British kids and eating habits - IABU ?

Just back from Spain and France. I was staying in non touristy places. Went out to eat most days especially for breakfast. I distinctly remember the food in offer because I was the only person eating only fruit for breakfast because the other stuff was too sweet/rich. Pastries filled with chocolate. Every pastry drizzled with some sort of syrup. Fried potatoes, pink sausages that felt like plastic, eggs laden with butter and salt. The Spanish and French had no issue filling their plates with this stuff. They were also having sparkling wine with breakfast.

I'm not denying food in the uk can be rubbish but how do you explain the above if what you say is true. This is not the first time I have witnessed this.

oh come on, it's not xenophobic to criticize ham and sausages.
Someone above even used the 'racist' word. Is British a race? Honestly.
We're not going to get anywhere in this country if we are so defensive about everything. OP put it a bit snobbishly but her points are valid, aren't they?

Isn’t there a popular snack in France of a bar of chocolate inside a baguette and that’s what the kids eat after school?

Beans are not 20% salt, thats the RDA - recommended daily amount. God, no wonder people think food is unhealthy.

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/252261477

That’s because you’re depriving him of ever having these things so he’s becoming obsessed with them. You’re also not setting up your children to develop healthy habits. Never eating convenience foods or sugar in their lifetime is unrealistic. Everything in moderation is a much more sensible approach so that you don’t end up with the much desired forbidden food situation you’ve currently created.

If your son is 4 there’s also the possibility that his account is not truly accurate and he’s exaggerating because to him it feels like he’s the only one without treats. When the reality is that different children have treats on different days.

😆

YANBU to describe British food this way. We are definitely unhealthy compared to other European countries.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/karen-le-billion-french-children-eat-anything

My children don't eat anywhere near the normal amount & I've always thought that if would be amazing if they would eat similar diets to French children.

I think op might be too embarrassed to come back

It might be from "% of recommended daily amount". According to the Heinz "British style baked beans" can I'm looking at here in Canada the sodium content per serving is 12% of recommended daily amount, and sugar is 5%. Fibre is a healthy 25% RDA per serving though. Not all bad!

You should probably stop judging the uk so much, Malta has a higher obesity rate (for both adults and children!). 😬
https://data.worldobesity.org/rankings/?age=a&sex=m

I didn't know about Malta, but I remember reading a few years ago that Greece has Europe's most obese children. It turns out that alongside the "healthy Mediterranean diet" bit with salad and sardines, the kids sneak a lot of spanakopita and baklava from the local φούρνος on the way home from school.

Surely everything in moderation? The poster who ridiculed processed meats can rip the saucisson from my cold dead body as I am never giving that up!! See chorizo and morcilla also. Nothing better than potatoes (fried!!!), with chorizo, morcilla, and an egg on top. Maybe a few (fried!!) peppers too.

Could I compromise and get 6 months and have cakes with my loved ones?

Oh look op, Malta at the top….

should stop frying your beans…

Really, you’d rather have cakes than 1 more year with your loved ones?

Yeah this isn’t considered healthy either. My kids drink water or milk, something like a fruit shoot would be a rare occasion.

Yeah this.
I don’t recognise what you’re saying at all op. And no one thinks beans and sausages are healthy. But of course, the rest of Europe is far superior 🙄.

Malta is the most obese country in the EU - and this was from before UK left.

perhaps get on your high horse there too?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_Malta

I hear you, I also grew up elsewhere in Europe and my school dinners were inspired in traditional home cooking, like stews, pulses, loads of vegetables, pasta, etc. We never had pizza, nuggets, fish fingers, sausages...I have voted yanbu because independently on schools' budgets I consider the standard menu selection for lunches in the UK lacking on nutrients and enough vegetables.

And yet, despite all that, brits still end up living a relatively long life by global terms

Fat and salty. Nothing is healthy in an olive. Unless you eat it fresh from the tree but you'll find them disgusting! Olive oil IS healthy however. In small amounts.

I make my own bread of all sorts. (irony: I have diabetes and can only eat small amounts of it!) Now, I do it because I enjoy it and because it's cheaper than the nice bread; cheap American bread is as rank as you've heard. But unless you want to do the most basic bread machine white, it takes time and planning. I've been baking bread for near on 20 years, so I've got it down pat and know how to adjust timings, make bread prove more or less quickly, use the fridge, etc. But I would never breezily suggest someone take it up. Health wise it depends what you make. I can make a lovely brioche or a Japanese milk bread, and they are melt in your mouth delicious, but they're full of added fat and sugar. I can also make a nice hearty wholegrain sourdough.

Also Europe is not all one food culture. I've heard some howlers about Norwegian food particularly. Speaking of pizza, it seems Norwegians consume more frozen pizza per capita than anyone else and the frozen pizza aisle of the supermarket is massive. (So says a friend who lived there.)

As a previous poster has said, there are enormous systemic financial issues with how school meals are funded and budgeted. In many schools the main focus is getting children fed because that might be their only meal that day - caloric intake, not a varied menu. If you want your child to eat other things then remove them from school meals and take the hit with their complaints. In the meantime, if you feel very strongly about it write to your MP and ask them about the financial deals various local authorities have struck with meat and dairy companies to ensure that it is written into policy that children must have a certain number of portions of meat and dairy per week. There are vegan companies out there who work in private schools, could work in state schools at a comparable cost to the current meals but aren’t allowed because of these bullshit policies. Bucks, I’m looking at you.

As someone who worked in a school for many years and often supervised at lunchtime I very rarely saw a healthy lunch and one tiny cupcake for dessert was common !

You’re being unreasonable and frankly xenophobic.

Sausages and beans aren’t healthy or considered to be so. We’re from the UK and know precisely how to feed our children healthily, thank you very much. My DS prefers brown bread, eats vegetables, fruit and salad, enjoys fish, home cooked meals and unusual tasting food.

Most nurseries prepare nutritious, balanced food. If yours doesn’t then look for a different one.