To think banning fried eggs is a step too far?

I’d say it’s about forming better habits than actually these particular foods being a complete no no. I’m always horrified that my daughter gets offered dessert every day, it really goes against the routine we’re trying to create at home.

As a country we have such a shocking relationship with food I’m grateful the government are trying to do something. I do wonder how much permissive parenting has to do with poor eating habits. I’d say more than 50% of kids I know will only eat very specific and limited foods (non arfid, and statistically I think very unlikely they’re all ND) and of course they won’t eat the soup when they know they can hold out for something better.

Completely agree. I’ve visited Norway a few times for work and the contrast in what was offered in the work canteen compared to British work canteens was incredible.

I think we lack imagination in this country and with people from all types of heritage how amazing it could be to make breakfast foods interesting as well as healthy.

Definitely more should be spent on decent main course ingredients and I’d make pudding some kind of Greek yoghurt plus - fruit, seeds, nuts. Where schools could accommodate a kitchen go back to that and design use of the space into the curriculum yes bring back home economics and cookery! I don’t think any food should be banned, it’s just how it is used and total nutrient dense calories.

As for the fried egg. Well I’m currently in a calorie deficit with protein and fibre count and I’ve discovered savoury oats (cheap, quick and easy) topped with three (gasp!!!) fried eggs. I use a non stick pan that doesn’t get too hot and about 5 cals of 1 cal. Masses of black pepper. It’s amazing.

Breakfast things like shakshuka (sorry if spelt wrong), mixed tomato beans with eggs dropped in, those kinds of things. Or oats and Greek yoghurt baked items with fruit and a few seeds. There’s loads of interesting nutritional stuff no need for what we seem to assume breakfast should be.

I can’t do scrambled eggs to taste half decent without butter unfortunately so avoid those (as I do in mass produced hotels of whatever they are never appealing).

I also haven’t heard of Burford Browns! I used to keep chickens god I miss their eggs now! Best in my flock were the Marans and Orpingtons!

Yes, I know that. However, plain Shredded Wheat is not a UPF as all it contains is wheat. Weetabix apparently is technically a UPF as it contains malted barley extract and is fortified, but it's not sweetened. These two and most types of muesli and porage oats are sensible nutritious options for breakfast.

Caterers can buy in ready-poached eggs and re-heat them. I find this idea absolutely horrific, but I gather that most restaurants and cafes offering poached eggs are not poaching them fresh to order. It means they have been sitting in a plastic pouch until required, so adds to the already vast amount of plastic waste we produce in this country.

If schools are going to offer eggs, the obvious thing is to have something like a frittata or crustless quiche with some vegetables in it and maybe a bit of cheese or ham (although I suppose ham is now on the banned/restricted list too). Very tasty, easy to produce in advance and portion up, nice at room temperature.

good thing breakfast isn’t the only meal I eat!

I could be wrong, of course, but I would assume that a family eating mostly fish fingers, chicken nuggets, frozen pizza and ready meals would not be all that likely to have a veg box delivered. Why would you go to the trouble of getting a range of interesting vegetables like that and serve them alongside highly processed convenience food?

Humans have been eating foods containing starch and sugar for hundreds of thousands of years.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g We haven't been eating modern UPF's for hundreds of thousands of years. There is a difference.

To those saying schools don't serve eggs.... ours do an all day breakfast (for lunch) once every 3 weeks. And yes, they include an egg!

Eggs are one of the best foods out there.

Crazy guidance.

The problem is that for many families, balance has gone out the window and schools should be setting an example.

My child’s school menu (5 years old) was sent to us and boasts of brand name
processed shite, Birds Eye, quorn etc…

There is a pudding option 5 days a week.
Sausage rolls, pies or sandwiches.

School menus are old fashioned.

But we produce the food in a way now that has deprived it of nutrients and is processed to make it highly palatable and addictive.
Obviously if you never get addicted to the bad stuff, you won't have problems later in life.

Schools won't be frying eggs in macadamia oil 😂It will be cheap vegetable oil.

I agree in principle but unless school meals are compulsory that isn't what will happen. Remember the mothers standing at the school railings passing burgers through to the teenagers refusing to eat Jamie Oliver's healthy school meals?

I agree.

The rest of the change is the bare minumum: fried food twice a week? One serving of fruit and veg a day, with at least three across the week? Cereal ok but some limits on sugar? Bare minimum.

In that aspect, a fried egg is better than almost anything else on that menu, both left and right column.

The biggest change they could make is to have actual chefs cook actual food in the schools, rather than reheat and serve frozen meals prepared off site. As a PP said, the fried egg debate is irrelevant because no school is frying eggs (or preparing them in any other way).

Your body still processes simple carbs the same way. It's the same as saying honey or dates are better than sugar when they are just different sugars
Sweeteners have their own problems

Without context, I would have gone with one of those naked butlers...

It didn't help when I was at primary school that we didn't have a kitchen. Didn't have a dining hall either (very old village school) so we used to go to the village hall next door. Food was made at the secondary school 3 villages over and brought to us. Puddings were still good, though. And sometimes, instead of water in the big metal jugs, we had milkshake. Oh, happy day.

Alarmist nonsense. We need sugar, in the form of glucose. It's our energy source, and we can't function without it. We have to break down the food we eat into the nutrients we need for our bodies to work. As I understand it, that essential glucose can be obtained from eating and digesting carbohydrates, or from fats, which we also need for essential fatty acids, or (if there is no other source of glucose) from protein, although that means sacrificing amino acids, the building blocks of the body. Of course most of us nowadays have plenty of fat stored in the body from eating more than we've needed for energy. That fat can also be processed to release glucose as needed.

Humans have been eating foods containing starch and sugar for hundreds of thousands of years. We are an adaptable species. In every part of the globe where humans have managed to eke out an existence we've survived on whatever food we could find or grow or hunt there. One of the side benefits of eating carbs is that we may get fibre from them, which is mostly indigestible but very good for gut health.

The answer isn't to fortify though - it's to provide fresh fruit at breakfast clubs. I understand what you're saying about the iron but milk binds strongly with iron anyway so not much is absorbed from breakfast cereals, it's food 'bling' ( e.g. ticks the box but doesn't deliver the benefit).

On the positive side, and despite the fact I’m cracking on in years, I didn’t know what a Burford Buff was until today - I thought it was some sort of posh breakfast dish.

Disappointed to learn it’s just another breed of a bloody chicken. 🙄

They still send you to sleep in afternoon lessons though !!

Your body needs more than fibre alone, though.

I'd look up the essential nutrient content of eggs before dismissing them so out of hand.

My favourite was cheese pie. I’ve tried to replicate it a few times from recipes online purporting to be the ‘original’. It’s not the same. I actually dread to think of the fat and calorie content of the original !!

There's no way butter would get hot enough to fry an egg without burning. A spot of lard is better

The odd fried egg doesn’t cause obesity, but add it onto a piss poor diet at home, it tips the balance.

Those children would need the nutrient dense egg more than the cereal.

I can have a portion of all bran and get 10g fibre for very little calories or get zero fibre from a fried egg.