How much do you really care about the food you eat?

Meant to say the GCs have houmous with their carrot and cucumber sticks

My mother and grandmother were good cooks who cooked from scratch , so I’ve always done the same . My dc had fish fingers , pizza and chicken nuggets as a treat . Since leaving home , they’re both good cooks and batch cook for the week ahead .
My dh and I have a healthy Mediterranean focused diet. And have become focused on the quality of our food . We buy our meat , poultry ,fruit and veg from a local farm shop where the products are sourced locally and our fish from a fish market on the south coast. We used to have a whole sale fish company near us , but they moved .
So yes , I do care about the food we eat . And it’s concerning that buying local produce is more expensive and it’s tough on young families who are watching the pennies .

I care about what I eat, I don't eat animals or fish

My grandchildren ate really healthily when they were small. They went to a nursery which provided only vegetarian food, so they were able to try a great variety of foods. They ate well at home too. But now they are older they will opt for pizza and burgers, given the opportunity. They still enjoy ‘proper food’ and are both slim and very healthy, so on balance, a few unhealthy options are fine from time to time.

When we had children I was more mindful of what we were eating.
We grew as much as we could (organically) and ate seasonally.
We bought organic oats from a local farmer and bought organic rice via a buying co-operative. We even ground our own organic bread flour when we had easy cheap access to it.

Now I'm happy to buy some stuff I would never have bought when we had children at home.

The children did have "junk" now and again - at parties, if we ever had bought chips - and certainly when my son worked at Domino's to fund a motorbike (!) but on the whole my diet was best when we were cooking regularly from scratch for seven!

We are still vegetarian and only buy organic dairy and eggs but I'll buy the odd cake now - and ice cream occasionally, and sometimes a "Cook" or other convenience meal. I'm happier buying things with sugar in than sweetener.
I would never have bought cake in the "old days".

We didn't have much money when I was young, and my mum wasn't really interested in cooking. Naturally, she did it, but a lot of the time it was from a packet - usually a Vesta meal.

She used to make lemon meringue pie from a packet too. You used to get a small yellow pod that you added to give the colour and flavour of lemon.

It was always fish and chips on Fridays and I used to hate going for them as the counter was really high and it was hard to get myself noticed.

Now, I am very invested in healthy food options and we mostly cook from scratch.

I am very proud of my grandchildren (ages 16 and 14) as they can both cook and often one of them cooks the evening meal.

fancyflowers

We didn't have much money when I was young, and my mum wasn't really interested in cooking. Naturally, she did it, but a lot of the time it was from a packet - usually a Vesta meal.

She used to make lemon meringue pie from a packet too. You used to get a small yellow pod that you added to give the colour and flavour of lemon.

It was always fish and chips on Fridays and I used to hate going for them as the counter was really high and it was hard to get myself noticed.

The awful lemon meringue pie, I remember that!
My mother would make it if we had guests, there was also a cheesecake in a packet😬.
Just make a crumble for heavens sake!

Does it matter to you what you eat YES
or is it just a chore to shop and cook NO

No, because I love food, trying new foods, new ingredients and it is worth cooking just to eat a large range if foods cooked in a vast range of different ways. Also I simplify recipes, use all the short cuts I can. As Shirley Conran says, life is too short to peel a grape

I have always been concerned about what I eat. I had a bowel condition as a child that had me constantly in and out of hospital with severe constipation. I had a good diet at home but once I left home and had complete control over my own life I worked out that a high fibre diet, with plenty to drink and regular exercise.preferably walking could keepme working and it made me very conscious of what I ate.

As a young mother, like others I made my own baby food as tinned food was so expensive and, even then, I had my doubts about the ingredients. In the late 70s I read the list of ingredients on the back of a packet of food and was concrened that while every I was sure every item on the packet had been properly tested and was safe for human consumption, I began to wonder about how many unrecogniseable ingredients I was consuming and their interactions, so I reduced the consumption of prepared or packaged foods and made more of my food from scratch.

Actually, cooking for scratch is very easy and not particulalry time consuming, providing you have the right euipment. Originally a cooker where I could delay the cooker coming on, a pressure cooker, freezer and microwave and nowadays an air fryer and slow cooker. I always cook twice as much as needy and eat one freeze one. I have 15 home produced ready meals in my freezer.

