My family still doesn't "get" real food and proper nutrition. I grew up on:

Sugar cereals with more sugar ladled on top.

White bread.

Country Crock.

Unholy amalgam of white bread, margarine, sugar, and cinnamon.

Pitchers of tea sweetened with two CUPS sugar

Miracle whip

Little Debbie cakes

Convenient store powdered donuts

Vienna sausages

Frozen fish sticks and corn dogs

American cheese slices

Canned biscuits

Frozen, breaded chicken patties

Canned soup

Saltine crackers

McDonalds or Burger King (anything else was "too expensive" for a family of five, unless it was Dominos or a buffet)

Animal crackers and goldfish crackers

Reduced fat peanut butter spread

Jello and pudding snacks

Green vegetables were limited to canned green beans and iceberg lettuce. Mom had a serious aversion to frozen veggies and never knew how to prepare fresh. Never tasted spinach, asparagus, or zucchini until college.

Mom didn't buy a lot of snack food, but what we ate as meals were pretty junky. We only got coke when we were having a party, were on vacation, or out of the house. When we did drink coke, it was with COMPLETE ABANDON since we rarely had it at home.

Oh man. I was in elementary school in the early 90s, and boy do I remember lunches. I was ALWAYS a chubby kid, but I got my peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day, packed with a hostess snack (zebra cakes were my favorite!), a pudding cup, and if I got lucky my mom would put a Reese's cup in with it. If I was REALLY lucky, I might even get a pizza Lunchable.

Breakfast was always cereal, and always the worst kinds. Reese's Puffs, Lucky Charms, Frosted Flakes and Cocoa Pebbles were my favorite. We never ate eggs (too much cholesterol) and we used Imperial margarine out of the tub.

We always had some sort of meat at dinner, but veggies were limited to potatoes, carrots, peas, corn and green beans. (All from a can.)As a side dish, it was either hamburger helper, pasta-roni or rice-a-roni. During summer my mom would make 'salads' with iceberg lettuce and tomatoes, which we would smother in Hidden Valley ranch dressing.

We always had pizza night on Fridays, and there was a Burger King just down the street that we'd eat at once a week. We even celebrated our birthdays there!

Both my sister and I have horribly crowded teeth and needed braces, but my parents could never afford them. Wonder why? ;) While my sister was always underweight and sick, I was overweight with food allergies, and uncontrollable ADHD that "required" medication.

I know my parents just didn't know any better, but I wish things would have been different. Would I be a different person had my childhood nutrition been better? My mom is 5'9", my dad was over 6'. I'm 5'3" and my sister barely tops 5'. I'm sure our genes wanted us to be taller.

Whole large pizzas, whole boxes of macaroni & cheese, shredded cheese by the handful, up to five big bowls of cereal a day.

Funny thing is I was never fat. I only lost 10 lbs on paleo.

low carb wheat bread with low fa peanut butter and sugar free jelly with a triple grande upside down non fat, sugar free caramel macchiatto from Starbucks, in my early college days. And I wonder why I always struggled losing weight.

Diet Coke and M&Ms for breakfast. I was so bad!!

_Lazza

I used to eat ice tea mix in powder form (Lipton, Nestea, or sometimes other stuff like Tang). And finish the whole can in a few days (and these were the largest ones available in the supermarket).

I used to drink two liter sodas throughout the day instead of water. I did this for at least a full year.

When I first tried to quit sugar "cold turkey" after watching Dr. Lustig's "Sugar, the Bitter Truth", I found I was a sugar addict and couldn't. And my body immediately rebelled in opposition; I would go on zombie-like hour-long binges of cookies, cakes, meats, various sugar waters, ice cream - I could binge on anything.

From kindergarten through 8th grade, I'd typically eat several chocolate bars in the morning, plus bubble gum and sometimes a load of ice cream sandwiches in the afternoon.

In high school, would eat two or three ice cream bars/sandwiches at lunch plus a soda. This is not counting other stuff in the morning before school and later in afternoon.

My parents thought that it was a sign of a healthy, growing boy who ate heaps of everything. My situation was especially bad because my parents gave us a large allowance, much of which I spent on sugar.

