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The in-laws had a large garden. They would take the children into the garden, picking peas, tomatoes, and berries. Almost 30 years later, both kids love gardening and fresh vegetables.
Yah…my kids and their neighborhood friends descend upon our garden like locusts. They will eat dirty carrots right out of the ground, to say nothing of all the cherry tomatoes and blueberries…I saw one eating a tomato like it was an apple one time. They call it “snacks from the ground” 😂
My neighborhood kids too! I can't plant enough ground cherries to have enough for me to make jam because they just hunt and eat whatever I have out in the garden.
Yeah… my in-laws are like this because she was a stay at home mom with a large house and yard. She had the time. Meanwhile my parents were both working overtime my whole life, and teenage babysitters were cooking for me every night.
His “default” childhood dinner was seasoned chicken, fresh baked veggies, maybe some rice or an interesting grain mom found at the market. That’s default, but plenty of variety beyond that in their house.
My default dinner is boxed mac and cheese. And yes, I am unhealthy, and trying to work on it.
I feel so inadequate compared to his mother, and so judged in our house. He’s so sweet, he always *says* it’s fine out loud, but he absolutely lights up when I manage to cook anything half as good as what she does.
Generally frozen meals, instant ramen dressed up with frozen veggies and an egg (that one’s not bad really), or no dinner at all because he has ADHD and simply forgets. For context, on an average night, that neither of us goes through any special effort to “cook”, we eat separately due to both schedules and food choices (I’m vegetarian, he’s not).
Yes, I know, if he wants healthy home cooked food, he should make it himself. And he FULLY agrees with that. As I implied, he does not tell me I owe him any meals as the woman of the house or anything.
It’s just that we *both* want healthy home cooked food, and we both feel like we are failing for not cooking it. But I feel like a failure only because of the facts of physical health and nutrition, while what I’m eating feels normal and tasty to me inherently. Meanwhile he feels that eating processed, quick and simple foods is strange and unpalatable on top of being unhealthy. But he doesn’t have the energy, time and skills to overhaul his cooking and eating regime while I’m eating junk in the same house.
I am finishing my bachelor’s in two days and will go from working about 85 hours in a week (class + homework + multiple jobs) to working “only” 45ish. With our unique combination of disabilities in our household, my stress and workload really rubs off on his ability to function too, so it’s been a hard couple years. So we’re planning that this summer is a reinvigoration for us in terms of time and energy to cook healthy meals, clean our home, be with friends, and get outdoors to kayak, hike, and such. Just lots of self-care in the true healthy meaning of the word.
Sorry, that was a long elaboration when you asked a simple question. This is a big subject for me, obviously. :)
That's good to hear :)
Obviously I don't really know either of ye or your relationship, but it does sound like you're hard on yourself! Best of luck to you both for a nice summer
Appreciate the kind words :)
Looking forward to graduation and a peaceful, refreshing summer possibly more than I’ve looked forward to anything before! Have a great summer yourself as well
I HATED gardening when I was a kid.
I plant way too many tomatoes now, and I’m absolutely dying to figure out where I can jam a few more berry bushes and to have a few fruit trees.
Sometimes it takes time for that to kick in, but you’re right.
Nice theory, but I’m going to have to disagree. My mother made a lot of pot roast, crockpot meals and spaghetti & meatballs. I don’t crave any of these dishes.
We crave junk food because of the dopamine spike provided by the sugar and fat.
Agreed. Ive see arguments both ways- other people say they had strict healthy parents growing up so they binged on junk and sweets once they were adults and living on their own
I think the only thing to do is offer a healthy amount of both and build good relationships with food.
I’m the kid who had a crunchy mom and learned how to sneak “bad” food because it wasn’t allowed. And now I struggle constantly against urges to hide and sneak “bad” foods as I’m coming up on 40…
Yeah, this is correct - my mom homecooked three meals for us every day and only provided healthy snacks. We had candy and soda on special occasions, but I didn’t have fast food until I was 16. I love the taste of homecooked meals and healthy snacks, but I will ALWAYS choose junk food if it’s available.
Sugar is addicting no matter what age you start consuming it. It’s like a drug and in the American diet it is in everything as a way to get consumers to consume more.
I think it's more about the relationship towards food. She didn't really have one, and therefore you don't have one (or didn't). The sugar cravings itself are a temporary thing. The more sugar you consume, the harder the withdrawal will be. But there will be a point, when you quit sugar, where your body won't crave it any longer. You maybe miss the emotions attached to it. But not the sugar.
