aibu to think school shouldnt serve unhealthy pudding every day!

[anothervisittothepark]

Just been looking at menu. My ds starts school lunches next week.
Every day has a sweet pudding. Like cupcake. Or choc sponge and custard. Theyalways have fruit and yogurt too. But i can guarantee ds will take cake every time given the option! You would think they would have a couple of days with only healthy puddings?
My ds doesnt have a very good stop button. And while he is not overweight i do have to often say no to him and insist he has fruit etc. I cant see it a very good thing giving them cake every day!

Actually I don't mean sugar "requirements"

I mean the World Health Organisation recommended added sugar daily limit, which is 12g of sugar for children.

An 80g slice of cake is 20g of sugar, so that's the whole day's limit exceeded in one!

Even if they are reduced sugar, what's the point

Lattelovers. Your calc would make it more like 1 in 5 i think? Otherwise yes 1 in 10 would ha e been a bit better

May be if they made the main meals more appetising and filling, the kids wouldn't need to fill up on pudding?

I think only fruit should be offered for pudding.

Also, I always used to have short bread for afters at primary school, always.

So did all my friends, the shortbread was the best!

But we never had puddings at home after meals so it was one of those things that I thought only happened at school or when you ate at a restaurant, or at my grandmothers house.

So since then I've never really wanted a pudding after a meal. I'm usually too full after my main to want any sort of pudding.

I have the occasional chocolate or bag of crisps when I fancy them, and DS can have them whenever he fancies them. But at home they aren't expected as an after, but also not taboo.

If he wants some crisps, we will go buy some

YouTheCat. If only fruit was offered as pudding it would make my DS very, very ill. Plus fruit is packed with sugar anyway.

I don't get all the fuss over school meals. It is 5 meals a week out of a potential 21 meals ( assuming people have 3 meals a day) is long as the remaining 16 meals are health and there is either limited or healthy snacks between meals if any then I don't see the problem with a pudding every day.

My dcs are at state school and I know for a fact that their puddings are full of sugar and not in the least bit healthy. They have a choice of something like a muffin (with buttercream on top - not a small one either) a yoghurt or fruit. What six year old is going to pick fruit for god's sake? And up until a couple of years ago, if kids took a packed lunch, it was inspected to make sure they hadn't brought anything unhealthy in I.e jam sandwiches or a miniscule chocolate bar. If they had, the offending item was confiscated and sent home at the end of the day. Ironically, the creal bars that are chock full of sugar were deemed ok

My problem with the pudding is that it is habit forming.

Sure, a very active young child needs the calories. But fast forwards 10 years, after 12 years of education, and when the child has grown into an adult in a desk job, used to eating cake every day, (and lets not forget that most kids have an astounding habit of eating crisps too these days), it may be a much bigger deal.

This is my first expwrience of school dinners. And until i saw the menu i thought it would be quite healthy. All the stuff in media and jamies school meals etc. Didnt think they would be serving up sweet puddings like they are. And big portions too!

All the people saying well just make aure they are active and eat healthily at home. Its just annoying to start off from a position of havinh to counteract what is happening at school with super healthy things. Its making healthy living all the more diffixult to achieve

I work with the elderly, lots of them only eat the pudding, sorry gone off topic

Well, they are going to die soon anyway, so why stay healthy? I am sure when I am old and demented I will pick the sweet gloop rather than the chewy chops!

I would like to say "come on mumsnet lets start a campaign". But if jamie oliver and his team didnt manage prob not much point trying. Will just give him packed lunches.

Why do they need a pudding at all fruit or cake? Not every day anyway.

Hurr1cane, I did say 'offered'. They don't have to have pudding of any sort.

And I still don't get the great demonisation of sugars. There is nothing wrong with natural sugars making up part of a healthy diet.

Quintessentially, I used to have a packet of crisps every single day as part of my lunch. It's a habit I have just managed to break. I am 45.

Just my point, YouTheCat!

There is nothing wrong with natural sugars I think, just the crappy refined stuff poured into puddings combined cheap fats. Also agree it forms bad habits.
Later on in life you can exercise all you like, if you eat a crappy diet you will not be healthy and may very well be overweight. Why are we sending the message that its ok to eat what you like as long as you run around a lot?
It is not only about weight but about fuelling the body in the best way possible and being healthy inside & out. Eating crappy food and exercising a lot is not healthy!

Anothervisittothepark Yes you are right, something closer to 5%, I wasn't paying enough attention and thought 'that's handy 109/1095' but it's 190. Sorry.

The kids often choose the fruit because the desserts aren't very nice, so I suspect it wont be as often as that though. Also, having it at school hasn't set up any expectation of having it outside of school.

I still don't think it's worth making him take a packed lunch because of it though, if it singles him out (I assume the vast majority of kids will now be having school lunches). He's just starting, making new friends etc unless he has a medical need to be 'different' then I wouldn't.

Encourage him to play out at lunch time, don't nag when he gets absolutely filthy a bit muddy etc

He's going to be a long time at school - sometimes you just have to learn to pick your battles :)

peppa - a dessert or piece of cake isn't 'eating a crappy diet' - one item doesn't make a meal (or a whole days intake). If the children are having a good breakfast, lunch and dinner - with a piece of cake, it makes it a balanced diet with a piece of cake - not 'a crappy diet'.

It's such a bad habit- like those children's crisps, it's not so much that they're full of crap, but more that it's setting the child up with a potential habit for life. Not at all helpful, and not at all necessary.

I wouldn't class a piece of cake 5 days out of 7 as a balanced diet though.

I don't think the size of the portions will bother them too much.
I'd be more worried about the unhealthy main meal which also isn't very much and not very nutritious. Depending on their place in the queue depends on what they actually get to eat as well.
Give them a butty and an apple instead.

Yanbu

They should maybe have one day a week with a good quality treat pudding. All other days should offer something healthy like a choice of different fruit, different flavour yoghurt, cereal bar type things?

I agree kids could start to think cake should follow every meal which isn't healthy!

Have you seen the sugar content of cereal bars? I certainly wouldn't want them offered regulary!

Why not just a proper filling meal with a decent size portion and no need for any sort of pudding?

Not suggesting that one piece of cake constitutes a crappy diet. am merely disagreeing with the notion that it is ok for them to eat it because they run around a lot. Eating well isn't only about weight, Kids concentration & energy levels in school in the afternoon will be a lot sharper without a stodgy sugary pudding at lunchtime.