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HarmonySeptember
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17 May 2014, 5:14 pm

Whenever my mum or dad come home from the grocery store, I will examine the food that they got and judge it. I know, it is kind of silly. Here are some of the things that I would think and say:

-"This is okay, but I think that unsweetened tastes better."

-"Why did you buy a mix? We have a perfectly good recipe that is easy and tastes better."

-"What is the processed cheese for? I don't understand why this exists."

Now that I wrote these examples down, I realize that they can make the parents feel awkward. :oops: Anyway, do any of you find yourself snooping around in you're parent's grocery bags and judging the food? Could this be common with mild autism?


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goldfish21
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17 May 2014, 5:34 pm

Yes, I do it.. but I don't know if it's an Autism thing or more of a health conscious & value-for-money thing.

My parents tend to buy decent real food/ingredients vs. some peoples' diets of highly processed food-like products, so there isn't too much to judge too harshly. Also, anything they buy that I don't want to eat I simply don't. I give them a list & cash for my groceries and stop and pick up whatever else I need/want on my way home. So, it's not as if I look at their groceries and get annoyed that I "have to," eat what they buy or anything like that.

I do tend to take a look at other peoples' groceries but usually refrain from judgemental verbal comments. I try to be constructive in my criticisms, but I don't hold too much back when talking to family members about their grocery choices.

As per the thread in my sig, diet has changed my entire life, so I'm a firm believer in "you are what you eat," & try to encourage friends and family to eat as healthily as they can. The most irritating response from others is "I can't afford ____," (healthy groceries) as it tends to make me think, "on a limited food budget, you can't afford to waste ANY money on things of little to no nutritional value. stop buying processed cardboard "foods," and buy fewer real quality ingredients and make healthy meals out of them that actually fuel your body vs. just fill your stomach."

Oh, and if they smoke/drink/do drugs/gamble/eat at restaurants etc my thoughts instantly go to those things and it's no wonder they don't have any money for proper food.. which keeps them functioning at a lower level - vibrating at a lower frequency some might say - which in turn keeps them in a perpetual cycle of scarcity & poverty barely scraping by paycheque to paycheque.

From personal experience, reallocating funds to the healthiest foods you can afford isn't an expense, it's been an investment. Yes, my food budget is higher than a lot of single peoples' who might exist on raman noodles and kraft dinner etc, and in the beginning over a year ago it represented quite a significant portion of my income (i.e. nearly all of it. I made healthy food & herbal medicines such a financial priority that I'd spend nearly every dollar I made on it, especially when I wasn't making much money.) - but now? Thanks to eating very healthily I've improved my capacity to work/do/learn & Earn and my income has risen along with my savings. Both should continue to rise over the years to come, too. Yet my food cost hasn't risen unless I really feel like indulging in a special expensive treat or dining out. So, what used to cost me nearly every penny I earned a year or so ago now costs me a fraction of my increased income and I'm able to bank the rest. Sure, there's been exercise, hard work, reading books, herbal treatments and other things that have contributed to my overall health, well being, and current earning capacity - but diet has been about the most significant factor. Health is wealth - focus on the first one, and the second will come.


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HarmonySeptember
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17 May 2014, 5:52 pm

goldfish21 wrote:
Yes, I do it.. but I don't know if it's an Autism thing or more of a health conscious & value-for-money thing.

My parents tend to buy decent real food/ingredients vs. some peoples' diets of highly processed food-like products, so there isn't too much to judge too harshly. Also, anything they buy that I don't want to eat I simply don't. I give them a list & cash for my groceries and stop and pick up whatever else I need/want on my way home. So, it's not as if I look at their groceries and get annoyed that I "have to," eat what they buy or anything like that.

I do tend to take a look at other peoples' groceries but usually refrain from judgemental verbal comments. I try to be constructive in my criticisms, but I don't hold too much back when talking to family members about their grocery choices.