With CJD I became concerned about how farm animals are fed and reared. I now only buy pasture for life meat and organic chicken. I do not eat chicken, unless I have bought it myself and much the same applies to pork.

Buy good uality mince from a pasture for life producer and you do not need to worry about gristle or too much fat.

I thought Shirley Conrad said” life’s too short to stuff a mushroom” I disagree with her.
I love stuffed portobello mushrooms.
However I digress.
I keep a cow, a goat and a pig in the garden.
I grow everything but Maize or whatever flour comes from, I-go to a mill in Derbyshire to buy that and make my own bread.
I churn butter and make cheese.
The chickens provide eggs and we eat them when they stop laying.
The pig , when big enough, provides pork, bacon, lard and pork scratchings.
My whole day is taken up by all the husbandry and agricultural work.
I am exhausted by evening.

Kindest regards

Barbara Good, married to Tom.

Yes I care very much about the food we eat. I'm fussy about what I buy and try to make sure it's as local as possible. Ready meals are kept to a minimum as so many contain things like palm oil or corn syrups.

I batch cook soups, sauces for pasta, chilli, curry and various other things so about two thirds of the meals we eat are almost ready meals anyway. I'm not a born cook - we've had a lot of burnt offerings over the years (and still have the occasional one) but when I have the time I quite enjoy it.

I’m careful, in that as far as possible I buy U.K. grown, seasonal veg (fruit is less easy - e.g. citrus and bananas) and strictly U.K. reared only chicken (free range), beef, pork (higher welfare) and lamb.

We eat loads of vegetables, and have a veggie meal around twice a week.
Fast food, UPFs, and ready meals rarely appear in this house, but they are not totally banned.

Usedtobeblonde

I thought Shirley Conrad said” life’s too short to stuff a mushroom” I disagree with her.
I love stuffed portobello mushrooms.
However I digress.
I keep a cow, a goat and a pig in the garden.
I grow everything but Maize or whatever flour comes from, I-go to a mill in Derbyshire to buy that and make my own bread.
I churn butter and make cheese.
The chickens provide eggs and we eat them when they stop laying.
The pig , when big enough, provides pork, bacon, lard and pork scratchings.
My whole day is taken up by all the husbandry and agricultural work.
I am exhausted by evening.

Kindest regards

Barbara Good, married to Tom.

Why do all these things when you can pay someone else to do it for you?

This illusion, and it is an illusion that caring abut what you eat and preferring organic food, no longer muck and magic but muck and science, means you are a domestic and horticultural or agricultural slave is long long gone.

I have not a smidgeon of the martyr in my make-up but I have cooked from scratch through bringing up children and abusy fulltime career and now in retirement and reckon I have spent less time shopping and cooking than most.

Very funny utbb 🤣🤣

Yes, it matters to me what I eat.

Yes, it's a chore shopping for, preparing and cooking food.

Some solutions: I batch cook, make big bowls of salad, which last a couple of days and can make things like omelettes with one hand while I make coffee with the other hand. I don't eat bread.

Usedtobeblonde

To add to my post upthread I do occasionally indulge in unhealthy fried eggs (2) and oven chips with a slice of crusty bread, heaven.

Absolutely nothing whatsoever wrong with fried eggs! Fry them in olive oil and they’re positively health food.

Of course it matters. I like to mix up cuisines a lot with probably more Asian than anything else. I love stir fries but use olive oil. My husband likes bangers and mash but I don’t so I compromise and get garlicky sausages that at least taste a bit better. I try to have a lot of vegetables and slightly less meat . I love fish but it is very expensive here and costs more than meat.

I’ve always hated cooking and had a bad relationship with food as I’ve been on theneverendingdiet since I was sixteen. But since I’ve been trying to lower my cholesterol I’m really enjoying eating new foods and trying new recipes. I used to spend as little as possible on food as I’m not much of a foodie but now my mobility isn’t good I find myself looking forward to my meals. I get lots of new recipes on instagram. I steamed some purple sprouting broccoli today; first time I’ve ever tried it and I was quite excited about it. Highlight of my day in fact. I’ve also tried to have a zero food waste policy since the pandemic. I was quite chuffed today that my grandson liked my cottage pie .Although he didn’t eat the broccoli ( I’ll give it to the dog tomorrow). And I read up on all the convenience foods that aren’t full of additives. Never realised that Bisto gravy granules had no beef in whatsoever.

