Social aspect to food

New Goat

Why do a lot of people insist on unhealthy food being the centre of everything.

So your invited to a friends or family members house, and are tempted by pretty unhealthy dinners like lasagne with garlic bread or else the usual biscuits and chocolate.

People bringing cakes and biscuits into work.

Your friend calls over, and brings the latest special offer deal on chocolate around for you to scoff.

It's never ending to be honest.

Alf Veedersane

New Goat wrote: »

Why do a lot of people insist on unhealthy food being the centre of everything.

So your invited to a friends or family members house, and are tempted by pretty unhealthy dinners like lasagne with garlic bread or else the usual biscuits and chocolate.

People bringing cakes and biscuits into work.

Your friend calls over, and brings the latest special offer deal on chocolate around for you to scoff.

It's never ending to be honest.

For the other people, maybe it's not a regular thing for them to have cakes/biscuits/sweets

You decide what you eat.

bee06

New Goat wrote: »

People bringing cakes and biscuits into work.

Your friend calls over, and brings the latest special offer deal on chocolate around for you to scoff.

It's never ending to be honest.

I just say no thanks I don't eat sugar. People stop offering you stuff when they know you don't eat it.

mirrorwall14

To be fair I had lasagne at my last house event but it was slimming world lasagne with salad rather than chips and a completely edited white sauce to be SW friendly. Everyone scraped their plates. Many of my friends also have the healthy options now at our events, fruit skewers, frozen grapes, homemade hummus and carrot sticks etc

Old Perry

Just because a food isnt 'healthy' doesnt make it unhealthy. Its the amount you eat it in that makes it unhealthy. Id never consider homemde or decently produced lasagna unhealthy. Live a little.

New Goat

Old Perry wrote: »

Just because a food isnt 'healthy' doesnt make it unhealthy. Its the amount you eat it in that makes it unhealthy. Id never consider homemde or decently produced lasagna unhealthy. Live a little.

That's true just meant calorific and high in fat. I don't mind too much at the moment as trying to gain strength but don't want too much fat added either so just mindful of it.

Zillah

New Goat wrote: »

Why do a lot of people insist on unhealthy food being the centre of everything.

So your invited to a friends or family members house, and are tempted by pretty unhealthy dinners like lasagne with garlic bread or else the usual biscuits and chocolate.

People bringing cakes and biscuits into work.

Your friend calls over, and brings the latest special offer deal on chocolate around for you to scoff.

It's never ending to be honest.

I've always found it weird that I am supposedly expected to buy junk to feed people when they call over. Like, eat a dinner and you won't need pringles.

bladespin

Lasagne is not unhealthy, even sugars have their place in moderation, who made you the food police???

If you're following a plan, politely decline, it's your plan, not theirs.

New Goat

bladespin wrote: »

Lasagne is not unhealthy, even sugars have their place in moderation, who made you the food police???

If you're following a plan, politely decline, it's your plan, not theirs.

Calm yourself and see the follow on post where your point about lasagne was addressed already

Mellor

bladespin wrote: »

Lasagne is not unhealthy, even sugars have their place in moderation, who made you the food police???

There's nothing inherently wrong or unhealthy with a sensible sized portion of lasagne.
Meat, veg, carbs, dairy. But the sensible sized is not the norm.

The standard (Irish) portion of lasagne is massive, and everything combined in one slab doesn't look right - so of course it comes with chips and garlic bread. The problem is the portion not the lasagne. A sensible portion probably looks pitiful on the plate. If I needed to gain weight fast, I think I'd go with lasagne, delicious delicious lasagne.

Whether you can or can't eat something everyday is probably a reasonable test for "is it healthy". Whether something passes that test for you depends on your needs and portion sizes.
But bare in mind, you don't need to eat healthy every single day. If random meals with friends are ok to relax a little. If diet is really critical right now, then eat half or it, or ask for a small portion.

bladespin

Mellor wrote:

The standard (Irish) portion of lasagne is massive, and everything combined in one slab doesn't look right - so of course it comes with chips and garlic bread. The problem is the portion not the lasagne. A sensible portion probably looks pitiful on the plate. If I needed to gain weight fast, I think I'd go with lasagne, delicious delicious lasagne.

