An interesting question was asked on Reddit about what foods parents fed their kids in the 90s. The poster wondered what on earth parents in the 90s were thinking about the foods they were buying and putting out, especially considering that parents today cook for their kids. Some parents are criticized for simply packing chips and cookies in their kids’ lunches. Oh, how times have changed!
The poster, now a parent, wondered how someone managed to go an entire week “without eating any fruits or veggies,” and asked other Reddit users to weigh in on their own childhood experiences.
“The emphasis on nutrition in modern parenting often reminds me of my own childhood growing up in the ’90s,” OP wrote on the parenting subreddit.
“I was pretty poor as a kid, so this may not be true for everyone, but I remember going for an entire week without eating any fruits or vegetables! I ate oven fries, microwaved Salisbury steak, instant mashed potatoes, hot dogs, Go Gurt, canned spray cheese, and ham and cheese sandwiches. If we were lucky, we had canned corn or green beans for dinner, or maybe a totally unseasoned pea and carrot mix for our school lunches. And oh my goodness, we had oodles of milk, soda, and Kool-Aid!” they wrote.
“Of course, our general knowledge about nutrition is now much better – with the invention of the internet, information is more readily available – but have they never stopped to think about what these obviously ultra-processed foods, packed full of chemicals and preservatives, do to our bodies and brains?”
They further say that as children, they remember craving whole foods such as vegetables, even though they didn’t have any at home.
“What puzzles me is that as a kid I craved vegetables. When we went out to eat, I would often just order a salad. Broccoli and tomatoes were my favorites. It wouldn’t have been hard for my parents to get me to eat them by including real veggies,” they wrote.
“When I think about what I feed my children now, I feel sad for my younger self. I was clearly undernourished and malnourished (I was very thin and my parents blamed me). This led to some very unhealthy habits in my teens and I became overweight.”
“My kids had avocado, white bean, spinach and tomato wraps with tortilla chips and loads of pico de gallo. At one point they ate more vegetables in one meal than I eat in a month. I wanted to share my thoughts on this because it’s been bothering me lately. Has anyone ever thought about how terrible the food we ate as kids?”
After the post gained traction, several Reddit users shared their own childhood experiences and the foods they ate as children.
One Reddit user empathized with the OP, writing, “I never ate fresh vegetables until I grew up and left home. Sometimes I would eat canned veggies, but I hated them. Sometimes I would eat bananas, but it was rare, so I didn’t really have much fruit. I did have watermelon once, and that’s one of my happiest memories. My mom rarely cooked, except when she made burgers, and was usually out partying or not at home. Depending on the day, I’d eat a ton of food, sometimes nothing at all.”
“Also, the only time I drank water was when I was dying of heat stroke, and then I had it poured from a hose. I mainly drank sweet tea or Kool-Aid. I had friends whose parents were conscious of their nutrition and ate fruits and vegetables every day when I came to visit, but I was too embarrassed or afraid it would be rude to ask to sample them. At my grandma’s house, she would buy me ramen noodles with packets of dehydrated vegetables in them, so I always felt like I was eating healthy. Thinking about it as an adult can be quite depressing.”
“I can’t imagine my daughter not being able to eat anything, or only being able to eat pasta and cheese, or ketchup on toast. I’m happy she’s eating nutritious food and staying hydrated.”
Another person probably why In the 90s, parents cooked their own way.
“Looking back, we think the ’90s was a time when it was super common for parents to work full time, so even if your parents were good cooks, you weren’t good at it because no one had the time to learn how to cook. You couldn’t look up recipes on the internet, you just had a cookbook that someone gave you,” they theorize.
Other users pointed out that the poster’s childhood eating habits could be attributed to their parents’ financial situation at the time, with one person saying: “That’s a low-income diet. When you have limited money you eat as many calories as you can and nutrition takes a back seat.”
Several other Reddit users agreed, leading the OP to update their original post.
“Apparently this was very low-income stuff. We lived in poor neighborhoods and rundown trailer parks in the woods. The school district I went to lived in these areas so I guess this explains why all my friends ate the same as me…” they wrote.
“Because of this and all the commercials I’ve seen on TV of kids eating nasty ‘kids foods’ I guess I just assumed everyone did that. I’m so glad to hear most of you eat a balanced diet and I know you’re passing that on to your kids too!! :)”
