How to get your parents to buy healthier food

My parents tend to buy convenience food, very little vegetables and almost no fruit.

The food around the house is potato chips, cake, frozen dinners, and every kind of 'helper' meal you can think of...

I eat veggies, fruits, whole grains, unsweetened juice..and no body else likes eating healthy food.

How can I persuade my family to buy a little healthy food?

Do it for them. 

Menu planning normally takes about 30 minutes for me, I do it at the bookstore or Starbucks usually (though sometimes it takes longer what with all the prices going up, makes it harder to stay in the budget D:), an hour or two for shopping including driving, since I usually hit two or three stores.  I do the main shopping once a week, and run to the store for stuff like lettuce since it goes bad so fast, or the extra box of rice milk since I just HAVE to make cookies RIGHT THEN...

I'd say the actual cooking of what I buy takes 30 minutes to an hour every day, but you could probably get your parents to do that part if you'd already gathered the menu and recipes.

As long as you make sure to include meals and snacks for everyone, they'll probably be relieved to have you do it.  Give them time to add things to the list, and ask them how much time they have for meals so you don't buy the ingredients for pancakes when they only have enough time for oatmeal.

Oh, and don't go food-nazi right away.  Give them time to adjust to having less of the processed **** and more actual food, y'know, wean them off it slowly.  Look for more natural versions of the instant stuff (bunny grahams instead of teddy grahams, Amy's meals instead of TV dinners, etc.), and avoid 'diet food' like 100 calorie packs 'n whatnot, 'cause it's no better than hamburger helper.

Read the labels on EVERYTHING.  Don't buy ingredients that're in something if you wouldn't buy it on its own.  When was the last time you grabbed a packet monosodium glumate to add that special flavour to your food? 

You buy real food,, they'll eat real food, and everyone will be happier and healthier in the long run.  As long as there's ice cream, that is...

Good luck. (:

Talk to your parents.  The usual reasons for not buying fruit and vegetables are 'cost', 'preparation time', 'they go off too quickly' or 'we don't like them'.   Everyone needs them, of course, and maybe your parents are reaching an age where they're a bit more conscious of their health?  Older members of the family have pegged it recently from a heart attack or stroke?  Maybe their doctor has suggested they could shape up a little?  If you catch it right and suggest that they could buy more fruit and veg.. .maybe you'll hit a vulnerable spot!  Some arguments that could help...

'Cost'... imported fancy fruit and veg can be expensive but home-grown, seasonal stuff is usually dirt cheap... certainly cheaper than frozen dinners.

'Preparation Time'... takes no time to peel a banana and 10 minutes max to throw some broccoli in a pan and cook it.  Offer to cook healthy meals for everyone.

"They go off too quickly".... suggest getting some frozen vegetables.  They're fairly nice to eat these days and quite nutritious

"We don't like them"... you do!  And you're part of the family.

Thanks for your advice, I'll try to persuade them to buy healthier food.  For thier health, My grandmother did have a very minor stroke a few weeks ago, (due to stress and the southern cook's love for butter.)

I think, In my family it's a lack of time that makes them eat so poorly, It's not always easy to make everything from scratch. They think that if they don't buy convenience food it will be hard to prepare meals in a timely manner. It might take a while to show them that with a little planning, healthy eating can be just as easy as eating out of a box.  if it doesn't work, only a year before I'll be in my own place ^_^

Last night I went shopping with mom, she didn't go for whole grain pasta but she did, at least, show a will to cook a real meal.

I think I'm cooking tonight. Yeay :)

There are lots of really quick healthy meals you can throw together.... pasta with sauces, salads, stir-fries.   I expect if you go to your local library you could find a quite a lot of  'simple meals in minutes' cookbooks to get the ball rolling.  Another idea is a slow-cooker or crock-pot.   Chop things up the night before, add to pot in the morning, switch on.... come home to a tasty, healthy casserole. 

Something I do to save time is to make slower-cook dishes like bolognese sauce for pasta at the weekends in large amounts then freeze the results in portions.  So if we've got a busy evening ahead or simply don't feel like cooking we can defrost some portions of sauce, cook a little spaghetti (10 mins), grate a little cheese on the top and we have a tasty home-cooked meal ready to go.