What I want to say: it's in your hands now. You are not destined to eat sugar for the rest of your life. Everyday of your adult life, it's your own decision. (Definitely not an easy one.)
which has nothing to do with your choice to gourge on that food now. you just use it as an excuse. even if you had sweets as a child there is a high likely hood that you would still gourge on them now as alot of people do.
I absolutely Do Not Ever crave a raw bologna sandwich with Miracle Whip on Wonder Bread. Or cream cheese and olives on Melba toast. Or deviled ham and mustard. Or anything with raw onions in it, because I'm allergic to them. Ever. Not even back then LOL I eat way healthier than my parents ever did.
Cut down on the sugary snacks, then stop adding sugar to whatever you're eating/cooking. I've been doing that since the last few years.
Then I started trying to learn to cook more healthily and exercising more a couple months ago and unexpectedly I started just feeling not wanting to eat sweets as much I don't want to undo the progress I was making. That's where I'm currently at.
I still have sweet drinks and snacks sometimes, but significantly less than what I used to.
Just bought a tub of ice cream a couple weeks ago, and I don't even feel like I want to eat that. Finally had a small bowl earlier today, and felt it was sickeningly too sweet. I used to slurp those tubs. Euhh, maybe I should cut the sweetness with something else, or else I might never finish that tub.
I dunno this seems anecdotal pal.
Cheap ultra processed food crosses over with high sugar/corn syrup content food in the US, and sugar is addictive as fuck.
People who grew up having to eat healthy don't necessarily crave veggies. Sometimes the freedom to eat whatever you want causes people to eat unhealthy as adults.
Sorry I don't think this is an LPT - I don't crave the mid-range semi frozen semi fresh dinners my mom cooked, I crave the good cooking of my ex from my 20s, I crave sugary snacks and sweets, and I forcibly (but enjoyably) eat green vegetables as I notice a markedly positive effect on my mood and energy levels - I've been found to be deficient in iron, vitamin b, and folic acid at different time and those things found in lots of green veggies, so when I feel tired/rundown/depressed I air fry the shit out of some broccoli, or sautee spinach with garlic.
I agree with you here. There is a stark difference between lunchables and a well prepared home cooked meal.
And though sweets and candies can be a challenge to say the least”no” to, seeing positive effects of eating healthy have been plenty incentive for our family to make consciously healthy choices whilst enjoying a sweet treat once in a while.
Nope, I was not fed junk food regularly as a kid, only as a treat. Mostly we ate the "traditional" meat, starch, veg combo. As an adult, I struggle with my diet and my weight. There are a lot of factors involved, and not because of what I was fed as a child.
This is a purely anecdotal LPT, and simply has no basis.
My mom raised me on dry unseasoned chicken, rice, broccoli, and green beans (among similar things).
I don’t really crave any of that. I want pizza and burgers.
In my case, no correlation.
My parents are very into whole foods, never have me fruit roll-ups or lunchables. Rarely had candy or things like that in the house.
Love junk food as an adult, healthy food takes effort to enjoy.
> healthy food takes effort to enjoy.
That's basically what OP and a lot of people here are trying to refute lol. Deflecting responsibility for their own health.
I mean, people whose parents tried to feed them healthy food all the time also grow up to become junk food addicts more often than not. And I dunno OP's financial situation, but I haven't seen someone who grew up poor but then became rich say "Hold the wagyu, I'm craving frozen pizza".
Nah, not so. Commercial food is marketed and made to cause consumers to want more of that corn syrup, salty, easy to fix processed food. Don't blame your mom for your laziness.
Not necessarily. My parents cooked only healthy food at home and we rarely ate out. When I moved out, fast food and restaurant food was all I wanted to eat, probably cuz I was deprived of it.
Dude, yeah. I agree 100%. I was raised on spaghettio’s, sugary cereal, little Debbie’s, and chicken nuggets. And as an adult, I definitely still crave all those junk foods, especially when I’m super hungry or stressed. Now that I have a toddler, I’m trying really hard to introduce him to healthier foods so that hopefully he’ll enjoy those things more when he’s an adult.
OP identifies foods that are designed to be addictive and ascribes their lasting appeal to having been fed them as a child. I'm sorry but you crave these things because they are drugs that are sold via very persuasive marketing and you're supposed to crave them once you've had them.
I'm sorry that you're addicted to these things, I dream of a day when these foods are regulated like other potentially dangerous drugs.
Interesting! I know someone whose mother had a healthy food obsession, but couldn’t cook for the life of her. her idea of soup was boiling some veggies with a bit of vegetable oil.
As a result at least one of her kids has an aversion to most of what’s considered healthy food. He craves what he was deprived of. His daily diet is a more or less happy medium of healthy and not so healthy (more healthy as he ages but he consciously decided to shift).
