AIBU to think some weekly shops contain far too many snacks?and this is not grocery shopping!?

[Upsetbetty]

AIBU to think that the amount of processed snacks people buy in their grocery shopping is getting ridiculous? Watching people share their grocery shop on instagram etc and I can’t see what meals they can even make as it’s all snacks?? And then they say oh grocery shopping is so expensive!Do people really do this? I don’t buy any biscuits, fizzy drinks (18-20 pack slabs) or crisps as a part of me weekly family shop. I buy the meat, veg and pantry items. That is my weekly shopping. I buy one packet of oat bars for my DCs lunches. If my dc want a snack they have fruit, yogurt, homemade flapjacks etc.

Shredded Wheat is UPF I'm afraid. I used to eat it almost daily, fooled by the label that says "100% wholewheat". It doesn't have added sugar but it's just pure starch, and quickly converts to sugar when eaten, which is then rapidly absorbed. It will give you a sugar rush, followed by a significant dip. Basically, it won't sustain you for very long and you'll be hungry again in a couple of hours.

I do wonder how people manage to ever have a shit when they just eat stuff out of packets all the time. I’d be permanently constipated. Maybe I’ve just got a much slower digestive system than everyone else!

If you had seen my shopping a couple of weeks ago you’d have been horrified at the snacks. But that’s because my three late primary school / early secondary aged kids were at an outward bound style holiday club for the week and running around outside 8.30-4.30 every single day so needed lots of snacks. And the running around outside all day meant that I relaxed my standards around crisps, biscuits and processed packaged cheese for a week. Summer holiday shopping isn’t typical shopping in my experience.

@Finsku , shredded wheat isn't a UPF, and it isn't pure starch.

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size
1 1/3 cups (60g) (60g)
Calories 210
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 1.5g 2%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 0mg 0%
Total Carbohydrate 49g 18%
Dietary Fiber 8g 29%
Total Sugars 0g 0%
Includes g Added Sugars %
Protein 7g 14%
Vitamin C mg %
Vitamin D 0mcg 0%
Iron 2mg 11%
Calcium 19.8mg 2%
Potassium 250.2mg 5%
Phosphorus 199.8mg 16%

Ultra‑processed foods are industrially formulated products containing ingredients not used in home cooking—such as preservatives, emulsifiers, artificial colors, flavor enhancers, and added sugars like high‑fructose corn syrup—created through extensive processing methods like extrusion, molding, and chemical modification.

Ha ha! My teenagers constantly bemoan that we are an ingredients house and not a food house 🤣 I take it as a compliment and remind them that they’re very good at making flapjack/cake/omelette/pizza/pasta and there’s yoghurt/fruit/cheese/bread/crisps if they can’t possibly wait long enough to cook.

They’re actually pretty good at cooking, so I see it as a win.

This was the sort of thing I was warning about.

Most supermarket cereals are highly processed, including processes to reshape them and make them look like "flakes" or "puffs" after the process, because that natural appearance has long since been processed out of them.

@Upsetbetty ive only managed to cook five times since mid June So yes ive been eating a lot of snacks
I live in a top floor flat and its been fucking unbearable
I didnt ask for my home to be turned into a sweat box but as it has been that has consequences

I think the pp was confusing UPFwith High-GI foods.

Yes, that might be true actually.

To be fair the Shreddies details you posted don't look as bad as they might have done, but lots of breakfast foods marketed as healthy are concealing all sorts of nasties and a poor nutritional profile.

I just find it quite naughty, because lots of parents don't read boxes and believe they are giving their dc a healthy start to the day,

An article I read said many children have had their daily sugar allowance from processed breakfast foods before they even leave the house each morning. I just find that worrying, especially when the poor parents are thinking they have given them a "healthy grain based start" to the day.

ETA its one thing for obviously unhealthy foods to have a rubbish profile, but it's a whole other thing when apparently healthy foods are concealing one. Things like pasta sauces can have huge amounts of sugar and the issue is not the total amount in it, but more the fact it doesn't even register as part of your daily sugar quotient.

