I've been thinking a lot lately about the causes of obesity. I know we're all different. There's baby weight, and creeping middle age weight, and crisis gainalot weight, and just plain ole beer belly. But food is different now, and so I wondered...

How did you eat when you were growing up? Was there a lot of junk food around? Did your parents try to teach you good habits? Did you have a scheduled dinner time, a dining room?

Just an informal poll.

I grew up without junk food -- a soft drink with lunch on the weekend was it. My aunt, who did the cooking, made everything "from scratch." She also boiled the hell out of vegetables and cooked meat to the shriveled stage. Fat was limited -- 2 pats of butter at dinner, and she blotted off excess fat before serving. (She was a nurse.) Deserts were often fruit, although she 'baked" every Sunday, and that meant a cake or a batch of cookies. I took packed lunches to school -- a sandwich, cookies and fruit. A snack was put out for me after school -- again, a few cookies.

Unfortunately, she also made wonderful biscuits, and I developed a bread-and-butter (or biscuit-and-butter) habit.

I walked to and from school a mile a day and was overweight -- by their standards. I don't think I really was. I have huge bones and weighed 160 then. But I felt as heavy as I really am now.

I haven't eaten like that since. When I got to college, I started thoughtless, unscheduled eating.

What about you?

Hi Alto!

What an interesting post! I grew up in the 50's in post war Britain. We were pretty poor and there was sugar rationing and not much in the shops.

I seem to remember lots of vegetables. Meat and four veg (includoing potatoes) was standard on Sunday. Some sort of pie made from the left overs on Monday and so on. In general lots of veg. and bread with nearly everything. We didn't often get desserts.

There was no processed food or frozen food or the semi-prepared stuff you get today.

Mum fried in lard and we had real butter on our bread.

I was as thin as a rake but I think we ate well...better than kids today in fact.

Where I live today (Belarus) the diet is similar to the one I ate as a child...and almost nobody is overweight.

What went wrong?

Regards,

Robert

There was hardly any junk food in our house growing up. Dad was a meat/potato kind of guy. Meals were balanced for the most part. Of course as a kid I didn't like a lot of the "adult" foods.

I was actually pretty lean as a kid. You would find me climbing trees, riding bikes or playing football with the guys. I didn't gain weight until I hit my thirties and then it was a 8 year eating free for all binge. (unhappy times).

Now since I have found low carb eating my habits have pretty much returned to what they should have been all along

I had cold cereal for breakfast everyday... and on weekends ... I would often have a second breakfast (get up early and feed myself and then join the family for breakfast). Once in a while there were pancakes or something on the weekend... but it was cereal mostly. I actually LOVE cold cereal (such variety!) but I can see now that it was a major carb overload first thing in the morning. I continued that throughout my adult life with the exception that I have always made a formal Sunday breakfast since my child was born... where we sit down together as a family and eat together - usually eggs and bacon etc... or pancakes/waffles.

I literally fended for myself for lunch. Either school lunch if I had the money... or packed my own lunch. Guess how nutritious that was?! I tried my best but I was a kid. My mother had six children and I was the last... she pretty much was tired of all of us kids by the time I arrived and left my raising to the oldest girls... who DID not want that responsibility. After school I came home to my older siblings... and again fended for myself. I honestly don't even remember eating anything after school. Dinner was a sitdown meal and I ate reasonably well by most current nutritional standards. My mother also boiled the heck out of vegetables to the point that they were unappealing. Main dishes were often casseroles - because they were easy and satisfying.

Comfort foods in my family are Ice Cream, and Pastrys - particularly big old cinnamon rolls.

I think the more important question is... what do I do for my daughter? I am determined she has an active parent in her life (unlike my childhood). She get's a good breakfast every morning - with variety. She is not Low Carb... but I work hard to make sure that she get's the majority of her carbohydrates from vegetables and whole grain sources. She eats the school lunch every day - but she has choices and she actually chooses the chef salad often and always takes the orange or apple. Dinner is always a sit down meal and I have always worked to provide a "balanced" meal for my husband and daughter. Now that I am low carbing... they get what I am having... with the addition of a carb side dish of some variety. I do this by adding english muffins to their breakfast, or a baked potato with dinner, or a side dish of noodles alfredo etc. I have noticed lately they are actually not eating alot of carbs in comparison to what they used to eat.

Sorry for the long post. Kind of therapeutic to think about this and put it into words.