As per the thread in my sig, diet has changed my entire life, so I'm a firm believer in "you are what you eat," & try to encourage friends and family to eat as healthily as they can. The most irritating response from others is "I can't afford ____," (healthy groceries) as it tends to make me think, "on a limited food budget, you can't afford to waste ANY money on things of little to no nutritional value. stop buying processed cardboard "foods," and buy fewer real quality ingredients and make healthy meals out of them that actually fuel your body vs. just fill your stomach."

Oh, and if they smoke/drink/do drugs/gamble/eat at restaurants etc my thoughts instantly go to those things and it's no wonder they don't have any money for proper food.. which keeps them functioning at a lower level - vibrating at a lower frequency some might say - which in turn keeps them in a perpetual cycle of scarcity & poverty barely scraping by paycheque to paycheque.

From personal experience, reallocating funds to the healthiest foods you can afford isn't an expense, it's been an investment. Yes, my food budget is higher than a lot of single peoples' who might exist on raman noodles and kraft dinner etc, and in the beginning over a year ago it represented quite a significant portion of my income (i.e. nearly all of it. I made healthy food & herbal medicines such a financial priority that I'd spend nearly every dollar I made on it, especially when I wasn't making much money.) - but now? Thanks to eating very healthily I've improved my capacity to work/do/learn & Earn and my income has risen along with my savings. Both should continue to rise over the years to come, too. Yet my food cost hasn't risen unless I really feel like indulging in a special expensive treat or dining out. So, what used to cost me nearly every penny I earned a year or so ago now costs me a fraction of my increased income and I'm able to bank the rest. Sure, there's been exercise, hard work, reading books, herbal treatments and other things that have contributed to my overall health, well being, and current earning capacity - but diet has been about the most significant factor. Health is wealth - focus on the first one, and the second will come.


This is a great lifestyle to have. A couple years ago, someone told me that once I start college, I will be eating a lot of ramen noodles because this was what she did. I don't think that she knew me very well.


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TungleVatn
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17 May 2014, 6:36 pm

HarmonySeptember wrote:
-"What is the processed cheese for? I don't understand why this exists."


That made me lol :)

I think it probably does have something to do with being on the spectrum if you have trouble filtering your words. . It happens to me a whole lot but not really around the groceries.

I do remember though once we were visiting some family friends in Kentucky and when we go down there we have lunch and then stay until dinner. One time they made macaroni for us and my brother said 'why couldn't you get rugrats shaped macaroni?' I'm sure he didn't mean it as if the regular macaroni was unacceptable though. Just curiosity that got the best of him.



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17 May 2014, 6:40 pm

HarmonySeptember wrote:
Whenever my mum or dad come home from the grocery store, I will examine the food that they got and judge it. I know, it is kind of silly. Here are some of the things that I would think and say:

-"This is okay, but I think that unsweetened tastes better."

-"Why did you buy a mix? We have a perfectly good recipe that is easy and tastes better."

-"What is the processed cheese for? I don't understand why this exists."

Now that I wrote these examples down, I realize that they can make the parents feel awkward. :oops: Anyway, do any of you find yourself snooping around in you're parent's grocery bags and judging the food? Could this be common with mild autism?


Right, don't do this unless you're prepared to do and pay for the grocery shopping and do better, buying things that other people in your house actually want to eat. Not things you think they should eat. Things they want to eat.



HarmonySeptember
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17 May 2014, 8:01 pm

TungleVatn wrote:
HarmonySeptember wrote:
-"What is the processed cheese for? I don't understand why this exists."


That made me lol :)

I think it probably does have something to do with being on the spectrum if you have trouble filtering your words. . It happens to me a whole lot but not really around the groceries.

I do remember though once we were visiting some family friends in Kentucky and when we go down there we have lunch and then stay until dinner. One time they made macaroni for us and my brother said 'why couldn't you get rugrats shaped macaroni?' I'm sure he didn't mean it as if the regular macaroni was unacceptable though. Just curiosity that got the best of him.


:lol: . That is so funny! Your brother must have gotten a little lecture after this. Yes, I think that filtering could have something to do with it. I have less of a filter around my family then with people from outside my house, but I am gradually growing out of it even though I am twenty-one years old. I was just thinking, maybe it can also have something to do with food sensitivity.


