Curious about everyone's eating habits as a child

tigerlily886
tigerlily886 Posts: 74 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I wish that I had more of a variety of food when I was a child. I was eating Chinese food last night and remembering how the first time I ate it, I was 10 and with my aunt. I had something I did not like and did not try Chinese food again until I was 18. I really only like sesame chicken. Maybe if I was exposed to it as a kid, I would like more.

My mom never cooked anything really healthy. And it was just the entree. If we had spaghetti, we had spaghetti, no salad or garlic bread. And hot dogs. And the frozen skillet dinners. That is pretty much what we ate. The only time I had salad was at my grandma's.

It just sucks because there are so many foods I do not like now and I think it was because I did not have it as a child. Peas and bean, yuck. And anything spicy. Now I eat more vegetables, other than corn. And my salad is more than iceberg lettuce with dressing.

We ate fast food once or twice a week. In my early twenties, I worked at Burger King, so I ate fast food everyday. Now I can't stand fast food, except a few things.

TL/DR My eating habits sucked as a kid and they are so much better now.

Replies

  • tmm_0127
    tmm_0127 Posts: 545 Member
    When I was growing up we had a pretty wide variety of food, some healthy and some not so much. Friday nights were almost always pizza nights (and star trek nights!), we had side salads with every dinner, sides were usually beans, corn, beets, or broc, lots of pasta and garlic bread... veal patties (which I would cry about because I thought and still think they're the worst things on the planet, I wouldn't even touch it if I couldn't at least smother it in mustard and ketchup to cover the taste)... My mom tried raising us with a some-what balanced diet, but never really restricted what we ate between meals. We'd always have nutella and nutty bars and oreos and ice cream around, and my sister and I didn't ask if we could have some after we were about 6 or so. When I got to middle school my parents and sister tried the weight watchers diet (my parents have both been overweight for almost two decades), but I wasn't interested. They both also started going to night classes to get their real estate licenses, so most nights for a year or two my sister and I were on our own for dinner and Wednesday nights became Burger King nights and we didn't generally eat dinner until 8pm. Let's see... xD...

    They say that kids develop the eating habits of their parents (and well, habits in general). My parents don't eat well, they never really have. They try every once in a while to healthify their lives, but it usually only lasts a week or two and then they revert back to old habits. They skip breakfast on weekdays and have full fry-ups on weekends, sandwiches and chips and cookies and cakes for lunch, what I described above for dinner but usually 2 servings, and they both snack like fiends until bedtime. I definitely absorbed those habits growing up which led to my initial weight gain.
  • chancock6
    chancock6 Posts: 87
    Never ate healthy, really. Lots of fast food, fried foods, no portion control. Sure, we had veggies and fruit, but that's just added calories when you're shoveling a plate full of mashed potatoes and a huge slice of meatloaf in your face. I ate as much as I could as if I were starving, and I paid the price for it. Salad I only ever had at my grandma's. Now it's different. I eat a lot more fruits and veggies, and my mom tries to cook them and make us all eat them.
  • Booksandbeaches
    Booksandbeaches Posts: 1,791 Member
    We ate very healthy food. All made from scratch. I really didn't have too many pre-packaged or processed foods. We ate from McDonald's like maybe 5 times a year. I don't think I had soda until I was maybe 9 years old. My weight issue came much later in life, not in childhood.
  • moonmistmm
    moonmistmm Posts: 178 Member
    The truth is, my mom did everything right. She's a nurse and we've always eaten pretty healthy. We always ate a lot of fruit and salad. I never really ate things like twinkies. Now that I'm older though, there are some things I'm teaching her, like switching to free range eggs. My twin turned out a healthy weight but I've been overweight since I was four (I'm 20 now). I think my body just worked differently, so now I'm working on getting it healthier. But I haven't had to change my eating much from when I was younger, I'm just more observant about portions.
  • dmpizza
    dmpizza Posts: 3,321 Member
    My Mom cooked many, many things.


    Most of the meals would now be considered part of the " Mediterranean Diet",lots of pasta, with small servings of well cooked beef, fish or lamb.

    As a result, I eat just about anything, but don't waste calories on nonsense like massive portions or foods I know aren't very good.

    Additionally, it made me kind of a food snob because I expect excellent quality. As a result, when we eat out, I rarely eat anything other than pizza or burgers unless It is an amazing restaurant because I KNOW, the quality won't be there.
  • dandelyon
    dandelyon Posts: 620 Member
    Other than a couple of lean years where hot dogs and Kraft Mac and cheese were staples, we ate pretty healthy and I usually chose good food, given the choice (wheaties over sugar cereal, anyway) . There were definitely a lot of sweets around, though. My mom is a sugar addict and our cupboards reflected that.
  • salladeve
    salladeve Posts: 1,053 Member
    We ate one pot meals or casseroles, no veggies or fruit the whole time I was growing up. My mother is now 85 and still will not eat veggies or fruit, but is not in too bad of health for her age, and only about 20 lbs overweight. she was never as heavy as I have been. I think when I got married and started cooking for a family I just went crazy, and we did eat out a lot, and a lot of fast food. It all caught up with me, but I don't think I can blame it on my mother (even if I would like to, lol).