My favourite is ordering a salad in a hotel's restaurant and it arrives out with chips on the side - oh god the temptation.

New Goat

Mellor wrote: »

There's nothing inherently wrong or unhealthy with a sensible sized portion of lasagne.
Meat, veg, carbs, dairy. But the sensible sized is not the norm.

The standard (Irish) portion of lasagne is massive, and everything combined in one slab doesn't look right - so of course it comes with chips and garlic bread. The problem is the portion not the lasagne. A sensible portion probably looks pitiful on the plate. If I needed to gain weight fast, I think I'd go with lasagne, delicious delicious lasagne.

Whether you can or can't eat something everyday is probably a reasonable test for "is it healthy". Whether something passes that test for you depends on your needs and portion sizes.
But bare in mind, you don't need to eat healthy every single day. If random meals with friends are ok to relax a little. If diet is really critical right now, then eat half or it, or ask for a small portion.

Exactly the point I wanted to make but was too lazy or tired to articulate it.

Expanding on that, porridge is healthy, but you can make it very calorific by filling the bowl, throwing half a litre of milk in there and adding toppings (unless your using a small bowl).

With no consideration of portions and just filling the bowl it is possible to get to 500 calories in a small bowl, and over 1000 in a larger one, by adding toppings etc, no problem.

bladespin

New Goat wrote: »

Exactly the point I wanted to make but was too lazy or tired to articulate it.

Expanding on that, porridge is healthy, but you can make it very calorific by filling the bowl, throwing half a litre of milk in there and adding toppings (unless your using a small bowl).

With no consideration of portions and just filling the bowl it is possible to get to 500 calories in a small bowl, and over 1000 in a larger one, by adding toppings etc, no problem.

My breakfast: Granola/Porridge with a scoop of protein worked out about 500 cal when I was cutting, I lost weight no problem but I knew when and where I was getting my cals/carbs.

You make a good point though and it annoyed me no end when I saw what a 'typical serving' (45g as described on the side of the packet) of something proposed to be healthy - Museli, actually looked like - less than half a normal cup!

It's stuff like this that IMO causes people to fail, it's ok if you planning properly but if you 'think' you're having 200 cal fro breakfast and in reality it's closer to 500...

Ninelle

New Goat wrote: »

Why do a lot of  people insist on unhealthy food being the centre of everything.

So your invited to a friends or family members house, and are tempted by pretty unhealthy  dinners like lasagne with garlic bread  or else the usual biscuits and chocolate.

People bringing cakes and biscuits into work.

Your friend calls over, and brings the latest special offer deal on chocolate around for you to scoff.

It's never ending to be honest.

Yes, that’s never going to end :(BUT! You know what I adore? I adore to see, how these people look at you, when you say that you are not on a diet, you just eat proper food only, they give you this guilty look:D. Seriously I always try to find something healthy when I go out, less bread more veggies and protein! Let people eat their hamburgers with cookies and be fat ;)

SarahMollie

I'm following SW at the moment and yes it can be hard eating out in certain places or with certain people (some people are just feeders). My future Mother in Law for example always tried to feed me extra because I'm the guest, and I'm always trying to dodge the extra roast potato or extra helping of desert before its heaped on my plate. She equates giving me lots of food with kindness, and I don't like to offend her, so I try to then push the extra on to my OH's plate.

Also I think Irish people have developed a relationship with food whereby junk food = treat, and a lot of us think we deserve to be treated every day, for every little reason. Long day = Glass of wine. End of the week = take away. Waiting for the bus = Bar of chocolate. Its so normal now that very few people question it and then of course we push it on others by bringing treats when we call over to someones house.

I also don't notice the same proliferation of convenience stores in other countries. Ireland has a huge number of Spars, Centras, Londis etc shops that are all set up for this treat mentality. The stuff is so easy to come by and so cheap, its really just become to norm to pop in and pick up whatever.

Sunny Dayz

When you have friends/family over for a meal, you don't want to spend all evening in the kitchen. You want something that will please the majority of people and is easy to cook. With lasagne, you can put it in the oven to cook. Salad can be prepared earlier in the day.

Alf Veedersane

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

When you have friends/family over for a meal, you don't want to spend all evening in the kitchen.

Sometimes you do....