What is really stopping us from feeding our children healthy food?

[LilMissRe]

I saw an article today about obesity levels in little children and how it is increasing to dangerous levels. I'm intrigued as this is for a project I'm doing to graduate from university- hopefully this year!

The concern here is that, well, little ones (0-5 yrs) have the least say in what they can eat and drink, and as many don't start school officially till 4-5- schools can't really intervene and so a lot of experts place the blame entirely on us parents- especially mothers.

In my opinion I think time and marketing of unhealthy food is a big player here and is to blame, but I can't just use my opinion and would be very grateful for your opinions and experiences on this.

What is really stopping us from feeding our children healthy food?

Thank you!

A lot of people can't cook. I work with care agencies as part of my role and we have to get clients to buy frozen ready meals as a large proportion of the care staff are unable to make simple meals from scratch.

With both parents working, there is often a time issue but obesity levels are actually higher in children of parents who do not work (on benefits) so time is not the only factor.

People will say that frozen 'oven' food is cheaper, but I think the real issue us that skills like meal planning and budgeting have left the general population.

Lots of parents don't want the argument. They make things they think their kids will eat/like. It a terrible excuse and pretty shoddy parenting but it happens. Yes, everyone does it from time to time, but I'm taking about those who do it as standard.

All food, if eaten in large quantities is going to cause weight issues and I think as a nation we've lost sight of what a true portion is.

I don't think its marketing as in advertising but availability and price. Its cheap and easy and ubiquitous.

It is almost impossible to eat out and find decent food on the menu for children. We were on holiday in the UK last week. The restaurant at the holiday park offered children's meals.

Burger, chips and beans
Sausage, chips and beans
Veggie sausage, chips and beans
Fish fingers, chips and beans
Tomato pasta

That was literally it, and it doesn't really help matters, does it?

@rollingpine it’s very easy to get around that though. I get my kids an adult meal and ask for an extra plate. They split it between them. Tbh I think a lot of it is laziness and also as pp said the inability to cook, shop fur healthier foods etc

Many people can't cook - even in my generation (I'm late 30s) cooking lessons were pretty basic, i.e. they were part of "technology", & we mostly did cakes, quiche, & other carby high fat stuff that could be completed within 50 minutes including the washing up. Nothing about budgeting, using up leftovers, how to make food go further, etc. I can cook but pretty much taught myself.

Also, I suspect it's partly to do with needing 2 full time incomes to afford to buy a house (in most areas). Lots of people just don't want to fit in healthy eating, in the little time that's left. It was much easier to do this when one parent was home all the time (and, probably, necessary due to lower income, but then if you're home all the time, why wouldn't you?) Obviously many people do prioritise this, there are ways round the problem - the easiest being throw money at it & use pre-prepared fresh or frozen healthy ingredients every day. Easier when you're a £80k household than an £18k household. Having a dishwasher also helps - a takeaway or even just fish fingers & chips don't generate nearly as much washing up as a proper home cooked meal.

Not having a culture of cooking from scratch, batch cooking, buying cheaper cuts of meat and cooking slowly etc. People on low incomes might not have the means to build up store cupboard essentials, herbs, etc which make homemade food more palatable. Nor the necessary pans, equipment etc. Some families just have the very basics. Putting food on the table tonight is the priority. Eg I'm making a cottage pie tonight, I have planned ahead and bought triple portions of the ingredients and have extra large dishes to cook in. I will freeze separate portions in my chest freezer to use another day. If I didn't have the freezer space, correct utensils and store cupboard ingredients it would be tempting to make something easier eg nuggets and chips. Also I'm not an amazing cook but my mum taught me to make sauces, soups, roast potatoes etc so I know how to put a meal together. I can afford the minimum £40 for Tesco delivery and delivery saver so I can access good value ingredients rather than relying on corner shops or complucste bus journeys with multiple children in tow for example.
There are lots of factors at play here. I'm not saying I'm better than anyone else, this week we are also having a ready meal one night and fish and chips on Friday. But 5 out of 7 nights my kids get a home cooked meal. They eat it because they're used to having it out in front of them.

