Those of you who are so very strict (or call it consistent) on the good food issue...

[emkana]

... aren't you worried that your children will overdo it on hte unhealthy stuff once they can make their own choices?

I find with myself that as a child we never once went to McD or anything like that and instead of putting me off it I still have an irrational feeling that it's a treat.

I'm trying to teach my children that it's okay to enjoy the rubbish in moderation as long as you make sure you eat healthily otherwise.
Don't know if that's right/going to work out though.

I must say though that I am frequently speechless how very purist a lot of you are!

i agree mekana the view that all the bad stuff should never be eaten is MAYBE a little too extreme

IO can remember as a child not being allowed sweets but being allowed chocolate occasionally, seemed fair enough but a girl I knew at school was never allowed anything like that at al so when at a paarty she would just stay at the table hoovering up all the things that she wasn't allowed

Hmm, I generally don't eat rubbish myself (haven't been in McDs or similar for years and years). My kids eat what I eat, hence they don't eat rubbish.

My kids do get unhealthy food, they get some ice cream, some chocolate, lots of homemade cakes. We don't just sit in the dark and gnaw on twigs.

I do distinguish between rubbish (McDs, other heavily processed food) and nice unhealthy food (nice things that are full of butter and sugar, but aren't really processed).

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I think parents have to be very careful and offer a very balanced range of foods and not discount all rubbish as rubbish.

When I was growing up rubbish food was practically never ever given (only at xmas) and so we came to see it as a huge treat, I mean all food but especially bad food. I am now very very overweight and I feel that a lot of it is down to the fact that food in my mind is such a huge treat. I am now on a diet 1st 10lb lost but its really hard.

I think anyone who resticts a childs diet to the extreme as some parents on here do, are only setting themselves up for a fall.

I know what you mean. My mum was very much against Maccy Ds etc, and of course I ended up spending much of my teenage years in there .

but then so did my mates, whose parents were not so strict.

but I don't think it's any better for parents to use it as a treat.

maybe the answer is to be v matter of fact about going there, only for 'emergencies' perhaps when there's no better alternative. The food is pretty shite, it has to be said.

Hmmm.

There might be something in that. I had free access to chocolate as a child, and at the age of 26 would much much rather have a piece of toast.

my mum is a total food nazi though. she would never give us chips and is a bit that we order chips for ds (23mo) when we eat out (e.g. in pubs - he has a dairy allergy so a lot of kids pasta dishes are out because of the cheese).

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I think it's the treat aspect that's worrying about flutterbee's example.

it's the same sort of thing when people tell kids to eat their broccoli or they won't get any ice-cream.

it loads the food with all kinds of meaning that just shouldn't be there.

hmmm - we were never allowed a lot of sweets, biscuits or cakes, only had dessert on Sunday and that was usually pineapple chunks! . We had a treat on Thursday when dad got paid and we had a Mars bar that was a big deal back then!

I found that when it came to me parenting, I never bought loads of sweet stuff either. Don't get me wrong we did have biscuits and stuff but I was constantly amazed at the volume in some supermarket trolleys at the check out!

I never prevented mine going to fast food restaurants but the stuff is so gross I trust their own taste buds to tell them what crap it is! Again they have been, but rarely.

I know someone whose children were never allowed to have sweets or chocolate - unless it was their birthday. I have seen them both looking positively green after stuffing their faces with the stuff for one afternoon only.

The mum won't accept that one of the children now has an 'thing' about; the child is exceptionally small for its age, is very fussy about food at home - but will eat most things at my house.

a 'thing' about food

Depends on how you approach it.

I have never taken my children to McDonald's and never would. They have however been once or twice each when invited to birthday parties (they are 13, 11 and 9). I think each was quite glad to go to see what all the fuss was about, but none particularly liked the experience, definitely didn't like the food and none seem to want to go back.

I agree with whoever said there were different kinds of 'unhealthy' foods. We eat a very healthy diet, but there is still room in our diets and our lives for good-quality 'naughty' things.

So, I don't ever buy anything with sweeteners or hydrogenated fats or whatever, but see nothing wrong with buying some good-quality chocolate or similar treat - we often share a bar of Green & Black's in front of a film on a Saturday night.

