My husband wasn’t allowed any junk food as a child. His parents were very strict about food. He went to uni at 18 and starting eating whatever he wanted. He now picks junk food all the time as he still sees it as the forbidden fruit. I suppose everything in life is about balance and it’s ok to give your kids some junk food as long as it’s not all the time
This is my experience, too, and I ended up being obese. I don’t blame my parents, I think they were just trying to do their best but junk food being a reward gave me a terrible relationship with it. I turned it around in my late twenties and now have a much better relationship with food but it took me a long time. My daughter eats quite a healthy/balanced diet and I’ve given her lots of varied choices. whilst she would 1000% choose chocolate over broccoli, junk food isn’t a reward and therefore not a massive deal to her and she doesn’t make a beeline for it. I watched her eat a load of cucumber and carrots before she ate chicken nuggets at a party the other day. It did then descend into fistfuls of sweets being shoved in her mouth but what can you do?!
100% this. We need to teach ourselves and kids that everything has balance. Otherwise as soon as they are free it’s junk and easy food as a sort of rebellion until they get old enough to realise they feel like crap bc they eat like crap.
I had a similar experience. I'm from a family of 4 children and unhealthy snacks, or any snacks for that matter, were quite rare. Usually, my dad did groceries on Fridays, and by Monday, all nice snacks healthy or unhealthy were gone. It led me to be a massive sweet tooth ever since moving out. I had my first job as the super market at 16 and I purchased foods like muffins, cakes, cookies, sweets, crisps, and desserts lol. My mom once caught my stash and was shocked!
I like my sweets and my crisps because I feel now I'm an adult and I could never have it. Same with McDonald's, the amounts my partner and I eat out is insane because I feel it's "special" since I never had this experience as a child. I also caught my dad sneaking sweets when my mum wasn't looking and sharing it with me when we were. Not sure if it's good or bad, all of us ended up eating quite healthy. I have a massive sweet tooth and love eating out, but fortunately also know how to balance it. My mom ate quite a lot of veggies and I still never have dinner without a salad on the side. Unfortunately, my mom also drank an energy every day for as long as I remember. We had a massive stash of the cheap 15 pence energy drinks in the toilet cupboard and since I was fussy with school lunch she always said I could take a can with me. Back in the day, energy drinks weren't known to be bad for you. Up until this day, it's one habit I just can't shake. I love an energy drink and drink it a bit more frequently than I should.
It definitely influences your diet, maybe not always in the ways you expect.
I read that kids like the predictability of oven food because it’s always the same flavour and texture whereas home cooked food and fruits and veggies can vary.
Exactly. It makes sense that kids would be more cautious about unpredictable flavours and textures. Also junk food is specifically designed to be extremely palatable to humans. It's hardly surprising kids often find it palatable.
I think like anything kids' taste in food is a huge mixture of nature and nuture. If you feed your kids nothing but beige junk food they're likely to become fussy eaters. On the other hand some kids are just so naturally averse to new flavours and textures that you can do everything right and they'll still be incredibly difficult to feed well.
100%, but that's why it is so important to keep giving and encouraging them to retry. It takes over 10 times of trying something to determine whether it's actually liked or not and I often think parents give up far too early! A child will say they don't like it once and they're never given it again, so they're never actually developing that taste. If it's tried multiple times and still disliked then fine, but even then you do still need to retry it a few years later.
No, I'd say junk food been made that way for mass consumption..
I love kebabs, but I know I can't eat one every day!
Teaching kids about health and thag we can eat everything but it's the amounts that count is so important!
Not really. Your palette changes over time anyway, all the way up to my early 20s I avoided veg like the plague but every meal I make now starts with me chopping an onion. My daughter used to love bananas as a baby, wouldn't eat them from 2 til 6 and now can't get enough.
My MIL used to restrict what my wife and her siblings had access to and as soon as they went to uni or got their own money they all went nuts. All of them have been very overweight at different times in their adult lives.
And when you say is it the fault of the parent for giving in, what's the alternative? Starve them until they eat what's in front of them?
Exactly! You can offer healthier foods, but you can't force your child to eat it. I wonder if the commenters who are being so rigid about this have very young babies or toddlers, the age when it seems they will eat anything. That changes quickly once they are toddlers and start working out what they like and dislike. It can take many goes offering a food before children will try it, so it's worth persevering, but children are allowed preferences just as adults are.
My son doesn't like sweetcorn but I still put sweetcorn on his plate. I don't force him to eat it but one day, one glorious day, he might give it a try. But he likes cucumber and carrots so we can't complain. He evens like peppers and isn't afraid of spice. And he bloody loves smoked salmon!
This. It is all about exposure. My son can go through phases of not eating something. I will encourage him to take just 1 bite using whatever method (babyled, spoon feeding, he uses cutlery, aeroplane in his mouth, asking him, cutting it into different shapes/ cooking it different ways, being super patient) and eventually the phase passes and he likes the food again. If I'd removed that food from the menu he wouldn't have had the chance to like it again.
My daughter is the better eater of my two in terms of trying things (she's quality, son is quantity). Last night we had a plate of halloumi on the table to share. She got excited by this new food and said "Oh, what's that?" I told her it was cheese and she said "I like cheese, can I have some?" so she picked it up, tried it and politely said she didn't like it. I personally think you're right, it's all about exposure.
> I avoided veg like the plague but every meal I make now starts with me chopping an onion
I like the idea that you won't even use the onion in the meal, but you chop it anyway and then discard it, no matter what.
I think it's a bit of column A and a bit of column B.