Surprise, surprise...at the age of 16, family doctor told me I tested pre-diabetic. Have tried to clean up since then. Unsuccessful until I found Paleo. Mixed results since...

1) Reese's peanut butter cup 10-pack.

2) 2-liter of mountain dew or Dr. Pepper

3) Sit in front of computer from 7pm-3am playing RPGs.

In high school, "Chili fiesta sticks" from the school cafeteria with some weird "cheese" sauce. Dear God, I still don't know what they were exactly.

In college, I ate nothing but the grilled What a chicken sandwiches with american cheese (which I've called fake cheese ever since I was little) and jalepenos with the biggest orange soda I could get and their fries. Thinking about it now makes me want to puke.

Up until a year ago? Jack in the box tacos. I don't even know what the hell is in those. "Meat" paste? I don't know and I don't know why I ate them. Disgusting.

Too much mystery "meat" in my pre-paleo diet. I'm convinced its the same stuff that's in cheap dog food. Saw dust and hair. Ew.

What a fun question lol! I had Eggo waffles or Hot Pockets every morning for many years. I could eat a family size bag of potato chips all by myself. Even when I was a vegetarian I would just eat crap. like microwaveable burritos. Oh boy did I love those microwave foods. Last confession, I polished off a box of cookies every week, usually Oreos. It wasn't all bad though. My parents always left a bowl of fresh fruit out for us kids. We rarely ate fast food and my mom cooked dinner which always included lean meats. We stopped buying white bread too.

lots of tostinos pizzas and pizza rolls, hamburger helper, tuna patties, tuna casserole, ramen noodles, frozen dinners. i'm sure it contributed to all of my gut problems. i do blame my parents for this but they didn't know any better.

I would take a full pack of strawberry muffin mix from the cabinet, combine it with milk in a glass and drink it like a smoothie.

Surge... pretty sure that sugar content goes in the record books.

Mashed potato sandwiches.

Leftover mashed potatoes between two slices of butter toast (white bread) with leftover gravy as the sauce.

Oh, and EVERY DAY for lunch sophomore year of high school I had a double scoop of soft serve ice cream, a package of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and a package of Nutter Butter bars. Washed down with a Dr. Pepper.

Growing up, my favorite breakfast was two pieces of sourdough toast, one piece slathered with butter, the other slathered with margarine, plus extra for the crust. Sure, it was tasty, sure, I LOVED it, and sure, I was underweight, but I now look back on it with disgust

soft pretzels dipped in melted cheese

I was a "health junk" JUNKIE. I probably ate the equivalent of a bowl of Splenda a day. Walden Farms no-calorie products. Bags and bags of Soy Crisps. I-can't-believe-it's-not-butter spray on EVERYTHING. Crystal Light and diet soda. Vanilla Soymilk. Vitatops. South Beach Diet bars. Low carb tortilla wraps. Sugar Free maple syrup. Low carb, artificially sweetened yogurt. Fat free, sugar free cool whip.

On so many levels, YIKES.

Like most people, I ate all the normal SAD junk. (Hamburger Helper, pasta salads, margarine, sugary snacks, etc.) I used to drink 2-3 cans of Mountain Dew a day.

Here's the really unhealthy/weird thing: I would put Crisco in a bowl, add some brown sugar and white sugar, and mash it up until I had little sugar-coated hydrogenated-vegetable-oil balls about the size of grains of rice. Then eat it.

Luckily I've never had a weight problem; I've actually been underweight my whole life. But I feel better now that I eat better!

Diet Coke and Wheat Thins were my kryptonite in college. I would go through a 12 pack of DC in 2 days and a box of Wheat Thins whenever I cracked the seal.

A lot of horrible crap that was probably directly responsible for my acne, and asthma (cured asthma going paleo by the way). Plenty of fast food. In middle school, I'd eat breakfast at school a lot, stuff like coco krispies or a big cinnamon roll. Lunch was pizza or chicken nuggets, fries, and a Snickers ice cream bar. Before sports practices I'd scarf pop and a candy bar. High school was more of the same, Burger King was a favorite lunch spot, as was 7-11. Slurpees, grape Nerds, more pizza and fries. DISGUSTING! I was skinny, so I ate with impunity. I still am thin, although I can't eat quite like that anymore, nor would I want to, but it can be kind of a curse...as in, "I'll have this cheat because my weight is fine." Boy, it's interesting to look back on all the crap we ate, isn't it? Kind of horrifying.

