To believe we've forgotten how to eat healthily

[Yoruba]

I'm so completely fed up of the school serving up so much rubbish, with seemingly no understanding that its unhealthy. It is really really hard to find good evidenced advice about healthy eating for children. There seem to be contradictory reports coming out all the time, and I say that as someone who is really interested in this subject so it must be harder if you don't.

The school meals are utter rubbish. They have a sugary rubbishy pudding every day, sweets at every possible occasion and now they have seen fit to start selling ice creams after school to raise money.
Im not even THAT strict I don't think, I'm happy for her to have these foods but evidence shows that eating them regularly alters your taste buds and makes you crave them more. I think they should be occasional foods we eat as PART of a healthy diet, not every day.

But at the moment I'm feeling like a lone voice and I hate dd feeling like she's missing out in not having what her friends are. I don't want these things to be "forbidden" objects of desire.

It just seems as though there is very little knowledge now of what is actually healthy for children.

It's the volume that boggles me. Not just how the snacks add up, but the sheer size of snacks and meals. I look at the size of muffins these days, you could use them as a door stop. I never finish a meal when I eat out. I like to order steak, but the smallest is always 200g. And finish a whole giant chicken breast? No way.

And yeS I think generally there are loads more overly processed foods.

I dunno, brag. Remember Vesta curries, Findus crispy pancakes and Angel Delight?

I also don't see why there always has to be a sweet, sugary pudding/dessert on the school lunch menu. Fortunately, at my school we have choices and there are healthier alternatives, such as plain yogurt or a piece of fruit. What I find annoying though is that the' primary' dessert (i.e. the one listed on the menu) is always the concocted pudding, pie or cake. The menu never ever states that an apple is the main dessert.

All the kids in my borough get a choice of fruit, or cheese and crackers if they don't want the dessert.

henry eating is about balance. The school meals seem fine to me, I can't see them having a little cake as bad personally.

eating the save thing every day in a packed lunch to me is worse, even if it may be 'healthier' than fishfingers or a bad day.

The big advantages I find with school dinners is that dd eats different things to at home and appreciates my cooking more

healthy eating not henry!

I hope henry's a big guy

There are 950 pupils in my DC's school so they'll have to slice him thinly

I don't think we've forgotten. I think people fondly imagine a rose tinted utopia of healthy home made balanced meals that never existed.

The vast majority of people ate what they could afford. A lot of fat and veg in season padded out with cheap bulking food like flour and potato. They moved about a lot more so they used more calories and were thinner. But healthier? I don't think know that that is the case.

Noddy, people in the industrially-developed world live longer, and are healthier, than ever before. That rather suggests the 'utopian' past wasn't so great after all, doesn't it.

I was horrified when my 4 year old started school and the ice cream van is parked inside the gates everyday - it's really unfair when her friend get one and she doesn't - I think it's mean, not fair on parents who want to give there children healthy snacks and not fair as if you want to buy ice cream you can buy it much cheaper at the shops and give them the amount you want them to have.

Tobysmum - I agree with you about the school meals not being that bad compared to the same packed lunch every day. When my DC have packed lunches I do try and vary it but I find that their bread intake goes up considerably as they both love toast in the morning and then have sandwiches/roll/wrap for lunch. I also think the variety they have for school dinners is a good thing and my DC have tried all sorts that I wouldn't have dreamt of giving them at home - particularly some of the veggie options like sweet potato curry, quorn sausages etc.

Some of my DC's friends have a ham roll every single day!

I think one of the reasons they serve starchy puddings at school & that they were popular post-war is that they are cheap & fill you up. Teenage boys need huge amounts of food & school budgets are not going to stretch to high quality protein.

My kids have ham or sausage rolls every day for packed lunch at school.
But then I'm not part of the "bread" is evil brigade.

Munchkin, why is that horrific?

Surely your kids pass sweet shops on their way to and from school, so they will have already learned that no means no?

There's been an ice cream van outside my DC's school for over 20 years. The kids learn that they can't have one if their parents tell them no.

I used to treat mine to an ice cream every Friday. It was a nice thing to have at the end of a week at school.

Horse meat is really healthy!! The problem in the scandal was the labeling...

I had a pudding at primary school everyday in the 80's, it's not a new thing. They need lots of calories.

The no sugar fad is an eye roller.

Horsemeat will be fine if you know you're eating horsemeat and that it's certified as ok for human consumption. If you think you're eating something else and it got into the food chain via fraudulent activity and the source can't be traced then it's not fine.

a lot of horses are on bute to keep them sound which makes the meat dangerous to eat by anything though tbf not just humans.

I don't think bread is evil but it also isn't a light snack as many think. There is this weird English obsession with only being able to 'manage' one cooked meal a day. mil (overweight) huffs and puffs about how she can only possibly manage a sandwich for tea if she's had a meal at lunch and I just don't get it. You're either hungry or not .

Garlic yes I was going to add about life expectancy but what part diet plays in proportion to modern medicine is debatable. Huge numbers of us would be dead without access to healthcare.

But yes I think people have forgotten how hard it was to feed a poor family.

The whole concept of "kid's food' needs to be changed IMO (it's the Mcdiabetic way of looking at foods). Why should they have nutritionally empty foods? If anything it should be the opposite.

You're very lucky if yr school has taken on board the Jamie Oliver thing and doesn't dish up crap bought in ready cooked in a van. Parents should complain A LOT!!

I think people get too hung up on it.

I know parents who would throw their arms up in horror at the idea of given a child fishfingers and spaghetti hoops or a bowl of cereal or cheese on toast.

A pp said we're all living longer and healthier lives. Are we????? In the last 14 years I've personally known about 12 people who've died young of cancers, heart attacks etc. Let alone the recent news mentioning the number of people with pre type 2 diabetes!

Sadly Haunted I know a fair number who've been stopped from dying by our medics but they aren't 'alive' as we would define it.

Sorry yoruba YANBU. But most people will eat what's advertised and in the 2nd WW people were much healthier because they literally couldn't get high sugar and salt foods. And vegetables were not rationed!!!!

smug organic moment dd won't eat tinned spaghetti (clutches at pearls)