British kids and eating habits - IABU ?

Where are you?

I do find it odd that you've met more than one adult that doesn't eat vegetables. I mean of course there's always one (not that I know any) but multiple? Myself and my peers are vegetables and salads with dinner every day too. And that's what we cook now.

We had probably maximum of 1 takeaway per year when I was young and it was Chinese or Fish and chips. We did eat out in restaurants for special occasions. We have many more takeaways but lots of different choices now and we always have lots of salad and vegetables, just because that is our preference (ramen, Turkish/Greek - nothing wrong with takeaway pizza now and again if you like it!) and we have it for a special occasion. I don't know anyone who eats takeaway every week because it is expensive!

That is surprising about the squash. Was that recent? It was always only water and milk when my DC were at nursery.

Feed your kids what you want.

Parenting is dealing with the wants and can't haves.

I'd relax a little though. You'll be begging them to eat a sausage if they end up with an eating disorder.

Life is about everything in moderation. And making good choices.

Thank you! Well written. It’s not a culture war people!

There''s nothing wrong with a proper sausage.

Disgusting! OP is allowed to have views and opinions on UK food. Not everything is perfect here! Will report your post

Did you mean to be such an arsehole?

Mine take the lunch thermal pots to school. Normally with pasta and homemade sauce. Loads of kids have this plant the schools they go too. The school cooked food is all fresh and loads of healthy options.

It's all about balance. Some less healthy options aren't going to make them diabetic if they eat them on occasion. I think you are being paranoid but it's ok to want your child to have the best start in life :)

People get so defensive!

It is a shame that this thread has turned into a culture/country war...and that most people are not willing to have an open discussion about this, most british people feel attacked because a foreigner dares to point this out...

Of course no country is perfect, and there would be kids eating badly in all countries, but there are differences. As a poster mentioned earlier, you wouln't be served that menu at a school in France/Italy/Spain. Individual families can eat what they want/can. For me that type of menu, with pudding everyday In a school is giving kids an awful education about food.

I am also european, and I love the UK, by the way, thats why I have settled here. I clearly like the UK more than my home country on the whole, otherwise I wouldnt be living here, that does not mean foreigners cannot have a negative opinion about something...

Are you really saying go back to where you came from on a public forum?

You are wrong.

The NHS guidance is 6 months.

Heinz beans has 2.6g salt in a 415g can. That's 0.6%, not 20%. At least get your facts right when you're being smug.

No one thinks Fruit Shoot is healthy.

When I au paired in Italy, the girl would have an ice cream basically every day of the summer, sometimes twice a day. Here it would be a once a week treat.

OP YANBU, I am also not from England and was similarly shocked. Most school lunches at my DC’s school have a tiny amount of veg (once 5 peas and two tiny carrots). In reception let your child eat the school lunch as that’s easier with their friends and make sure they have healthy food at home. Then when they are older most kids will have a packed lunch and most schools don’t allow treats like biscuits or sweets anyway. My DC has a packed lunch nearly every day and of course has treats at parties or special occasions.
but generally I agree that unhealthy eating is very common in the UK and you are not unreasonable to be concerned. A significant number of children at my DC’s primary are overweight at age 10 and it’s very sad.

Your experience is very different to mine. My 2 are older now but we have always eaten mostly healthy, home cooked food from scratch. We have the occasional "bad meal" or takeaway. My friends are the same.

When I had their friends to tea at primary school I played it safe and gave them chicken nuggets / fish fingers etc but that was definitely a treat not the norm.

You will have to get used to hearing what every other child is allowed. I can guarantee yours will be the only child in the whole school who is not allowed to have chocolate in their lunchbox / a phone / to stay up to midnight / play fortnite etc and you just have to agree how mean you are and ignore the pleading.

Yes. No one should bring a child into the world if they aren't prepared to give them three organic, made from scratch meals per day, ignoring of course the OP is talking about food served at nursery/school anyway....

So when I asked if you are currently a child I was sort of close.

English diet is utterly disgusting.
It swings from crap takeaway ready meals to greedy middle class Guardinistas salviating over how much cake they will shove down their throat .
Look at the physical state of us.
Not just fat but grossly so, and pasty unhealthy fat.
There was a cult trilogy of films by Lindsay Anderson in the 60s and 70s IF, O Lucky Man and Brittania Hospital
The middle one has a nightmarish scene of a hybrid pig/ human fed by tubes.
Thats us now.
And the soil is crap and the produce is terrible since Brexit.
And then theres M&S style food porn 'Because you deserve it"

But in the end, its the self justification for feeding ones kids poison that drives me mental.
Keep doing what you are doing and be aware Junk food, sugar combined with fat particularly is incredibly addictive.
Low zinc B vitamins etc contribute to the issue but its a vicious circle.
Soil Gut Brain
We now have the highest rate of Dementia in Europe because of this.

Was it naice ham? That’s the question!

Can we please stop lumping all diabetes together please, you mean type 2, type 1 is very different, and anyone’s pancreas can choose to stop working.

A HAM SANDWICH??

clutches pearls

You could always go somewhere else. I raised mine in Scandinavia.

On kids menus there…. Hot dogs and chips. Eating out is a treat, not an everyday occurrence.

What you’re not going to manage is to change anything, and particularly not by ranting at other mums on Mumsnet.

Hope you’ve got your hard hat on op, there’s a lot of the western world who seem to think the diet you’ve listed is fine, and are very defensive about it.

I am completely obsessed with 'what my family eats in a week' videos on youtube. I follow a couple of French bloggers (neither of whom have children) an Italian/Moldovan girl who along with a cousin of hers post their food in Italy, some Germans and alot of the Scandinavians.

We are being sold the idea that everyone in Europe does everything So Much Better Than Us. It's not wholly true. The Italian/Modovan girl who is my favourite blogger right now always eats very lightly but very sweet for breakfast. Her standard is a shop bought rum baba with espresso and nutella reigns supreme. That's quite typical it seems.

I also lived for about 6 months with a German/Swedish couple for various reasons 20 years back. Breakfast was cornflakes and orange juice and their children typically got boiled pasta with ketchup and milk for dinner. It was often enough that it was not a 'one off' as far as I could see.