From around age 8 to 16, my typical weekends looked like this:

Friday night: eating 6-10 slices of New Yorker-style Pizza Hut pizza, washed down with a 2-liter of Coke or Sprite. Later that night, I would eat a sleeve or two of Saltine crackers.

Saturday night: Eat an entire bag or two of Cool Ranch Doritos or Combos, with a pound of imitation crab meet, and Sprite. This would usually end in vomiting. I eventually graduated to Sun Chips and Gatorade, so much better, y'know?

Gotta love grandparents enabling fat kids. No wonder I got to 310 lbs by my 18th birthday. (21 now, down to 205)

I also used to love the BLT Chicken Bread Bowl at Perkins: a large bowl made of bread, with iceberg lettuce, bacon, chicken, slathered in 1000 island dressing. When I got down to the lettuce, I would dump it out and eat the bowl.

Also, my grandpa used to fry tortilla shells in vegetable oil. Yummy.

One of my favorite snacks when I was little was french bread soaked in (full fat) milk with sugar sprinkled on top. Kind of like cereal, but not.

Knowing what I know now that makes me sad. :(

Also, I loved Ellio's frozen pizza, mashing ice cream up with Orange Juice to make a sort of "float"...

I grew up in a Mexican household and so all our food dishes were for the most part absolutely drenched in "Mazola" corn oil. Nasty, I know, but we didn't know any better.

My mom would make homemade flour tortillas almost every day and use them to make fried burritos (corn oil). Same with a lot of other foods.

Our desserts were usually mexican pastries (flour and tons of sugar).

Interestingly enough, we were a fairly active family and prone to be on the thin side, so we were never overweight.

Still, when I went to college a gained 60 lbs (yeah, really!) by eating out all the time and having crazy no sleep nights studying and working in the architecture studio.

Now that I've become Paleo and a crossfitter I've lost a ton of weight, so my parents have been impressed and started to modify their own food choices.

While they aren't paleo, they have virtually eliminated vegetable oils (replacing them with Lard) and relegated the home made flour tortillas to only special occasions.

They've also upped their intake of vegetables considerably.

Ugh, when I was my heaviest in high school, I used to eat hamburgers/chicken patty sandwiches and french fries EVERY DAY for lunch. Oh, and then for an afternoon snack, I would stop by the cafeteria and pick up a package of cinnamon and brown sugar pop tarts. Disgusting.

quisp and captain crunch cereal

I had a pretty colorful mix of the wonderful and the terrible food-wise growing up. My parents divorced when I was 6 and they had very different opinions on food and nutrition, so it was an interesting bucket of conflict to try and navigate as a child:

THE TERRIBLE (DAD) -With a new wife and four teenage boys in the house, buying food was all about VOLUME. We were all very active in competitive sports and I remember the days when being on a carb rollercoaster and seemingly unable to burn fat for energy, I literally could not get enough food. I felt like I was starving or something. One of my older brothers would come home and make himself a slurry using 3 boxing of KD with that horrible fake orange cheese, a stick of margarine, half a liter of skim milk and half a can of cheese whiz.

-My stepmom worked at DAWN FOODS, and she would get buckets of horrible synthetic test tube food to try, and in the name of thrift my dad would insist that we eat it. I literally mean that there were tubs of neon colored goo in the fridge, in "flavors" like "purple" and "green". This is food I am convinced contained no actual food product. The good thing coming out of this is that since them I have been unable to stand artificially flavored anything.

-My stepmom probably had a few eating issues of her own and was rail skinny. She would make giant pans of brownies, cakes and pies and not eat a single bite. She went running every day and if she missed her run she wouldn't eat anything at all.

