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What will it take for people to understand the importance of diet?

51 replies

velcrobott · 29/04/2005 20:31

Just watched ITV's Tonight on 3 teenagers who had a diet of fast food be totally transformed after 4 weeks of normal, well balanced diet.... yesterday it was Supersize me on C4 and today there was the report that more and more kids below 10 are obese... and my son's friend is already obese so are his mum and dad.... how terribly sad and yet I don't think his parents either get it or are keen to improve things. My son's friend was handing out breadsticks yesterday and this was his breakfast..... I am sure she sees nothing wromg with that....
Sorry had to rant...

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zebraX · 29/04/2005 20:46

I guess some people never will get it.

There was a very good article in... hmmm... was it The Guardian? A month or so ago, about the transformation in the Finnish diet, they made a huge effort as a society to improve their eating habits, but it took 20 years to happen.

BubblesDeVere · 29/04/2005 20:50

I agree wholeheartedly with what you are saying, we now have NO processed food whatsoever in the house and go to a recently found farm shop regularly.

I don't even have sweets or chocolate or biscuits in the house any more, only thing is I am struggling at the minute because DH has once again started buying chocolate in as the kids shouldn't do without.

My opinion now is that if tney want sweets etc they can walk up to the shop with mummy or daddy and that way they are getting a treat as well as exercise.

Frizbe · 29/04/2005 20:55

oh good idea bubblesdevere, walking to the shops it is for dh from now on! I too have been trying to prevent sweets n crisps, much to his disgust, not the kids! (dd is happiest with raisens anyway!)

BubblesDeVere · 29/04/2005 20:57

The kids are finding it a struggle and if I'm totally honest so am I not having sweet stuff in, but i have to find other things or go hungry.

I have over 9stone to lose so not having sweet stuff isn't problem really.

velcrobott · 29/04/2005 20:59

Rice cakes, raisins, fresh fruit as snack,...

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Thomcat · 29/04/2005 21:01

I keep biscuits and some sort of treats in the house but they are fig rolls, or organic oat flapjacks, or eccles cakes, yoghurt coated dried apricots, things like that. They're classed as treats. We do have to odd bag of quavers but they are used to placate a bored child when we are out shopping or something. We try to limit processed food but not banish them. She has sausages and beans for example and fish fingers etc but I always offer fresh veg and/or fruit with every meal.

Thomcat · 29/04/2005 21:04

I have an urge to have choclate after dinner. It's not quite the same but I've grown incredibly fond of grapes, as has Lottie after 2.5 yrs of trying her with them!

cod · 29/04/2005 21:04

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Thomcat · 29/04/2005 21:06

Why not, it's nice to be smug about something once in a while
last week it was not having a hanhover for the 1st time, ever!

cod · 29/04/2005 21:07

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RnB · 29/04/2005 21:10

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Thomcat · 29/04/2005 21:10

no mate I don't and our email has been down since last wednesday afternoon.

Did you mention the possible pregancy in the emails????

cod · 29/04/2005 21:11

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Thomcat · 29/04/2005 21:12

no babes, just paranoid that someone will email me about it and work will pick up emails for me and see that I might be preggers and I don't want them to know anything.

cod · 29/04/2005 21:13

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Thomcat · 29/04/2005 21:15

LOL!

I should be in Wednesday and hopefully back up and running on email so will reply then.

velcrobott · 29/04/2005 22:06

RnB - DD is hugely affectionate and I didn't think it was down to diet LOL.... she does whine a bit though..... she begged for food all afternoon.... said she had to wait for tea and she ate huge amounts... I know I like to starve them ! LOL

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Misspiggy · 30/04/2005 17:41

RnB - do you mind me asking how old your kids are and how they reacted to the changes in diet? I have 2 DS, 15 and 9 yrs plus a DH who can clear out our "sweet jar" which is really an old biscuit barrel in a day if he's working from home I'm desperate to cut out or at least massively cut down on the amount of processed food (crisps, chocolate, biscuits) we have in the house, as both DH and me could do with losing some weight and DS2 has mild ADHD which I'm sure would benefit from a change in his diet. Any tips? Thanks

WideWebWitch · 30/04/2005 19:45

Interesting thread. I've been wondering for a while if diet plays a part in the huge rise in aggressive and anti social behaviour. It makes sense doesn't it: if children's behaviour is transformed by what they eat then why wouldn't adult behaviour be affected too? So the increase in sales of processed food is bound to have had an effect. The processed food industry has a lot to answer for imo, as does school education about food. More to post but ds wants a cuddle so I'll come back to this.

oops · 30/04/2005 19:59

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velcrobott · 30/04/2005 22:23

I too do not understand why it is not understoob by more people that diet affects mood and behaviour !
It's in on TV all the time....
And when you think about a bag of crisp or a coke on a 2 or 3 year old... have you seen their size ? Can you imagine that it must have a bigger impact on their body and brain !!

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oops · 30/04/2005 22:32

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Caligula · 30/04/2005 22:40

I think people do know, but just feel powerless. I was talking to someone a while ago, who mentioned Jamie Oliver, and said "I feel terrible, X eats all of those, but what can you do, if that's what they'll eat..."

It was just very clear to me that somewhere along the line, this woman has been completely disempowered. She obviously genuinely believes that her DS will not eat anything but the junk she serves him and it's a fool's errand to try and change his eating habits. I wonder how such entrenched attitudes can be addressed?

WideWebWitch · 01/05/2005 07:41

Caligula, I wonder how such entrenched attitudes can be addressed too. I will admit that my ds gets crap (I suppose at least it's veggie crap) when he goes to ex mil's house every other weekend and it makes me cross because it does affect me: had he only lived with me he wouldn't have eaten so much crap or even know what some of it was. I decided long ago that all I can is do is make sure he eats well while he's with me, which is the majority of the time but yesterday he was walking round the kitchen whingeing because "there's nothing to eat muuuum" - what he meant was there's no junk food. There were apples, satsumas, avocados, mango, cucumber, tomatoes, cheese, pasta, broccoli, yoghurt, hummus, carrots, bread, marmite, peanut butter and more but no crisps or sweets or cakes. And because we'd been out for lunch and he'd had garlic bread, chips and then ice cream (he didn't like the one other veggie option main course) he wanted more empty calories. So junk food really does, IME, breed a desire for more junk food. He wanted refined carbs and sugar. And there weren't any, except the sugar in fruit and it made him so cross. And it made me cross too, that he was whingeing when there was tons of food, just nothing unhealthy. And as long as he lives with me that's the way it'll be but it would have been so easy to have given in yesterday and said 'here's a bar of chocolate, stop whingeing' but I couldn't because a) we didn't have any and b) whining doesn't ever get him what he wants. But I can see how easy it would be. I do feel depressed about the state of the food industry, I was in Asda briefly yesterday and there were a lot of very fat people with trolleys full of processed sugar and fat laden crap. (I'm fat but got that way on too much olive oil and wine, so maybe I should shut up!) Oops, yes, you, me and velcrobott would have a very boring dinner because we all agree!

kerfuffle · 01/05/2005 08:46

www, I wish I had you in my house stopping me from eating rubbish. I cook healthy balanced meals but then can't seem to resist sweet stuff. An apple just isn't the same, is it? Went out for lunch as a treat yesterday with dh (MIL loooked after dd for a couple of hours), was really enjoying it until I went to the toilet and caught a glimpse of my gargantuan backside in a full length mirror. I was horrified. Note to self - stop being a piggy and get a grip!