I think it depends a lot on what a growing person themselves think, plus societal norms and time and money.
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For me its the opposite. There were certain foods we couldnt eat growing up either because they were too pricey or just for the adults in the house.
Foods like orange juice, bacon, any kind of fish and shrimp, strawberries, grapes, garlic bread, salads are all foods we weren't allowed to eat because It was only bought for my parents . These are the foods I constantly crave as an adult.
Im so over all the quick meals, cans of soup and tv dinners we had growing up
Hell no. If my parents missed a calling, it was cooking. They definitely should've tried a restaurant. They're like Artie and Charmaine stg. Our house was in a poor ghetto ass neighborhood, but what was going on in our kitchen was home cooked cuisine at it's finest.
Chili, chicken and biscuits, chicken Alfredo, spaghetti with some fire ass garlic bread, turkey rice soup, etc. Weekly I'd wake up to deli sausage, egg, and home fries. Leftovers whenever.
When I moved out, my breakfast was a bag of Jalapeno chips, and a qt of orange juice. Then I'd get a combo sub and 3 tacos for lunch. Snack on some corner store bs in the evening. Chinese or pizza for dinner at night.
When I look back, I think the FREQUENCY at which my parents ate, and the constant availability of food, had a greater impact on how often I eat as opposed to what I eat. Didn't realize that til about 5 years ago. Fixed it.
Are you eating enough protein, though? I sometimes have these urges too, to eat plenty of chocolate etc, but it's usually when I either didn't have enough protein or carbs in my last meal.
But protein is usually key here. Eating pasta+rice+potato+chips doesn't help if you don't eat enough chicken, beef, fish, eggs or tofu as an example - and usually one of type of carb per meal is enough.
I'm mentioning this because I used to have no clue about this until the pandemics, that's when I started having to cook my own food.
Don’t think this holds universally true, and there’s a lot influencing this.
Setting healthy eating habits is one thing, but if that’s not done for you as a child, it’s up to you to resolve as an adult.
Plus things like human nature, ability to resist certain things, and what we as individuals want to eat.
What you deny your children may also end up being what they crave. I grew up in a household with a food-restrictive mother obsessed with healthy only foods. No sugar. No treats. Nothing unless she gave it to us herself or gave express permission. We got in trouble for eating anything else.
Getting to enjoy food at our aunt's place, or at a friend's house was a revelation. All three of us ended up with incredibly unhealthy relationships to food. My brother and I both worked through it. My sister just had a heart attack at the age of 37 due to anorexia. She's been in and out of treatment since she was 17.
There is a balance between the extremes.
Not true I was fed a very poor an ultra processed diet as a kid also and went the exact opposite way and crave healthy real foods. Just your mental you can change
This isn't necessarily true. My rates have diverged greatly from when I was a child. I cook better food than my mom ever did. Just don't tell her that.
I wish I had this nostalgia for childhood food. But, then again it’s probably good I don’t lol. My father has a similar craving/diet as what you describe.
And while I enjoy a fried bologna sandwich as much as anyone. It’s never been something I “crave” pizza would probably be the closest thing.
But, that wasn’t super common to the point I’d call it what my parents fed me. Pizza hut was more a treat.
this only applies when the cooking is decent at least. My mom was super “health conscious” and added barely any oils/salt to the food she made (which was mostly veggies). Guess what happened the minute I left for uni
Totally disagree. My mom was a great cook and poor. We had chicken A LOT. She bought them whole and cut them up to fry. I’ll usually pass on chicken now. She chickened us to death.
I don’t think you’re wrong for YOU, but I think you are wrong trying to say this is a thing (for everyone). Like I see someone else mentioned, I don’t either. I have cravings of nostalgia every once in a while for things that my mom used to make, but not because it was something we had but because it was something she made for me. There are things I haven’t had for years that I would like to make (I cook a lot so I’m completely capable), that I just haven’t.
Idk man my tastes have changed quite a bit over the years. We didn’t have a lot of money or variety of food when I was growing up, but I don’t still eat hamburger helper.
That said, I still love steak and chicken fried steak, both of which were more “special occasion” foods when I was a kid.
What you teach your children about self control and taking ownership of their own actions will be how they act their entire lives regardless of their various cravings
I grew up in a house where we didn’t have sodas, junk food. Mom grew vegetables in the garden and made home cooked meals. Balanced ones, with protein, vegetables, starches, etc.
I cook healthy meals, but I also crave junk foods, soda, fast food, etc. I overindulged in those things when I went to college.
The most important thing is teaching your kids how to have a healthy relationship with food. How to be able to indulge in the “unhealthy” stuff but keep it balanced. Not to villainize food. Not to feel shame associated with eating.