-My dad developed weight issues during these years (surprise!) and despite my insistence that I was trying to eat healthy because I was an athlete, he would make extremely rich dinners and desserts that he would watch us eat and not eat himself. It was really weird. I later on developed some messed up food patterns of my own, but it seems like that's par for the course for most teenage girls these days.

THE GOOD (DAD) -For weekday dinners neither parent was home in time to cook anything, so my household chores included cooking for the family from age 8 up. This gave me a lot more control over at least some of the menu (though it would be a long time before I understood what to even do with it, once I had it) and I always had to make sure there was a meat, a starch and a vegetable on the table. Corn and potatoes did not count as vegetables so at least I was doing something right. I also learned how to cook and love cooking to this day, which a lot of people my age are just learning(or failing to) now.

-Because there were so many ravenous kids in the house, we rarely got 'junk' food (different in my mind then just poor quality crap food, junk food is designed to be unhealthy, and it's usually semi-expensive). Shopping day was on monday, and by tuesday morning the frosted flakes were gone because someone had sat down and eaten the whole box the night before.

-Going out to dinner was extremely rare and usually involved “all you can eat meat” somewhere, because these were the kind of kids that would probably eat 3 or 4 hamburgers at a fast food restaurant.

THE TERRIBLE (Mom)

-My mom believed all the press about fat and cholesterol and salt, ect. She really tried hard to make sure that we ate properly, but this involved things like buying the 'whole wheat' croissants instead of regular (to be fair, I begged for them) and screaming at me for putting butter on my eggs. (I ate buttered eggs for breakfast this morning, enjoying them with the kind of vengeful relish that characterizes teen angst.)

-Mom believed the press about eating many small meals throughout the day, which pretty much led to me constantly snacking and never eating proper meals. Being used to chewing on something all the time has set me up with weird issues where I have a super hard time skipping meals, when I get hungry I get HUNGRY NOW DAMMNIT. I am still trying to fix this today.

-Low fat version of everything. Skim milk, fat free cream cheese, fat free cookies, the works. All fat free really means is extra sugar, of course...

THE GOOD (Mom) -No margarine, artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners allowed. Fast food does not count as food (still to this day I have never eaten at McDonald's or anything, it doesn't even seem like food to me) Ever. In soviet Russia, food nourishes YOU.

THE TERRIBLE (ME)

-I used to love nerds (basically colored sugar pebbles) and a drink called all-sport which was basically extra sugary gatorade??? that I was convinced was good for me.

-I have a weakness for the plastic gas station nickle candy that persists TO THIS DAY. Why???? Especially the pink/red marshmallow 'strawberries' when they're just stale enough to be crispy on the outside. It's sick.

-My sister and I were obsessed with cookie dough anything. This culminated in one fateful day when we bought a cylinder of raw pillsbury cookie dough from the refrigerator section on the grocery store and ate it on the way home from school. Five blocks later we threw up on the church lawn.

-When I was in charge as a babysitter at 12 or 13 my sister and I would go get KFC wraps. I hate mayonnaise and always have but I liked whatever the white saucy goop was in the wraps, so I am pretty sure it is some other-substance and not actually mayonnaise.

-I used to mix up graham cracker crust, a spoonful of butter and honey and melt it in the microwave. I still do this with peanut butter and honey.

Maybe a little lengthier than you ever cared to read, but I had fun with this one. Good question.

I am very lucky in the sense that I banished junk food from my life at a very early age - I have been eating only natural, mostly-organic foods since August of 2009, when I was 15.

However, before that I was very much your typical healthy-food-is-for-losers kid who ate very disgusting things, and even after that I was eating a low-fat diet heavy with grains and plant protein because I thought that was what was the best for me. I'm not going to list all of my mistakes, because it's a long list, but here are some that were a common theme:

• I had a diet soda addiction, and I can recall a time where it was normal for me to only drink diet soda for days at a time.
  
• I live within walking distance of a grocery store called Safeway, which sells storebrand cake, which they sell out of the "bakery" (where they receive cakes from the factory and slice it, I assume). Their white cake was the bomb, and they sold it by the slice - which were about 4 servings worth per slice. My sister and I were so obsessed with it; we would beg my parents to get us some as a "special treat" at least once a week, and when they wouldn't we would walk to the store and buy it ourselves. Those walks, along with those for which we would buy cookie dough, soda, margarita mix, cookies, crackers, discounted bulk candy, et cetera, counted as just about our only exercise.
  
