When you prepare and serve food to others is it almost always unhealthy food?

No, I prefer healthy foods and I serve healthy foods to those that visit. Salads, lean protein, vegetables. Maybe sourdough bread, and Ice cream for dessert, but that’s about the extent of it.

But most people do not prefer to eat healthy. Most people prefer to eat cheap and full of salt, fat, and sugar.

“don’t most people prefer to eat healthy?”

Obviously not. If that was true, we’d have a much lower obesity rate in this country. The only reason I prefer to eat healthy is so my waistline doesn’t expand. If I could maintain a healthy weight eating whatever I wanted, I’d probably never consume another vegetable again.

When I go out to a party or a dinner, I don’t think about the calories in what I eat. When I eat at home during the week, I watch my caloric intake – and that’s good enough. We don’t ever have dinner guests (we prefer to be the guests) and people don’t just “drop by” our house and eat our food, but I’d be more likely to serve foods that I know a lot of people will like. I’m not going to steam asparagus and expect everyone to eat it – hell, I wouldn’t be eating it.

When we go over to my mother-in-law’s for dinner, it’s usually fried chicken, baked macaroni, and green beans cooked with bacon. It hasn’t killed us yet, and I’m much more likely to drive the hour to get to her house to eat that than I would be if she was serving salad and grilled chicken with broccoli. No thanks, I’d rather stay home.

People-pleasing foods tend to be high in fat and calories – pizza, pasta, cheese, desserts, etc. Unless you are eating away from home every single night, indulging every now and then isn’t going to kill anyone. If my one dinner is “sabotaging” my guests’ health, they don’t have to eat it, but I don’t see that ever being a factor with the people I know. If I knew a lot of people that were very conscious about their diets, that might be a different story, but I live in the south and we like to eat tasty, fattening foods when we go out.

If I was on a strict diet and went to a party, I wouldn’t get upset if all they had to eat was pizza, cake, and ice cream. I’d expect that, and eat before going to the party. Then, I would proceed to be miserable watching everyone else eating the food I so desperately want – but that’s certainly not the host’s problem.

It depends, I work at an Italian restaurant, a lot of what is made there (cream sauces and such) are unhealthy. When I cook at home I tend to make more healthy meals though I do LOVE to make dessert foods soooooooo…. :P

I just serve food. If someone doesn’t eat it, I don’t care.

If any of my kids, grandkids or kid’s friends come in and say they’re hungry I say, “There’s the fridge. Help yourself! Frozen waffles in the fridge if you’re interested.”

If there is any one dish I would prepare special, for a small snack, it would be salmon dip and or / veggie dip. Not because they’re healthy but because that’s just what I’d serve. And if it didn’t get eaten, I wouldn’t care. And I certainly wouldn’t feel guilty like I should have made something else.

I think it’s important for people to explain that they can’t eat this or that dish because of health issues. If the cook takes offense, then he or she is in the wrong.

No. I don’t feel good eating many unhealthy meals, and I have guests about twice a week.

Snacks are a different matter. I put out candy, chocolates, chips, etc. Probably because they are conveniently liked by almost everyone.

I have taken to serving some healthy options to the kids I tutor, though. They gobble up whatever I put out anyway, so why not have it be healthy?

I always serve healthy meals, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Even the hot dogs I serve are the best kind.

I keep almonds and dried apricots at the ready but do have a secret box of shortbread if the occasion calls for it. Mercifully my days of having dinner parties are over…sing Hallelujah.