To not be surprised our kids are so fat

[Babycham1979]

When they're fed utter crap like this;

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-2957301/What-school-lunches-look-like-world.html

No wonder obesity rates are so high,mand no wonder so many British children are incredibly picky when they're fed processed shite as is evident in these pictures. Imagine some of the pickiest UK children being handed a bowl of miso soup, or prawns, or plantain?!

Is the issue budgetary, or culture? Either way, we're failing our children.

My high school didn't have a kitchen or dining hall. Dinners were cooked in the junior school and brought over in metal canteens, and were suitably vile. I think unless there was a pasta bake on offer (which did actually contain veg and real cheese), my lunch tended to be an egg cob and a cup of coffee. I snacked on fruit at school, and crisps if I was incredibly hungry between lessons. I did keep a packet of chocolate hobnobs in my desk though.
We had about 4 really big kids in the year, and everyone else was on a scale of super skinny-just overweight, as I think it should be.

I'd love to walk into a primary school and see what gets served these days, and how much of it kids actually eat. The thing that strikes me about those pictures is that the portions seem really quite large. The UK jacket potato & beans meal is not adequate (I'd fall asleep after such a carby dinner) but it's only one meal out of a possible 21 in a kid's week. So no biggie.

If I ate a baked potato and beans I really would not be hungry again in an hour though...

Sirzy, I've found it really interesting - colleagues at work who automatically have crisps when they're having a sandwich (or soup) because the association was set up so strongly when they were kids. I asked a good friend one, who responded: 'well, when else would you have crisps then?'

It's interesting that it's such a long-standing issue.

but it's only one meal out of a possible 21 in a kid's week. So no biggie

exactly!

The UK jacket potato & beans meal is not adequate (I'd fall asleep after such a carby dinner well you might yes if you eat that & then go sit at a desk all afternoon - but if the kids eat that & then run around for half an hour in the fresh air before going back to sit in lessons, they probably won't.

my H Ec teacher told me jacket potato & beans was a good example of a balanced vegetarian meal containing all the amino acids & I'm putting my fingers in my ears singing la la la la to anyone who tells me otherwise

I kicked crisps out of my diet years back. They're addictive little fuckers, especially Kettle Chips.

My parents often have a bag of Tyrrell's open for 'nibbles' and I just hoover them up if they're there. Dangerous.

If I ate a baked potato and beans I really would not be hungry again in an hour though... me either.

I don't work for Heinz, honest

Don't get me wrong, I like a spud with beans. Beans are one of my favourite foods.

But I absolutely couldn't run around in a playground after eating one. I'd definitely get indigestion, hence the preference to snooze.

I we have that meal at home it's for dinner.

we have that meal at home it's for dinner
and do you then fall asleep, on the sofa, only waking in half an hour absolutely starving hungry because the crack sugar craving has kicked in

I don't agree with you, Ice. People don't vary that much, genetically. Most people are overweight because they take in more calories than they expend.

I see the problem as that we have allowed our intake to get out of control. Many people don't know what hunger is, because they never go more than an hour or so without eating. Walk up any high street and about half the humans (adults and kids) will be eating as they walk. Go into any office and there will be biscuits, crisps, chocolates on the desks (when I first went to work in the 80s eating was not allowed at desks!) And as another poster pointed out, it's quite rare to see a kid in a supermarket trolley not being placated with food. People think they're hungry; they're not, they are just programming themselves to be constantly eating.

It's awful seeing the amount of obesity around, and it's criminal to see so many fat children. I think we're too tolerant and too nice about it. The reason people are fat is because they eat too much and/or do too little. Medical conditions might account for a tiny fraction of the obese population, but in the main it's greed and laziness.

Ds had school meals for one term and has got porky.

Bloody puddings - every day!

He's back on packed lunches now.

blended I may well get sleepy and then be off in search of yoghurt and fruit! I'm trying quite hard to rid myself of my evening chocolate habit.

I think it's really hard to view food objectively if you've ever tried to lose (or gain) weight, or ever been truly hungry (not many of us, I'd wager). You always get a group bemoaning the amount of sugar and salt in baked beans, and complaining that they're processed, that potatoes aren't really veg. You always get a group reminding us that that spud with beans is the most substantial meal some kids will get in a day, so best to offer them something they're likely to eat.