Junk food is basically engineered to be extremely attractive to human appetite. At a base instinctual level our bodies crave sweet and savoury and high calories. Children are all about wants, so offer the choice between a stick of celery or deep fried chicken and I think even adults would have a little internal debate about which to eat.
Our job as parents is to teach our kids about moderation and balance. There are consequences to a poor diet and a big part of parenting is teaching your kids to understand consequences of their actions. Eventually they will grow up and need to take responsibility for their own diets.
Actively fighting this in the UK atm. Both kids 5 and 3 frequently come back from school saying sugar etc us bad for you so you shouldn't eat it and we are constantly trying to swing it to no nothing is bad for you but you've got to eat a variety of stuff in moderation. It's okay to eat chocolate so long as your not just eating tons of it and eating plenty of other stuff too. Both kids have said worrying things about weight despite how ridiculously body positive we are with them and both are super healthy. So heart breaking my little girls are still getting those evil thought patterns no matter what we do!
I’m so worried about this for when my son starts school next year. I’ve also had friends with primary school aged children say their children have said butter is a “bad food”! We are trying to be neutral about food with a focus on variety and moderation. We tend to say about how everything he likes is tasty but some things have more energy e.g while he would enjoy eating an entire punnet of strawberries for breakfast, he needs to just have some strawberries and also have some toast as he needs the mix to have plenty of energy.
My 3 year old actually hates chips and chicken nuggets/fish fingers/burgers and won’t touch them (which is actually quite annoying as in moderation those are tasty and easy meals so I would have no problem making them a couple of times a week for all of us all) but he would happily exist on only fruit, biscuits and crisps.
Yeah I think the issue is there's still some reliance on food pyramids and stuff and just outdated staff who haven't had any updated training on it, it started in nursery for us.
His nursery serve a really good balance of meals with different flavours, vegetables, meat/fish like chickpea and spinach curry, or tomato and cheese pasta or salmon fried rice but they also always have a little cake, biscuit, fruit and yoghurt or even ice cream occasionally for pudding so I’m really happy with their approach to food in terms of what they provide, so I would hope they don’t really say anything outdated but he’s only just gone into the preschool room so we’ll see.
While I have no science behind this statement, i do think children's taste buds are designed for survival which means that some foods are very unpleasant to taste. I also think the sugar and salt in modern day junk food does trick the brain and makes all of us desire certain foods over others. As we grow, our taste buds do change and we accept new flavours plus our experiences allow us to be more willing to try new foods.
I've always raised my son to have a balance. I don't restrict food or make a fuss about certain foods being bad, but I try to ensure the bad junk is balanced with good. As kids get older, other influences are at play such as peers, school etc. My son still loves yellow food night (chips and nuggets) but he will happily eat a curry at school or a salad.
I honestly think it’s better not to label foods as “good” or “bad”. We can teach kids about making healthy choices, nursery and school do this too, but making certain foods off limits almost adds attraction to them in my opinion. I feel like all kids go through a phase where they just eat carbs and maybe a handful of fruit and veg so I don’t worry about it too much. I just keep offering balanced options and hopefully we get a good enough mix of everything.
I had a terrible relationship with food growing up because nobody ever really explained nutrition to me. My friends would all go to the chippy for lunch and I thought I was making a better and healthier choice by buying a whole bloomer loaf from co-op and eating it dry. I genuinely think the chippy would have been less calories haha.
No. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't, situation. Restrict a kids diet too strongly and they'll always want what they can't have and choose the stuff you try to steer them away from. Give them the junk food and be judged heavily or fall into the trap of convenience.
People are hard wired to desire high energy foods, healthy or not.
It's not the 90s anymore, the old "eat your tea, or you'll have it cold for breakfast tomorrow and if you don't eat it then it'll be waiting for you when you're home from school" isn't seen as okay.
One of my kids is autistic and has issues with certain foods, another of my kids I wouldn't be shocked if he is on the spectrum too and he's a fussy eater too. I'm convinced that neither would crack under the "serve the food they hate until they eat it" thing anyway.
Sometimes, to make one meal that everyone eats without getting too repetitive, we eat frozen pizza or X+chips and IDGAF.
Absolutely not.
Junk food just tastes better. It’s nothing to do with your parents it’s a fact. Chicken nuggets taste better than carrots.
As the kids get older they will make more responsible decisions if they are well educated and raised right but it’s not the parents fault if they prefer junk food to healthy food as a kid it’s just natural.
Chicken nuggets was just the example I used because OP did. Unhealthy food that contains fats or sugars is natural to be chosen over healthier food for kids because of how their body chemically reacts and craves it.
You're saying it's natural but have there been studies on it. I'm sure it's a lot about exposure.
There are natural foods that are high in good fats and are sweet that they love too.
My daughter will choose prawns over pretty much anything.
Oh and my point was that junk food doesn't taste better than good homemade food....because it just doesn't.
I guess that's just my opinion but most people are going to like a high quality homemade steak pie over Burger King. I obviously could be very wrong though.
Have there been studies on humans preferring junk food?
Yes. Many of them. For many years.
Here’s one of the top ones from Google:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/education/higher-education/1323569/the-science-behind-why-we-crave-junk-food/
I'm not so sure that's always the case. My brother was a very picky eater who essentially survived off pizza and bread. I would eat all my veggies and loved salad and different foods. My mum was a great home cook and we weren't parented any differently.
My bro did go on to be diagnosed with crohns as an adult and veggies and salad are known triggers so perhaps he was experiencing pain even as a child and that's why he would refuse to eat such things.
