WHAT'S HAPPENING TO US?

[skinnylizzie]

I wonder how many people are out there eating all the wrong stuff? I cant help observing everywhere I go now how many people need to lose weight. I stood in JL on Saturday and there was nothing healthy to eat, it was very hard to eat out. I did manage to eat roast chicken and salad in café Rouge but that was about all I could have. I watched the local grammar school kids at lunchtime today they had gone off to the local takeaway and several had carrier bags with junk food in them. I do wonder what health problems our young people will have, with parents all busy and no one teaching the next generation how to cook, it is very concerning!

[Hidden]

Hi skinnylizzie, I read you're post through a few times and it's something I've been thinking about for some time. I fully agree with you.

[LessToLose 4lbs Restart April 2024]

You can't walk down the high street these days without being confronted with a fast food shop every 10 paces or so. It is ridiculous!

I watched the documentary Fed Up about children and obesity in the US, it is shocking.

Money is the driving force, I am afraid, we are being manipulated by very clever marketing, it is everywhere.

[Cooper27]

I agree. When i started high school, I used to go to the chip shop every lunchtime. When I started to "diet" I switched to a Mars bar for lunch, and later just had a bottle of diet coke and no food. It was so unhealthy! I don't think things have changed all that much...

I do make an effort to eat healthy foods these days, and while selections are getting better, there's still a long way to go. I hate how expensive it is to choose a healthier option too!

[nhs2015]

Couldn't believe it when I read your post. This is exactly the way I feel.

I look around wherever I go and am amazed how overweight people are, eating so much junk food.

I thought I was unkind and was feeling guilty, but one year ago, it was me, overweight borderline obese!

So obviously because we did or are doing the NHS 12 week plan and see the result the solution and what it did or does to us, we can see what people are doing to themselves, their health and happiness. I would love to talk to them and say : hey, one year ago I was like you. Look at me now ! But I don't want to embarrass them as I know how it feels.

[skinnylizzie]

Grandchildren came yesterday and I was chatting to 14year old about food choices, she is extremely athletic and extremely thin, we had a good conversation about food types and how food breaks down. the problem is kids have no idea what categories food falls into and how the body uses it after I had finished, she said Grandma you should write a book!! I really think there is a huge problem here with parents putting money on a food card and kids either having nothing left on it or schools making food which isn't healthy, having no restriction on how many flap jacks or chips they buy with their meal card. When I was young my Dad came home for his midday meal Mum only worked mornings she prepared all the meal before she went I had to put on veg when I got in first, brother had to lay table but he never got home in time! The meal was always meat and 2 veg which were grown on the allotment, Mum made all her own pickles jam and puddings money was short and food had not long been off rations but we were very fit slim and healthy. Today everyone works most of the time so time to do it all is shorter but people have more disposable income and so spend it buying prepackaged food or eating out . Where do we go with this one?

[Hidden]

How true. It's amazing, but people do what they have been trained to do. I am in my 60's now, and was raised by a mother who cooked every meal. People don't cook anymore. I am in the US, and we drive by these strings of chain restaurants in shopping mall parking lots (car parks) on weeknights and they are full. It used to be that they were full on Fri and Sat nights, but now it's every night. First, I wonder where all this money is coming from, but second and more importantly is your point. People don't have a clue how to cook and don't want to. We have a generation of parents who went through school with no courses on home economics; children are all trained to get a career outside the home, and then their kids are raised by that thinking. And like others have said in previous responses, money drives the machine. Food manufacturers and restaurants dictate our diet, then the drug companies swoop in to treat the resulting mess and reap obscene profits. It will ultimately break us economically. As one person said years ago, McDonald's doesn't care about your health, they want your money!!

[WeightWarrior]

You are so right! I worry about my son's tastes in food. He is SO fussy and limited on what he will eat. I can get him to eat mashed swede and carrot with gravy over it but no other veggies, unless I make a stew and chop the onion very fine, I can get onion into him that way. His tastebuds detect if I have sneakily added a floret or two of cauli, I don't know how he knows but he can pick it up via taste! He will eat tomato pasta sauce, but he would pick out any mushroom/onion added to it even finely chopped...his tastebuds are so picky it's unreal. I once tried adding some pureed carrot to the pasta sauce and he found it "disgusting". I've tried making a sauce with all the mushroom, pepper, onion, tomato completely pureed so no lumps but he wouldn't eat it, tasted "horrible". It didn't, because I had it, there was nothing wrong with it!

I don't really know what went wrong tbh...at our various mother's meetings I was always the one who brought the home made veggie puree while the rest fed their babies from jars and packets. He used to eat the tomato pasta veggie puree I made when he was little. He used to eat vegetable soup, chicken soup, all manner of soups. He has just become more and more difficult as he's grown. I wonder whether his dad has some influence in this. His dad, before I met him, used to live on chips and sausages cooked in a deep fat fryer, pretty much every night, (unless he went out and bought pizza or burger and chips!!) as he had never been taught to cook ANYthing. I do manage to get veggies into him when I cook, but I still can't get him to eat pasta & sauce - lol it's like having two kids sometimes! Neither of them will eat veggie stir fry, so they have a "chip night" if I am having veggie stir fry for tea, to save me cooking separately for them too.

Anyway, I have always made sure that I have spent time in the kitchen with my son because of what I've seen in my hubby. These days I do use frozen veggies a lot, or sometimes tinned, because of the standing time involved in prepping stuff, but I'm making sure that my son is aware of how to cook at least some things. What he does when he's an adult is up to him, unfortunately I fear the worst but hopefully he will grow up and realise that for his health he needs to make good choices!