It's a really tough call to make, and I don't envy those whose job it is to devise a school's weekly menu on a small budget. Equally I don't see that as an excuse to load up our kids with sausages and chips.

The pudding thing is a sticking point for me. As an adult, I'd like to think I'd always go for fruit if fruit and pudding were both on offer after a meal. As a child, I definitely would have always eaten the pudding. Oh and 15 year old girls don't really run around playgrounds, so this does matter.

It doesn't matter if 15yr old girls run around playgrounds though.

If they have a healthy-ish diet at home and take enough exercise, a small school lunch everyday should make no difference at all.

Oh and 15 year old girls don't really run around playgrounds, so this does matter
True - I only have littlies so am thinking of the mayhem that is their playground.

I think that in a time when lots of families are relying on foodbanks to eat, when kids struggle with eating disorders & there are families who have truly no idea of how to feed their kids (eg takeaway every night), criticising something that has been planned as part of a monthly rotation of meals, that is controlled for salt, does take account of things that kids will likely eat & does follows guidelines on fruit & veg portions is a mistake.

It promotes the idea that school meals are crap & so we may as well go back to the white bread sandwich, pack of crisps, fizzy drink & a chocolate bar or worse packed lunch.

This is daily mail bullshit

For one it's against the law now to offer dc juice in school meals. (Milkshake once a week is fine as it's part of pudding)

No primary school is serving hot dogs.

There has been loads of new legislation put in place around school dinners Inc seniors like your only allowed to fry food twice a week, pastry items once a week ect ect.

The majority of school dinners are meat such as turkey or gammon, fried roast potatoes and two veg with options or wraps or jacket potatoes and salad bar.

Even the junk meal of the week fish fingers (ooven cooked) and chips (ffried) have other options such as jacket potato and salmon salad.

School dinners aren't that bad compared to shit dinners like chicken nuggets. Majority is made from scratch and there is options like fresh fruit or cheese and crackers on the pudding trolly.

And puddings like sponge and custard or flapjack are on offer once a week on Mondays, shortbread with milkshake is offered on wed or Thursday. Every other day apart from those are fresh fruit salad or yoghurt.

Worra it does matter in a discussion about calories taken in and energy spent, of course it does. Lots of people here have described diets that allow for a few treats because they or their kids do lots of running around outside. Last time I checked, teenagers didn't play kiss chase for 20 minutes after lunch every day.

They smoke behind the sheds. At least that's an appetite suppressant

Juice is against the law? How so?

I would say Plonky that teens exercise in different ways, such as team sports, and walking to school/town or wherever else

Plonky it doesn't matter if that 15yr old takes the correct amount of exercise outside of school.

In a year's time she could be at college and they won't even have a playground.

Fried, just google 'uk primary school hotdogs on menu'

It comes up on lots of school menus.

Remember also, schools can opt in or out of local authority dinner providers.

Yes Worra you're right there. I'm basing this assertion on my own experience of taking no exercise unless forced.

On MN there are so many lunchbox police threads and cries of 'I'm their mum, they'll eat what I give them' etc, and quite rightly when schools continue to offer puddings with every meal. It's yet another thing to criticise schools for.

Hmmm.

QTPie that American menu sounds so tasty, but so bad. Thank heavens he's out on the slopes burning it off!

I don't like fruit/flapjacks/yogurt etc being called 'pudding'

It's not pudding!

Steamed treacle/jam sponge/spotted dick is all 'pudding'. In my mind anyway

Yes, there's heaps of food about but I don't agree that the reason we're not all obese is due to wilpower.

Very few people will just stuff their gob with food they don't want or need.

Yes, you can buy 3 million bags of crisps for a quid at Poundland but you're not going to sit there at home and eat them all are you? Regardless of the quantity of food available, humans are still equipped with appetites and most people won't go beyond theirs.

And I don't think you can put a flapjack in the same category as fruit or yoghurt!

Surely if schools just offered fruit after the main meal, they'd have more to spend on the quality of the mains?