Or is toast with honey a perfectly acceptable breakfast for a 4yo?

[n0ne]

Just that, really. DD(4) is asking for toast with honey for breakfast. DH is telling her she can't have it. I ask why, he says it's just pure sugar and looks at me like I've got two heads. Surely toast with honey is a perfectly normal breakfast option? It's not like she eats it every day (or in fact ever before).

DH is foreign, if that makes a difference. He has some really weird (to me) ideas about what is and isn't an acceptable meal

DH is foreign, if that makes a difference
My DH is foreign and thinks its a perfectly normal breakfast and will happily feed it to my two. I don't think its a suitable breakfast. And warm honey is just wrong.

I love honey on toast. Mine eat it almost every day as part of their breakfast. Its local honey and this year none of us have had hay fever :-)

So many people with food issues on this thread....

People have completely forgotten what a 'normal' diet is, it seems. Demonising and avoiding certain foods and even whole food groups is not a healthy normal attitude to food.

Quite Haffiana.

As a Now and then breakfast it would be ok. But it is pure sugar on toast so not perfectly acceptable breakfast to have often

yeah, I can only get excited about children that aren't being offered any breakfast. If you're feeding them french fancies on a daily basis eventually I might raise an eyebrow but otherwise, seriously...

I agree haffiana

I think as long as its not 'frankenstein' food ie weird over processed foods invented in the last few years (turkey twizzlers, teddy bear ham) then anything is absolutely fine to eat. Carbs, sugar the lot! Even turkey twizzlers wouldn't kill you if it was a rare occurrence!

I do hate sweeteners and artificial stuff and tend to avoid that, but not honey and bread!!

No nutritional value. Sugar on top of carbs.

Sounds fine to me but I would be conscious of the sugar content so it wouldn't be a regular thing in the same way jam on toast or jam sandwiches aren't a regular thing for us. I would also make sure it's on wholemeal or seeded bread.

But it is pure sugar on toast so not perfectly acceptable breakfast to have often

why?

My three dcs eat it a few times a week and so do I. Two of them do triathlons and one is training to be a professional dancer. They are all really fit and healthy and not in the slightest bit overweight. Lovely teeth too! I could do with losing a stone but that's because I'm a lazy so and so and also quite old now :-)

plus no hay fever for the last couple of years now we've switched to locally produced honey

its magic stuff!!

Picking apart the nutrients in a single meal is pointless really, but it's not one-off meals or occasional treats that are making people obese and unwell. It's eating too much sugary crap all the time. Which lots and lots of people do (me included). The idea that it's fine as long as you're not just eating Haribo and drinking coke for every meal is just nonsense.

It's not the best breakfast for a small child, neither is it the worst. I'd say fine occasionally, not everyday.

As an aside, I do find the 'I ate sugar with sugar on a bed of sugar everyday when I was a child and I'm fine' argument a bit lame. We know a lot more nowadays about the harmful effects of eating too much sugar than we did back then!

have you been to a school breakfast club? Most of the kids there are eating jam/honey on toast.

Well my DS had an omelette with grated carrot and a small amount of grated cheese, with eggs from his granny's chickens... do I win mumsnet??

I've always been against a like button on MN but could do with one today for expats posts!

This country is getting weirdly obsessive about food, with extremes of 'OMG SUGAR AND CARBS ARE THE DEVILS WORK' and then people buying massive freakshakes and burgers and instagramming them. You here so often on here about how it's so much better overseas, French people are slim, great diets in the med etc. People in those countries just don't obsess over food like this (before anyone says it there will of course be exceptions) - I've lived in 5 countries in Europe and this drama about honey would be baffling to my friends in those countries.

I'm moving back to Holland so I can have sprinkles on toast for breakfast without anyone telling me to replace it with eggs and avocado

It has some nutritional benefit, honey. Not quite as 'bad' as sugar. Lovely stuff, I'd use it myself, on occasion if I weren't vegan.

When you test you blood sugar regularly it's quite interesting the combinations of foods that cause peaks. I look at Pizza in a whole new light put it that way.
Most of us aren't diabetic though

I think it's fine! I grew up on sugary cereal and we never had honey so it's pretty healthy to me

My 5 yo eats a slice of toast, a bowl of dry chocolate weetos and a cup of milk every day. It's that or nothing and I'd much rather him eat that.

Could be worse, wait until they're a teenager and it's an energy drink and bag of crisps from the local petrol station ;)

Honey is never ok. Not on toast, on ham, in tea - just no. Vile, horrible, disgusting stuff. What's wrong with Marmite on your toast?

I don't even know where to start with that sentence
You're all backwards - honey is lovely, whereas no-one in their right minds would put that disgusting abomination of a so called food product near their mouth.
Marmite is absolutely rank.

As for the OP, I'm with those saying as long as it's not an every day breakfast it's absolutely fine for a 4 year old. (Due to the sugar content.)
How is it any different to toast and jam, or toast and marmalade? Should we not be "allowing" them anymore too as they're "bad" breakfasts?!
No, of course we shouldn't. Everything in moderation. If you start banning foods you're going to be in for a hell of a shock once they get to high school, make their own way there and shovel all manner of shite into their mouths via the corner shop!

There's far more sugar in stuff like weetabix.

Sugar in two slices of bread with 2 tsp honey: 14-15g
Sugar in two pieces of weetabix: 3.4g
If you add 150ml semi skimmed milk: 9.6g

So no, there isn't.
Honey/jam/chocolate spread at weekends and cereal or peanut butter on toast during the week is considered a balanced diet in our house.
Nothing special about weekends, just that there are only 2 weekend days and 5 week days.

Agree there, some much needed common sense from expat.

Laughing at somebody there who won't feed their children dreaded honey on toast as it's 'sugar', but will happily feed processed food like bacon or sausages ...

I'd be worried about my DC developing food issues with some of the crazy attitudes on this thread.

Toast and honey is perfectly fine FFS. Some people are quite mad.

People who are saying it has no nutritional value because it's 'sugar on top of carbs'. Would you seriously aim to restrict the amount of evil carbs that a four year old eats???

This place is mad some days. The kid has asked for honey on toast once in her life and it's created all this angst! I'd be delighted if DS ate a piece of any kind of toast (or the devil that is cereal) at breakfast, as it is he will drink a cup of milk and that's about it.

People have completely forgotten what a 'normal' diet is, it seems. Demonising and avoiding certain foods and even whole food groups is not a healthy normal attitude to food.

This!

They need fuel in the morning. Ideally it is beautifully balanced and would get you loads of MN points.
But they need fuel of some kind.