kids eating vegetablesWe were having a discussion in the office the other day about the weird food rules our parents enforced as we were growing up. It turns out that all of our parents did similar weird things! Here are some weird food rules that our team grew up with:

Clare Wolski – Dietitian:

My siblings and I were only allowed CocoPops on school holidays.

On trips down the coast we were only allowed to have Minties when going down the Clyde Mountain to help our ears ‘pop’

Roll ups were never allowed in our lunch box but 1 small packet of chips, Twisties or Burger Rings was okay

I had to finish my vegetables to in order to leave the table. I remember my four older siblings going about their evening while I sat at the dinner table trying to hide the taste of zucchinis in mountains of tomato sauce.

Carmen D’Costa – Dietitian:

We were only allowed to eat fruit loops on travel holidays.

We were also only allowed one packet of lifesavers in the car on driving holidays, all the way to Coonabarabran! (8-9 hours drive, 1 packet!!!!!)

I also recall HAVING to eat 3 pieces of fruit everyday.
We were only allowed lunch orders very rarely and they had to be on a Friday! hehe…
Also about once a year we were allowed a McDonald’s chocolate Sundae, and this of course could only be on a Sunday!

Kate Freeman – Nutritionist:

We had to drink a glass of water before we could have a glass of juice or soft drink.
On car trips mum would give us one cracker every 30 minutes – you had to make it last and then sometimes you’d get greedy and eat it in 10 seconds…
One day I bargained with mum that if I ate all my pumpkin this particular night that she’d never give it to me again. I really like pumpkin now!

Ellyn Bicknell – Intern:

I wasn’t allowed any lollies until the age of 4. My mum has type 1 diabetes and they were worried I might develop it too. My parents thought it was best not to even introduce lollies into my diet if they were going to be restricted to hypo treatment only if i was diagnosed. Once I reached the age of 4 they thought I was old enough to understand reasoning a bit better.

Ashely Cox – Intern:

Me And my sister loved lollies, but weren’t given them alot as children. But our dad used exercise activities to bribe us!

When we went to the pool in summer, we were given $4 (alot back then!?) and we could buy anything from the canteen to eat as long as every 40mins of play time we had, we had to do 15minutes of lap swimming or 10minutes and 10dives for practise with swimming school.

We also were allowed to go to the ice creamery in summer, if we rode there and back..  Which from our house in Wollongong was about 10kms away.

Ebony O’Toole

 I remember only being allowed to have a school lunch order every 6 months and it always had to be a Friday!
Coco pops and fruit loops were a massive treat!! We had Weetbix all the time hence my slight hatred for the stuff now!! :)
We’d love to hear yours! Please comment below!

If you’d like further help with your nutrition please click below: