do you think how we ate as kids set the tone for adulthood?

I am mid 50's. I was a latch key kid 100%. (I came home from school to an empty home because my parents worked - I had a housekey on a string around my neck)

I ate horribly. I just remembered eating STEAK-UMMs. haha.. fake meat, frozen in thin slices, and pan fried into sandwiches. not only was this not that healthy, I think it set up my food habits badly.

the 1970's were all about easy foods. convenience over everything else. TV-dinners! not sure they even exists anymore! I havent had a chef-boy-r-dee anything in decades.

I don't have kids, but I was just thinking out loud. I'm shocked my liver isn't fois gras. my college beer days didnt help. back then it was convenience foods. now, what? fast foods?

 

Absolutely, humans are creatures of habit and no stronger habits are formed then when we're in our formative years.

 

do kids still drink milk by the gallons?

 

I was told to as a kid, but I think the common sentiment is moderation now. It's okay for kids, but there are other great sources of calcium and humans don't process lactose well anyway

 

I disagree with you on this one. Life is all about choices and you're allowed to make whatever choice you want. Make good choices and good things typically happen. The opposite is also true.

For perspective, I'm the only non-obese man in my family. They all blame genetics and say they can't help it while eating like crap and not exercising. I grew up eating terribly just like everyone else around me, but you don't have to do it when you're old enough to make your own decisions.

 

I didn't say you have to, but unconsciously (especially if you're not concerned about your obesity) you'd be more likely to eat as you were taught. Not everyone knows they have a problem, or they simply don't acknowledge their core learned way of life as the problem. You definitely have choices but wouldn't you agree that if you learned to be healthy and make healthy choices early on instead of eat like crap and be sedentary, weight wouldn't have even been a risk factor for you to have to do something about?

 

Have you have been served boiled Brussels sprouts or well done lamb with mint sauce?

Now I eat them if they are roasted with a bit of seasoning and I grill the lamb rare to m rare. Imagine my delight when they were delicious, and no longer a stimulus for dinner table strife.

 

As a kid from the 70s, we grew up on Instant Oatmeal, TV dinners, Space Food Sticks and TANG. When you're a kid, you eat what you're fed. As an Adult, you feed yourself.

 

Man I haven't had lamb in forever... I'd love some though

 

My parents grew up in Britain being bombed by nazis, so I think their baseline was...unusual. Rations, butter was like filet mignon to them.

 

A lot of eating is habitual and it requires effort to change those habits

Growing up in the early 80s - my brother and I were latch key kids but we ate pretty well; mostly because my parents refused to buy shitty food [sugary cereal was a dessert in my house], we had a huge garden and since we lived in a rural area, we ate what we could make/find at the house..
We both learned to cook early on because my mom cooked shit for dinner when she got home from work; we didn't want shit for dinner so we took over that job

My mom would boil [and ruin] so many vegetables - it took like 20yr for me to try some of them again and realize they are actually good when not cooked to a mushy pulp..

Today we both still eat pretty healthy, minimal junk and are in good shape

 

mine was eggplant. my mom shouldn't have ever discovered that thing. so gross.

 

my neighbor is German and had the same life. she is 98 now and healthy as hell. she said it was because she ate so little as a kid. it just kept translating as she aged. she eats like a bird all her life.

her entire family went full gluttonous when the war ended and she said they are 100% type-2 diabetes. interesting stories from that lady.

 

Fair points all around. It is likely a lot easier if you grew up with good habits. The Marines both taught good habits and gave me body dysmorphia lol so I did have some help along the way.

 

Brussel sprouts are actually different now. A different variety was bred to remove the nasty bitterness, apparently.

But also, roasting them helps immensely. I think a big reason lots of people dislike vegetables is because they've only had them cooked into mush.

To the OP: I'm not even that old, but I grew up eating almost exclusively canned vegetables. It definitely affected my palate, but now I hardly eat any canned foods (save for home canning), and I can't get enough of the fresh vegetables.

 

To add: my siblings still all eat similar foods to what we grew up on. My diet really changed when I started dating my now-wife, and she was shocked at the kinds of things I ate.

I used to think I ate healthy because I only had 1-2 sodas per day (and the first one was usually with breakfast).

 

I'm sadly guilty of this from time to time... when the broccoli falls THROUGH the strainer when I drain the water, I know I done fucked up.

I'd rather just eat all the veggies raw but my wife doesn't see eye to eye...

Looking back I ate like shit but I don't really care as I've changed my ways drastically since my kids were born. I only regret the unfortunate amount of drinking I did in my 20s and early 30s.

My kids happily love veggies, fruit, fish and they don't drink soda and have never really cared to try it. That'll only last so long though until they make decisions without us. Ah well.

 

You need to steam those suckers, if you don't want to sautee them. Healthier and tastier (because you don't lose all the nutrients to the water).

 

Good call. We have a double boiler, ironically enough. Shame on me.

 

Mid 70's born here, I grew up eating beef liver, TV dinners, pinto beans, pot pies, fish sticks, white rice, lots of it and a lot of deer meat. Most everything we ate was covered in gravy. Golden grahams and fruity pebbles if we had enough to buy cereal.