    I have learned to like all fruits and veggies and am now trying to make them the main focus of my diet.
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
    We nearly always had home cooked food, reasonable portions and free access to seconds if we were extra hungry that day. We feed our kids the same way. As kids we went out to eat around 10-20% of the time and as adults slightly more with our kids. When I say "we" I refer to my siblings as well.

    I feel my parents/extended family raised us with a healthy relationship with food a good understanding of which one's are the healthy ones and which ones are good to focus on as well as excellent recipes for treats and a reasonable idea as to the timing and frequency for them. I wish everyone had this kind of upbringing and it appeared that my friends all had the same. I was shocked to find on this site so much of other situations. It makes me sad but I'm glad there's a place where people can discuss, get ideas and re-learn their ideas about food and eating.
  • mem50
    mem50 Posts: 1,384 Member
    Lots of fresh veggies and fruits. Mom cooked all the time perhaps not the healthiest versions......there were also the pies, cakes, deserts and homemade donuts tossed in the mix. Cookies too.

    There was always a salad, veggie, meat and potato. Very rare to eat out. Once in a blue moon we got Burger Chef. Oh, and mom would sneak in the occasional trip to Taco Boy.

    I was always thin to being underweight as a child. Burned off all I ate. Life on the farm was Busy, busy, busy.

    Started putting on weight after age 20. Was always told it's genetic and learn to live with the weight. So like a dumb A, I did. Then I got smart and realized that yes, it is a family history but one that can be controlled. I will forever be on a "diet" I can live with that.
  • faithcraft
    faithcraft Posts: 14
    My mother was a wonderful cook and baker. We had meat,starch, vegetables at every dinner. She always had dessert made... yummy cakes,pies and cookies. I guess that is why I don't care much for the store bought desserts. I will buy them for convenience sake only. Breakfast in our house was bacon, sausage, or ham with eggs, biscuits a side of grits or sausage gravy. Sliced tomotoes.. oatmeal or cream of wheat. There were four children. I was the only one in the family who was overweight. Still I was not obese- although I thought I was. I felt like an elephant. I ate to fill a gap that was missing in my life. I still so this on occassion. It is a struggle most days.
  • helenrosemay
    helenrosemay Posts: 375 Member
    We had a variety of foods. Lots of fruit & veggies and home cooked meals. We weren't allowed lots of sweets or junk food (like burgers or pizzas) if we did it was home made, even biscuits and bread. I was always at a normal weight throughout my childhood too & very active.
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
    My favorite foods were plain yogurt with honey and bananas.
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
    My mom is a good home cook. She's not too concerned with fat or calories, but everything I ate growing up was at least made fresh from scratch and served with a salad and vegetables or fruit. She rarely let me eat frozen convenience food or fast food and encouraged water over juice or soft drinks. I was raised to try everything more than once and to enjoy variety. And I've never been technically overweight, just a little heavier than I'd like, so she must have done something right.
  • snowboardandasuitcase
    snowboardandasuitcase Posts: 222 Member
    VEGAN

    My brother and I were raised vegan, which, 25 years ago, was way more of a feat (and head-turner) than it is now. My mom was absolutely amazing and made everything and grew as much as possible. It wasn't until we were about 5/6 that we first had milk in our cereal (an accident made by one of our relatives when we were visiting from out of town). Lets just say once you go white... water is just NOT an option!

    My big "not-exposed-to-it-so-I-don't-like-it" thing was sushi. It didn't last more than a few minutes before coming back up, when I was nine years old or so. I kept trying it though as the years passed and now I am obsessed!

    As far as being raised vegan, I thank my mom so much for her efforts. If I can I will, for my children. (They don't need to know about my chicken wings and ice cream, right??)

    :wink:
  • AmyZ46
    AmyZ46 Posts: 694 Member
    I grew up in Louisiana, So we had rice and gravy and a vegetable almost every day . Mom a big meal every day the other meal was sandwiches. We ate cereal for breakfast . We were very poor . ( even worse once we ate eggs for at least two weeks )
    I remember her going to the store every day to buy food for the day . She worked in a resturant so I think she must have gotten paid every day? We drank cool aid or water - we were never allowed soda. Also we never snacked between meals .

    We did have fruit every once in a while and we were excited about it too!
    We had store bought cookies once in a while but she would count them out we usually got 3 until we were older then we had 5 each .(there was 4 of us)

    When we got a little older my mom owned the resturant and we all worked there and ate there but mom didn't let us eat just anything, she was very strict about not eating the profits lol . Oh and that's when we all had soda , before that maybe we had one or two soda's in our life haha.