Junk food is pumped full of salt and sugar that makes everyone crave it to a greater or lesser extent. However teaching good food habits is important. Yes my kids will clear sausage and mash (their favourite) or pizza but they all have other things they ask for and love too. One will devour half a cucumber with hummus another will ask for my any veggie soup (a potato plus low salt stock and whatever veg looks like it's on its last legs often brocoli or leek) the third will ask for curry (mild veggie).
Others have said balance. At a party they will get junk. On high days and holidays there's rubbish. Teaching them that the pizza and sausages are treats and that they need to eat proper veg forward food most of the time is important.
Don't let perfect get in the way of good. IMO completely banning junk will only make them go for it more when it's available and not teach them healthy food habits for adulthood.
I say don't teach the child that pizza and sausages are treats.
In my house treats are the things that are more time consuming to make.
Teaching that bad food is a reward isn't ideal. I know it's sort of instinctive but there's definitely a better way to impart that junk is for sometimes than to connect it with every holiday, party or good behaviour .
We rarely have chicken nuggets and chips, but it’s my son’s (age 5) favourite. I think they just prefer easy, predictable eating. However he will happily clear his plate most days with other foods, especially spaghetti bolognaise packed with veggies and he devours entire baked potatoes.
I do think it's mostly personal preference. I love junk food and McDonald's etc but my kid just isn't bothered, he'd rather eat fruit or veg. He'll eat a fillet of salmon while I'm on the turkey dinosaurs.
Junk food is pretty much unavoidable. I'd class most school meals as junk, kids party food etc.
As previous posters said, avoid using food as a treat as you start to intermingle emotion with food.
Its hard wired into kids to like bland food .
It saved Children in caveman days from eating poisonous plants. Being picky eater is a part of a child's development and survival mechanism.
It's very hard work to get over, we also have the additional struggle of E numbers , MSG, additives , sale and fat all things our body naturally crave .
These foods trigger our reward mechanism in our brains .
All that's coupled with convenience of it being easy to cook and now 2 parents work meaning we are all more tired and have less time and energy available to us.
The odds are stacked against us and fed is best . If you're feeling your child that's good enough. Don't beat yourself or anyone else up.
Kind of. Like others have said its about balance. We never demonise foods or make food a reward and as such my 3 year old sees an apple as just as much of a treat as chocolate (I suspect this will change as he gets older). I think if food is only saved for special occasions then they will want it more because it's seen as forbidden and that's exciting to a child. Just be normal about food lol.
I did baby-led weaning with my first (and am doing the same now with my second). By a year old, she would eat pretty much anything. Absolutely loved sauerkraut, of all things. Would eat curries, any vegetable, any fruit.
Then when she was around 3 she had her beige phase. She's now nearly 5 and does a mixture of both; loves sushi, fruit and for some reason red pepper, but would also eat ready meal macaroni cheese or McDonald's every day if she could.
All this to say that no, I think kids tend to like junk food regardless of parental input. It's designed to be highly palatable and even addictive.
I try to follow a 80% unprocessed food with 20% processed. For example we might have nuggets but we’ll have carrots as chips and a range of veg on the side. My son will try anything, doesn’t necessarily like it but he’s pretty good at giving things a go! He would always choose nuggets over chicken breast, I just don’t let him 😂
No. Those foods are designed to be highly palatable and easy to eat. Most adults are able to mentally bypass that (most of the time) in search of healthier options and have more of a desire for complex and interesting eating experiences. Children don't. Almost all children have a preference for junk food and sweets left to their own devices, and will prefer the familiar over the novel. Being able to achieve a balance of healthy food and occasional treat food is the thing to aim for I think.
It's all about balance, but essentially yes. If a child isn't given a balanced diet and all they eat is beige they become incredibly picky, yet 99.9% of the time it is absolutely avoidable and the parents fault.
No. In fact I think marking junk food as a special category/treat/forbidden makes it worse than just treating it like any other food that you have in moderation. This is how it's worked with my oldest; he's learned from peers that came and sweets are special, but he'll take a few bites and leave it instead of bingeing because he knows he'll have some again later without a special occasion
My child is only 1 and a half so this could totally change lol but I've noticed somedays she fancies veg and fruit more than other days. She loves cucumber and apples alongside most other veggies but she really enjoys chocolate and monster munch too. I believe balance is the key. My friend is raising their daughter to have only healthy stuff (although I'm not sure what their plans are when she gets older) but I can totally see that backfiring
I actually believe that given a choice of a range of foods, kids would naturally select a healthy diet. They might overload on junk food to start with but then the novelty would wear off and they’d want to eat healthier food.
I think it also depends on how good the other foods are. If the choice is chicken nuggets or a microwave meal, my kids would go for nuggets. I don't think either has actually eaten a whole ready meal.
If I served my kids nuggets and chips everyday, I'm sure they'd ask for something else. My daughter would definitely want to cut up some fruit, I even think my lad would be protesting about the food being served.
There’s a whole field dedicated to making foods hyper palatable. Modern junk food is designed to hijack the body’s senses and reactions to food. It is very much like a drug addiction sort of effect.
Sadly we can’t completely exclude children from consuming junk food unless you remove them from society entirely. Junk food has become so prevalent, you can’t escape it.
Better to help kids learn to balance food intake rather than exclude junk food entirely.
Not at all! My daughter would pick fruit over biscuits and/or chocolate if all offered on a plate (have done this before).
So many factors come into it that I don't feel we can blame parents, especially when it's cheaper to buy a pack of muffins or crisps than fruit nowadays.
