British kids and eating habits - IABU ?

Since we are being pious……

Homemade bread is far from ideal. Children can get carbohydrates from far better and healthier sources.

If they’re anything like the desserts in my school they’ll be made with beetroot, carrots, oats etc and very low sugar. Often they end up in the staffroom as they haven’t all been eaten, especially on a day where there is frosting on the sponge so not all UK kids are obsessed with desserts. Most children don’t have the dessert every day, they only take the ones they like and on the other days they have the bread/fruit/soup option.

If your kids are complaining about wanting dessert maybe let them have it sometimes, otherwise once they’re teenagers they’ll be sneaking it behind your back. I was allowed sweet treats whenever I wanted them as a child and as a result rarely ate them and could have just a few sweets then leave the rest. My friends with strict parents gorged on sweets whenever they were at someone else’s home and stole money to buy junk food once we were at secondary. Your approach to food isn’t as brilliant as you think it is and can be setting your kids up for a lifetime of difficult relationships with food.

My friend whose mum served her main meal on side plates and didn’t allow sweet treats has been on a diet for the past two decades, her weight has fluctuated massively and she’s never managed to get down to a healthy weight. It’s possibly time to review your attitude…

I’d prefer to provide them with a wholemeal.

20% salt in baked beans LOL 😁😁😁😁

Someone once told me that the biggest difference between UK food and say food from Europe is that it’s packed full of preservatives because we import a large amount.

I don’t have the stats but I love the quality of European food- it tastes better - I’m born and bred British with lots of French relatives , and I loved the foods we would have in France. OK, it was still junk - lots of biscuits and bread (bakery or baguettes) and Jam. Compared to being at home where we had spaghetti hoops, fish fingers and we did have lots of sausages- but we did in France too - it was normally the super processed one that tastes delicious but is 50% meat.

My daughter loves veg though. I agree children are heavily influenced by the culture and I remember wondering why my dd will choose chicken nuggets over actual chicken. But as a teen she prefers home cooked stews with carbs over the horrible frozen stuff.

You can feed them chicken. Just not too much. The whole chicken should feed your family for a week. Oh, and apparently homemade bread. That's it otherwise you will be judged by the MN vipers.

Oh yeah? Prove it

Now, now, homemade bread is the yeast you can do for your children.

Yep, this. Unclench a bit.

I hear you. I always say a loaf should cost about 20 quid for the amount of graft that goes into it!

Bloody hell everything is off limits after reading this thread. What are we actually allowed to feed our children!? Don’t say home made bread, I don’t knead the hassle.

But I have a bread machine. I've clearly reached the pinnacle of maturity.

If you think 'are you on crack' is funny then you really need to grow up.

What on earth are you on about? No I'm not going to change my opinion on bread just because you personally can't be bothered making it! Amusing you've got all this time to argue this point but not 5 minutes to be kneading a loaf of bread though.

Her comment was a lot funnier than any of your po-faced posts. Give it a rest.

another joke. clearly I am not funny 🙃

How do they reduce the fat in an olive?

how do you know whether anyone has found my joke funny?

and as I said, even if no-one found it funny, I was clearly joking.

No-one thinks my uncle's jokes are funny, but he is clearly joking a lot of the time.

You're really doubling down on the bread thing aren't you? what a strange hill to die on.

Brit here!

Will admit to happily giving our DD baked beans. She loves them with shop bought (gasp!) gnocchi.

And I'd rather read a book, have a glass of wine with DH, go to a yoga class, or watch a bit of telly than bake bread every other evening. Guilty as charged!

YANBU. I think cooking from scratch is more difficult for some people because it takes time, but also its a skill that most don't have (myself included unfortunately). Although I very rarely feed my child processed crap.

Nobody seems to have found your comment funny so far.

I don't care if you're lazy or not? Prioritise what you want, it's no skin off my nose. I still think it's sad that the modern world doesn't consider making bread something worth doing. If it takes you an hour I'd say it's a skill issue tbh.

humour is subjective. I can tell when people are trying to make jokes even when I don't think they are being funny.

Regarding "can't be bothered' urm maybe. I mean, I work my arse off running a household and working full time but hey, why not add in an extra hour to make bread from scratch so that mumsnet posters don't think I'm lazy.

Yes an hour. Locating ingredients and equipment, mixing, proving, baking and cleaning. I know because I've done it. I like fresh bread. I just prioritise other things... like my own sanity.

My favorite part of this thread is that its British food being ridiculed and watching everyone so upset by it. Saying dont judge what other people do, you dont know their circumstances. Dont say that a whole country (or continent) is the same, etc etc etc. Now had this thread been about AMERICAN kids oh boy. At least once every couple weeks is there a thread to rip apart the food eaten/fed to kids in America. No one worries then about "dont judge other people" "you dont know their circumstances" and so on. Doesnt feel so good when its an attack on your children does it? Maybe remember that the next time an American Eating thread pops up

Jokes are usually funny aren't they?

Yes I can't believe people can't be bothered to make bread, sorry, but it doesn't take that long and it's much healthier. But the nutrition comment was a wider issue because I really cannot believe that people would be presented with information about how harmful processed meat etc is and still choose to eat it unless they are seriously lacking in understanding about how and why nutrition is so important. Especially when you have kids and you are almost solely responsible for their health and what goes into their bodies.

Ooh I’ve not tried chilli flakes with olives! Gotta look out for those.