I've always been a classic carbohydrate addict. Growing up was hard in a family of eight with all the boys tall and thin and the girls all size 2-6. I was a 14 at age 10.

We were poor and so ate a lot of meal stretchers, i.e. starches. Just what a carbo addict needed to get bigger and bigger.

Knowing my own problems with carbohydrates, when I had my daughter I brought her up without a lot of sugar and limited her starch servings. She never had sugar water as a baby or even candy until she was almost 5 and someone gave her a lollipop without asking me. Consequently, though she was a solid big girl, she never really had a weight problem or a sweet tooth. She later did develop a weight problem because of birth control pills, she just blew up. When she got off those she still cannot get rid of the extra 50 lbs they gave her. I keep trying to get her to try LC but since she saw me yo-yoing all those she she doesn't even want to go near a diet for fear of getting even bigger.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s. Most of the time we had dinner together as a family. Breakfast was sugary cereal and milk, my favorites were cocoa puffs and cocoa rice crispies. We had packed lunches, sandwiches and fruit and chips, until highschool then we were on our own and could pack a lunch or eat at the cafetteria, and they were as bad then as they are now, nutritionally speaking. My favorite lunch in highschool was chilitoes -- a single-serving package of fritoes slit along the side and then chili poured in.

Our dinners were usually meat and veges with a starch (pot roast, spaghetti, swiss steak). We didn't have much bread though. We also didn't have desserts often. Our pediatritian told Mom that, if she wanted to give us desserts, she should give them to us at the beginning of the meal. So we didn't have them. And now I don't miss them.

But in the summer we had homemade ice cream dinners and strawberry shortcake. And we had ready access to sweets from the small local grocery down the street, Benny's, run by Mr. and Mrs. Benny.

I have two brothers that I spent a lot of time trying to keep up with (as in contests to see who could eat the most at dinner). I was actually kind of a tomboy. I was the only girl and I didn't get along with other kids my age (a long and different story).

When I hit puberty late at 14, I could no longer pack it away and stay thin. I'm pretty sure insulin resistance hit with PCOS. I was a pretty good synchronized swimmer, in the running for the "A" team, and my coaches started getting on my case about my weight, they were rather cruel about it, so I quit.

That's when I started dieting; various fad diets and Weight Watchers, which I did fairly well at, but as soon as I stopped, of course, I gained it all back and more.

I gained weight in spurts, when I graduated high school I weighed 160. After my one year of college I weighed 180. When I got married at 26 I weighed 200. When I got divorced at 28 I weighed 220. I topped out at 245 a few years after that and decided to stop dieting, but I "watched" what I ate, i.e. cut out as much fat as possible. I spent about 15 years at pretty much the same weight and thought I was successful, except for one try at WW again, big mistake. Then I finally found low-carbing!

It's all a story of "if I'd known then what I know now." But I know now what I know now and am finally controlling my weight and health. Whew! As usual, Alto, I overdid my reply.

;-Deb

Not too long at all, Deb I've read all of these with interest "No processed foods," "no junk foods" -- but also lifelong carb addicts. We're a mixed bunch

More, please!

When I would get up in the morning, my grandmother would make me french toast or a big breakfast of bacon or sausauge with eggs. Sometimes she would make me biscuits (homemade)with cream gravy with sausage in it. For lunch, I would eat at school. For supper, whatever my grandmother made. I grew up in West Texas, hence the south cooking. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, pies, homemade fudge starting the day after thanksgiving in every room in at least 2 tins on every table. I was not fat, because I was in athletics. I didn't get overweight until I had my kids and stopped exercising. Basically all the good carby stuff.
Belle

Oh wow! I think I could write a book on eating habits as a child, but I'll try to make this as short as possible.

As a young child (grew up in 70's & 80's) I lived with my grandparents and father. My grandmother was the only one that cooked ( and BAKED!) Living in Southern Illinois, she fried everything! Always with batter of course. And let's not forget those homemade pies, cakes, and all those other sinful things.

I was made to finish everything on my plate ( even if I didnt like it) that they gave me. I never had say in what I wanted to eat. A weekly root beer float was a great treat. Since I was so young, and living in the country, and being a tomboy, I kept very active. So I stayed thin!

Now when I reached 11/12 and when me and my brother got home, this was left for each of us for a after school snack -- 1 snickers bar, 1 bag of chips ( no not the small one either, more like a med size one, perhaps the big grab size ) and let's not forget the good ole' can of Coke.