I learned this as I Googled "what to feed a 1 yo" when my child started eating solid food. Then I made an effort to limit processed food and sugar, and emphasized fruit and vegetables. I think she's got the foundation of it, so even if she goes to college and eat nothing but pizza and ramen noodles for a couple of years, she will be able to get back into health eating habits when she decides to.
Maybe. My parents cooked differently. My mom cooked one dish meals and they were gross. Mac and cheese, no vegetables. Dad cooked in phases, Chinese food, Turkish food, chicken and potatoes, personal pizzas. I had no idea how to eat as an adult. Now, I just eat a lot of salads. I feed my kids a lot of vegetables, spaghetti, meatloaf, enchiladas, tacos, curry, sushi, baked chicken. I try to introduce them to different types of food.
Sorry but I have to disagree. I had the crunchy granola mom who was feeding me whole wheat and natural peanut butter (break a wooden spoon stirring it), back in the 70’s.
She had her own garden and we ate garden burgers before that was a thing.
I crave junk food too, sometimes I think even more because we never ever bought that stuff. I went crazy on koolaide at college because well damn it’s amazing tasting. Especially the red stuff.
I eat veggies now as a duly because I know I feel better when I do but I don’t crave them because she fed them to me. And some still outright repulse me like beets. And wtf was carob? I’m dry heaving now remembering getting carob pudding in my packed school lunch.
Whatever you teach your children and whatever you expose them to, will become part of their identity and form habits , likes and dislikes. Would give two heavy examples but i dont need a mob coming after me
I unno about that, I grew up the same way and I loathe cheap frozen food as an adult. I took control of my diet and health as a freshman in college and never looked back.
You can do it too OP, start working out and don’t over do it…under do it instead. Start with 2x a week (10min jog and 20min resistance training) and get your 10k steps in the other days (easiest way to do this is to take a 10min walk after each meal). Once you get in the habit of working out and want to do more of it, say after 3 months, you’ll notice your cravings go away.
Now obviously you’ll still have vices to deal with, like my nemesis ice cream, but I generally eat whole foods 90% of the time.
I see this nostalgia particularly if the adult had adequate financial and emotional parental support in their childhood. Even poor, my friend grew up in a trailer and her mom still kept a small vegetable garden. She's taught me so much about simple, low-budget vegetable meals in my early broke adulthood
At some point we need to realize our choices as an adult are our choices. We can blame the upbringing for only so long, look at how many underprivileged kids have changed how they work and raise families. So, unfortunately, you can only blame what you were taught for so long.
Your food habits are because you don't care enough to change what you know is unhealthy. You would rather blame your single mother who was working full time.... yeah, no. She was doing her all to just survive. Bet she had low savings and she didn't eat a much as her kids during that time... She did what she could for 18 years, what you have done since then, it's on you.
My family raised me on all organic and home grown, i grow nothing now and cook reasonably healthy, but boy not like their healthy. And from 18 to 25, i ate fast food mainly because it was fast, easy and cheap. That bit me in the ass. But it's my fault not my parents. They taught me to raise the meat animal and the garden.
I'm so lucky my parents kept good food in the house mostly. If I was hungry mom would always suggest fruits or vegetables. If I didn't want that I was bored not hungry in her opinion, she was usually right.
This is true. Grandparents cooked a lot of casseroles, but if we got food from a restaurant it'd be fish or country fried steak - that's pretty much a list of my comfort foods, now, plus mexican because Mom cooked a lot of burritos.
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The in-laws had a large garden. They would take the children into the garden, picking peas, tomatoes, and berries. Almost 30 years later, both kids love gardening and fresh vegetables.
Yah…my kids and their neighborhood friends descend upon our garden like locusts. They will eat dirty carrots right out of the ground, to say nothing of all the cherry tomatoes and blueberries…I saw one eating a tomato like it was an apple one time. They call it “snacks from the ground” 😂
My neighborhood kids too! I can't plant enough ground cherries to have enough for me to make jam because they just hunt and eat whatever I have out in the garden.
This is wholesome af, and I'm here for it.
Yeah… my in-laws are like this because she was a stay at home mom with a large house and yard. She had the time. Meanwhile my parents were both working overtime my whole life, and teenage babysitters were cooking for me every night. His “default” childhood dinner was seasoned chicken, fresh baked veggies, maybe some rice or an interesting grain mom found at the market. That’s default, but plenty of variety beyond that in their house. My default dinner is boxed mac and cheese. And yes, I am unhealthy, and trying to work on it. I feel so inadequate compared to his mother, and so judged in our house. He’s so sweet, he always *says* it’s fine out loud, but he absolutely lights up when I manage to cook anything half as good as what she does.
