upbringing influence the way you eat?

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!