To think this food tech teacher is wrong?

[MagentaSpunkTrumpet]

DS is yr7 and currently doing a block of food tech lessons. I've just found a list of ingredients for this week which includes "low fat soft cheese (low fat only!)"

AIBU to think that yr7 children should not be being steamrollered into using low fat options? As a family we are fortunate to have good health and metabolisms so we are able to eat well while avoiding all need for such things ie- we use full fat milk, real butter etc.

I therefore will need to specifically buy low fat soft cheese which, in itself is not a problem (I also have to buy bread mix when I would always make bread from scratch) but it sits uneasily with me that DS is being taught that low fat is inherently "better".

I may well be being unreasonable and will probably stick the regular stuff in a pot and trust that the teacher will be none the wiser but on the other hand, I'm wary of becoming "that mother"

for some children their food tech lessons will be the first time they are really able to engage with their food and its preparation

I really don't think it will affect anything. Obviously your background pushed you completely the other way, it wasn't what your food tech teacher's influence (although when I did it, it was 'cookery').

And really, how bad can it be if someone thinks low fat cheese is good because they made pizza with it in school. It's not going to kill them. (Personally hate it, but I do love my food).

Is he cooking in the morning? DD used to cook in the morning and eat whatever it was for lunch.

Have only skimmed your thread, but I have to say that Year 7 Food Tech created a huge amount of stress and grief in our house this year.

DS1, strapping, fit and good food loving child endured weeks of "improving recipes", by switching to low fat products, taking out the meat etc.

A child who loves to cook, avidly watches Master Chef and Bake Off on repeat, bakes his own bread and cakes, and actually dislikes junk good or sugar, was so upset that it took me four hours one evening to calm him down and persuade him that he eating his dinner was not going to kill him.

He has sensory and control issues anyway, is paranoid about his BMI, and I think the only thing that is stopping him from toppling into real issues with food is that he simply loves it too much.

In the end I went into parent's evening fully intending to say something, but the teacher actually couldn't remember ds's name, let alone that she had marked him down for his lack of low fat cheese in his cheese sauce.

shovetheholly

Too simplistic. Not all calories are equal. Fat fills you up sooner by virtue of being satisfying. It takes longer to be used and doesn't cause blood sugar spikes like sugar, which make you crave sugar when blood sugar is low. Many nutrients and vitamins are fat soluble. If you don't eat enough fat you miss out on nutrients.

*there are good and less good fats, but satiety means it's quite hard to over do it on the wrong kind.

If he's anything like my DS he'll diligently prepare all the ingredients exactly as stated, take them in, cook the recipe as instructed, remember to bring it home, then put it in the bin
He hasn't fancied anything he's made at school so far, despite being a reasonably good cook at home. To be fair the chicken curry and the veg stir fry both looked a bit rank!

Seriously, what is simpler than bread? Learning to make bread is the very definition of easy, basic and what everyone eats

you still can't make it in a 1hr school "food tech" lesson though

Baking bread is expensive, time and money wise. I would've thought the number of households who bake bread from scratch is vanishingly small. There is far more important stuff for kids to learn about.

This does make me chuckle about the time I was helping in my son't yr 6 class - they were making pizza and creating their own toppings. One kid brought in a tin of tomatoes - that was all. We had a heck of a time trying to get them to stay on the pizza. I think we borrowed someone else's tin of tomatoes eventually.

Oooops - tin of peas, not tomatoes.

At the school I work out the list of ingredients is a basic list (of cheapest varieties) and students are encouraged to switch ingredients and adapt to their own taste if they want.

shpvetheholly the amount of fat even in low fat cream cheese is still sufficient to absorb nutrients. The bioavailability of nutrients is only an issue with people on extremely low fat diets for protracted periods. The reason why they are probably teaching low fat is best is because of the obesity epidemic (and quite frankly if you are overweight low fat does make a difference).