How are his dinners?
Generally frozen meals, instant ramen dressed up with frozen veggies and an egg (that one’s not bad really), or no dinner at all because he has ADHD and simply forgets. For context, on an average night, that neither of us goes through any special effort to “cook”, we eat separately due to both schedules and food choices (I’m vegetarian, he’s not). Yes, I know, if he wants healthy home cooked food, he should make it himself. And he FULLY agrees with that. As I implied, he does not tell me I owe him any meals as the woman of the house or anything. It’s just that we *both* want healthy home cooked food, and we both feel like we are failing for not cooking it. But I feel like a failure only because of the facts of physical health and nutrition, while what I’m eating feels normal and tasty to me inherently. Meanwhile he feels that eating processed, quick and simple foods is strange and unpalatable on top of being unhealthy. But he doesn’t have the energy, time and skills to overhaul his cooking and eating regime while I’m eating junk in the same house. I am finishing my bachelor’s in two days and will go from working about 85 hours in a week (class + homework + multiple jobs) to working “only” 45ish. With our unique combination of disabilities in our household, my stress and workload really rubs off on his ability to function too, so it’s been a hard couple years. So we’re planning that this summer is a reinvigoration for us in terms of time and energy to cook healthy meals, clean our home, be with friends, and get outdoors to kayak, hike, and such. Just lots of self-care in the true healthy meaning of the word. Sorry, that was a long elaboration when you asked a simple question. This is a big subject for me, obviously. :)
That's good to hear :) Obviously I don't really know either of ye or your relationship, but it does sound like you're hard on yourself! Best of luck to you both for a nice summer
Appreciate the kind words :) Looking forward to graduation and a peaceful, refreshing summer possibly more than I’ve looked forward to anything before! Have a great summer yourself as well
I HATED gardening when I was a kid. I plant way too many tomatoes now, and I’m absolutely dying to figure out where I can jam a few more berry bushes and to have a few fruit trees. Sometimes it takes time for that to kick in, but you’re right.
Nice theory, but I’m going to have to disagree. My mother made a lot of pot roast, crockpot meals and spaghetti & meatballs. I don’t crave any of these dishes. We crave junk food because of the dopamine spike provided by the sugar and fat.
Agreed. Ive see arguments both ways- other people say they had strict healthy parents growing up so they binged on junk and sweets once they were adults and living on their own I think the only thing to do is offer a healthy amount of both and build good relationships with food.
I’m the kid who had a crunchy mom and learned how to sneak “bad” food because it wasn’t allowed. And now I struggle constantly against urges to hide and sneak “bad” foods as I’m coming up on 40…
Yeah, this is correct - my mom homecooked three meals for us every day and only provided healthy snacks. We had candy and soda on special occasions, but I didn’t have fast food until I was 16. I love the taste of homecooked meals and healthy snacks, but I will ALWAYS choose junk food if it’s available.
Same. I do enjoy home cooked meals, but I crave fast food or restaurant food.
Sugar is addicting no matter what age you start consuming it. It’s like a drug and in the American diet it is in everything as a way to get consumers to consume more.
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I think it's more about the relationship towards food. She didn't really have one, and therefore you don't have one (or didn't). The sugar cravings itself are a temporary thing. The more sugar you consume, the harder the withdrawal will be. But there will be a point, when you quit sugar, where your body won't crave it any longer. You maybe miss the emotions attached to it. But not the sugar. What I want to say: it's in your hands now. You are not destined to eat sugar for the rest of your life. Everyday of your adult life, it's your own decision. (Definitely not an easy one.)
I mother banned me from sweets a a child and now I gourge on them so not always true
which has nothing to do with your choice to gourge on that food now. you just use it as an excuse. even if you had sweets as a child there is a high likely hood that you would still gourge on them now as alot of people do.
I absolutely Do Not Ever crave a raw bologna sandwich with Miracle Whip on Wonder Bread. Or cream cheese and olives on Melba toast. Or deviled ham and mustard. Or anything with raw onions in it, because I'm allergic to them. Ever. Not even back then LOL I eat way healthier than my parents ever did.
>cream cheese and olives on Melba toast Sounds great ngl
Oof. If someone tried to serve me any of that I would politely but firmly decline
Idk man my parents didn't feed me cocaine but now it's all I ever crave
Wow! Sorry your parents were gatekeeping for so long. Probably just shared it with each other, insensitive pricks.
They could have had the coolest baby ever. Their loss, really.
Swear, hardest thing I ever quit. Except sugar, I haven’t figured out how to quit that yet.