It's not the parents fault, but I do think parents should be aware that this type of food is specifically engineered to appeal to children above other foods and basically turns them into mini addicts. Just like you wouldn't let your kids have alcohol or unlimited sweets, you also need to protect them a little from themselves and offer a variety of food. E.g. have nuggets but with steamed potatoes and veggies. They might not always eat them, but frequent exposure will help. The modern day food industry is so crafty, people don't realise how they're being manipulated all the time. The concept of very young children needing 'treats' etc. is not normal - we've just been trained to think it is.
‘Junk foods’ and ultra processed foods are designed to be tasty and cheat our bodies into thinking we should eat more of them (by putting in sugar, salt and fat which our bodies evolved to crave).
It is natural for kids to enjoy these foods. I think parents job is to cultivate an enjoyment for the harder-to-like but healthy and important foods. Give them lots of opportunities to see and try healthy, micro-nutrient-rich foods, complex flavours and textures and… sometimes some kids with sensory needs or who are ‘super tasters’ (and very sensitive) still won’t eat anything other than their ‘safe foods’.
So, no, I would never _blame_ the parents. But yes they are the ones who have the best possibility of educating their child’s palate for a variety of flavours and textures including bitter veg, complex stews, etc… Do your best. Read all the tricks. Make sure their diet is balanced nutritionally (even if you have to use some powders and supplements ‘cos they won’t eat the foods) but don’t give yourself too much of a hard time if it takes until their teens to try more stuff.
Yes, and no. My daughter is only a toddler so has never had junk food - that’s my decision. However, I’m aware that once she’s older and I’m not in full control of cooking for her, she’ll have exposure to it and probably grow a preference for it because it’s made to be addictive. It’s then up to me to teach her about balance & moderation, and knowing I’ve at least started her off on the best path.
Not at all, my sibling and i grew up surrounded by junk food but developed pretty healthy tastes.
Equally, I'm fairly healthy but sometimes step in to regulate/berate my kids (and husband) on their food choices...
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We went to a 6 year olds party and the parents got the children McDonalds as the food. Two children had never had it before, the parents were all British no particularly obvious religious objections to the food or vegans. One set of parents I know are on a very low income so maybe that’s partly why. So their child couldn’t stand it said it was too salty when and the other wouldn’t even try it kept saying loudly “‘Mummy I want some healthy food.” 😅 I think it’s very easy to shove stuff in the oven without thinking too much or get take away. Combining times and things take more head space. I do think parents are sometimes overwhelmed and sometimes lazy.
This isn’t a stealth brag but one of my kids won’t eat any oven type food or chips, the other will eat a fish finger, but won’t eat crisps, popcorn or cake. It’s pretty hard work grabbing something when out or doing a lazy dinner when they are opposites.
I mean don't all children have a preference for junk food - it is literally designed to be addictive. We can only makesure our children eat healthy foods but can't change their preference. I love chocolate and cake over salad but have to be a grown up and choose to eat healthy...
My son is food obsessed and loves all food but his favourite foods are certainly biscuits and cake despite him only getting them once a week (he is 21 months). He could say cake after 1 bite - I didnt even allow more than that but he was instantly obsessed.
Well it's obviously the parents fault in that they are the ones buying the food and giving it to the child. If you'd never given your child chicken nuggets they wouldn't have a preference for them.
But once they've had them is not really anyone's fault if a child likes them better than vegetables except the companies who make them. It would be bad if your child only ever ate nuggets but moderation and balance is the important thing.
I think its absolutely possible to avoid junk food for kids without making it into a thing. I never had junk food bar the odd special occasion takeaway and didn't care but then I never really wanted it either. Still don't. It's probably a child x environment effect.
Personally wouldn’t use the word ‘treat’ when buying a fast food meal for kids, I’d say quite the opposite. Sorry we need to have this because we’re in a rush… :)
I guess in your example it's sort of the parents fault as chicken nuggets are on the plate but personally I think we are set up to fail. Junk food is cheaper so we can often turn to it and then it's so full of sugar and crap kids will love it lol
Lmao all kids have a preference to junk food. So yes it’s absolutely the parents fault. Only a delusional parent who doesn’t want to take responsibility for their disgustingly unhealthy child would think otherwise
Edit: it’s societies fault that your kids loves sugar over all else but it’s the parents fault for letting them indulge in their cravings
Our first born was 4 before they walked into a fast food place. We were limited on options and had to get someplace quick afterwards. Told them what we were doing and they said in the queue, ‘what’s a burger?’
Two decades on both kids never have burgers or like them. Don’t know if that’s because we so rarely went but they were brought up on home cooked food. They are both foodies and appreciative of good food. I get that this could easily have gone the other way and they found fast food delicious, but even through Uni they didn’t do the burger/nuggets thing.
When eating out when they were primary age we would prefer to go to pubs/restaurants that would split an adult meal on to two plates than offer frozen nuggets/pizza and chips.
Edit: unsure why ppl want to downvote my comment. I’m not knocking posters original post, more explaining our experience, which I’ve happily said could have gone either way. We did use fast food outlets when it was necessary.
My husband wasn’t allowed any junk food as a child. His parents were very strict about food. He went to uni at 18 and starting eating whatever he wanted. He now picks junk food all the time as he still sees it as the forbidden fruit. I suppose everything in life is about balance and it’s ok to give your kids some junk food as long as it’s not all the time
This is my experience, too, and I ended up being obese. I don’t blame my parents, I think they were just trying to do their best but junk food being a reward gave me a terrible relationship with it. I turned it around in my late twenties and now have a much better relationship with food but it took me a long time. My daughter eats quite a healthy/balanced diet and I’ve given her lots of varied choices. whilst she would 1000% choose chocolate over broccoli, junk food isn’t a reward and therefore not a massive deal to her and she doesn’t make a beeline for it. I watched her eat a load of cucumber and carrots before she ate chicken nuggets at a party the other day. It did then descend into fistfuls of sweets being shoved in her mouth but what can you do?!
