upbringing influence the way you eat?

Walter__

My family is full of fat-*kitten*. They can't just eat until they're full - they feel the need to binge. Every time.

Of course growing up with them I followed their same habits. That's why I got so damn fat.

farfromthetree

I grew up in a household where there was always a great dinner served. My mom was a great cook. She would be insulted or become angry if you did not take seconds and clean your plate. So, as I got older it was kind of a habit to have seconds. If my kids were not hungry or didn't like something, I never made them eat (and tried to not be insulted!)

Edited to add:When I first got married I felt like part of being a good wife was to cook these huge meals, meat, psata, veggies, bread..Now I usually pick two.

SpicesOfLife

not sure about food but beverages for sure. we never had a lot of money so my mum never wasted money on drinks, since we had mountain spring water coming from the taps. i guess thats why i never really developed the taste for it. i cant even imagine drinking coke, sprite, ice tea, etc.. when im thirsty, its just gross to me.

LB2812

A definate yes for me! We were poor, my parents didn't know how to cook, and my mom was an extremely picky eater who didn't like anything. So my diet was very limited and unhealthy, though I know they were doing the best they could. I would eat a bowl of white rice as a dinner. Or a bowl of pasta. The main "vegetable" was corn. I rarely ate a piece of fruit. Frozen TV dinners were the norm. Cookies were a plenty. My mom thought it was just awful my cousins weren't allowed to drink soda - look at us, we could have it all we wanted! Needless to say I was overweight.

I ended up going vegetarian as a teenager which got me started on the path of healthy eating, balancing meals, exploring new foods, eating vegetables, etc. etc. etc. I still struggle with carb overload (god i love white rice!) but my eating habits and the way i look at food is significantly different now then it used to be. I love to cook. And I don't even drink soda now!

wertgirlfor

Definitely. I've spent the past few years undoing all the bad habits my mom passed down to me.
We didn't have a lot of money growing up, but when I was little we had enough and ate pretty decent. We had veggies/fruits with dinner from the garden in the summer and then canned during the winter. My dad did the grocery shopping and he cooked dinner most nights. When my mom cooked, it was usually boxed stuff like macaroni and cheese or she'd make me grilled cheese. My dad is average size, whereas my mom is/was very overweight.

Then when I was around 10 (I think) my mom went back to work from being a sahm, and suddenly had a lot more income and decided she was going to do the shopping. Around this time the housing market also went bad, leaving my dad, a contractor, out of work. My mom is a big impulse buyer and binge eater, so when she went grocery shopping, she usually only bought junk food, boxed meals, frozen meals, etc. And since my dad didn't have money to buy "real food," he no longer cooked. So every night was now "fend for yourself night" for dinner. Which led to me eating a whole box of Kraft mac and cheese by myself every night. Not normal.

Basically, I'm now learning to cook real, balanced meals out of actual food instead of eating boxed meals and junk food all day. It's hard, but ultimately I feel 1000x better now that I've stopped eating absolute **** every day lol.

crystalewhite

I'm from a smaller town in north Texas and I grew up in the country. My mom always had a garden, and just because it was a drive we did not go out to eat very often. She made desserts on special occasions or for family gatherings.

I now prefer home cooked meals, heavy on the vegetables, and don't really have much of a sweet tooth. I got a bit lazy over the years, but it's what I always come back to.

RET68

I grew up in West Virginia in the seventies. My grandparents and my dad both ate traditional Appalachian fare. My mom was a drug/addict anorexic who liked store bought, microwaveable foods. So we bounced back and forth between - Sunday dinners with rolls, fresh corn, green beans we'd stringed, fresh fruit pies, meats from a butcher or something like venison or squirrel, just fantastic food. Then, home to "diet" chocolate pudding, "meat" with lipton onion soup, something from the crockpot, soda, candy bars, chips just gross. When I was ten they decided I was fat so she didn't feed me for two days till I passed out.
When I went away to California, I had never seen salsa before or sushi-even spaghetti seemed exotic to me. I learned I could extend a student budget on Asian food lunches stretched out over a few meals. Chinese, Thai, Indian oh my. Then Mexican oh goodness, life became such a culinary adventure. But on a trip with my daughter to Ireland, when they had just started their organic revolution, prompted by the EU, I discovered again the roots of my grandmother's Appalachian food with Salmon!, and I was home.
Heaven to me is wild caught salmon with spring vegetables just barely steamed and seasoned. A little cobbler or cookies for dessert, Oats for breakfast, seafood, all day, steaks whenever, and potatoes. mmm, must make potatoes to go with salmon for dinner. yes, it's a plan...thanks

myrtille87

My parents are both big foodies who like to cook and try new recipes. Food is an essential part of any family occasion and I learnt to cook from an early age (I could make pizza from scratch when I was about 10). As a kid, I normally spent 5 weeks in France every year and was heavily influenced by the culture there where mealtimes are an occasion.