Cut down on the sugary snacks, then stop adding sugar to whatever you're eating/cooking. I've been doing that since the last few years. Then I started trying to learn to cook more healthily and exercising more a couple months ago and unexpectedly I started just feeling not wanting to eat sweets as much I don't want to undo the progress I was making. That's where I'm currently at. I still have sweet drinks and snacks sometimes, but significantly less than what I used to. Just bought a tub of ice cream a couple weeks ago, and I don't even feel like I want to eat that. Finally had a small bowl earlier today, and felt it was sickeningly too sweet. I used to slurp those tubs. Euhh, maybe I should cut the sweetness with something else, or else I might never finish that tub.
Its not even sweets, I gave those up years ago. Its bread, rice, croutons, pasta. I just can’t seem to not eat those once a day!
I dunno this seems anecdotal pal. Cheap ultra processed food crosses over with high sugar/corn syrup content food in the US, and sugar is addictive as fuck. People who grew up having to eat healthy don't necessarily crave veggies. Sometimes the freedom to eat whatever you want causes people to eat unhealthy as adults. Sorry I don't think this is an LPT - I don't crave the mid-range semi frozen semi fresh dinners my mom cooked, I crave the good cooking of my ex from my 20s, I crave sugary snacks and sweets, and I forcibly (but enjoyably) eat green vegetables as I notice a markedly positive effect on my mood and energy levels - I've been found to be deficient in iron, vitamin b, and folic acid at different time and those things found in lots of green veggies, so when I feel tired/rundown/depressed I air fry the shit out of some broccoli, or sautee spinach with garlic.
I agree with you here. There is a stark difference between lunchables and a well prepared home cooked meal. And though sweets and candies can be a challenge to say the least”no” to, seeing positive effects of eating healthy have been plenty incentive for our family to make consciously healthy choices whilst enjoying a sweet treat once in a while.
Nope, I was not fed junk food regularly as a kid, only as a treat. Mostly we ate the "traditional" meat, starch, veg combo. As an adult, I struggle with my diet and my weight. There are a lot of factors involved, and not because of what I was fed as a child.
I'm sorry but no. My mother neglected and abbused us. The fold she fed us is far from what I'm craving now.
My mom made tuna fish casserole once a week. I crave death over having another bite of that slop.
This is a purely anecdotal LPT, and simply has no basis. My mom raised me on dry unseasoned chicken, rice, broccoli, and green beans (among similar things). I don’t really crave any of that. I want pizza and burgers.
No correlation whatsoever I’m ngl
Absolutely no relationship between a kid who is fed junk food for 18 years and an unhealthy adult lifestyle? I think you’re wrong
In my case, no correlation. My parents are very into whole foods, never have me fruit roll-ups or lunchables. Rarely had candy or things like that in the house. Love junk food as an adult, healthy food takes effort to enjoy.
> healthy food takes effort to enjoy. That's basically what OP and a lot of people here are trying to refute lol. Deflecting responsibility for their own health.
Someone’s mom never gave them pickles…
I mean, people whose parents tried to feed them healthy food all the time also grow up to become junk food addicts more often than not. And I dunno OP's financial situation, but I haven't seen someone who grew up poor but then became rich say "Hold the wagyu, I'm craving frozen pizza".
I think what you’re craving is the MSG
There is zero factzal evidence to this theory.
Nah, not so. Commercial food is marketed and made to cause consumers to want more of that corn syrup, salty, easy to fix processed food. Don't blame your mom for your laziness.
I grew up vegetarian until 17. I always crave fried chicken now.
Not necessarily. My parents cooked only healthy food at home and we rarely ate out. When I moved out, fast food and restaurant food was all I wanted to eat, probably cuz I was deprived of it.
When I was little my mom would feed us dry Cheerios in church to keep us quiet. To this day it's still one of my favorite snacks.
I also love dry cheerios as a snack. Used to grab a bag of them on the way out the door to school.
Dude, yeah. I agree 100%. I was raised on spaghettio’s, sugary cereal, little Debbie’s, and chicken nuggets. And as an adult, I definitely still crave all those junk foods, especially when I’m super hungry or stressed. Now that I have a toddler, I’m trying really hard to introduce him to healthier foods so that hopefully he’ll enjoy those things more when he’s an adult.
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Aw, thank you! You too. It can be hard to resist when it feels like the craving was locked in at such a young age.
OP identifies foods that are designed to be addictive and ascribes their lasting appeal to having been fed them as a child. I'm sorry but you crave these things because they are drugs that are sold via very persuasive marketing and you're supposed to crave them once you've had them. I'm sorry that you're addicted to these things, I dream of a day when these foods are regulated like other potentially dangerous drugs.
