On Monday, blogger and entrepreneur Constance Hall shared a photo of her packed shopping trolley on her Facebook page.
While most of her followers understood she was making a valid point about shopping with kids, some very dedicated trolls decided to zoom in on her shopping trolley, examine its contents, and declare that 33-year-old Hall was not providing her family of nine with a healthy balanced diet.
Yep, you read right – she was trolley-shamed.
And yet it contained all the usual suspects for a family’s ‘big shop’ – bread, milk, eggs, cereal, yoghurt, two minute noodles and some fruit.
In a follow up post Hall found herself explaining that there is also a lot of fruit and veg hidden in the trolley, and that she also buys fresh produce from the markets.
“The bananas and celery and carrots and potatoes and onions and garlic and mandarins and apples aren’t visible in this picture – wasn’t thinking about trolley angles, I also buy a lot of fruit from the markets and Denim’s mum is bringing us fresh fruit from her trees today,” she wrote.
“Should I post the receipt?” she added.
Anna Debenham and Alex Parker, the dietitians behind The Biting Truth, told Mamamia all foods can form part of a healthy balanced diet and that no foods are off limits.
“As far as we can see from this image, there are a bunch of really healthy staples in the shopping trolley that should form part of every diet – eggs, bread, yoghurt, milk, Weetbix,” Debenham said.
“From our perspective, eggs are a fantastic option, as not only are they extremely nutritious, but they are a relatively affordable source of high-quality protein. This is particularly relevant given this mother is feeding a family of nine!” added Parker.
Parker said yoghurt was also a great choice for families as it’s high in protein, calcium and probiotics.
“This is a pretty standard and relatively healthy grocery shop for a family (including the fresh produce) and overall, we believe it is inappropriate and unnecessary to judge a family’s eating habits from one shopping trolley,” Debenhem said.