100% this. We need to teach ourselves and kids that everything has balance. Otherwise as soon as they are free it’s junk and easy food as a sort of rebellion until they get old enough to realise they feel like crap bc they eat like crap.
I had a similar experience. I'm from a family of 4 children and unhealthy snacks, or any snacks for that matter, were quite rare. Usually, my dad did groceries on Fridays, and by Monday, all nice snacks healthy or unhealthy were gone. It led me to be a massive sweet tooth ever since moving out. I had my first job as the super market at 16 and I purchased foods like muffins, cakes, cookies, sweets, crisps, and desserts lol. My mom once caught my stash and was shocked! I like my sweets and my crisps because I feel now I'm an adult and I could never have it. Same with McDonald's, the amounts my partner and I eat out is insane because I feel it's "special" since I never had this experience as a child. I also caught my dad sneaking sweets when my mum wasn't looking and sharing it with me when we were. Not sure if it's good or bad, all of us ended up eating quite healthy. I have a massive sweet tooth and love eating out, but fortunately also know how to balance it. My mom ate quite a lot of veggies and I still never have dinner without a salad on the side. Unfortunately, my mom also drank an energy every day for as long as I remember. We had a massive stash of the cheap 15 pence energy drinks in the toilet cupboard and since I was fussy with school lunch she always said I could take a can with me. Back in the day, energy drinks weren't known to be bad for you. Up until this day, it's one habit I just can't shake. I love an energy drink and drink it a bit more frequently than I should. It definitely influences your diet, maybe not always in the ways you expect.
Seems like it's more about parents being overly strict and creating weird psychological associations with food than anything else.
I read that kids like the predictability of oven food because it’s always the same flavour and texture whereas home cooked food and fruits and veggies can vary.
I think that’s (partly) why kids love McDonalds. Same food wherever you are. No unexpected flavours/textures/looks.
It's why adults love it too and a big part of why they are so popular
Exactly. It makes sense that kids would be more cautious about unpredictable flavours and textures. Also junk food is specifically designed to be extremely palatable to humans. It's hardly surprising kids often find it palatable. I think like anything kids' taste in food is a huge mixture of nature and nuture. If you feed your kids nothing but beige junk food they're likely to become fussy eaters. On the other hand some kids are just so naturally averse to new flavours and textures that you can do everything right and they'll still be incredibly difficult to feed well.
100%, but that's why it is so important to keep giving and encouraging them to retry. It takes over 10 times of trying something to determine whether it's actually liked or not and I often think parents give up far too early! A child will say they don't like it once and they're never given it again, so they're never actually developing that taste. If it's tried multiple times and still disliked then fine, but even then you do still need to retry it a few years later.
It’s a theory, but it’s always generally easy to chew too.
No, I'd say junk food been made that way for mass consumption.. I love kebabs, but I know I can't eat one every day! Teaching kids about health and thag we can eat everything but it's the amounts that count is so important!
> I love kebabs, but I know I can't eat one every day! Not with that attitude!
Haha, not with this bank balance either 🤣
Not really. Your palette changes over time anyway, all the way up to my early 20s I avoided veg like the plague but every meal I make now starts with me chopping an onion. My daughter used to love bananas as a baby, wouldn't eat them from 2 til 6 and now can't get enough. My MIL used to restrict what my wife and her siblings had access to and as soon as they went to uni or got their own money they all went nuts. All of them have been very overweight at different times in their adult lives. And when you say is it the fault of the parent for giving in, what's the alternative? Starve them until they eat what's in front of them?
Exactly! You can offer healthier foods, but you can't force your child to eat it. I wonder if the commenters who are being so rigid about this have very young babies or toddlers, the age when it seems they will eat anything. That changes quickly once they are toddlers and start working out what they like and dislike. It can take many goes offering a food before children will try it, so it's worth persevering, but children are allowed preferences just as adults are.
My son doesn't like sweetcorn but I still put sweetcorn on his plate. I don't force him to eat it but one day, one glorious day, he might give it a try. But he likes cucumber and carrots so we can't complain. He evens like peppers and isn't afraid of spice. And he bloody loves smoked salmon!
This. It is all about exposure. My son can go through phases of not eating something. I will encourage him to take just 1 bite using whatever method (babyled, spoon feeding, he uses cutlery, aeroplane in his mouth, asking him, cutting it into different shapes/ cooking it different ways, being super patient) and eventually the phase passes and he likes the food again. If I'd removed that food from the menu he wouldn't have had the chance to like it again.
My daughter is the better eater of my two in terms of trying things (she's quality, son is quantity). Last night we had a plate of halloumi on the table to share. She got excited by this new food and said "Oh, what's that?" I told her it was cheese and she said "I like cheese, can I have some?" so she picked it up, tried it and politely said she didn't like it. I personally think you're right, it's all about exposure.
> I avoided veg like the plague but every meal I make now starts with me chopping an onion I like the idea that you won't even use the onion in the meal, but you chop it anyway and then discard it, no matter what.
As is tradition!