Bread seems like a pretty pointless thing to learn to cook in a cookery lesson, in a food technology lesson where you're investigating the different ways to make bread rise or not, and what different raising agents or proving times or mixing methods produce even with the same ingredients. But it's not really a food-tech lesson, it's cookery, and bread is just not that economic to make yourself, it's a cheap stable you can buy easily.

I think you are being unreasonable. I do tell my DD that I don't agree with the health teachers that visit and tell her she should be drinking semi skimmed milk (she's a small 8 yo and a selective eater so i prefer her to be on full fat) but I think dispute ingredients in a cookery class is going a bit too far.

Aldi do a v tasty low fat cheddar

I tried using low fat cheese for stuff like pizza and it was vile, it seemed to melt differently

I send in full fat versions of cheese as we do not buy artifically stabilised versions and we lace flour with salt because salt free food is a joyless experience but we say nothing to the school - the teacher tastes nothing and as long as she believes the dcs have complied it really doesn't matter. I do not believe that the low fat, no salt approach is the best diet for all. I believe eating that real food is all you need for a healthy diet. No one in my family is overweight.

Cheddar on pizza is pretty horrid anyway.

2 things:

1.Quark (fat free soft cheese) makes THE BEST plain baked New York cheesecake. And I only know that because when I first had cheesecake, quark was the only available soft cheese (1970s Germany). I have never tasted a nicer one.

1. Talk to the food tech teacher and find out where s/he's coming from. I had a long and detailed email from ours when I queried something. Lots of points made that had never occurred to me. Ours doesn't really mind what ingredients you take, as long as the kids are learning the technique (eg sponge cake, roux sauce, bread, pastry, etc)

Also, we eat everything that my 2 DSs make in food tech (yr7 and 9), they are encouraged to take pride in their dishes and discuss what went well/ could be better. Result = they are both confident in the kitchen and more adventurous with food.

Oh bless him sounds as though he's being quite ambitious, hope it goes well for him and pleased the mystery is solved!

food tech lessons are just a box ticking exercise and aimed at the children who come from households that don't cook, mine found them laughable as it was basically making cheese on toast, if your child can already make bread and cook a proper meal from scratch it's pointless and we found that they were full of inaccurate information.

80schild - I think you have me and santa confused!! (I agree entirely with your point, it was what I was taught too).

santa - it's been a while since I did biology, but I am sure I was taught that the sensation of being 'full' was about stretch receptors in the stomach, so about volume? And that one of the problems with fat was precisely that you can consume a LOT of calories in relatively small volumes of food, so you don't feel full, and overconsume in energy terms.

I may be misremembering this, but it does make logical sense?

Thank Goodness its bread based pizza. I was worried it was Pizza Cheesecake

Mainstream nutritionists have been pushing low fat diets for decades in the hopes it would reduce obesity and heart disease. Unfortunately, recent analysis of the science behind this dietary advice, as well as longitudinal studies comparing the diets, have undermined these claims. The emphasis on carbs and low fat and compensating for low fat with higher levels of sugar has turned out to be the real culprit of diet-related health problems. There was an interesting article - the long read- in the guardian about this. Perhaps, the low fat recipes in school cookery classes are a hold over from this increasingly outdated dietary advice.

But couldn't it be possible that BOTH saturated fat AND sugar are contributing? Does it have to be either/or?

bread is just not that economic to make yourself, it's a cheap stable you can buy easily

Bollocks. We make our own bread very cheaply indeed - in fact, my 5 year old does it. The commercial process of bread making destroys any nutrients. Have you seen the shit that goes into shop bread?

Even the diabetic society hasn't caught up with science in terms of recommended diets for diabetics. It's a fucking joke.

I'be followed a low carb diet for years. The recommended diet for vegetarians I was taught at school was all carbs, basically. Now I eat no pasta, rice, potatoes, fruit etc but have nuts, eggs, pulses and lots of veg I have more energy, am fuller sooner and feel a million times better than my old toast/cereal breakfast, sandwich lunch and pasta dinner.