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.

I worry about my teeth now with snacking. I didn't realise how much of a snacking habit I had before I got invisalign...Also never knew how bad grapes were for snacking on.

Now I run my meal plans through ChatGPT and rate it for overall health, heart health, dental health and highlight any deficiencies. Yes I am a bit sad! 😂

This thread is making me realise I don't ever pay attention to anyone else's shopping... but I'm going to have a nosey next time!!

It doesn't mean you need to eat rubbish food though, does it.

Most of what I eat doesn't take 20 minutes to prepare or require standing over a stove.

My relative is disabled and lives alone and cooks. Manages to eat healthily despite being in a wheelchair. Another relative has bad arthritis and can't prepare food very well.

@takealettermsjones@timtamsarebetterthanpenguins@BleedinglyObvious

That’s odd. I usually do an online shop from Sainsbury’s and you can definitely buy bananas and potatoes loose. If in a physical supermarket then I would just snap a banana off a bunch if I only wanted one. I suppose that you can’t do that if they only come in ready sealed bags.

We're rural and limited to three supermarkets for delivery - otherwise (unless you can drive 40 minutes) it's a small-ish Tesco or a tiny Spar, so options are very limited.

Not only encourage our children but talk about these items as treats!! Palm oil and E numbers are not treats! We should be teaching our kids that lots of stuff in the supermarkets are not even food in the real sense of the word but chemical crap. If we dont break the cycle we are just setting them up for health problems later in life

How old do I need to be 🤔

Some of us don’t see anything wrong with snacks or treats or whatever you want to call them - as part of a balanced, varied diet. I don’t believe in restricting any food groups.

Well when you think about the layout of the average supermarket, fresh fruit and veg tends to be at the start. Processed foods - biscuits, cakes, ready meals, etc tend to be in the aisles that you hit after the fresh foods. So it stands to reason that any fresh food will be covered by the processed foods by the time you get to the checkouts.

Supermarkets should only be allowed to sell healthy foods. There should be separate shops to sell unhealthy foods and they should be taxed to high heaven.

How old do you have to be to have a heart attack, bowel cancer or become type-2 diabetic etc?

The problem is that people generally don't recognise a healthy balanced diet.
To me a healthy diet is lots of veg, some fruit, some protein, some grains, a bit of fat. If I fancied crisps, chocolate or cake, I'd have it. I just don't have them very often. If I have them, I want them to be good ones.

But UPF especially snacks often aren’t a food group. Pringles can’t legally be called a crisp, chocolate bars have little nutritional value now coco/sugar / /milk is replaced by manufactured substitutes.

No one is saying you can’t eat sweet or savoury snacks. It’s the increasing replacement of actual food with junk instead. Crisps or pot noodle instead of lunch . Ready meal instead of veg and meat or vegetarian cooking.

Also not buying just snacks because you can.
A homemade churro is flour, baking powder and boiling water. Bit of cinnamon.
A Tesco doughnut is Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin], Raspberry Jam (21%) [Sugar, Raspberry Purée, Water, Acidity Regulators (Citric Acid, Trisodium Citrate), Gelling Agent (Pectin)], Palm Oil, Sugar, Rapeseed Oil, Yeast, Emulsifiers (Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, Mono- and Diacetyl Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Raising Agents (Sodium Bicarbonate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Potassium Carbonate), Soya Flour, Maize Flour, Salt, Flour Treatment Agent (Ascorbic Acid), MilkProteins.

No, it’s not normal household shopping. But, no one has to buy any of them.

My nearest big supermarket has the sandwiches and newspapers by the entrance, then the fruit and veg, then bakery, then fridges, then freezers then soft drinks and booze. At the back of the store are things like world foods, tinned and dryfood, tea and coffee,baking items, confectionery, biscuits, crisps, magazines and cards, washing powder, bog roll, pet food, baby things, toiletry items and personal hygiene products, medicines, pharmacy, magazines and cards, clothes.

The ones who don't eat it can skip the fresh fruit and veg aisle, or just get a banana or something.

Bet that Churro tastes like shit tho

To be fair, I don’t buy any chocolate for its nutritional value. I buy it because I want some chocolate.

It’s not IMO usually a case of ‘can’t’ cook - more likely ‘can’t be arsed’.