Nothing to do with cooking from scratch imo

-Wanting to treat your child to something nice
-Being too tired after a long days working/ nursery to fight about whether they can have that ice cream
-Fussy eaters only eating less healthy food
-Lack of activity from being at home/ nursery for extended hours, or from using car extensively

I think It’s easier, that’s it in 99% of circumstances

I'm really interested in this. I'm a school cook and, since starting this job two years ago, have really tried to make changes to the menu - in particular, getting away from the traditional sugary, stodgy cake and custard type puddings. The backlash from parents, however, has been really surprising. The pupils seem happy to go along with the changes, but the parents (in not insignificant numbers) have rallied against them - they want their children to have sugary stodge . I don't understand it. It goes against everything I read on Mumsnet regarding the type of school meals parents want to see.
For context, this is a school in an affluent area with educated and involved parents.

I'll be watching this thread with interest.

It's never been easier to learn how to cook (endless videos on youtube, TV programmes and books aimed at beginners) and being able to cook is the best way to be able to eat healthily without spending a fortune.

But you have to want to do it as it's also never been easier to live on high calorie processed rubbish, whether cheap or expensive if you don't want to cook or don't have the time or facilities to do your own cooking.

Plus when out and about, bad food is usually cheaper, more appetising and more filling than healthy food. Faced with the choice of satisfying food like fish and chips, McDonalds, pizza, pasties etc, which is usually cheaper than healthier foods like prepared salads, which come in tiny portions and are fridge cold so taste of nothing. Or the food might sound healthy, but when it comes it is usually drowned in high fat, high sugar dressing. note to self, if you don't want everything swamped in dressing you have to remember to ask for the dressing to be left off when ordering.

It takes an enormous amount of will power to make healthy choices and ignore the majority of food that is out there that is unhealthy.

#Youngandfree Sure it is easy to split one restaurant main meal between two kids, yes. What if you only have one child, or three?

In any case the OP was asking us for opinions, which I gave. One of the (many) reasons which contribute to this issue is that restaurants don't often have decent options on the menu for children. They are peddled crap.

Hours of work. When my mother was a hild, women gave up work on marriage and mortgages were based on one salary. It was expected that mum stayed at home and meals were generally devised to sit unsupervised whilst you spent hours washing and scrubbing - roasts, pies etc. Families tend to be out more as well, with longer working hours, after school activities etc.

Now, with both parents working these meals are often out unless it's the weekend. You need food that can be on the table within 30 minutes. Parents also tend to give their children food they'll eat, not stick one meal on the table and you eat it or go hungry. This tends to lend itself to quicker meals, prepacked veg etc. People also have a wider variety of dietary needs. In our house, we have 2 veggies, one of whom won't eat cheese, a picky non-veggied who'll eat fish but nothing in a sauce and a non-veggie who dislikes fish. We can generally get it down to 2 meals per evening and one if I drop on something we'll all give a go. This wouldn't have happened years ago. You can't spend time creating lengthy meals and then do a 2nd one because you have a veggie or a coeliac.

Between 0-5 I had very little control over what my kids ate in the week. Food was provided my school, nursery & grandparents who all, without fail served a pudding with every meal.

All the above replies are absolutely correct & I agree.
However we also have more choice of foodstuffs, people are less active & I also wonder if environmental issues like pollution & food wasn't as processed in previous generations.

I think it’s not meals that are the problem, even burger and chips it’s sugar, and constant grazing.

A lot of effort goes into making food taste good and moreish and a lot of effort goes into making us buy it and eat more of it.

I also realised that two people could make the exact same food choices eg cereal and a yoghurt, soup for lunch and beans with toast and the budget versions often have more calories (not always) it adds up over time. I ws really surprised when i first started looking.

Lack of knowledge.

Lack of money.

Lack of skill.

Everyone around you is eating the same food..

We have been consistently lied to about carbs, particularly sugar. Deliberately lied to. So a great high fat, high protein breakfast (see Germany) was avoided for fortified carbs with added sugar (see cereal). We've been given terrible advice. Bound to fail.

I think two working parents doesn't help. Walking to and from school, time to cook, time to go to the park after school and so on.

I think it's boredom - I wonder if there's any correlation between television et al and the rise of obesity. I don't get hungry at all doing something physical like gardening, or if I'm working with my hands but if I'm in front of the TV I want something to do and eating seems like a good option.

