For the love of God, stop it with the special diets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You see, I find it kind of insulting that Au Pairs would think that all Americans eat unhealthy foods.

The milk we buy by home delivery is not organic. But that's because it's not certified organic which is more expensive. It's the same milk as the one labelled organic, it's just cheaper because they don't have it certified. It tastes just the same.

Anyway, I was an exchange student in Germany for 3 months in high school. My mom told me I had to eat what was served to me and so I did. My two favorite Au Pairs that we had were willing to try absolutely anything and while they definitely preferred healthier options (as our family does) they also enjoyed the awesomness of a Costco hotdog or an elephant ear at the fair. Neither gained weight while here and one went on to become a vegan (for animal rights reasons, not so much because she wanted to for health reasons).

Bottom line is: it's a year. If you have an allergy/sensitivity or a special diet due to religion, that's ok. But to get the most out of your year, it seems ridiculous to restrict your eating to some arbitrary "lifestyle" diet. Keto, vegan, gluten free, etc. Boring.

Why would that be insulting? Most Americans do eat unhealthy. When I go grocery shopping and see the garbage piled up in other people's carts, I'd be unable to live in most of these homes as well. Americans are fat fst fat and our food supply is nothing to be proud of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So many Americans sensitive about their food choices. Truth hurts?

I'm American and I'm sure these families eat complete garbage. Let me guess the staples:

- sugar cereal
- sugar yogurt
-nasty American sandwich bread
- cured cold cuts
-frozen and canned vegetables
-processed foods galore from Trader Joe's
-rotisserie chicken that has been sitting under heat lamps

Just go to the food forum on this site. Educated people treating their bodies like a garbage dumpster. Not a chance in hell I would ever be an AP in this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many Americans sensitive about their food choices. Truth hurts?

I'm American and I'm sure these families eat complete garbage. Let me guess the staples:

- sugar cereal
- sugar yogurt
-nasty American sandwich bread
- cured cold cuts
-frozen and canned vegetables
-processed foods galore from Trader Joe's
-rotisserie chicken that has been sitting under heat lamps

Just go to the food forum on this site. Educated people treating their bodies like a garbage dumpster. Not a chance in hell I would ever be an AP in this country.

So, PP, what do you eat? Specifically, as in recite the details of everything you ate yesterday. Just curious.

I myself am eating a frozen burrito for breakfast! It’s organic and whole grain though, so there you go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’ve had aps who’d pretend to be a hundred percent healthy eaters—and ask for all of this organic food and then we’d find McDonald’s and Wendy’s bags in our trash can in the garage. We don’t eat there so clearly the organic thing was a facade

Ha ha, this made me laugh because it is so true. My German au pairs always provide me a list of healthy items they want from the grocery store and extol the virtues of the European diet (does not bother me as we do not eat the "average" American diet), and I inevitably find large bottles of coke, frappuccino containers and fast food wrappers in the garage trash can and recycle bin. They also eat a lot of chocolate and American candy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’ve had aps who’d pretend to be a hundred percent healthy eaters—and ask for all of this organic food and then we’d find McDonald’s and Wendy’s bags in our trash can in the garage. We don’t eat there so clearly the organic thing was a facade

Ha ha, this made me laugh because it is so true. My German au pairs always provide me a list of healthy items they want from the grocery store and extol the virtues of the European diet (does not bother me as we do not eat the "average" American diet), and I inevitably find large bottles of coke, frappuccino containers and fast food wrappers in the garage trash can and recycle bin. They also eat a lot of chocolate and American candy.

+1. I won't judge if you don't hide.

[Anonymous]

Our German au pair was the vegetarian who needed her special veg entrees and then ignored them in favor of a complete sugary carb-loading crap diet.

[Anonymous]

Our German au pair had fro-yo for dinner, as often as possible.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, we are currently hosting a vegetarian au pair (we are not vegetarian) and it's actually worked out great. Before we selected her, we told her that 1) she had to prepare meat for DD and 2) we would not buy any special food items for her (not actually true, but we wanted to set expectations).

Her diet largely consists of rice, beans, eggs, and veggies. She feeds DD the same and will typically add on meatballs or fish sticks or something like that. It's honestly cheaper for us (in actuality, we buy her anything she asks for us) and DD is eating healthier. It was much more expensive for us when a previous au pair decided to go on a health kick and wanted us to get organic salmon, shrimp, nuts, etc.

Fundamentally, I think it comes down to personality. This au pair has a very easy personality, and is not a "new convert" to vegetarianism.

I feel like this is the only happy story any non-vegetarian host family has had about hosted a vegetarian, so I thought I would share!

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I think many APs are just trying out these specialty diets because they are a fad and because they aren’t paying. My AP insisted on organic everything. Almond milk, very expensive granola cereal etc. She admitted she didn’t eat that way at home because they couldn’t afford it or the items weren’t available. And I know she isn’t eating these items now that she is back.