My parents eat good home cooked food and I would say have quite balanced diets, but jin large quantities and probably too much in the way of fat and carbs (but still including a reasonable amount of protein and veg).

I have always had this attitude - even set up cooking rotas at uni so we took it in turns to make proper dinners instead of eating junk like most students do. It was OK until I finally got a full-time reasonably paid graduate job and continued eating all the usual stuff plus desserts 3-4 times per week and various unhealthy snacks, plus a lot of wine.

So losing weight for me has so far consisted of cutting out most of the desserts and snacks (just occasional small portions), majorly cutting down on wine (have only had 2 glasses in the past 20 days) and portion control - I can continue cooking and eating in more or less the way I always have done, I just need to pay a bit more attention and not mindlessly stuff food in my face after work.

seltzermint555

I lived with 2 financially well-off parents, and 3 siblings. At supper, my parents would make a HUGE amount of food for all of us. I grew up used to having a surplus in food always at my finger tips. Having take-out or desserts also created an environment of selfishness and survival of the fittest. If there was cake - you had to eat it quick, or it would be gone. Growing up, it made me distrust the idea of "leaving some for later" if I was not actually hungry at that time, as it would disappear.

It came to light as I was reading Intuitive Eating. I tested this theory one night with my boyfriend. We bought pizza - and of course, I wanted to eat the entire thing thinking subconsciously "I will not get another piece if I do not eat it all right now". I had my boyfriend promise he would not eat any of my left-overs. I left myself 2 pieces in the fridge. I did not feel the need to eat the pieces, I saved them until the next day for lunch. It was a relief.

I noticed this is a similar pattern of all of my siblings growing up - it is like we all would fight to get the most...and when you didnt, you missed out. I contribute this greatly to binging on anything delicious and dessert-type foods.

My mom was one of 10 children and she's talked about this a lot too!! They were all spaced out and she was #9, so there were "only" 5-6 kids in the home during most of her childhood and teens...but she says that her brothers especially would POUNCE if someone ate slowly or didn't finish their food, and everyone learned to eat quickly. She said that even as a teen she would eat her morning cereal with three cereal boxes around her making a little cubicle so her brothers didn't know she had cereal left. LOL

I was an only child and I think this is one reason my parents took me out to restaurants with them all of the time. My parents were middle class but with just three in the family I suppose it wasn't very expensive. We would get Pizza Hut almost every Friday night, sandwiches from a deli on Saturday morning and then go to a nicer Italian restaurant on Saturday night with friends/family, and Sunday after church meant a variety of places, anything from Red Lobster to Grandy's. I remember learning at an early age to drink water in restaurants, get a kid meal or something cheap, don't order appetizers or dessert.

By comparison...I remember going to KFC in the late 80's with a friend, her parents, live-in grandmother, and 2 siblings...and the price even back then was over $50 for all of us to eat. That was a mindblowing sum to me at the time.

Francl27

Yes and no. I grew up mostly on canned veggies, and now I won't touch the stuff. But I was allowed to snack on what I wanted, whenever I wanted, and that one took a very long time to get rid of... Same with having some kind of dessert after each meal, even if it was just some kind of pudding. Or having some kind of treat every time I went somewhere.

Vacations is the worst for me though, there was always a huge emphasis on food when I was growing up and we were going somewhere (trying local food etc), so yeah, food is still a huge part of vacations for me sadly.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

SarcasmIsMyLoveLanguage

Interesting thread. I grew up in Edmonton, Alberta. My mom, aunts and Grandma always had amazing gardens and I spent summers stuffing my face with fresh carrots, peas, etc. To this day I love fresh garden veggies but I certainly did not inherit the green thumb. Then when I was 11 my parents split up. And even though my mom had always been the only responsible adult in the house things got tighter. I became a latch key kid while my mom busted her butt to put food on the table for me and my sister. Kraft Dinner became a staple and I could easily consume a whole box myself. I think my mom was just too exhausted to deal with my eating habits and I honestly didn't realize what was happening until it was too late. To be clear, I do not blame my mom one bit, she did her absolute best. But yes, I do believe my upbringing contributed.