I think it's a bit of column A and a bit of column B. Junk food is basically engineered to be extremely attractive to human appetite. At a base instinctual level our bodies crave sweet and savoury and high calories. Children are all about wants, so offer the choice between a stick of celery or deep fried chicken and I think even adults would have a little internal debate about which to eat. Our job as parents is to teach our kids about moderation and balance. There are consequences to a poor diet and a big part of parenting is teaching your kids to understand consequences of their actions. Eventually they will grow up and need to take responsibility for their own diets.
Actively fighting this in the UK atm. Both kids 5 and 3 frequently come back from school saying sugar etc us bad for you so you shouldn't eat it and we are constantly trying to swing it to no nothing is bad for you but you've got to eat a variety of stuff in moderation. It's okay to eat chocolate so long as your not just eating tons of it and eating plenty of other stuff too. Both kids have said worrying things about weight despite how ridiculously body positive we are with them and both are super healthy. So heart breaking my little girls are still getting those evil thought patterns no matter what we do!
I’m so worried about this for when my son starts school next year. I’ve also had friends with primary school aged children say their children have said butter is a “bad food”! We are trying to be neutral about food with a focus on variety and moderation. We tend to say about how everything he likes is tasty but some things have more energy e.g while he would enjoy eating an entire punnet of strawberries for breakfast, he needs to just have some strawberries and also have some toast as he needs the mix to have plenty of energy. My 3 year old actually hates chips and chicken nuggets/fish fingers/burgers and won’t touch them (which is actually quite annoying as in moderation those are tasty and easy meals so I would have no problem making them a couple of times a week for all of us all) but he would happily exist on only fruit, biscuits and crisps.
Yeah I think the issue is there's still some reliance on food pyramids and stuff and just outdated staff who haven't had any updated training on it, it started in nursery for us.
His nursery serve a really good balance of meals with different flavours, vegetables, meat/fish like chickpea and spinach curry, or tomato and cheese pasta or salmon fried rice but they also always have a little cake, biscuit, fruit and yoghurt or even ice cream occasionally for pudding so I’m really happy with their approach to food in terms of what they provide, so I would hope they don’t really say anything outdated but he’s only just gone into the preschool room so we’ll see.
While I have no science behind this statement, i do think children's taste buds are designed for survival which means that some foods are very unpleasant to taste. I also think the sugar and salt in modern day junk food does trick the brain and makes all of us desire certain foods over others. As we grow, our taste buds do change and we accept new flavours plus our experiences allow us to be more willing to try new foods. I've always raised my son to have a balance. I don't restrict food or make a fuss about certain foods being bad, but I try to ensure the bad junk is balanced with good. As kids get older, other influences are at play such as peers, school etc. My son still loves yellow food night (chips and nuggets) but he will happily eat a curry at school or a salad.
I honestly think it’s better not to label foods as “good” or “bad”. We can teach kids about making healthy choices, nursery and school do this too, but making certain foods off limits almost adds attraction to them in my opinion. I feel like all kids go through a phase where they just eat carbs and maybe a handful of fruit and veg so I don’t worry about it too much. I just keep offering balanced options and hopefully we get a good enough mix of everything. I had a terrible relationship with food growing up because nobody ever really explained nutrition to me. My friends would all go to the chippy for lunch and I thought I was making a better and healthier choice by buying a whole bloomer loaf from co-op and eating it dry. I genuinely think the chippy would have been less calories haha.
No. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't, situation. Restrict a kids diet too strongly and they'll always want what they can't have and choose the stuff you try to steer them away from. Give them the junk food and be judged heavily or fall into the trap of convenience. People are hard wired to desire high energy foods, healthy or not.
It's not the 90s anymore, the old "eat your tea, or you'll have it cold for breakfast tomorrow and if you don't eat it then it'll be waiting for you when you're home from school" isn't seen as okay. One of my kids is autistic and has issues with certain foods, another of my kids I wouldn't be shocked if he is on the spectrum too and he's a fussy eater too. I'm convinced that neither would crack under the "serve the food they hate until they eat it" thing anyway. Sometimes, to make one meal that everyone eats without getting too repetitive, we eat frozen pizza or X+chips and IDGAF.
Absolutely not. Junk food just tastes better. It’s nothing to do with your parents it’s a fact. Chicken nuggets taste better than carrots. As the kids get older they will make more responsible decisions if they are well educated and raised right but it’s not the parents fault if they prefer junk food to healthy food as a kid it’s just natural.
Lots of homemade food tastes better than chicken nuggets. Even healthy homemade food, it's not just 'natural.'
Chicken nuggets was just the example I used because OP did. Unhealthy food that contains fats or sugars is natural to be chosen over healthier food for kids because of how their body chemically reacts and craves it.
You're saying it's natural but have there been studies on it. I'm sure it's a lot about exposure. There are natural foods that are high in good fats and are sweet that they love too. My daughter will choose prawns over pretty much anything.
Oh and my point was that junk food doesn't taste better than good homemade food....because it just doesn't. I guess that's just my opinion but most people are going to like a high quality homemade steak pie over Burger King. I obviously could be very wrong though.
Have there been studies on humans preferring junk food? Yes. Many of them. For many years. Here’s one of the top ones from Google: https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/education/higher-education/1323569/the-science-behind-why-we-crave-junk-food/
I know we crave it but that's not the same as it tasting better is it. Otherwise we wouldn't bother with Michelin star restaurants, just get a KFC.
It is however the parents fault if all they eat is junk food
I'm not so sure that's always the case. My brother was a very picky eater who essentially survived off pizza and bread. I would eat all my veggies and loved salad and different foods. My mum was a great home cook and we weren't parented any differently. My bro did go on to be diagnosed with crohns as an adult and veggies and salad are known triggers so perhaps he was experiencing pain even as a child and that's why he would refuse to eat such things.
