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!

I think people are not cooking out of laziness. They use time/money as an excuse.

I know children are sometimes picky eaters but the parents allow this. When I was younger I either ate what was in front of me or I went hungry. Parents are too scared these days to do this though.

With DP DC they are dished up fairly small portions then there is always more available. I find if there's too much on the plate then it's overwhelming.

We won't feed them things we know they don't like (like fish, spicy foods etc) but if they don't eat then there's no treats. The oldest two are fine, it's the youngest (5) we struggle with. She's just a lazy eater. She'll eat pudding straight away but meat and veg she plays up with but eventually she'll eat it.

and not abiding fussy eating (sn aside)
Have you ever come across a properly fussy eater who will not eat until the following day because they don't like the dinner? I have sat for two hours at the table with my son ( 11 but this has been regular since he was 4)and he's gone to bed hungry and gotten up and cheekily had his breakfast the following morning. You can't force feed a child and you can't starve them. We don't give up on him in that it continues the next time he has something he hates but I don't think people understand when they say ' not on my watch ( mil says it all the time but all have conflicting accounts as there was one very fussy eater, he says he lived on chips, the rest jump around on it depending on whose side they want to take)

But it’s not not cooking that makes you obese is it? It’s what you chose to eat, whether you eat in restaurants every night or make your own pasta.

Notacooldad would be interested to know what recipe you use, I’ve never found a good one. I actually am a good cook but never eaten a good stir fry, whether made by me or anyone else

Sorry for my photographic memory to spoil some peoples fun but i do remember mumsnetters from the area posting about what happened on Jamies School Dinners and they were saying that due to the chaotic queueing system and a couple of other factors some of the kids wernt getting any food at all so they were having to bring food at lunchtime A lot of stuff filmed that didnt meet the agenda ended up on the cutting room floor according to what was posted on here.

I often wonder are we supposed to eat all foods.For example when I was growing up in Ireland in the 80's we ate loads of potatoes , bread , butter, gallons of milk.Grant it ,we walked a lot but very few people were fat until about the 90's when diets changed and more 'international food ' was available .Now Ireland has a big obesity problem.When one looks at Italy , they mainly stick to the Italian diet and people tend for the most part to be quite slim.Same for the French.
The Mexican diet is anything but low calorie but I often saw many Mexicans in the US particularly the children to be overweight.
America has had the sort of multi culti eating for a long time and they were the first to have the obesity problem. The Chinese are also growing in size since the introduction of a western diet ie. more meat For my part I can still eat potatoes but if I eat pasta I am sure to be a kilo heavier the following day.Maybe we should be sticking more to regional diets?It's just something I wonder about

What I don’t understand is how many people on here complain about artificial sweetners and how desperate the are to just have normal full sugar drinks and snacks and how awful artificial sweetners are and then you get long threads like this equally passionately blaming sugar for all society’s ills

schnubbins You’re right and France and Italy are rapidly becoming more obese as they move away from their traditional diets. They’re not different to us in the UK- they’re simply 20 years behind us.

I think alcohol has a lot to do with adults being heavier & bigger today.
Compared to years ago alcohol is cheaper & there is widely unlimited access to it.
A bottle of wine is like throwing a big of sugar down your throat I tell myself...........though my willpower doesn't always work.

Re : no time to cook. You could give your kid an omelet. Way healthier. But people don't. They give them nuggets and chips instead.

Notacooldad would be interested to know what recipe you use, I’ve never found a good one. I actually am a good cook but never eaten a good stir fry, whether made by me or anyone else

To be honest when I'm at home I usually freestyle it. I find what works for me is the wok really hot with sesame oil then cook the veg (usually mange tout, baby corn , broccoli, a bit of ginger, and carrots)and tofu short and hot, then add the sauce near the end. I usually mix what ever I have in the cupboard In a cup I mix approx 1/4 cup of honey with soy sauce, lemon juice, a little corn flour and add to the wok.

Another quick sauce I like is satay, again that takes minutes. My teriyaki is good but I make loads so I can save some as a dipping sauce.
If I'm at work I get the kids to follow one out of a receipe book so they are getting used to weighing and measuring different quantities. I can't remember which book, we've got loads !

but further up you said that your child is able to show restraint around chocolate because he doesn't see is as a treat because you don't restrict it?

