S/O Parents food preferences or diets trouble for kids?

[downtoearth]

So did your parents have any weird diets or food preferences that you still follow or rebelled against when you were old enough? Do our parents food habits (bad or good) matter now? WDYT?

Anecdotes win! (Or maybe just win likes and gifs)

[downtoearth]

I'll start - my parents were very anti-sugar cereal and white bread but otherwise we ate pretty much meat and potato style. I don't think I had curry/Indian food or sushi or really anything other than Chinese food until high school age. My parents are way better cooks now than they were when we were little - especially my mom she did the majority of the cooking and was pretty bad at it.

No fad diets or anything but I still don't let my kids eat Namebrand sugar cereals or white bread.

I did sort of rebel - after moving out I was a vegetarian from age 18 until about 31.

My friend's mom was always very fit and skinny and she did a lot of aerobics and grapefruit diets. In my mind still to this day I have the idea that eating grapefruit actually burns calories and is really good for you.

[jln]

Most fruits and vegetables I ate growing up were from a can. I had fresh oranges, bananas and apples, but that's it. I never ate a real (not from a can) peach until very recently. I don't really like fresh fruit and I blame my childhood for that.

[pt716]

I grew up with some "sugar is bad." My mom has a background in nutrition and my dad is a T1 diabetic so it's sort of understandable. I was lucky in that they were more about moderation in general though, so other that not eating a lot of sweets now, I don't really have a lot of issues. I did learn how to read nutrition labels and about serving sizes and macronutrients pretty early too.

Eta: also we always had a salad before dinner. I don't do that one as much anymore.

[StrawberryBlondie]

My parents always had ice cream in the house and ate a bowl after dinner. To this day, if we have ice cream, I eat a bowl after dinner.

[picksthemusic]

My mom wasn't around a lot when I was an adolescent (she was a single mom), and we ate a lot of convenience food/boxed processed stuff when she was extra busy. But when we were little and she was a SAHM, she made everything from scratch, she canned everything, grew veggies in her backyard garden, all that. So... a mix of both sides, I guess?

[chedifuen]

My parents are vegetarian and kept a vegetarian home. But, we were allowed to eat meat outside the home if we wanted to.

[zelda25]

Oh, god--where to start? LOL.

My mother has the palate of a 3-year old. I know I've mentioned this before, but I didn't know that I liked butter until I was well into adulthood--EVERYONE in my family eats margarine. I think most of them default to that because it's cheap, but my mother hates butter. And cheese. And anything she deems "weird," which is whatever she hasn't been eating every week for her nearly 75 years. I grew up on Hamburger Helper (which, along with margarine, is not allowed in my house) and canned vegetables. I pretty much re-learned my food likes and dislikes as an adult, because she's weird. I do share her seafood hatred, but I will at least try it now and then in an effort to find a kind of seafood I like (nothing yet).

When I cook, she hovers over me and expresses her disapproval over...everything. Garlic is worrisome to her. She hates my vegetables because I don't cook them into mush. Quinoa, which she should embrace because she's GF and her list of acceptable foods shrinks by the day. But, weird. So, no.

I do make a few of her recipes that I grew up on--things she actually cooked instead of convenience food. H says he married me for my spaghetti, which is mostly her recipe. And her meatloaf recipe is the only meatloaf that H and I both really like.

[penguingrrl]

I still eat very similarly to how my mom does and how we did growing up. Even in the 80s she was anti-white bread and sugar cereal and I was the weird kid bringing hummus on wheat bread for lunch. She was always huge on lots of fresh veggies and fresh fruits. The only major change I made going out on my own was switching to whole wheat pasta.

She also didn't kick her diet coke habit until very recently. I had that, too, until my first pregnancy.

[EloiseWeenie]

No restrictions. We could eat whatever we wanted. Mom is an awesome cook, and we always went out to eat on Thursday nights. I was super picky as a kid and hated almost all forms of meat (except fish), so I mainly stuck with fruits/veg/carbs.

[Deleted]

They both have messed up relationships with food/weight but not actually any particular foods.

Dad has Crohn's so we didn't eat spicy stuff, so I didn't realized I loved that until I moved out.

My weight is a mess, so I'm sure that comes from somewhere.

[sparrowsong]

I think my parents were pretty good. We were exposed to a decent variety of food, ethnic as well as meat and potato standards, healthy but nothing crazy extreme. We were not allowed sugar cereal except as an occasional treat. And that meant as a snack, not for breakfast. And until high school age soda was also a treat when eating out at a restaurant, but wasn't served at home.

[mich1]

Nope, thank God!

My parent's palates were fairly adventurous and we ate whatever they ate. This is despite the fact that my mom was raised on a midwest, meat and potato menu and my dad in a family where the menu was equally narrow.

[taratru]

Nope.

Monday was spaghetti.
Tuesday was Taco Bell night
Thursday was McDonald's.
Friday was Domino's.
Saturday was whatever I cooked while dad was at the bar, sooo...lots of pancakes.
Margarine instead of butter, boxes of Hostess and super sugary cereals for breakfast. We were free/reduced lunch, so I suppose I got fed reasonable decent food at school.