[Anonymous]

It used to be true that American diets were worse than European diets. It's just not true anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I think many APs are just trying out these specialty diets because they are a fad and because they aren’t paying. My AP insisted on organic everything. Almond milk, very expensive granola cereal etc. She admitted she didn’t eat that way at home because they couldn’t afford it or the items weren’t available. And I know she isn’t eating these items now that she is back.

Our AP had the nerve to ask us for salmon for her. WHen I talked to my former Colombian AP, she was appalled (saying that salmon is so expensive in Colombia that few people would ask for it). She also asked for specific brands of salad dressing---and then with her grocery stipend that we provide, she gets her own salt???I mean we have salt--why not just use it???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many Americans sensitive about their food choices. Truth hurts?

I'm American and I'm sure these families eat complete garbage. Let me guess the staples:

- sugar cereal
- sugar yogurt
-nasty American sandwich bread
- cured cold cuts
-frozen and canned vegetables
-processed foods galore from Trader Joe's
-rotisserie chicken that has been sitting under heat lamps

Just go to the food forum on this site. Educated people treating their bodies like a garbage dumpster. Not a chance in hell I would ever be an AP in this country.

So, PP, what do you eat? Specifically, as in recite the details of everything you ate yesterday. Just curious.

I myself am eating a frozen burrito for breakfast! It’s organic and whole grain though, so there you go.

NP.

Scrambled eggs with green onion, red bell pepper, and cheddar cheese, with mixed berries on the side. (Kids had oatmeal, 1tsp brown sugar and plain scrambled eggs.)
Smoothie (strawberries, cashews, banana, spinach)
Yellow bell pepper stuffed with quinoa, sautéed onion, peanuts and Swiss cheese
Salad made with romaine and mixed greens, cucumber, yellow and orange tomatoes, purple and white carrots, zucchini, baked chicken, boiled egg, cottage cheese instead of dressing. (Kids had quinoa & cheese, one bite of each veggie in my salad, and the same chicken.)

As you can tell, I don’t buy into the need for processed food most of the time. I prep veggies ahead, batch cook, portion and freeze quinoa, rice and meat, and the refrigerator has more produce than anything else. Other than 3 days in Canada when I was 6 months old, I’ve never been out of the US. Not all Americans eat trash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many Americans sensitive about their food choices. Truth hurts?

I'm American and I'm sure these families eat complete garbage. Let me guess the staples:

- sugar cereal
- sugar yogurt
-nasty American sandwich bread
- cured cold cuts
-frozen and canned vegetables
-processed foods galore from Trader Joe's
-rotisserie chicken that has been sitting under heat lamps

Just go to the food forum on this site. Educated people treating their bodies like a garbage dumpster. Not a chance in hell I would ever be an AP in this country.

So, PP, what do you eat? Specifically, as in recite the details of everything you ate yesterday. Just curious.

I myself am eating a frozen burrito for breakfast! It’s organic and whole grain though, so there you go.

NP.

Scrambled eggs with green onion, red bell pepper, and cheddar cheese, with mixed berries on the side. (Kids had oatmeal, 1tsp brown sugar and plain scrambled eggs.)
Smoothie (strawberries, cashews, banana, spinach)
Yellow bell pepper stuffed with quinoa, sautéed onion, peanuts and Swiss cheese
Salad made with romaine and mixed greens, cucumber, yellow and orange tomatoes, purple and white carrots, zucchini, baked chicken, boiled egg, cottage cheese instead of dressing. (Kids had quinoa & cheese, one bite of each veggie in my salad, and the same chicken.)

As you can tell, I don’t buy into the need for processed food most of the time. I prep veggies ahead, batch cook, portion and freeze quinoa, rice and meat, and the refrigerator has more produce than anything else. Other than 3 days in Canada when I was 6 months old, I’ve never been out of the US. Not all Americans eat trash.

[Anonymous]

APs who think Americans eat poorly by and large haven't been here and aren't very well traveled or cultured. And, HFs who buy into the myth thar Europeans or foreigners in general have better diets haven't spent much time oversees in the actual homes of Europeans. Obesity rates have gone up drastically in many European countries, and my experience shopping in european grocery markets has led me to the belief that they eat as much or more trash as Americans. We're talking about a continent famous for big bread rolls, pizza, nutella, fried pork (schnitzel), potato dumplings, gelato, and fatty sausages. Scandinavian countries are truly healthy, and the French are truly moderate, but I don't take any crap about our food off a German or Italian. Germans, in particular, tend to carry extra fat but don't know that they do. Oh, and I would pit American diets in DC area or California against the average European diet, and I guarantee we would win every time.

[Anonymous]

So here’s the plan:
You holier than thou healthy eaters can match with these pain in the ass “special diet” eaters and I wish you the best

Those of us who live in the real world and eat Girl Scout cookies and non organic bananas can match with easy going candidates who are adventurous eaters....