Growing up I had a great aunt Bertha who had been employed as a cook for a large country estate (think a smaller Downton) and I used to love eating at her house. We always had Boxing Day with them and her food was a joy to behold and eat. But the thing I most remember was staying with her for a holiday as a teenager, and coming home each evening to little meat patties warming in the oven. I would get raging indigestion now, but back then oh they were delicious.

As Cornish country folk - all my families always ate from scratch.

I usually do, but am relaxed about taking the occasional day off if I fancy something not made by me, or cba.

I do think that as long as 90% of the time you diet is as balanced as possible with little or zero processed, then you are doing well. I have an app. into which I feed my proposed daily menus and can see exactly how much fat, sat fat, sugar, salt, protein and fibre etc. I’m consuming - I then adjust it to get it as balanced as is possible. Again I’m not beating myself up but it is an excellent guide.

My mother was an amazing cook and despite not having much money always provided wonderful meals. My dad grew most of our vegetables and fruit. My mum used to bottle them.

I have always cooked from scratch as I love to cook. I do a lot of batch cooking so I always have things in the freezer.

I do add a little salt though as I find food tasteless without any salt and neither of us has high blood pressure I think you can go too far the other way. A friend ended up in hospital due to low sodium levels.

Good food and a varied diet matters very much to both of us. We never have takeaways and to overcome those days when we are very busy or don’t feel like cooking from scratch there’s always something in the freezer from batch cooking previously. We have a fresh fish delivery fortnightly and buy meat from local butchers.

We grow vegetables in season, not difficult even in small gardens and salad leaves and shoots are so easy to grow.

MayBee70

I’ve always hated cooking and had a bad relationship with food as I’ve been on theneverendingdiet since I was sixteen. But since I’ve been trying to lower my cholesterol I’m really enjoying eating new foods and trying new recipes. I used to spend as little as possible on food as I’m not much of a foodie but now my mobility isn’t good I find myself looking forward to my meals. I get lots of new recipes on instagram. I steamed some purple sprouting broccoli today; first time I’ve ever tried it and I was quite excited about it. Highlight of my day in fact. I’ve also tried to have a zero food waste policy since the pandemic. I was quite chuffed today that my grandson liked my cottage pie .Although he didn’t eat the broccoli ( I’ll give it to the dog tomorrow). And I read up on all the convenience foods that aren’t full of additives. Never realised that Bisto gravy granules had no beef in whatsoever.

This is such a joy for me to read that later in life you are changing habits for the better.

It makes such a difference if you start to care and think about what you eat.

Gravy granules are the work of the devil leave well alone, buy powder instead.

Instagram is great for inspiration, I save the odd recipe.

Also great that you’re aiming for zero food waste, this is where good planning comes in.

Or even make your own gravy😊

I’ve always made chicken stock from the carcass when I cook a chicken. I feel I owe it to the poor chicken to use as much possible of it. I’ve just bought a fresh chicken from Aldi that says it has been raised in humane conditions ( I hope it’s true); started buying M&S ones for the same reason but they’re very expensive. I’ve got pages of recipes that I’ve written down from instagram but on rereading them they don’t make any sense to me! My IBS tended to restrict my eating of lentils etc but I’ve found that there are ways round that. I still add Bovril to minced beef; a friend of mine told me to do that and it so brings out the flavour ( just going to check what it says on the jar…).

Witzend

Tizliz

Does it matter to you what you eat YES
or is it just a chore to shop and cook YES

I am also getting OH more involved so I can do less but we switch from trying pre-prepared foods to cooking from scratch (that means buying a joint of beef to make spag bol etc)

Buying a joint of beef to make spag Bol???

Good heavens!!

What is wrong with good, minced beef?
You can buy it from a butcher or the supermarket does packs with varying amounts of fat.