22.8g sugar per 62g bar. Wow. The ingredients list is mainly a list of different sugars/carbs with some seeds thrown in.

Churros are amazing! Deep fried ( or air fryer) deliciousness. Spanish street food.
But they are made from basic ingredients we all recognise.

Even the raspberry jam in the Tesco doughnut has CitrateTrisodium and only 21% fruit

I don't think that obesity is all down to snacking. I was brought up in the 60s and 70s and I have a theory that the real reason many more people are overweight today than in the past is that we are the first generation to actually be able to eat food that we enjoy the taste of rather than what was available.
I remember roast and veg Sunday, cold meat and fried potatoes Tuesday and Wednesday, the same meat minced up as cottage pie Thursdays, may be some stew or beans on toast.
It was all the same all boring and I ate the minimum.
These days we have access to food from all around the world, we eat things we actually like so we eat more and get bigger.

Churros Recipe - RecipeTin Eats (not personally tested)

I don't think that obesity is all down to snacking. It's usually down to overeating and not being physically active.
'Snacks' are typically high in calories and low in nutrients.
Eating out and takeaways encourage overeating.

Most of my slim friends and family eat differently to the overweight ones.

(One or two have disabilities or medical condition that affect their weight/mobility, which is different)

The original Dairy Milk had full cream milk and no emulsifiers or palm oil. I mean lovely chocolate but without the crap.
It’s such a shame it’s much worse fit your health than it should be.

I do think there is an issue with access to good quality healthy ingredients.

We are fortunate in that we shop at the supermarkets that have exactly what we want, so organic fruit and veg shops or M and S organic, meat from butcher, unadulterated cereal used to come from the health food shop but is now available in Waitrose etc.

But on occasion when we have been picking up food on the way home from a holiday or similar and have called in to other less expensive supermarkets because closing time is approaching etc, the truth is the offerings are such that it is much, MUCH harder for me to piece together a healthy meal.

The fruit and veg section is often small and looks wilted and unappetising in comparison and the range is far smaller (one assistant had no idea what an aubergine even was). The cereals are the junk food variety. The meat looks ghastly. I can honestly see how people end up being drawn to the microwave pasta meals or a Pukka Pie - things which it wouldn't enter my mind to buy at our normal supermarkets. Even if I went to make the dc wraps with spicy mexican chilli using the tinned bean section, the wraps themselves are the UPF laden brands.

And the truth is not everybody can afford the luxury of better supermarkets. If you are not in that position, I think it is a bit rich to judge the people who are needing to shop in the cheaper supermarkets. It is much easier to be virtuous about food when faced with a glorious array of first quality pineapples and pomegranates in lieu of a wilted bunch of broccoli or floury apples and an overgrown, hoary carrot.

Cost of living is an issue for many, and it IS harder to be healthy on a budget.

I do think there is an issue with access to good quality healthy ingredients.
Like milk, eggs, apples, ...

If you're strapped for money you won't be shopping for aubergines, pineapple and pomegranates, you''ll be buying cheaper seasonal fruit and veg.

Yes, I don't disagree with that. I think you are feeling people are saying it isn't possible to eat healthily and cheaply, whereas my point is to acknowledge the way we live in the UK can make it harder. Not impossible, but harder.

A floury apple that is cheap is not as appetising as a juicy pineapple.

It takes more willpower to eat the apple than it does the pineapple or a punnet of gem-like raspberries.

And to be honest some of the fruit and veg can look so "over the hill" that I wonder what level of vitamins are still in them. So whereas a punnet of relatively fresh raspberries would have good levels of vitamin C, you probably need two or three elderly apples to get the same nutrition - thereby adding cost beyond the per piece price. (Have a look at vitamin c levels in those two examples)

My point really is that instead of carping at consumers, maybe we need to look at deeper structural lifestyle issues including the way we access food. In many parts of Europe local markets are still a hugely accessible source of beautiful, fresh produce at very reasonable prices. Here they are often frightfully expensive chi-chi farm shops that sell as much in the way of cashmere socks and farm shop logo cloth bags as they do farm produce.

My point really is that instead of carping at consumers, maybe we need to look at deeper structural lifestyle issues including the way we access food.
I can access healthy food on a tight budget because my attitude isn't like yours.