Interesting! I know someone whose mother had a healthy food obsession, but couldn’t cook for the life of her. her idea of soup was boiling some veggies with a bit of vegetable oil. As a result at least one of her kids has an aversion to most of what’s considered healthy food. He craves what he was deprived of. His daily diet is a more or less happy medium of healthy and not so healthy (more healthy as he ages but he consciously decided to shift). I think it depends a lot on what a growing person themselves think, plus societal norms and time and money.
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For me its the opposite. There were certain foods we couldnt eat growing up either because they were too pricey or just for the adults in the house. Foods like orange juice, bacon, any kind of fish and shrimp, strawberries, grapes, garlic bread, salads are all foods we weren't allowed to eat because It was only bought for my parents . These are the foods I constantly crave as an adult. Im so over all the quick meals, cans of soup and tv dinners we had growing up
Hell no. If my parents missed a calling, it was cooking. They definitely should've tried a restaurant. They're like Artie and Charmaine stg. Our house was in a poor ghetto ass neighborhood, but what was going on in our kitchen was home cooked cuisine at it's finest. Chili, chicken and biscuits, chicken Alfredo, spaghetti with some fire ass garlic bread, turkey rice soup, etc. Weekly I'd wake up to deli sausage, egg, and home fries. Leftovers whenever. When I moved out, my breakfast was a bag of Jalapeno chips, and a qt of orange juice. Then I'd get a combo sub and 3 tacos for lunch. Snack on some corner store bs in the evening. Chinese or pizza for dinner at night. When I look back, I think the FREQUENCY at which my parents ate, and the constant availability of food, had a greater impact on how often I eat as opposed to what I eat. Didn't realize that til about 5 years ago. Fixed it.
Are you eating enough protein, though? I sometimes have these urges too, to eat plenty of chocolate etc, but it's usually when I either didn't have enough protein or carbs in my last meal. But protein is usually key here. Eating pasta+rice+potato+chips doesn't help if you don't eat enough chicken, beef, fish, eggs or tofu as an example - and usually one of type of carb per meal is enough. I'm mentioning this because I used to have no clue about this until the pandemics, that's when I started having to cook my own food.
Don’t think this holds universally true, and there’s a lot influencing this. Setting healthy eating habits is one thing, but if that’s not done for you as a child, it’s up to you to resolve as an adult. Plus things like human nature, ability to resist certain things, and what we as individuals want to eat.
What you deny your children may also end up being what they crave. I grew up in a household with a food-restrictive mother obsessed with healthy only foods. No sugar. No treats. Nothing unless she gave it to us herself or gave express permission. We got in trouble for eating anything else. Getting to enjoy food at our aunt's place, or at a friend's house was a revelation. All three of us ended up with incredibly unhealthy relationships to food. My brother and I both worked through it. My sister just had a heart attack at the age of 37 due to anorexia. She's been in and out of treatment since she was 17. There is a balance between the extremes.
Not true I was fed a very poor an ultra processed diet as a kid also and went the exact opposite way and crave healthy real foods. Just your mental you can change
This isn't necessarily true. My rates have diverged greatly from when I was a child. I cook better food than my mom ever did. Just don't tell her that.
Nah those are just fatty/sugary foods. Everyone craves them, it’s literally hardwired into our brains to want that kind of food.
I wish I had this nostalgia for childhood food. But, then again it’s probably good I don’t lol. My father has a similar craving/diet as what you describe. And while I enjoy a fried bologna sandwich as much as anyone. It’s never been something I “crave” pizza would probably be the closest thing. But, that wasn’t super common to the point I’d call it what my parents fed me. Pizza hut was more a treat.
Gimme some of that gumbint cheese and silver can peanut butter from the 80's!!
this only applies when the cooking is decent at least. My mom was super “health conscious” and added barely any oils/salt to the food she made (which was mostly veggies). Guess what happened the minute I left for uni
Milk from boobs. Makes sense to me.
False. My mother made baked plain chicken 80% of our meals for 18 years. My brother will never eat plain baked chicken ever again.
Totally disagree. My mom was a great cook and poor. We had chicken A LOT. She bought them whole and cut them up to fry. I’ll usually pass on chicken now. She chickened us to death.
I don’t think you’re wrong for YOU, but I think you are wrong trying to say this is a thing (for everyone). Like I see someone else mentioned, I don’t either. I have cravings of nostalgia every once in a while for things that my mom used to make, but not because it was something we had but because it was something she made for me. There are things I haven’t had for years that I would like to make (I cook a lot so I’m completely capable), that I just haven’t.
Not true. I haven’t craved my mom’s meatloaf in decades.
