFs are a very big problem. Nothing wrong with a packet of crisps, or tin of spaghetti hoops or whatever from time to time.. but proper home cooked food is the best!

No time isn’t an excuse either. Each morning lately I’ve been chopping up veg and sticking it in a slow cooker with some meat… fruit and kefir yoghurt for brekkie… sandwich or soup for lunch… job done!!! I barely snack as I am full from the 3 meals I eat

I have an issue with this, I make my own soffrito, but it is cheaper to make your own but you cant buy just a stick of celery and quite often you cant just buy one carrot (well you cant at Lidl and Aldi) or one onion.

I dont get through celery in any other form, I dont eat it at all unless its part of a base of stock or soup/casserole. So it just sits there getting slimy. So I have to chop th whole head up with the onion, leek and carrot for my sofrito. So the bag is enormous

I prefer to do that, but its a faff and hard work and takes a while. I can see why peeople want to buy frozen but it is more money.

Oh I’m not saying that. Just that the brown sugar I occasionally buy says it’s unrefined, not that it’s had molasses added. There may just be different types.

This sounds like the devils work.

How have chicken nuggets and hoops have more fibre than the casserole.

Im not frightened of fat however I dont count that as a baddie in the sausages.

I don’t think that’s true these days. And even when I was at school in the early nineties, Home Ec consisted of a terms lessons (unless you went on to select it for GCSE). In that term I remember making a cake or two and a homemade pizza. Which was fun, but hardly a thorough grounding in cooking skills or nutrition.

Most of what I know about cooking came from watching my Mum. I then built on that by buying cookbooks, watching cooking shows etc - but if I hadn’t had that initial grounding at home it would have been much harder to know where to start.

@soupyspoon getting a small chopper or one of the box choppers makes preparing it easier. Celery freezes really well, as does onions, carrots, peppers and loads more.

Celery I try to buy once every few months and then process the lot in the food processor and then freeze it in recipe size portions.

It can cost far less, 17p for an apple from Aldi to be factual correct

You can make gluten free UPF free pasta. I'm a coeliac and make it regularly.

It absolutely takes time, but if we know pasta is on the menu then either my DH or I make it in advance. If we don't have time then we just don't have pasta; we have the sauce with something else like baked potatoes or rice. My DS is also a coeliac, and had milk, peanut, and legume allergies as a baby/toddler. We still didn't use UPFs.

People talk about time like it's truly a preventative to things. It can make things more tricky, absolutely, but there are other ways around things. Swaps can be made, recipes adjusted. When something is cooking you don't need to stand there and stare at it until it's done. I've got soup cooking on the hob right now and I've been sat down for half an hour reading with the DC, DH was cleaning the living room.

Oh yes my soffrito is frozen, its like a massive pillow of soffrito in the freezer. I cant get a chopper I am officially decluttering. Dont tempt me.

BagaChips
If you posted on here saying you feed your children bananas, porridge and jacket potato, everyone would be telling you that it's too many carbs anyway

Definitely!!!

Frozen sofrito is a game changer, I only discovered it recently. There’s nothing wrong with frozen veg.

I hope no-one is feeding their kids from the freezer.. have the grace to cook it first please.

Quite often I make a very simple soup, it is literally a dollop of my saved chicken juices, a new potato for thickening and handfuls of soffrito, with herbs/spices, whatever I fancy

Potato and veg. Very nice.