    We never really over ate and my weight gain started after I had my 2nd child .... sigh .
  • BrendaLee
    BrendaLee Posts: 4,463 Member
    We ate basic home-cooked food most of the time -- meat, potatoes & canned vegetables, homemade cake or pie for dessert. Definitely no green salad. Lots of Count Chocula and Franken Berry. Mac and cheese with fried bologna. Fries and hotdogs. Spaghetti. It was the 70s/80s, and Mom had 12 kids, so it definitely wasn't extravagant or all that healthy. I have no idea how she even kept us all fed! We never ate out, but I do remember occasional buckets of KFC and some happy meals.

    I had my first "salad" when I was about 25, and that was a Wendy's chicken Caesar wrap. Close enough. ;)
  • Fitiny
    Fitiny Posts: 24 Member
    Grew in africa so things were different. Fast food there is super expensive and considered a luxury. no kidding. We had a maid who cooked everything from scratch. In the morning we had coffe ( instant coffe) with bread and butter or margarine.For dinner and lunch it was mostly something starchy with mostly fish ( cheaper than meat there) in a stew. A lot of fried stuff cheaper than baking.oil is cheaper than the electricite the oven used. We ate few vegetables over cooked in a stew.

    Only had water in the fridge. Juices and sodas were for special occasions.

    But we had a lot of fruits, a lot. We had fruit trees in the backyard too. If you wanted something sweet your only option were fruits.

    Fast foward to America i started drinking a lot of sodas juice, eating junk. I was around my 20s so i did not gain weight.
    At some point i went back there and my brother who has always lived there said " don't you guys ever drink water. Aren't you afraid to get diabetes because of all the sugar in your juices and sodas?"

    Today i have kids and some weight to lose so i got back to my roots. Only water in the fridge. Make healthy dinners 5 to 6 times a week. More vegetables and a lot of fruits.
  • Ed98043
    Ed98043 Posts: 1,333 Member
    We ate normal family fare I guess. Cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and meat/carb/veggie for dinner. I would gain weight eating like that now, of course, but I didn't get fat until I was in my late 30's so I don't blame my childhood.
  • Athena53
    Athena53 Posts: 717 Member
    Mom was a good cook and baker and we always had a wide variety of everything. I do remember canned peas though. I still hate canned peas! There were 5 kids, which kind of restricted portion sizes and how many cookies you got for dessert since there was a lot of competition. Not a bad thing- we never left the table hungry. Mom was also the first person I know to try stir-frying (in an electric frying an!). I still remember thinking she must have artificially colored the vegetables because they were so vivid. She loved fresh vegetables and kept a garden. She even canned them at the end of the season. We were also very active, going everywhere on our bikes and swimming during the summer. McDonald's was a luxury and we rarely ate there.

    My siblings and I are now in our late 50s (I'm 60) and still healthy, lean and active. Parents are in their early 80s and still in decent shape. They're good examples.
  • scookiemonster
    scookiemonster Posts: 175 Member
    My mom really doesn't like to cook, but she still put a home made dinner on the table every night.

    She basically had maybe a half dozen recipes that she cycled through, but she always tried to keep things relatively healthy and balanced, I think. I remember some of the regular items in rotation being baked ziti, steak with veg/potato, roast chicken (which I hated... ug), pasta with chicken and veggies... can't really remember what else. There were definitely nights of hamburger helper and other meals out of a box, and a lot of the sides were things like a boxed rice pilaf, etc., but she tried. She'd melt cheese on my broccoli to get me to eat my veggies (which may or may not have been misguided, but I actually really like veggies now). We had a salad on the side pretty much every night. We didn't go out to eat a lot as a family when I was little; really just for special occasions or if we were traveling. We'd eat take-out on the weekends sometimes - Saturday night was my parents' date night, so dinner for us would often be either McDonald's or fast food like that or something easy for my mom like scrambled eggs. I never minded - it always felt like our special treat before mom and dad went out. Sundays were family day and we'd have dinner with my aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandparents, so usually we'd get pizza or something like that when the weather was bad or do barbecue in the summer. Dessert was really just a treat, although there was usually a pint of ice cream or ice cream pops in the freezer if we really wanted them. I don't remember there being a lot of junk food around, but I never felt like I was being deprived of it in any way.
  • Skrib69
    Skrib69 Posts: 687 Member
    When I was living at home, we were a typical meat and 6 veg family. Mother always cooked things from scratch, but in the 70's and 80's there wasn't too much in the way of fast foods and convenience ready meals here in the UK anyway. It was generally fruit or something similar for desert.

    At 11 years of age I went to boarding school where it was again reasonable balance, but chips (fries for you Americans!) with everything, and deserts were generally something stodgy to fill us up. I always enjoyed my food, even at school so rapidly started to put on the pounds. When I would go home, my mum would surreptitiously put me on a diet to keep things in check.

    It sort of worked, but my downfall was never the sweet shop - it was always the Deli counter with all the cheese, taramasalata, cooked meats, pies, pizza and so on. Curbing these habits has been my challenge.

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