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mr_bigmouth_502
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17 May 2014, 8:16 pm

HarmonySeptember wrote:
Whenever my mum or dad come home from the grocery store, I will examine the food that they got and judge it. I know, it is kind of silly. Here are some of the things that I would think and say:

-"This is okay, but I think that unsweetened tastes better."

-"Why did you buy a mix? We have a perfectly good recipe that is easy and tastes better."

-"What is the processed cheese for? I don't understand why this exists."

Now that I wrote these examples down, I realize that they can make the parents feel awkward. :oops: Anyway, do any of you find yourself snooping around in you're parent's grocery bags and judging the food? Could this be common with mild autism?


I used to have similar thoughts all the time when I worked as a grocery cashier. I would notice that certain items were popular, and I would wonder why they were as popular as they were. For instance, nearly EVERYONE bought bananas, and it baffled me because I don't eat them that often, and I don't see what's all that great about them. Not to say I hate them, but they're just nowhere close to being my favorite fruit.



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17 May 2014, 8:39 pm

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:
HarmonySeptember wrote:
Whenever my mum or dad come home from the grocery store, I will examine the food that they got and judge it. I know, it is kind of silly. Here are some of the things that I would think and say:

-"This is okay, but I think that unsweetened tastes better."

-"Why did you buy a mix? We have a perfectly good recipe that is easy and tastes better."

-"What is the processed cheese for? I don't understand why this exists."

Now that I wrote these examples down, I realize that they can make the parents feel awkward. :oops: Anyway, do any of you find yourself snooping around in you're parent's grocery bags and judging the food? Could this be common with mild autism?


I used to have similar thoughts all the time when I worked as a grocery cashier. I would notice that certain items were popular, and I would wonder why they were as popular as they were. For instance, nearly EVERYONE bought bananas, and it baffled me because I don't eat them that often, and I don't see what's all that great about them. Not to say I hate them, but they're just nowhere close to being my favorite fruit.


They're cheap, easy to carry around, not messy to eat and tasty!



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17 May 2014, 10:07 pm

I disinfect all my groceries with an all essential oil organic food safe hospital grade disinfectant. I know it's an OCD thing but I also know how nasty grocery carts are.


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HarmonySeptember
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18 May 2014, 7:51 am

[quote="tarantella64"]

Right, don't do this unless you're prepared to do and pay for the grocery shopping and do better, buying things that other people in your house actually want to eat. Not things you think they should eat. Things they want to eat.[quote="tarantella64"]

Paying myself is a good idea, but I just got the work authorization in the country I am in now, and my family is posted back to our home country this summer. The tests for a job here does not apply for the next country I am moving to. I can get a job once my family and I move.

Also, I can think parts of the examples I gave without saying them, but my family seems to know what I am thinking. Sometimes it actually seems to amuse them. :)


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Last edited by HarmonySeptember on 19 May 2014, 8:53 am, edited 3 times in total.

Swordfish210
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19 May 2014, 7:33 am

I do my own shopping now. I still have those arguments in my head while in the supermarket though...


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goldfish21
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22 May 2014, 10:42 pm

This thread made me notice that I judge everyone's carts full of groceries in the lineup in front/behind me at the checkout.

When shopping at a higher end grocery store there isn't much junk pseudo-food to possibly buy, so I just scope out what people do buy there and sometimes I get ideas for things I might pick up next time.

But when shopping at a low end low cost grocery store.. wow, what a lot of carts full of processed garbage not fit for human consumption. It's kind of sad what kind of "food," nearly completely void of nutritional value, people spend their money on when they likely don't have a single dollar to waste within their food budget. Completely backwards logic.


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23 May 2014, 4:47 am

I don't think so. I grew up in a third world country. They didn't go to grocery stores (we didn't have them). We just went to the market everyday. Every meal was cooked from scratch and I never knew processed food until I was in Canada. My parents still mostly buy fresh stuff and cook from scratch. I only pick on them for buying too much fresh produce when I visit. My mom doesn't plan meals too well and tend to buy too much perishable stuff at once.


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