• Kraft Easy-Mac with lemon juice and black pepper added to it was my idea of gourmet.
  
• I once ate an entire Mrs. Smith's frozen carrot cake (the one that comes in that rectangular box). I calculated how much I ingested in that half-hour sitting, and it was about 14 tablespoons of sugar, 1800 calories, and 96 grams of very unhealthy fats... it makes me sick thinking about it.
  
• When I lost my hearing (long story) in 2005 at age 11, I was thriving on a lot of pity and you-can-have-anything-you-want-you-poor-deaf-child sentiments, so my grandparents, who were staying at our house to help out, drove to a nearby Wendy's every day for three months to get me a double cheeseburger with jumbo fries and their large Coke.
  
• My sister taught me when I was 3 how to eat Minute Maid pink lemonade mix (they apparently don't make it anymore, but it was akin to Kool Aid mix and you combined pink, flavored sugar with water to make lemonade) by either licking your fingers and sticking it into the container, or just taking a spoon and shoving a pile of it in our mouths to slowly suck on.
  
• For my 14th birthday I received 4 pounds of Skittles and I ate them all. A few months later I bought an 8 or 10 pound bag of Haribo gummy bears, and I promised to share half with my sister but I didn't, opting to hide them under my bed and eat them by the handful whenever I passed by.

That's just the tip of the iceberg, but I'm too grossed out right now to continue.

My boyfriend and i gained about 30lbs each after we moved from upstate NY to Tennessee. There is such an overwhelming amount of fast food joints down here, so we felt the need to try them all-yuck. Not to mention all of the fried foods, biscuits, sweet tea, cooking vegetables in brown sugar(brussel sprouts, collards, etc). After about 2 years of immersing ourselves in "southern culture, " we got sick of the way we felt and how lazy we got. Although its only been a few months, going paleo has put us in the right direction to getting healthy again.

The list could be very long ...Now just for kicks I'll read an old label and look in horror at what I used to think was food ...

Lucky Charms and other artificial colored cereals, Frosted Flakes - any version of frosted flakes/shredded wheat

Pasteurized juices/smoothies - Treetop, Minute Maid, Tropicana, Odawalla, etc.

Soda (regular and diet)

Fake Soy (burgers, hot dogs, crumbles etc.)

fake protein powders (whey/soy)

whole and refined grain products, Mac and Cheese, Ramen, low-carb grain products

low-fat/non-fat dairy (milk/cheese/ice cream/yogurt), salad dressings

Egg whites, "Smart" Balance (fake butter)

Snackwells, Little Debbie/Hostess products, Doritos and other chip products, Sara Lee Pound Cake (and other frozen cakes) Fun-Yuns onion rings, Jello, Puddings

Taco Hell, Godfather's/Ci-Ci's Pizza, Pizza Inn/Hut, Del Taco, McDonald's/BK, Long John Silver's, Jack in the Box

Candy - Milk Duds, Twiks, Starburst, M & Ms, Skittles, "Smarties," Snickers, Dove, Kit Kat etc.

Granola Bars - Clif, Larabars, etc.

Canned Soup, Frozen Meals, Chef Boyardee, Hamburger/Tuna Helper

The single item that stands out is a large piece of birthday cake made into a sandwich with two pop tarts as the buns. My wife still gives me hell about it 8 years later.

For breakfast I would have one chocolate ENTEMANN's DONUT, nuked in the microwave.

For lunch I would have LUNCHABLES, or some kind of CROISSANTWICH, POTATO CHIPS, and CHEWY CHIPS AHOY

My mom would let me eat as many CHEWY CHIPS AHOY's as I wanted!!!!

Dinner was often frozen BREADED CHICKEN PATTIES

and of course, STOUFFER's FRENCH BREAD PIZZAS!

at school we binged on CUP'O'NOODLE, CHOCOTACO, CHEEZITS and whatever other disgusting things they sold