to not want to follow the change4life guidance on this leaflet?

[lookdeepintotheparka]

We got the change4life booklet home today in book bags which I read through as sometimes has good recipes.

The advice was to switch from full fat milk to skimmed or 1% milk and from butter to low fat spread. I had thought that recent studies show that full fat dairy is actually better for you - especially for children.

AIBU to think change4life information is out of date - does anyone know??

[formerbabe]

I only give my kids full fat milk. I couldn't give a rats arse what the guidelines are!

[lookdeepintotheparka]

I agree but I do think they should be up to date with the info they are giving out to parents! Skimmed milk is rank imo and I would have to be convinced it was essential to swap to this before I would even consider giving it to the kids.

[ohforfoxsake]

Kids (everyone actually) should, in my opinion, be eating food which has been messed about with the least. I will not give mine low fat spread. Vile, fake stuff. Butter every time.

Real food. That Government advice is shit.

[Joules68]

There was a thread on this last week

I agree op, and it should be challenged

[lookdeepintotheparka]

Oh was there sorry must have missed it! I only got our leaflet today. Was just very about it all..

[Dancergirl]

YANBU!

I got this leaflet from school today too and it made me really cross. There's no way I would use that low fat artificial rubbish spread. And diet drinks are ok are they because they don't contain sugar?? I suppose that carcinogenic sweetener is ok is it?

I'd like to take it further but with who? The school for giving out this rubbish or change 4 life?

[VampyreofTimeandMemory]

i really don't think a low-fat diet should apply to children.

[softlysoftly]

YANBU they are focusing on weight loss rather than health, there is an excellent guy called Dr Pickard (yes really) who does talks.i attended one and he pointed out that it was a good thing to call a child a "fat head" they need good fats to grow and develop. Good fats being eg dairy, red meat etc. not crap transfats like in spreads!

The guidance is stupid, I remember a guy from DairyCrest walking out of an Food standards agency meeting. They were lecturing the dairy industry on how we should take a leaf out of McVities book and did a presentation on how they had made efforts to reduce salt and sugar in their biscuits and cakes.

He was fucking incensed that they were holding up a manufacturer of crap pointless empty calories as an example to a group of natural nutritious food producers and he didn't hold back in making his opinion clear

[Waggamamma]

I guess change4life seem to be a bit misguided. The advice they give is good for weightloss, if you are overweight yes of course switch to diet drinks and low fat spreads but this isn't necessarily healthier but it is lower in calories.

The issue is that not all families have a weight problem and children need to understand more about balanced diets and good foods, not just cutting calories.

[AnUnearthlyChild]

I thnk a lot of people don't understand the difference between a heathy diet and a weight loss diet.

[joanofarchitrave]

Children need fat soluble vitamins so nobody should be suggesting low fat foods for them.

On the other hand, skimmed milk is perfectly fine - it's what we used to have when I was a kid, except it came with top of the milk on it.

I agree re butter as well.

[itchychin]

totally agree, saw a TV ad at the weekend that was saying just swap fizzy drinks to diet ones. Such a bad message. it was aimed at kids.

[Reduction]

I agree, much of the change4life advice is downright scary.

A weightloss diet is not the same as a healthy diet, especially not for "normal" weight children. DS has been taught at school that calories are "bad". How/why? We need them, can't live without them in fact.

Low fat is not good for children and there's increasing evidence that it's not good for anyone (was a marketing con by people who wanted to sell us sugar)

Low sugar is not automatically good, I'd far rather DC have a little sugar in something that has some actual food value than sugar free fizzy drinks or yogurts full of artificial stuff

A friend told me they have to add the "whiteness" back to skimmed milk because it's an unappetising blue/grey colour without it although I haven't yet done the research to find out if that's true.

[Reduction]

joan, I don't think old fashioned milk minus the top was the same as skimmed milk actually. Skimmed milk has been more "skimmed" than that.

[Spottybra]

It's an absolute load of tosh and I would like to complain about their dietary advice but who/where to?

[BertieBottsJustGotMarried]

So true Unearthly.

Change4life does seem to be aimed at reducing obesity though rather than anything else - remember the "Me-sized meals" ad? That made me really paranoid about whether I'm feeding DS (5) the right amount of food. DH sometimes gives him an adult sized portion and he eats it all! He is skinny though so I have no reason to worry I suppose.

[livelablove]

The mad thing is full fat milk is only about 4.6% fat so it is actually low fat compared to a lot of things.

[Binkyridesagain]

I received the change4life booklet and money off vouchers through the post, my DD had requested it. All the money off vouchers were for processed crap, low fat cheese, microwave rice meal, low fat spread and sugar free cola. None of them were for fresh natural products, a voucher for semi skimmed milk would have been better than this shit that they are promoting.

[Wallison]

YANBU; throw the fucking leaflet in the bin. Diet drinks are not an acceptable substitute for sugary drinks, imo. I'd have more time for the leaflet if it suggesting substituting water or even watered down proper fruit juice, but since when were carbonated drinks (of any hue) a healthy choice? As far as milk goes, there is actually very little fat content in 'full fat' milk and so I will continue to give my son that rather than something that has been dicked around with. Similarly, he will continue to have proper butter on his bread rather than some slimy spread glistening with pretty much the most unhealthy ingredients you can put into your body - there's a fair argument that most of the content of 'spreadables' is not fit for human consumption. Change4life my fucking arsehole.

[Reduction]

No idea if this is good science but it sounds feasible enough to me to put me off buying skimmed milk

[CaterpillarCara]

Why don't more places recommend children drink herbal teas? Mine love them and they are surely better than most alternatives.

[ShadowFall]

I thought that full-fat milk had always been recommended for small children, even before recent studies?

That's why we switched to full-fat milk when we started weaning DS1, anyway. And I agree that a fat content of 4.6% in just about any other foodstuff would count as low fat!

[Reduction]

NHS in Scotland recommend children over 2 should switch to semi-skimmed. I don't agree with them

[TeacupDrama]

both the low fat and low carb versions of weight loss diets are equally bad science and actually bad for you interesting programme on BBC2 about fat vs sugar conclusions were

1, what really makes people fat is food with both fat and sugar/starch in like icecream cheesecake doughnuts and chips, no natural food is both high in fat and sugar
2, you need some sugar for quick release energy for muscles otherwise your body turns muscle mass into glucose also for brain food

1. high fat diets do not increase cholesterol levels if either poly or mono saturated but trans fats do

so the fat in dairy, meat, oily fish, butter, olive oil etc does not increase cholesterol the trans fats in processed food do

so like many posters above suggest full fat milk and butter are not harmful fats for either children or adults, but mixed with sugar maybe a lot of spreads and processed foods do contain trans fats

medically all faddish diets that eliminate or suggest really low of any food group/nutrient are bad science and bad for you so in the end it does boil down to everything in moderation

[ChrisTheSheep]

Cara, I agree! DS has camomile tea (with a dash of apple juice) with breakfast every day. He loves it.