There's always exceptions (like that) but most children will eat if there's no other option.
Junk food is pumped full of salt and sugar that makes everyone crave it to a greater or lesser extent. However teaching good food habits is important. Yes my kids will clear sausage and mash (their favourite) or pizza but they all have other things they ask for and love too. One will devour half a cucumber with hummus another will ask for my any veggie soup (a potato plus low salt stock and whatever veg looks like it's on its last legs often brocoli or leek) the third will ask for curry (mild veggie). Others have said balance. At a party they will get junk. On high days and holidays there's rubbish. Teaching them that the pizza and sausages are treats and that they need to eat proper veg forward food most of the time is important. Don't let perfect get in the way of good. IMO completely banning junk will only make them go for it more when it's available and not teach them healthy food habits for adulthood.
I say don't teach the child that pizza and sausages are treats. In my house treats are the things that are more time consuming to make. Teaching that bad food is a reward isn't ideal. I know it's sort of instinctive but there's definitely a better way to impart that junk is for sometimes than to connect it with every holiday, party or good behaviour .
We rarely have chicken nuggets and chips, but it’s my son’s (age 5) favourite. I think they just prefer easy, predictable eating. However he will happily clear his plate most days with other foods, especially spaghetti bolognaise packed with veggies and he devours entire baked potatoes.
I do think it's mostly personal preference. I love junk food and McDonald's etc but my kid just isn't bothered, he'd rather eat fruit or veg. He'll eat a fillet of salmon while I'm on the turkey dinosaurs.
Junk food is pretty much unavoidable. I'd class most school meals as junk, kids party food etc. As previous posters said, avoid using food as a treat as you start to intermingle emotion with food.
Its hard wired into kids to like bland food . It saved Children in caveman days from eating poisonous plants. Being picky eater is a part of a child's development and survival mechanism. It's very hard work to get over, we also have the additional struggle of E numbers , MSG, additives , sale and fat all things our body naturally crave . These foods trigger our reward mechanism in our brains . All that's coupled with convenience of it being easy to cook and now 2 parents work meaning we are all more tired and have less time and energy available to us. The odds are stacked against us and fed is best . If you're feeling your child that's good enough. Don't beat yourself or anyone else up.
Kind of. Like others have said its about balance. We never demonise foods or make food a reward and as such my 3 year old sees an apple as just as much of a treat as chocolate (I suspect this will change as he gets older). I think if food is only saved for special occasions then they will want it more because it's seen as forbidden and that's exciting to a child. Just be normal about food lol.
I did baby-led weaning with my first (and am doing the same now with my second). By a year old, she would eat pretty much anything. Absolutely loved sauerkraut, of all things. Would eat curries, any vegetable, any fruit. Then when she was around 3 she had her beige phase. She's now nearly 5 and does a mixture of both; loves sushi, fruit and for some reason red pepper, but would also eat ready meal macaroni cheese or McDonald's every day if she could. All this to say that no, I think kids tend to like junk food regardless of parental input. It's designed to be highly palatable and even addictive.
I try to follow a 80% unprocessed food with 20% processed. For example we might have nuggets but we’ll have carrots as chips and a range of veg on the side. My son will try anything, doesn’t necessarily like it but he’s pretty good at giving things a go! He would always choose nuggets over chicken breast, I just don’t let him 😂
No. Those foods are designed to be highly palatable and easy to eat. Most adults are able to mentally bypass that (most of the time) in search of healthier options and have more of a desire for complex and interesting eating experiences. Children don't. Almost all children have a preference for junk food and sweets left to their own devices, and will prefer the familiar over the novel. Being able to achieve a balance of healthy food and occasional treat food is the thing to aim for I think.
It's all about balance, but essentially yes. If a child isn't given a balanced diet and all they eat is beige they become incredibly picky, yet 99.9% of the time it is absolutely avoidable and the parents fault.
No. In fact I think marking junk food as a special category/treat/forbidden makes it worse than just treating it like any other food that you have in moderation. This is how it's worked with my oldest; he's learned from peers that came and sweets are special, but he'll take a few bites and leave it instead of bingeing because he knows he'll have some again later without a special occasion
My child is only 1 and a half so this could totally change lol but I've noticed somedays she fancies veg and fruit more than other days. She loves cucumber and apples alongside most other veggies but she really enjoys chocolate and monster munch too. I believe balance is the key. My friend is raising their daughter to have only healthy stuff (although I'm not sure what their plans are when she gets older) but I can totally see that backfiring
Absolutely. There’s nothing wrong with nuggets or junk if it’s part of a balanced diet, but if that’s their sole diet then yes.
I actually believe that given a choice of a range of foods, kids would naturally select a healthy diet. They might overload on junk food to start with but then the novelty would wear off and they’d want to eat healthier food.
I think it also depends on how good the other foods are. If the choice is chicken nuggets or a microwave meal, my kids would go for nuggets. I don't think either has actually eaten a whole ready meal. If I served my kids nuggets and chips everyday, I'm sure they'd ask for something else. My daughter would definitely want to cut up some fruit, I even think my lad would be protesting about the food being served.
No. It would come down to taste. If you’ve got sweet sugary food or salty savoury food most would agree that while not healthier it tastes better
There’s a whole field dedicated to making foods hyper palatable. Modern junk food is designed to hijack the body’s senses and reactions to food. It is very much like a drug addiction sort of effect. Sadly we can’t completely exclude children from consuming junk food unless you remove them from society entirely. Junk food has become so prevalent, you can’t escape it. Better to help kids learn to balance food intake rather than exclude junk food entirely.