Hope your grandmother's OK after her stroke.  Rest assured, your mum will be feeling a little more 'mortal' than she did before and you can use that to everyone's advantage.

This is a tough one, but props to you for trying.  My husband and I are grown adults, and for the financial benefit of us and my parents (and two sisters still in high school), we rent an apartment at the back of my parents home and share meals together.  I am big on eating healthy and my family eats "quick" meals often processed.  There's been a big change since I've lived there, although it's taken two years, and is still a work in progress.

Here's some things that have helped:

1. I cook at least once a week, give the items I need purchased to whoever is doing the grocery shopping ahead of time. I cook healthy and hopefully yummy.  Some meals they haven't liked, so I keep experimenting.  Gradually they've gotten the hint.

2. Super easy healthy cooking is pre-marinated chicken (purchase the breasts or tenders skinned and boneless, divide into separate ziploc freezer bags, make a homemade marinade tons of easy ones available online recipe sites, and freeze.  A day or two ahead of time, pull one of the ziplocs from freezer to fridge. It will marinate as it defrosts. Throw in oven, steam some frozen veggies - we like Normandy mix from Sams Club - and if you desire, cook brown rice as side.

3. Eat salad at every dinner. We have to work hard to bring variety to our salads, but it's worth it. Use nice lettuce such as baby spring mix/spinach mix, not iceberg which is tasteless and lacks nutrition. Go online for variety of green salad recipes. Our staple is avocado/apple/carrot/green onion/tomato, another we like is dried cranberries/red onions/feta cheese/pecans. Try to combine sweet, salty, soft, and crunchy things to top the salads. Don't forget a yummy italian vinagrette or balsamic dressing.

4. We have significantly reduced use of pasta and potatoes in our diet. We mostly eat brown rice as a side carb. None of us like whole wheat pasta, so we eat pasta rarely.

5. Look for healthy cooking recipes at the library or online, where they are free.  There are tons!

6. We mostly eat chicken and fish, rarely beef.

7. I have had a few conversations with the family about this, because we all need to be on the same page.  My husband is overweight, and most of the weight he gained since moving to my parents' house, where there is always cookies, chips, snack bars, ice cream.  I've asked them not to keep so much of these easy unhealthy snacks in the house, for his sake, and it has helped. Also sometimes I've joked with them, like once my sister cooked a casserole of frozen tater tots, canned green beans, cream of chicken soup, and shredded cheddar cheese. I called it "heart attack casserole" in a joking way and didn't eat it.  My example has made a difference too when I just haven't eaten things they have prepared for dinner if they are too unhealthy.

8. Sometimes they have to get their own wake up call. My dad got checked and had high cholesterol, and my mom was growing out of a lot of her clothes. They both have wanted to make changes for themselves based on these things, and no amount of convincing on my part could have made the difference that their doctor did in telling them it was time to change. Some things are not in your hands.

9. Keep up your spirits, set a good example, and be gentle, so they don't just get angry because they feel attacked or judged by you. The main thing is, they probably know they don't eat well already, so you don't have to tell them, you just have to HELP them, by doing some of the shopping and cooking.

My favorite healthy cookbook is Eating For Pregnancy by Catherine Jones. I've never been pregnanct, but an expecting friend of mine shared this book with me, and my entire family has loved every meal we've tried from here.  That's a tough thing to accomplish with 6+ people in the house.  The meals here focus on fresh and highly nutritious foods, rather than just reduced fat this or that ingredients.

Tell them about the whole organic thing and how the pesticides, etc are ruining our body. If you find healthier (yet tasty) alternatives, maybe they'll eat them!

Do they not eat fruits at all? try get fruits they like as well? I wouldn't eat any of the fruits my dad got because i hated them all...but then he got blueberries/strawberries and it tasted amazing! They're suprisingly low in calories too! Ever since then, we got berries and stuff :)

When i go to the grocers', I'd buy some snacks from the baby food section (if it's good enough for the baby, then it's good enough for us)...some are really good!
I got these fruitbars from gerber and Organic Little Fruits Bite-Size *flavour* . I suggest that you buy the strawberry/apple one. that tastes really good :)

I don't think i was all that helpful...BUT i'd say you should just go and lose weight; and when you're done, you can convince them that they too can do it!