To say that baby boomers and millennials have vastly different views on food and nutrition would be a gross understatement. 2024 survey conducted by Protein works Show that when Baby Boomers and Generation X were grocery shopping, their top priorities were finding delicious and affordable options. These two groups were also the least likely to think about how their food choices affected their well-being. This data follows a generation that grew up at a time when frozen and canned foods were the norm and information about nutrition was limited.
On the other hand, the survey showed that when older millennials were out shopping for groceries, they were more likely to look for foods that fit their nutritional and calorie goals, as well as options that met their dietary preferences, such as dairy-free or gluten-free alternatives. Since the majority of older Millennials grew up at a time when diet culture messages were particularly loud, it’s not surprising that they were the most concerned about their calorie intake.
Many millennials were also raised by baby boomers, so they ended up carrying some of the most popular diet trends from this generation. Weight monitoring, calorie counting, intermittent fasting, low-carb diets, and the cabbage soup diet have remained part of the conversation across older and younger baby boomer and millennial generations, but to varying degrees.
Interestingly, Millennials described certain foods as “unhealthy” because they believed they could lead to weight gain, while Boomers thought the term was more appropriate for foods that could lead to long-term health problems. With all these different viewpoints, it’s no surprise that there are a lot of dieting clichés that get under millennials’ skin.
The younger generation doesn’t like to be told that they need to clean their plates
Many Millennials have vivid memories of their Boomer relatives telling them they needed to clean up everything on their plate. If they dared to refuse to eat past the point of fullness, they had to tolerate being called selfish or ungrateful. Not surprisingly, this mentality has never served anyone well in the long run.
One study published in obesity In 2016, it was found that people who clean their dishes more frequently have a greater tendency to become obese. When Alyssa Ramsey, RD, spoke to… self In January 2017, she similarly announced that cleaning dishes can lead to an overeating habit. “Cleaning your plate prepares you to use external cues rather than internal cues to figure out the right amount of food for you,” Ramsey explained. “If you’re used to feeling like you have to clean your plate, on a subconscious level, you may ignore those internal cues that you’re full.”
Additionally, Karen Ansel, MS, RDN, noted that polishing your plate was particularly harmful because the average plate size has increased by two inches since 1980 in a possible attempt to get people to eat more. On the other hand, Beth Warren, RDN, believes that this habit can be overcome through mindful eating and monitoring the amount of cooked food.
It is also worth noting that the idea of the diet could have been transmitted through World War I letters, which encouraged Americans to buy only the amount of food they could clean off their plate because soldiers in Europe were facing food shortages.
Millennials are tired of people saying that breakfast is the most important meal of the day
Many Millennials feel extremely uncomfortable when their Boomer relatives impose the “breakfast is the most important meal” narrative on them. It is worth noting that in 2024, Dalhousie University It surveyed 9,165 Canadians to chart breakfast trends across generations. The results showed that only 4.1% of boomers skipped breakfast, the lowest percentage of any generation.
While Gen Z were the most neglectful of breakfast, at 9%, Millennials weren’t far behind at 6.1%. Now, there are a lot of Strange things can happen to your body when you skip breakfast. However, this does not mean that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. During a January 2025 conversation with Good housekeepingClinically trained nutritionist Lucy Miller says skipping breakfast may be beneficial, saying: “There is evidence to suggest that if we give ourselves a longer period between eating our evening meal and when we eat again, it gives the body an opportunity to reset and focus on cellular repair processes such as autophagy, rather than constantly digesting foods.” According to Miller, a period of fasting can also positively affect metabolism, help keep blood sugar levels under control, and be a good weight management tool.
It is also worth noting that the philosophy “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” did not stem from study or research, but rather is a slogan popularized by the breakfast food giant, Kellogg’s. With all this in mind, it’s safe to say that eating or skipping breakfast is a completely personal choice that should be based on your mood, energy levels, and overall health needs, and not an old adage.
Millennials can’t understand the older generation’s obsession with crash diets
Most millennials understand this Don’t even think about going on a crash diet After watching their baby boomer relatives follow one fad diet after another. In the 1970s, the generation gravitated towards the grapefruit diet. According to the two- to three-week diet guidelines, a person should ensure that all of their meals are low in carbohydrates, high in protein, and come with a side dish of grapefruit. Some versions of the diet limit daily calories to 800 calories.
The 1980s also brought about the infamous cabbage soup diet, which only allowed people to eat cabbage soup with two additional low-calorie foods such as vegetables, fruits, or skim milk for one week. Needless to say, there were a lot of The things that made the Cabbage Soup Diet so worrying. However, because baby boomers were under enormous pressure to fit societal beauty standards, they largely ignored the concerns and continued to experiment with fad diets.
While some members of the younger generation were pressured to try such diets from their boomer relatives, others were influenced by simply watching the binge-restricting cycle play out. One study published in Nutrients In 2021, I found that children can develop many negative views about food by watching their parents follow overly restrictive diets. Meanwhile, another study was published in International Journal of Eating Disorders In 2024, it found that children who watched their parents deal with binge eating disorder may end up making more extreme efforts to control their weight as they get older.
The older generation’s attitudes about children’s food intake anger the younger generation
Since baby boomers were raised by a generation that experienced food scarcity, they also adopted the belief that their meals were not guaranteed. For many Boomers, this belief was embodied by food hoarding and a refusal to throw away expired foods. For others, a scarcity mindset reinforced the idea that food preferences were not important, especially for younger family members. Many commenters on social media discussed how this belief manifested among Baby Boomer family members in their inability to accept the limits they have regarding their child’s food intake.
In a Reddit In a thread discussing this issue, one commenter shared that their in-laws told their 1-year-old that they might not have access to food the next day if they didn’t eat the meal they were served. Talk to Purew, Nutritionist Marianne Jacobsen explained that using food as a punishment or reward can lead to emotional eating in children as they get older. She further explained: “It teaches children to eat when they are not hungry. This leaves them unprepared for the world we live in where there is so much food.”
Additionally, the Redditor pointed out that the Boomer family members tended to lie to their niece to get her to eat what they were serving. talking to abc australia, Dr Rebecca Byrne, senior lecturer in child nutrition at Queensland University of Technology, said that although lying to a child to force them to eat may work in the moment, it may create additional problems surrounding food in the future that may be difficult to address.
Millennials feel like they’ve endured enough food shame from baby boomers
Many millennials have found that they don’t have to guess what baby boomers think about their diet because they’ll tell them frankly. on Redditseveral people have opened up about how Baby Boomer casually commented on the lack of nutrition in their food choices or even made a “joke” about the amount of food on their plate.
In an interview with Cleveland ClinicPsychologist Ninoska Peterson, Ph.D., shared some possible reasons why people might feel food-shamed, saying, “These judgments can come from your own experience or the culture you grew up in. They can also be generational and framed by the trends of the times.” According to her, family history and childhood experiences with food can also contribute to food shaming. Peterson stated that food shaming ultimately reinforces the idea that some foods are “good” while others are “bad” and also reinforces an unhealthy “all or nothing” approach to nutrition.
In addition, in June 2023 YouTube In the video, Carolyn Coker Ross, M.D., stated that food shaming can lead a person to obsess over their food choices and their body, which can then lead to feelings of guilt and anxiety before eventually reaching binge eating. In June 2023, Jessica Broome, Ph.D., partnered with Nutritionist today Shame of any kind can also lead to low self-esteem and make people want to isolate themselves even more. With all this in mind, it’s no surprise that the younger generation doesn’t want to continue the older generation’s trend of making passing comments about food.