At this time I also had lost most of my energy to go out and be active. (Due to that wonderful thing that happens at this time of age to us girls ) And began to pack on a few pounds, going from 110 5'1 to 130 pounds.

I moved to live with my mom at age 13/14. This wouldnt be much better for me. At my mom's lived 10 people!! So when grocery shopping came around, I had a feeling that I better eat (and eat alot) cause I never knew if there would be a time that I wont find any food. I didnt seem to gain too much from this, but I also lived in the city at this point and gained many friends, and was never sitting at home. Always walked everywhere!

Upon moving out of my moms at 16 I lost weight, down to 120. Then PREGNANCY, well that's what brings me to date --- I gained 80 lbs. during that pregnance (12 years ago!) and have never been able to get it off.

Swt_T

I ate a low carb diet and didn't know it! My family didn't have a lot of money so breakfast was usually an egg or often nothing. Lunch at home was usually a hamburger patty and a lettuce salad, on Sunday's we had roast with lettuce salad. Every once in a while we had fried chicken. At school though, lunches were real carby, but I often ate lunch at home since I lived a block from school. Dinners were usually tomato soup and a bologna sandwich or just soup. We had absolutely no soda, no milk, no cheese, no processed foods, no junk foods at all.
No wonder I had no trouble staying at 115!
It wasn't until I got married that I ever ate chips, cookies, donuts, lots of bread, all that processed, sugary, junky food.

My son ate no processed carby foods until he started school. Then he got really carb addicted. We never had junk food around, then school came along and that's all he wanted. We're eating much better at home now. Fruits, vegetables, proteins, etc.

I know you didn’t ask for my life story alto, but here it is!

I suppose we ate in a way that was "normal" for the time. Three squares, no junk food and we only had ginger ale with spaghetti dinner. Milk was a beverage. So was juice. I often had hot cereal for breakfast and sometimes cold.

Maternal grandmother cooked for us and mother cooked on weekends. I started cooking when I was around nine.

We almost always ate in the dining room until we got a little older and grandmother would feed us before the parents got home. When we all ate together, the TV was shut off. We had dessert only on weekends.

Christmas was a grand flurry of cookie baking. I loved it. I could sneak cookies, within reason of course.

I was never a fussy eater and it was supported by my two grandmothers who would feed me artichokes, zucchini, eggplant, avocadoes and other "exotics" of the day.

Something kicked in when I was around ten - puberty! I was constanly ridiculed at school and I started using sugar as an escape mechanism. I became a "sugar sneaker". There would always be sweets in my pockets. My allowance went to RC Cola and chocolate bars. I was also very active with volleyball and track and field. I went golfing with my father.

So I was an overweight girl with boobs by the time I was eleven. I was severely judged by my family and peers so I just ate more. I was plagued by ear infections, allergies and my hair started falling out. I was taken to all the various specialists when what I really needed was a shrink.

My mother gave me diet pills. I became bulimic. Some survival mechanism kicked in and I stopped barfing. But the ED did not leave.

I low-carbed by hearsay the summer going into high-school – I just severely restricted bread, sugar, potatoes, etc. - and dropped weight. I also felt fantastic.

The weight stayed off and through my teens. I was vegetarian, then macrobiotic. When I was twenty, I discovered alcohol! Then Italian food! We ate and drank like pigs. At 26 the pounds just started to pack on. There was a brief affair with food combining while in Mexico, and again I felt really energized. I stopped drinking around the age of 30 and switched back to sugar.

I continued on the “who gives a s***” approach to eating into my forties. Hey, I could cook really well. It was almost all of my identity. I lived and breathed it. One part of me didn't care, and another part was in search of the Holy Grail. I never thought about "dieting".

Low-fatted for about a year. Mother dies, dog dies and husband went off the deep end. As the relationship quickly crumbled, I discovered low-carbing. Wow! I’m an addict. So, after 6 month of LC, I realized that the best approach would be one of personal recovery.

Looking back, everything seems so obvious to me now. I was always waiting – and actively pursuing - the key to unlock the mystery of why, why, why? But I was blind, scared and arrogant.

I’m feeling much better now!