This was until 6th grade, when I started living with aunts and uncles who fed us a LOT of ground beef and potatoes, canned veggies, and white bread. Soda was a no-no (too expensive), but Little Debbie was everywhere.

It's a damn miracle I escaped serious health issues. I have a huge sweet/carb craving issue, though, and eat eat eat to feed it when stressed or emotional. I've learned to love healthy food, though.

[stealthmom]

Meals were always very balanced if not particularly adventerous. Fruit was always dessert. Eating out happened a few times a week.

The balanced meal thing stuck with me. I've never served a dinner wo a veggie .

Unfirtunately dh eats dessert every.single.night and ds does too as a result. It's very frustrating but food has been one of the biggest issues in our marriage and I'm tired of fighting.

We can't afford to eat out as much as my mom did. We love when she comes to visit though!

[terpsfan]

My dad got way into the Jane Brody "Good Food" cookbook at one time and we ate a lot of buckwheat pancakes and stuff with wheat germ in it. I can't stomach the thought of that now, they were like cardboard.

My mom bought one box of "sugary" cereal a week when she went shopping on Sundays ("sugary" to her was like Cinnamon Life, Kix, Honey Nut Cheerios) and when that was gone it was gone and we were left to regular Cheerios, Rice Krispies and other blah type cereal until she went shopping again. With 3 swimmers in the house that cereal box lasted one day.

We ate some form of pasta every single night (ravioli, ziti, spaghetti).  Red sauce and steamed broccoli.  My mom went all on Sundays with a big meal but weekdays was all pasta, all the time.  And tons of broccoli.

[msgeeksout]

My mother was a stay at home when I was little and cooked all sorts of things. And my parents had a rule that I had to eat was before me or go to bed hungry. Beef stroganoff and stew...bleck...gag. Can't stand them even to this day but my mom really liked comfort foods like that. By the time she went back to work I was obsessed with cooking so we never really strayed too far off that path. And she encouraged us to try new things.

However, I grew up in super small and remote towns. I only ever had fast food once every couple of months. To this day I get a craving for it. Definitely a bad thing.

[darnkatz]

I grew up eating primarily frozen pizza and Ramen noodles. Oh, and those packets of Lipton noodles. My dad was gone most of the time for work, so it was fend for yourself for dinner. When he was home, my mom made steak with canned mushrooms, canned green beans, and mashed potatoes from a box, hamburger stroganoff (which makes me gag still), hamburgers, pork chops, etc. Basically a giant chunk of meat with something from a can. We ate a lot of processed foods - Old Dutch dill pickle chips, microwave theater popcorn, sugar-laden cereals, wonder bread with bologna and Kraft singles and mustard, Little Debbies snack cakes, etc. I also drank soda from a very young age.

I've done a complete 180 and don't keep any of that in the house. We do eat meat, but I serve much smaller portions with actual vegetables. I bake whole grain bread and any treats we want, make granola and oatmeal, etc.

But if I start eating my feelings, I go straight to the junk food. It's like my brain sighs with happiness. I fucking hate it.

[lyssbobiss, Command, B613]

I've been overweight my whole life and my parents used to hide snacks from me. Every time they were out of the house it became this game for me to find what they hid and eat as much as I could without letting them know I found the stash. Once I ate an entire box of Girl Scout cookies and I figured they wouldn't notice because we had lots of other boxes, and hid the evidence in the woods behind our house. I was never allowed to have sugary foods when they were around and that turned them into, like, the holy grail of food. To this day, if I have sweet snacks around, I binge on them. It's like I have to eat the evidence that I ever had them. It's really terrible.

[bimbi284]

My mom has always been a really great cook, so as long as she was cooking, she was trying to make "balanced" meals. My dad MUST have meat at pretty much every meal. We would eat a lot of Puerto Rican food, which isn't always the healthiest, but she would make a lot of other stuff too. Unfortunately though, she also bought lots of snack food for us and basically anything we wanted to have for snacks or lunch, she would buy. This meant we had lots of sugary, carby crap, a lot of hot pockets, bagel bites, and the like made the rounds for after school snacks. One of mine and my brother's favorite snacks while sitting in front of the TV was saltine cracker spread with Country Crock. All the while, my mom spent a great deal of time (and still does) yo yo dieting, trying every fad out there, and eventually, she kinda put some of that on me. Before I knew it, I was tagging along to Jenny Craig with her, and doing all sorts of diets with her (starting from about age 12). Needless to say, I developed a bit of a complex, but was somehow savvy enough to realize that it was my mom's stuff, and not mine, so I've managed to avoid some of that same mess as an adult. I did do weight watchers once after college, but I had also gained an unhealthy amount of weight, and my bad eating habits hadn't stopped, so I wanted to learn what it was like to make and eat really good, wholesome food for myself, and not "diet" so much. Since then and through that process, I've done lots of research about what I put into my body and how it impacts my health, H and I went vegetarian, and now vegan. The vegan thing was tough for my parents, and especially my dad. My mom "gets it" more. I have really enjoy cooking more since going vegan.