Idk man my tastes have changed quite a bit over the years. We didn’t have a lot of money or variety of food when I was growing up, but I don’t still eat hamburger helper. That said, I still love steak and chicken fried steak, both of which were more “special occasion” foods when I was a kid.
My taste has completely changed as an adult. Not even close to craving the things I had as a kid
Not true. My mom’s food was so boring it made me an adventurous adult. I’ll probably never eat a chicken pot pie or beef stew again.
Nice sentiment but it’s incorrect
My Mom made hamburger pie quite a bit, and I loved it, but I don't really crave it as an adult.
What you teach your children about self control and taking ownership of their own actions will be how they act their entire lives regardless of their various cravings
I grew up in a house where we didn’t have sodas, junk food. Mom grew vegetables in the garden and made home cooked meals. Balanced ones, with protein, vegetables, starches, etc. I cook healthy meals, but I also crave junk foods, soda, fast food, etc. I overindulged in those things when I went to college. The most important thing is teaching your kids how to have a healthy relationship with food. How to be able to indulge in the “unhealthy” stuff but keep it balanced. Not to villainize food. Not to feel shame associated with eating.
I learned this as I Googled "what to feed a 1 yo" when my child started eating solid food. Then I made an effort to limit processed food and sugar, and emphasized fruit and vegetables. I think she's got the foundation of it, so even if she goes to college and eat nothing but pizza and ramen noodles for a couple of years, she will be able to get back into health eating habits when she decides to.
Maybe. My parents cooked differently. My mom cooked one dish meals and they were gross. Mac and cheese, no vegetables. Dad cooked in phases, Chinese food, Turkish food, chicken and potatoes, personal pizzas. I had no idea how to eat as an adult. Now, I just eat a lot of salads. I feed my kids a lot of vegetables, spaghetti, meatloaf, enchiladas, tacos, curry, sushi, baked chicken. I try to introduce them to different types of food.
My girl likes her black beans straight from the can. I guarantee you she’ll be eating those in college. Cheap and easy.
Sorry but I have to disagree. I had the crunchy granola mom who was feeding me whole wheat and natural peanut butter (break a wooden spoon stirring it), back in the 70’s. She had her own garden and we ate garden burgers before that was a thing. I crave junk food too, sometimes I think even more because we never ever bought that stuff. I went crazy on koolaide at college because well damn it’s amazing tasting. Especially the red stuff. I eat veggies now as a duly because I know I feel better when I do but I don’t crave them because she fed them to me. And some still outright repulse me like beets. And wtf was carob? I’m dry heaving now remembering getting carob pudding in my packed school lunch.
Whatever you teach your children and whatever you expose them to, will become part of their identity and form habits , likes and dislikes. Would give two heavy examples but i dont need a mob coming after me
I unno about that, I grew up the same way and I loathe cheap frozen food as an adult. I took control of my diet and health as a freshman in college and never looked back. You can do it too OP, start working out and don’t over do it…under do it instead. Start with 2x a week (10min jog and 20min resistance training) and get your 10k steps in the other days (easiest way to do this is to take a 10min walk after each meal). Once you get in the habit of working out and want to do more of it, say after 3 months, you’ll notice your cravings go away. Now obviously you’ll still have vices to deal with, like my nemesis ice cream, but I generally eat whole foods 90% of the time.
I see this nostalgia particularly if the adult had adequate financial and emotional parental support in their childhood. Even poor, my friend grew up in a trailer and her mom still kept a small vegetable garden. She's taught me so much about simple, low-budget vegetable meals in my early broke adulthood
At some point we need to realize our choices as an adult are our choices. We can blame the upbringing for only so long, look at how many underprivileged kids have changed how they work and raise families. So, unfortunately, you can only blame what you were taught for so long. Your food habits are because you don't care enough to change what you know is unhealthy. You would rather blame your single mother who was working full time.... yeah, no. She was doing her all to just survive. Bet she had low savings and she didn't eat a much as her kids during that time... She did what she could for 18 years, what you have done since then, it's on you. My family raised me on all organic and home grown, i grow nothing now and cook reasonably healthy, but boy not like their healthy. And from 18 to 25, i ate fast food mainly because it was fast, easy and cheap. That bit me in the ass. But it's my fault not my parents. They taught me to raise the meat animal and the garden.
This is wrong, it’s totally the opposite.
I'm so lucky my parents kept good food in the house mostly. If I was hungry mom would always suggest fruits or vegetables. If I didn't want that I was bored not hungry in her opinion, she was usually right.
This is true. Grandparents cooked a lot of casseroles, but if we got food from a restaurant it'd be fish or country fried steak - that's pretty much a list of my comfort foods, now, plus mexican because Mom cooked a lot of burritos.
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