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.

@Lilyhatesjaz , but the snacks now would have been meals then.
I don't think people see an apple as a snack, but they would a pile of 'pringles'.

Portion sizes were smaller in the 1970s.

Biscuits, potato-based snacks, sweets, cakes, noodles etc are 'empty calories'.

People should not be "enjoying themselves" by eating unhealthy snacks. We need to reprogram people's brains to remove the pleasure they get from junk food.

They might be empty calories for you, sweets and sugar is a dietary essential for me to treat dangerous hypos. And no you can’t just use fruit.

You sound incredibly naive.

I agree. My daughter moans that we’re an “ ingredients family” 🤔her words for having meals that are cooked from scratch which is bonkers. It’s eating real food!!!The Waitrose delivery guy joked today that my delivery was the healthiest he’d delivered all day. It had a sack of maltesers and a bottle of wine sticking out the top! I have a Riverford box and cook round that. A lot of veggie food which cuts down cost, huge jars of homemade granola, home made packed lunches etc.We have a tub of ice cream or chocolate at the weekend but just don’t buy or need crappy ultra processed high plastic packaging expensive snacks or foods the rest of the week. There is zero excuse not to cook from scratch with the internet. My husband has just fixed two toilets replacing flush mechanisms via YouTube. If he can do that anybody can follow a recipes.

I buy crisps and fizzy drinks every week and biscuits from time to time. I’ve been 9st - 9.5st at 5ft 7in for pretty much forever so I’m not going to stress over a packet of crisps and a glass of diet Dr Pepper. It’s far healthier to not have an exclusionary approach to any food. My weekly shop is around £75 for 2 adults.

They taste nice though don’t they? Not everything needs to be about nutritional content.

Good health is not about weight. You can be a healthy weight and have dire cholesterol, blood sugar levels and high blood pressure. Ultra processed food has been linked to bowel cancer rises in younger generations.Eating real food doesn’t mean you exclude foods.

If you have a medical condition that means they are necessary for you then presumably you have been advised accordingly.

They are empty calories for most people.

I was once thanked by someone for 'saving his life' (his words) because I gave him my ginger beer when he looked like he was about to collapse. He looked in a bad way and the sugary drink hit the spot.

Having chocolate because you are hypo or the odd Coke because you have a stomach upset or a take away is “once in a while”.

Thats not the same as buying soda drinks as part of a weekly shop, chocolate as a regular meal deal and MacDonalds every week because it’s quick. Which many people I know do all three every week.

The joke is on you because chocolate is terrible for hypos and no it’s not “once in a while” is absolutely like buying coke or juice as an every day weekly shop item 🙄

I wouldn't ban sugar.

Tut tut @BleedinglyObvious! What were you doing with a ginger beer!😱

I wonder if shredded wheat would have have the same restorative effect!

Diabetics could just carry a packet of sugar cubes in their pocket.

@Calliopespa , I had it with me in case it was needed.

@Marroon , I wouldn't ban sugar either or impose a special tax on it.
I don't think sugar or salt are 'bad'.

All of those levels are perfect too. Eating crisps doesn’t mean the rest of my diet isn’t ’real food’.

Yes you can do that here also. Do UK supermarkets sell everything in packs? Ridiculous.

But this post isn’t just about you! Good for you if you restrict the amount of UPF but many families don’t and we are now seeing vastly overweight and unhealthy children. Type 2 diabetes which when I started working in General Practice in the early 90s was seen as a disease of the elderly but is now not uncommon in teenagers! We are also seeing a nation living with poor health from a much younger age so people may well live into their 80s but for many it is with chronic ill health for decades vastly reducing their quality of life and costing the NHS a small fortune in the process

Exactly!

Yes, yes, bad for our health but newsflash - nobody gets out of this alive. On my death bed I’m pretty sure I won’t be thinking “man, I wish I ate less crisps”.

@CandiedPrincess , I doubt that those who die of old age having never had a day's illness in their lives are thinking on their deathbed 'man, I wish I'd eaten more crisps'.

Those suffering from illness caused or exacerbated by eating too many UPFs are probably cursing their poor diets.
Such illnesses include asthma, anxiety and depression, cancers, cardiovascular disorders and heart disease.

No but you may be thinking how much more you could have done in your later years if you hadn’t had chronic health issues. Healthy years are what count

It gives me pleasure to report i am sitting in the car park in the ME, engine running eating a sandwich of cheese and onion walkers and marksmanship sowncer thick cut white sliced, drinking a coffee and puffing on my ecigaterette. I feel joyful that I am not in the lentil weaving clique. I could not be more un mumsnet if I tried 😅

And you're proud of that?

Wow who knew eating real food and being aware of alarm from medical professionals re ultra processed food was a MN thing.

Crack on. Your health, your choice. I do hope though that taxes on UP foods go up hugely to cover the impact on the NHS.

Reminds me of the 60s and 70s when smokers tried to defend cigarettes!