It's junk by stealth. I'm all for having the odd indulgence here or there - but I want to KNOW I am having it!

I don’t watch people show their shopping. That’s a bit strange.

everyone has different choices

great that you’re so perfect.

we have a balanced grocery shop. I include snacks in that shop as I like to buy it all in one go to help budget and meal plan. We do often top up with bread/milk (and wine!).

I could from scratch most of the time and we eat lots of fresh foods. But I’m also crazy busy juggling FT work, kids etc so yes we do have crisps and biscuits in their lunch boxes and yes I eat them too. I love chocolate.

don’t spend much on myself otherwise so the odd chocolate treat and bottle of wine suits me fine. Kids are fit and healthy.

you sound very judgemental and I think started the thread to wind people up!

I feel sad for you, and even worse for your child. What a sad, narrow world you live in.

...eating flapjacks made of eyeballs as a treat!👀

Ah nice bit of virtue signalling

I’m guilty of looking at grocery trolleys while waiting for the cashier. I also do it at Costco on the elevator to see what people have bought in case there’s something I don’t know about and might want! 😂

yes I think some purchases are crap and it isn’t helped that the two supermarkets I subscribe to, send out a weekly special list which is mostly made up of crap items I would never buy and don’t consider as replacement for fruit or a proper meal.

I do think we (and I’m not in the uk) are very fortunate though to be living in times we are able to have choices when so many in other countries do not.

I also think it’s not up to me to decide ‘how much’ is right or wrong for someone to buy.

however it is my opinion that junk food should have a higher level of expenditure tax applied as long as this tax goes directly to support the health system …

Rather than taxing "bad" food or junk food, I'd rather see the supermarkets forced to sell "healthy" food in smaller quantities as needed (i.e. by weight or in individual units - so you should be able to buy just one banana or one potato, or just a few berries etc, in all major supermarkets).

@Calliopespa , the parents are probably too busy to read the ingredients or some other excuse.

I agree about the cereals - not a great start to the day especially if eaten in an unmeasured portion and with lower fat milk.

The hidden ingredients put me off things. When I was a child I was shocked that tomato ketchup had sugar in it so wouldn't eat it.

@takealettermsjones , I wanted carrots but the supermarket sells them in bags, so I didn't buy them. They weren't expensive but I couldn't see the point of buying food that I wasn't going to eat before it went off. I bought them singly elsewhere. Lemons are the same. If I can, I buy loose.

Yes exactly, and people on lower incomes, or those who get paid weekly rather than monthly, can't always benefit from bulk buying.

Re. the sugar in pasta sauce, ketchup etc - fresh tomatoes also have sugar. So the labelling can sometimes give people a bum steer imo. I try to use the "the ingredients list shouldn't contain anything you wouldn't have in your own cupboard" rule.

I've nothing against sugar, I just wouldn't want to put it on my dinner.

They used to, until they priced the local greengrocers into closure. I still don't understand how fishmongers thrived, then the supermarkets opened fish counters, once again put shops out of business, then suddenly couldn't make enough profit to sustain them. Well, I can, the profit they wanted, wasn't enough, whereas the small shopkeeper was happy to live over the shop (or rent it out) and make a weekly wage.

I know, and I buy loose/by weight whenever I can, but at this stage in my life I don't have the time to go around multiple different shops to get what I need - and I suspect most other families don't either. I think it would be a good thing for society if supermarkets' conduct were legislated more, given the monopoly they have nowadays.

What's it got to do with you? People who judge what I put in my trolley really piss me off.

They already do, don’t they? I’ve never been to a full size supermarket where you can’t buy a single banana or potato.

Don’t they do that in the UK? It’s been 10 years since I last shopped there.

You can buy loose fruit and vege where I live. Break the bananas into a smaller size if need be.

IMO there needs to be a major crackdown on snacks and snacking.

My favourite part of going shopping with my mum was picking out 4 or 5 packs of biscuits and dispensing them into the biscuit tin when we got home.
That was at least 50 years ago.

I'd have been severely fucked off if oat bars
were all that was on offer.