Karen

Even though we could afford to eat better, my mom just didn't enjoy cooking so we ate a lot of frozen dinners, frozen pot pies, spaghetti and takeout food (pizza, fried chicken, fish and chips, etc...). If she did cook, it was usually light on the meat, heavy on the starches (potatoes, noodles or rice). Breakfasts were instant oatmeal, toast or cold cereal (Captain Crunch was my favorite). I didn't start getting eggs for breakfast until I learned to cook them myself when I was 10. We ate lots of boxed potato mixes and canned veggies (mostly corn and peas). To this day, I can't stand either of them and won't even bring them into the house. Our school system didn't have a cafeteria and once we got past elementary school, we packed our own lunches. Our school did have doughnut sales twice a week and I usually got two of them at a time (yup...I was a sugar addict even back then!).
The only time I was thin was a few years in high school where I was active in 3 different sports and pretty much starved myself to stay thin..before and after those years I was overweight and put up with a lot of teasing from my peers about my size, even though I was in reasonably good shape physically and quite athletic.
So....I pretty much grew up on a classic junk food diet.

We rarely had junk food in our house. It was the way junk food was treated. When my sister and I would help around the house or in the yard, we were rewarded with a trip to the Dairy Queen. When we stayed at our grandparents they'd always have homemade caramel corn and cookies waiting. We never had dessert, that was saved for special occasions.
My mom was always on a diet, so I learned pretty good eating habits at an early age. I also became obsessed with my weight at an early age because I heard her talk about how she needed to lose weight. She watched her calories so I learned about portion sizes when I was pretty young.
I wasn't overweight until I moved out and bought my own groceries. All of the good eating habits were out and the junk food was in. I lived on frozen pizza, cereal and ice cream. The first year I was on my own I gained about 40 pounds. I don't know if I was rebelling or just making up for something I felt I missed out on.

I grew up in the 70's England.
I remember Strikes, the 3 day week and quite often having to stock up on Bread, milk and basics otherwise they wouldn't be available. No oil/petrol therefore, no deliveries !! We also ate by candlelight whilst listening to the radio.
Breakfast was Cornflakes, Rice Crispies or a boiled egg, sometimes scrambled...full-fat milk. Fried breakfast at the weekend was a treat.
Lunch was at school and was revolting...I'm sure this is where my eating problems started. "The poor children in Bangladesh would love to eat this"....was the message..."Let them have it" was my response as a child.
Dinner was always meat and 2 vegs and potatoes. We ate bread and butter with everything. I hated red meat, I still do but if I didn't eat it I went hungry so I would go off to the local shop and buy...sweets & crisps..with my pocket money.
We only ever had deserts at weekends...which we would bake with mum ie. bread, biscuits, cakes. She left us to it so we'd add chocolate, cream, icing all sorts...we were being creative and as kids we loved it.
Apart from sweets that I sneaked from the shop we had no junk food as it is today....my mum picked fruit on the local farm during the summer months, so we lived on cherries, apples, gooseberries and strawberries.
I was very athletic, was a member of all the team sports, played tennis etc. I still exercise regularly.
I have 2 sisters and a brother.
My brother and 1 sister are like my mum, naturally slim, my sister still lives on Chocolate, she's 38, had 3 kids and is very slim.
Me and my other sister are like my dad, have always had to watch what we eat.....even though we were all brought up on the same diet etc.
Genetics? Who knows......

Ali

My mom and I looked at this subject a while ago.

From my first foray into the food world, I was a low carber. I wouldn't eat the bun on my burgers and hot dogs, I preferred mustard over ketchup, I wasn't a fan of french fries, and I loved meat and salad!

Our family ate a meat, potato, and veggie for dinner. I was big on the meat and veggie, but used to try to get away with as small of a portion of potato as possible! I wasn't big on spaghetti (unless it was meat sauce, which made up most of my meal!). Our family didn't drink anything but diet soft drinks and caffeine free when my mom could get it. My breakfasts were a mix of eggs and bacon or sausage or whole grain cereal or oatmeal and once a week sometimes less, pancakes or waffles. Lunch was sandwich or something, chips and fruit or veggie, although it was always meat and cheese on the sandwich and I couldn't care less if I ate the chips.

It wasn't until high school that I started drinking Mountain Dew and it took me a while to get used to it. I was about 130 lbs. and very muscular.

Then I got married and had kids and started following the low fat diet. I hated eating after that. I am now getting back to normal and enjoying eating what I used to.

It's funny that I knew how to eat as a child, but couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong as an adult!

Amber