I don't. I'm not sure where I've contradicted that?

It’s very easy/tempting to blame anyone and everything (someone on this thread actually blamed IKEA for their plate sizes - plates were the same size 100 years ago) but the real reason is laziness.

Pure laziness.

People feed their children any old shite, give them food to shut them up, packs of crisps to occupy toddlers in prams, and then sit them inside on their iPads.

It’s the parents who are getting it wrong - not schools, HVs or Ikea. And one of the reasons the parents continue to get it wrong, despite all the info and support being out there, is this culture of ‘its everyone’s fault except mine.’

I also think that because of this, society has shifted to celebrate the lazy parents and shun the ones who actually cook for their children, calling them sanctimonious etc.

FOUND IT!!!!!!!

Foot5 Thu 01-Jul-10 13:02:51

I think that Jamie was definitely on the right lines and trying to do a GOOD THING and even if it hasn't worked as well as hoped in some areas I am sure he must have made a difference just by highlighting the problem.

One point though Easywriter:
"If mothers want to feed their children hamburgers through school railings then they deserve to be preached to about healthy eating "

IIRC the mothers involved in this story were massively misrepresented by the press and in a later series Jamie apologised to one of them. It seems that as well as introducing the new menus this school had cut the time available for lunch. The upshot was that some of these children were not managing to get served any food in the middle of the day so had asked their Mums to bring things. Apparently it wasn't just burgers either. Mainly it was sandwiches - some with plenty of healthy salad fillings. The papers concocted the story to appear otherwise

Multiple reasons as stated on this thread.

Agree far too much ‘snacking’, and meals (adults & childrens) are just much, much bigger than they used to be.

The angst you read here about making packed lunch being ‘such an effort’, no one needs more than a decent sandwich/filled roll & a piece of fruit for lunch yet people go on and on about adding a yogurt, crisps, homemade flapjack and a ‘treat’ etc etc .

Not enough exercise, few children walk to school, playing fields sold off, too much time spent inside on gadgets.

Proper cookery not being taught at school, my DS passed Food Tech GCSE without learning basic cookery skills.

And cheap, sugary food can just be very tempting- I’ve just tucked into an individual Gu cheesecake (2 for £1.50), really delicious, I didn’t need it, but it was nice.

Time - or not enough of it - is a huge factor these days. I think because in many jobs, people are expected to be ‘on call’ via email or phone even if they’re not physically at work, contributes to loss of time to cook, Shop, plan and prepare, and also to eat as a family.
A friend of mine has a DD who is only 6 but in 11-12 year old clothes despite being very physically active, another DD who will hardly eat anything - not willing to try new foods, and a DS who helps himself to snack type of stuff. They very rarely cook at home - or if they do, everyone is eating different things at different times, not sitting down together as a family.

Cost of healthy food is a huge factor for those on a low-income. From building up a stock of store cupboard essentials, owning cooking equipment, the cost of healthy food (including transport to/from shops)...it really is beyond some people's means. Through my work, I have met families who have one kitchen knife, one saucepan, one frying pan. Buying more equipment would mean less money for food.

I don’t think time or cost have anything to do with it. It takes 10 minutes and about £3 to make a stir fry for a family of 4.

Stir fry is horrid

Easy 15min meals -

Jacket potato with tuna and salad
Soup
Chicken fajitas
Porridge with fruit and nuts

Etc etc

It costs more than £3 to make stir fry anyway I'm sure. On the odd occasions I make it (which isn't often as I rarely fancy it), I put in:

Egg Noodles
Pack stir fry veg
Prawns, chicken or tofu
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
Ginger
Garlic
Chilli

Dunno how much all that adds up to but it's definitely more than 3 quid.

I do think cost is a factor for people on low incomes BUT I think that's partly because people don't know how to cook healthy low cost food.

Soup is not a main meal.

A lentil or pulse based soup with bread is a perfectly substantial main meal.

Soup is totally a main meal, with plenty of veg in it and a bread roll.