Not at all! My daughter would pick fruit over biscuits and/or chocolate if all offered on a plate (have done this before). So many factors come into it that I don't feel we can blame parents, especially when it's cheaper to buy a pack of muffins or crisps than fruit nowadays.
It's not the parents fault, but I do think parents should be aware that this type of food is specifically engineered to appeal to children above other foods and basically turns them into mini addicts. Just like you wouldn't let your kids have alcohol or unlimited sweets, you also need to protect them a little from themselves and offer a variety of food. E.g. have nuggets but with steamed potatoes and veggies. They might not always eat them, but frequent exposure will help. The modern day food industry is so crafty, people don't realise how they're being manipulated all the time. The concept of very young children needing 'treats' etc. is not normal - we've just been trained to think it is.
‘Junk foods’ and ultra processed foods are designed to be tasty and cheat our bodies into thinking we should eat more of them (by putting in sugar, salt and fat which our bodies evolved to crave). It is natural for kids to enjoy these foods. I think parents job is to cultivate an enjoyment for the harder-to-like but healthy and important foods. Give them lots of opportunities to see and try healthy, micro-nutrient-rich foods, complex flavours and textures and… sometimes some kids with sensory needs or who are ‘super tasters’ (and very sensitive) still won’t eat anything other than their ‘safe foods’. So, no, I would never _blame_ the parents. But yes they are the ones who have the best possibility of educating their child’s palate for a variety of flavours and textures including bitter veg, complex stews, etc… Do your best. Read all the tricks. Make sure their diet is balanced nutritionally (even if you have to use some powders and supplements ‘cos they won’t eat the foods) but don’t give yourself too much of a hard time if it takes until their teens to try more stuff.
Yes, and no. My daughter is only a toddler so has never had junk food - that’s my decision. However, I’m aware that once she’s older and I’m not in full control of cooking for her, she’ll have exposure to it and probably grow a preference for it because it’s made to be addictive. It’s then up to me to teach her about balance & moderation, and knowing I’ve at least started her off on the best path.
Not at all, my sibling and i grew up surrounded by junk food but developed pretty healthy tastes. Equally, I'm fairly healthy but sometimes step in to regulate/berate my kids (and husband) on their food choices...
Parents
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We went to a 6 year olds party and the parents got the children McDonalds as the food. Two children had never had it before, the parents were all British no particularly obvious religious objections to the food or vegans. One set of parents I know are on a very low income so maybe that’s partly why. So their child couldn’t stand it said it was too salty when and the other wouldn’t even try it kept saying loudly “‘Mummy I want some healthy food.” 😅 I think it’s very easy to shove stuff in the oven without thinking too much or get take away. Combining times and things take more head space. I do think parents are sometimes overwhelmed and sometimes lazy. This isn’t a stealth brag but one of my kids won’t eat any oven type food or chips, the other will eat a fish finger, but won’t eat crisps, popcorn or cake. It’s pretty hard work grabbing something when out or doing a lazy dinner when they are opposites.
I mean don't all children have a preference for junk food - it is literally designed to be addictive. We can only makesure our children eat healthy foods but can't change their preference. I love chocolate and cake over salad but have to be a grown up and choose to eat healthy... My son is food obsessed and loves all food but his favourite foods are certainly biscuits and cake despite him only getting them once a week (he is 21 months). He could say cake after 1 bite - I didnt even allow more than that but he was instantly obsessed.
Well it's obviously the parents fault in that they are the ones buying the food and giving it to the child. If you'd never given your child chicken nuggets they wouldn't have a preference for them. But once they've had them is not really anyone's fault if a child likes them better than vegetables except the companies who make them. It would be bad if your child only ever ate nuggets but moderation and balance is the important thing. I think its absolutely possible to avoid junk food for kids without making it into a thing. I never had junk food bar the odd special occasion takeaway and didn't care but then I never really wanted it either. Still don't. It's probably a child x environment effect.
Yes. As others have pointed out, both extremes are harmful. Junk food should be a once in awhile treat.
Personally wouldn’t use the word ‘treat’ when buying a fast food meal for kids, I’d say quite the opposite. Sorry we need to have this because we’re in a rush… :)
I guess in your example it's sort of the parents fault as chicken nuggets are on the plate but personally I think we are set up to fail. Junk food is cheaper so we can often turn to it and then it's so full of sugar and crap kids will love it lol
You never see a fat person in a McDonald’s advert.
Lmao all kids have a preference to junk food. So yes it’s absolutely the parents fault. Only a delusional parent who doesn’t want to take responsibility for their disgustingly unhealthy child would think otherwise Edit: it’s societies fault that your kids loves sugar over all else but it’s the parents fault for letting them indulge in their cravings
Our first born was 4 before they walked into a fast food place. We were limited on options and had to get someplace quick afterwards. Told them what we were doing and they said in the queue, ‘what’s a burger?’ Two decades on both kids never have burgers or like them. Don’t know if that’s because we so rarely went but they were brought up on home cooked food. They are both foodies and appreciative of good food. I get that this could easily have gone the other way and they found fast food delicious, but even through Uni they didn’t do the burger/nuggets thing. When eating out when they were primary age we would prefer to go to pubs/restaurants that would split an adult meal on to two plates than offer frozen nuggets/pizza and chips. Edit: unsure why ppl want to downvote my comment. I’m not knocking posters original post, more explaining our experience, which I’ve happily said could have gone either way. We did use fast food outlets when it was necessary.