[sugarglider]

Nope, no special diets. And that's why I think I have always had a healthy relationship with food. Thanks, Mom & Dad!

[stever]

We never had soda in the house and my mom only ever bought bread with nuts and seeds in it. The lack of soda was devastating when I was small but I was cool with the bread until I got braces. Getting seeds out of braces is no joke!

[UMaineTeach]

Jan 28, 2015 21:17:13 GMT -5 terpsfan said:

My dad got way into the Jane Brody "Good Food" cookbook at one time and we ate a lot of buckwheat pancakes and stuff with wheat germ in it. I can't stomach the thought of that now, they were like cardboard.

Never had wheat germ, but ployes are delicious. I should make them more.

[AJL]

We didn't have sugary cereal but that was more because my parents were cheap. They also didn't buy a lot of pre-packaged snacks. Again, cheap. My dad was the family cook and he was/is terrific! In fact my mom used to belong to a holiday cookie exchange. She'd give my dad the date for the event and he would start looking for The Cookie. Every year it was a surprise, even to my mom! lol! He always let her take the credit for the cookies but she never did.

[Deleted]

In my house as a kid, there was enough to eat for meals but very few snacks. When I got old enough to babysit, I used the money I earned to buy all of the snacks. So I'm a snack binger now.

[lyssbobiss, Command, B613]

Jan 28, 2015 22:11:36 GMT -5 @bunnybean said:

Jan 28, 2015 21:47:13 GMT -5 lyssbobiss, Command, B613 said:

I've been overweight my whole life and my parents used to hide snacks from me. Every time they were out of the house it became this game for me to find what they hid and eat as much as I could without letting them know I found the stash. Once I ate an entire box of Girl Scout cookies and I figured they wouldn't notice because we had lots of other boxes, and hid the evidence in the woods behind our house. I was never allowed to have sugary foods when they were around and that turned them into, like, the holy grail of food. To this day, if I have sweet snacks around, I binge on them. It's like I have to eat the evidence that I ever had them. It's really terrible.

Hugs. I grew up a lot like this. Eventually it just turned into binging and purging. 

HUGS!  <3

[Deleted]

No restrictions. A mix of foods, lots of veggies, lots of diversity.

[kadams767]

Well, we were poor and my dad was a very picky eater (as in, only vegetables were frozen peas, nothing ethnic, etc.), so even though my mom is actually a decent cook, we had no variety and not a lot of healthy food. The small grocery budget didn't leave room for fresh fruits or veggies after buying meat for every meal and the other stuff that my dad and brother would actually eat. It is sad to say, but even on food stamps now, my mom eats much better cooking for herself since my dad passed away. We basically had the same menu every week, over and over.

We rarely went out, once in awhile and never to nice places, and the only time we had fast food was when McDonalds would have cheeseburgers for like $0.25 on certain days. I didn't go to a nice restaurant until college, actually, and to this day I have a mental block when items on a menu are more than $10-$15. Probably because I can remember going to TGIFridays once with my parents and my dad refusing to pay $8 for a hamburger, so he had water and side of fries.

Particularly one that stuck with me is no sugary cereals, I still can't eat them really other than maybe as a dessert once in a blue moon. We also used to have diet soda with dinner every night. Now, I LOVE soda as a special treat, so I probably have diet coke or ginger ale every other month or so, but we never buy it to keep in the house and I never have it with a meal.

This all sounds kind of fucked up, but I am very lucky and don't really have any food issues now. I love to cook, I love fruit and veggies of all kinds and I am not picky it all. Basically a miracle based on my childhood.

[mrsukyankee]

We were poor at one point and my mom was not a good cook (she still isn't and her partner does all the cooking), so we didn't have a very varied diet. No sugary cereals (I loved Life and wish they had it in England) and we rarely had desert or chips. I did binge on cookies in high school once I earned my own money and could buy them, but other than that, it didn't influence me too much. As soon as I started to cook for myself, I tried to make all sorts of things as I discovered my tastes were varied. I definitely eat healthier than I did as a child (less processed foods).

[shauni27]

I grew up as part of a hippie family on a hippie commune. All free range, grass fed meats we slaughtered. All produce we grew. Everything organic, as natural as possible 90% of the time. Natural peanut butter, whole grain bread filled with nuts and seeds.

As a kid I HATED it, as an adult, I so appreciate it. I just cannot get behind all natural PB without any added sugar. Blech. I did go through a phase in HS and a bit in college where I ate ALL THE SUGAR. Not so bad now.

Fun anecdote: my mom always told us that the brown spots on bananas were the sweet spots, so we were really lucky if we got bananas with brown on them. I LOVED that shit. Just about 5 years ago my mom tried to give me a bunch of bananas because the were "too brown." I was so confused, I was like "but, ma, you said those were the best bananas, because of the sweet spots!" and she was all "yeah...brown spots are gross. Reverse psychology, y'all."

And it totally worked. I only eat bananas with brown spots.