What were some "food rules" you had growing up? How does it affect you, today?

The only thing I could think of was I had to finish all the veggies on my plate. My mom cooked as there weren't that many fast food places. She took us to McDonald's once a year and that was only when we went shopping for school clothes. Maybe once a month we would have pizza or Chinese food.

GirlonBliss wrote: »

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"Finish everything on your plate"
"No dessert unless you eat your vegetables"

For me, sweets were a no-no. I even remember my parents taking my Halloween candy to their offices to give to other people so it wouldn't stay in the house.

When I moved out of the house, I felt free and had a free-for-all with sweets. Sweets galore!

A friend of mine struggled with her weight because she grew up always being told to finish food on her plate. Since the portion sizes in America are huge when you dine out, she always felt like she overate and guilty if anything got left behind, even though she was stuffed. She wishes she wouldn't feel guilty because she'd probably eat a comfortable amount if that hadn't been ingrained in her.

What about you?

"Eat more, eat more!". I've been fat ever since.

I hate milk. My mom, who is an excellent cook and wife, mother and human, would put the drinks and condiments out when she set the table. Problem was, she would set the table 30+ minutes before we actually ate, so the milk was warm. We couldn't leave the table until we drank that milk. I don't like the taste of milk and never have but I haven't had milk since I was a teenager. Not even on cereal. Thankfully, there are other ways to get my calcium in.

On the plus side, we rarely ate out or ate things from boxes. Salad and fruit with every meal.

I gained weight due to lack of exercise and my love of cheese, mayonnaise, pizza and salty snacks.

By the way OP, this is a very interesting thread!

RodaRose wrote: »

My mother also has an ED.
She keeps her weight down by snacking on little carby things all day and lots of activity.

This was my mum too. Fat was banned and i still find it hard to eat fatty or greasy things - the feeling of it in my mouth grosses me out. I was brought up counting calories and home cooking.

High calorie foods were banned
Second helpings were banned
Sodas were bannned

And i was constantly asked if i should be eating that. As a teen i developed a habit of eating sweets in secret whenever i fell out with mum as a way to spite her. I only just stopped this habit when she died.

I was underweight but told i had a protruding tummy and a big round bum. I was nagged about my posture all the time.

She was an amazing and loving woman who thought she was doing the best for her family and dealing with her own demons. Yet for so many things she reall messed me up. This is one reason i dont want children of my own.

It's weird, but I had no food rules when I was a kid. I ate my vegetables and finished my plate without problems, it never even occurred to me that not eating vegetables or drinking anything but water when thirsty was even an option or something other people did. Everyone I knew did that, so I did it too without giving it any thought. I've always liked vegetables so there is also that. Portions were big overall so that was a bad thing.

Dessert was only available on occasion anyway, and we did not have it right after meals so it did not take precedence and in my mind was something entirely different from a real meal. We usually had it in the evening when we would sit together as a family, or on birthdays.

For sugary or salty snacks I had a very limited allowance, so that was automatically controlled by the limited budget and I could only afford to buy a single serving of one thing a day. Almost all the kids I knew had the same small allowance, so it felt normal and I did not feel like I had to compensate when I grew up. That one was really helpful because right now I have no problems eating a single serving of sweet or salty snacks.

I think that because I had no real restrictions but nutritious food was always more abundant than fast food I just developed good eating habits food-wise, but not portion-wise. I eat nutrient rich food out of preference and every single thing in my diary that may look like I'm deliberately trying to "eat clean" is actually just me eating the foods I've always liked and I'm used to eating. If in addition to normalizing food (no strict rules, no stress around food) I also had normalized portions I probably wouldn't have gained weight.

Edit: now that I think of it, there was one rule. I was not allowed to take more than a very small handful of nuts when we visited people and had nuts served. They were very expensive so it was not polite to eat many. Probably why I started buying them in pounds when I got a job.

I grew up in a family of seven, where eating 3 meals a day was the norm. However, the only times we had all three at home was during the weekends or holidays.

Dinner was homecooked at 6pm, finished with plain yogurt or fruit salad

At weekends when everyone was at home we had a late breakfast/lunch which was a huge english breakfast.

On a saturday/sunday we had high tea with a home baked victoria sponge and a cup of tea, one cake share by 7. The other treat was a box of twiglets and 2 packets of iced gems, again shared by the 7 of us. It was always the same and we never got bored of it either. Sunday evening meal was always a roast chicken dinner.

There was always a ton of fruit in the house that we could eat whenever we wanted. If ever we were hungry outside meal times we would usually have something like a round of sandwiches with ham or cheddar cheese and lots of salad, or fish and chips (one portion), but this was always shared by all those that were around at the time. The only thing we ate alone was fruit, even that was shared if anyone else was around though. We always did it like this and never questioned it. plus we really enjoyed eating together.

We grew up with a inbuilt sense that you never take more than you can eat and never threw food away.

I loved eating like this and still do.

We never had rules growing up. Which is maybe the reason why I have whatever I want when I want. Or i did. Now its just better controlled.

Being forced to eat when not hungry was miserable. I would get sick eating breakfast so early, so making me eat it was pointless because half of the time I threw it up anyway. Making me sit there until I ate all of my dinner. Sometimes I would sit until bedtime, then they would relent and allow me to sleep. I just didn't require as much food when I was younger. I also had a lot of Happy Meals when my mom was in charge of me. It wasn't a treat, it was a normal thing.

never had food rules like that, and i dont for my kids either.

now, id get mad if they dish up a HUGE portion and dont eat it all because its wasting food (because theyll throw it in the trash), but they have learned to dish up a smaller portion, and if they want more, to go back and get it. even if they dish up more than they can eat, i only *kitten* about them wasting the possible leftovers to eat later, and not the fact they didnt finish their plate.