I'm a single parent and work full time, neither I nor my child are fat but it definitely creeps up in winter when I have less to do outside and it gets dark early than when it's summer. I also do a very sedentary job and I don't think that helps. So up creeps the weight and as I get older it's harder to keep off. My child is always doing something and isn't particularly hungry until I put food in front of her - she rarely says that she's hungry.

moltenpink I asked DSs nursery not to give him dessert, unless its fruit. They definitely looked at me like I was "that" parent (and on that occasion I was) but I feel it's important. Dessert should be an occasional enjoyment, not a daily thing. DS is used to it now and doesn't question it. Numbers of his nursery eat different stuff anyway due to allergies/ dietary needs so it's not like he's singled out.

The constant snacking certainly doesn't help.

In my dc old school I’d say at least 1/3rd Of the children were over weight. The school food was not over good, for example chips offered at every meal, stodgy puddings full of sugar.

At their new school everything is cooked from scratch and a decent variety, fresh fruit is given as pudding 3 times a week not high sugar rubbish. It’s such a welcoming change.

I think it’s many thing which have caused it.

Not many people I know around my age were actually ever taught to cook, the only reason I can is because my mum used to be a chef and I taught myself other bits.

The cost of decent food, it’s much cheaper to buy a happy meal or even just supermarket chicken nuggets and chips than to make your own. Even a basic stew can cost a lot to make, especially if your on a low income, people may not have access to a slow cooker etc. Junk food generally is cheaper than fresh food.

Time, many people don’t have time to make a home cooked meal every night. Much easier to cook sausage, chips and beans. I will admit I only cook from scratch 5 nights a week where the kids and dh get a full meal, the other 2 nights I use freezer food.

Puddings are now a normal not a treat. They are every day food.

Also I don’t think children get the amount of physical activity they need anymore. When I was my children’s ages I was sent out on a Saturday morning had to be home for lunch then sent out again and told to be home by 6, I don’t see that around anymore.

People used to have a stodgy pudding everyday though (sponge and custard etc) and although they weren’t healthy (heart disease!) they weren’t as obese as we are.

Germans are pretty obese and love stodgy food so I wouldn’t be holding them up as examples. I do love a German breakfast myself though.

I honestly think it’s work and a change in culture. My life has changed a lot since I had my first child

• moved jobs to enable more time with children - from the city (walking, commuting, climbing stairs etc) to a faceless business park off the motorway. Drive there and back everyday, often only do 5000 steps a day.

• moved house to somewhere more rural for a garden and driveway- have to drive everywhere as very little can be reached on foot, and our schedules are too tight to do 30 minute walks to nursery etc

• children in nursery 10 hours a day where activity is limited to sports lessons and garden time

• too tired in the evenings to do much although try to walk to the park 1-2 times a week.

• our “world” is much bigger - so my D.C. go to the best music class available- 20 miles away. Again, Pile in the car and that’s 3 hours of Saturday gone

• urge for takeaways or ready meals to save more valuable time.

• buying packaged pre cut fruit and veg, again to save time.

@rollingpine well when I had one I used to give of my plate and dh’s plate and I suppose if you have 3 you could do a combination etc it all boils down to which is more important, a healthier meal or your wallet I suppose 🤷‍♀️

My kids were given not so healthy food when I felt depressed or was too tired to cook. If I felt really bad, they got McDonald's. I'm otherwise a decent and responsible parent, but feel overwhelmed with the prospect of cooking at times.

Too many snacks - Children don't need a snack every few minutes

Too many processed foods - babies weaned in very sweet pouches and parents not being encouraged to make first foods

Parents having weird ideas about what children will like - no flavours or spices. Obviously don't feed them a vindaloo but Indian, Chinese, Greek, Mediterranean foods are all great

Parents thinking children will not like vegetables- ime most children will eat a selection if they are offered early on

We need to get back to family meals, lose the snacks and to model good eating habits

@ineedaknittedhat I used to do the same thing:( I think McDonalds for me was associated with happier times growing up as a teen- it was something I bought with my pocket money when I went into town with friends, and so I guess I saw it as a pick me up, that I would buy for my son when I felt terrible about myself, but knew he would feel excited about; so in a way I wouldn't feel too bad because that meal made him "happy"