VBnotbitter

I grew up in stoke-on-trent in the uk to average income parents. They grew veggies for awhile and my grandparents grew a lot more. All meals were home cooked but did quite often include offal which I wouldn't touch with a barge pole now. My mum and my grandmother were great cooks and bakers but not everyday, so it was for a treat.

The only take away food available was fish and chips which was a rare treat. The first fast food didn't come to the city was a maccas when i was in my late teens. I hated the adverts and they took over a really good pub as their first venue. I would have been in my 20s and vegetarian when the first KFC arrived.

Now I live in Australia and I still grow veggies, cook all our meals from scratch and never have fast food except the occasional fish and chips. I guess I cook more Asian and Mediterranean food now but otherwise it's exactly as I was raised.

I have pretty much stayed the same weight and size, give or take a few pounds, for all of my adult life.

cdoesthehula

I will preface this by saying I loved my mum very much. She was kind, strong, funny and tough. My life had a very solid foundation thanks to her.

However, she grew up in a family where there was never enough to eat. And she was constantly thinking we were going to come to harm. She was still telling me to be careful on her deathbed.

With food we had to eat, or she thought we were ill and looked worried.

Also, she loved processed food. I think this was partly because she worked so hard. She did nightshifts (although as a child I never realised that because she was always awake when I was awake) and I think people were far more grateful to just have food.

Imagine working twelve hours, coming home then getting me and my sister dressed and walked to school, then tidying the house and sleeping until there was time to collect us. I don't know how she did it. Like I said, she was tough.

I still miss my mum. Just not the food bit.

SpicesOfLife

You know what is interesting about this? Most of us have grown up with bad habits and working to correct that. I wonder how we will affect our kids? And how they will view their upbringing.

My mom really thought the way we ate was healthy. I mean, in the 30's, they told people that smoking cigarettes was healthy. Lol.

Just interesting how our general knowledge grows on this topic.

this is exactly why it makes me giggle to see some people thinking they know it all and they have it all figured out, their way is the only way! because really, in 30-50 years people may laugh about the way we used to eat because they could have found out different things. :laugh:

TestingFun01

Where I live we grew up on meat and carbs. :happy:

Still eat it at every meal.

Hell_Flower

I grew up in York, in the North of England.

My mum didn't work when we were young, so we never had lots of extra money, so never had take-away and very rarely ate at a restaurant. All our meals were home cooked and we had a lot of stuff like casseroles, fish, veggies, shepherd's pie, jacket potatoes etc. My mum isn't very adventurous so we never had anything spicy for example. We always had wholemeal bread, skim milk (although whole milk as young kids), never went to fast food places etc. We had those bite size chocolate bars as treats.

As an adult, I am very similar I think, except I do like spicy things, and we have the occasional take-away. I have 3 kids, and they have been to McDonald's once (not the 4 month old lol) when my MIL took them. We mainly cook from scratch and have wholemeal bread, brown rice etc. I don't buy fizzy drinks and all my kids drink is milk or water, and we drink coffee/tea or water.

All of this! Must a North England thing.

We were basically the same - 4 nights a week would be some sort of meat (pork chop, lamb chop, chicken breast), or fish, potatoes and then two veg - peas, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans etc. One night would be salad and fresh roast chicken, Sundays would ALWAYS be a full roast dinner with the family and Saturdays would be lunch at nanas and dinner at Grandmas - which would again be fresh food.

I remember going to KFC maybe twice in my teens and only ate MacDonalds when we went to the fair ground or a long car journey and had to stop at motorway services.

Lunchboxes at school would always be a sandwich, apple, banana and a bag of crisps. My folks never bastardized anything aside from MacDonalds and we would get fish and chips or a Chinese take-away if mum wasn't up for cooking every once in a while and boxes of chocolates around Xmas or weekends. The attitude was always you "eat to live, not live to eat". We were allowed sweeties, if we used our pocket money and ice cream, but moderation was the key thing. I think as we weren't super well off that played a part in it - a family tub of ice cream was to last a week or two so we didn't have dessert every night.

I still follow this - although I probably enjoy food a little bit more these days as it's no longer purely just a functional tool to feed your brain and get you through the day. Moderation. My folks still do this - we went to an all-inclusive hotel for a week in the summer in Spain. There were all these people just piling their plates up and stuffing themselves silly. Mum and dad just took a bit of what they fancied and stopped when they were full. End of. They taught me to never take more than I need and that greed is a very unattractive quality.

Unless there were strawberries or grapes in the house. Then it was every one for themselves. They were so expensive growing up that I still see them as an indulgent treat, even though I can definitely afford to eat them everyday now!