We eat cakes sometimes, predominantly home-made, and ice-cream, but again that would be 'proper' ice-cream and not some horror-story purporting to be ice-cream.

So for me it's the quality of the ingredients that's important - I would never claim that Green & Black's or ice-cream or cake is healthy, but if it's eaten in moderation and is made from good-quality ingredients, that's fine as part of our wider diet.

I kind of go by the rule that as long as approx 80% of what you are eating is good then the other 20% won't have too much effect.

We have sweetie day once a week, the odd treat out, no restritions at parties etc, I try not too sweat it.

Hate and avoid sweetner and hydro fat like portonovo but I don't preach and try not to make it an issue.

Nah. I had a strict diet from my mother but haven't, although I do love a nice pack of walkers crisps

emkana I'm with you.
we do eat healty, and so does DD, but I'm not panicking too much. probably about 80 v.20%

We did eat healty when I was a kid, always home made food, never ever MCD, but then again we did not have it in Italy back then. we had home made chips occasionally but it was well know and accepted that fried food was not good thus to be eaten rarely. same with puddings, crisps, buisquits, cakes where not something prohibited but not an everyday habit etc.

I never felt paranoid about food, and everyone in the family has always been on the slim/healty side.

I think the most important thing is to teach children what the food they eat is, where it comes from and how is made, and what it's purpose is for etc.

TBH, I guess it was needed but I am a bit shocked re all this fuss about food lately while alchol is kind of forgotten.

in italy for example they would worry more about the unheltyness of a teen ager drink him/herself into a stupor, or drinking more than 2 pints a day after work, or a bottle of wine with each meal, IFSWIM.

I have taught my ds what is good, what is bad and what is ok once ina while
He knows no artificial sweeteners and no coca cola, no processed meat products in school meals they are my no way not ever.
Everything else is ok... sometimes
He is ok with the embargo he understands and even now espouses the same view himself.
What he does when he earns his own money is up to him
I know that I went through a junk phase when I had freedom from my Adele Davis student mother.
But it all came back to roost when I matured.
You can only teach them what is possible and preferable, and hope that at some point in their life they turn to it themselves again.

A family i worked for as a nanny were obsessed with healthy eating.

No sweets, choc, biscuits, cake, junk food, takeaways.

Their youngest daughter went to a party and didnt join in any of the games as she was stuffing herself with all the party food!! Sweets, E numbers, colourings!!

I was ROFL!!!!

You can be too obsessed IMO.

Also although we do eat healthily we do go to McD's very occasionally but dont make it out to be a treat. Its just food IYSWIM.

I take the view of moderation. We don't have unhealthy stuff all the time but I don't ban it (apart from fizzy drinks and we only have squash in the house for guests who won't drink smoothies). I don't think banning stuff really helps. Actually, I don't really ban fizzy drinks - I just don't buy them. DS1 had some coke (ie cola ) at a party and didn't like it but I wasn't horrified that he'd had it.

We go to Mcdonald's and yes, it is called a treat. Why? Because DSs enjoy it and we don't go often. They are fully aware it's not healthy and I reinforce this.

A treat is "A source of a special delight or pleasure" according to dictionary.com. It doesn't say it has to be good for you or explain why it gives special delight, just that it does. And DSs think it does.

Agree with Soupdragon, everything in moderation. If you can bring your child up with a balanced way of eating they will be ok, extremes are bad imo.

"... aren't you worried that your children will overdo it on hte unhealthy stuff once they can make their own choices? "

Why ever would I worry about that? Overdo? for treats mine make cakes (have made fairy cakes tihs morning with icing so lots of sugar but no e numbers or crap like that), or have chocolate. I've said it before but in our house McDonalds ISN'T a treat, the above things are. I don't mind sweets in moderation or the odd packet of crisps btw but they're not something I normally buy or have in the house.

I started off with not allowing my girls crisps and sweets in any form.

And treats are fruit, grapes specifically (all paid for of course), the result is the girls will play with sweets if they're given them and hand them back once they've gotten sticky, but will descend on a plate of fruit and not leave till it's clean.....

I try not to make a big deal out of food, specifically because I don't want them to be obsessed by it when older and they have better access to other types of food.