AIBU to ask what you think of change 4 life’s two 100 calorie snacks campaign?

[Whichschool2020]

Just that really.
www.nhs.uk/change4life/food-facts/healthier-snacks-for-kids/100-calorie-snacks?gclid=CjwKCAiAhMLSBRBJEiwAlFrsTqs_fnt21P4WV_BemO5Y9dDhFcbwbqOSpokPT1KtNVQk2dNPmSD_ahoCS1cQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds#yPkpO8E27jIrGUT2.97

What I should say, I personally believe that the MAJORITY of child learn from their parents, obviously not all children. But if you watch your parent/s eating constantly then I'd imagine they'd think it's acceptable and normal.

But she's 9, so picked the junk

But her choices were better than yours!!!!

Your choices would have removed would have removed all the calcium and protein from her diet!!!

A balanced diet has all these things in

My kids have a terrible diet. They are so fussy and it’s incredibly difficult to get them to eat anything at all healthy. We do our best and I hope it gets better as they get older (already noticing a difference with my 6 year old who is now eating more vegetables as long as they are raw). My 3 year old is a cause for worry as the range of foods he will eat is decreasing daily!!

BUT both are incredibly active. It’s always been very noticeable when they play with there peers. They do have a lot of energy and their friends often struggle to keep up.

My eldest also does a lot of sport activities (youngest will in next couple of years)

My DD was 75% for height and 19th percentile for weight so i’m not at all concerned. My boy is not overweight either.

I’m going to carry on feeding my kids while improving their diets slowly as they get older and understand things more

And ice cream can be really low in sugar or really higher. Value ice creams tend to be really low. so the school is buying ben and Jerry's , chances is are its a low sugar option. Again chocolate milkshake can either be really high or it can be low. If its served in school it's got to be low in sugar cos they can't serve the high stuff.

But both ice cream and milkshake are a source of calcium and protein

Toffee, sorry I think my post has come across wrong. How is it my choices? It's the school lunch? I don't pick it.

I wrote the other options. Baked Potato is the main meal.
Dessert- ice cream or fruit
Drink- chocolate milk or fruit

She chose obviously the two high sugar sides. My advice to her was to pick as healthy as she could. I actually said to her if you pick the milkshake pick the fruit, or if you pick the ice cream pick the water.

My point is that I bet most of the kids pick the two sugar sides.

And also there's no side veg given, or bread etc, which I think there should be.

I also agree that obese parents tend to have overweight children. Not so much when they are toddlers but as they get older. I think over-eating and being underactive are things that need to be tackled on a family level. Encourage healthy cooking of meals, encourage families to be more active. But at the end of the day, no matter what we are encouraged to do, families have to make the change for themselves. They hsve to switch the bottle of coke on the dinner table for a jug of water, they have to buy in sugary snacks for rare treats only.

The ice cream is by a local supplier, it's full of sugar. The milkshake is also a regional supplier, I love it. Both are lovely, sold in all local cafes. But if I was in a cafe I wouldn't allow her to pick both.

In her packed lunch (going by mn this isn't healthy, but I think it's fine)

Ham sandwich/wrap/roll/pasta in pesto/tomato
Water
Crackers
Yoghurt
Fruit

It's a good idea, but not if they expect you to feed them processed crap. The Guardian had a good list of healthy snacks that kids should like that come in around the 100 calorie mark: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2018/jan/02/advice-parents-100-calorie-healthier-snacks-children

Baked potato and cheese
Chocolate milk
Strawberry ice cream shock

She could have picked:
Baked potato
Water
Small tub of grapes

Her choice: fibre, carbohydrates, calcium protein. Potentially Sugar in the ice cream and shake but also potentially not a lot. No veg
Your choice: Fibre, carbs, sugar in the fruit (better sugar insulin wise but not teeth wise) no veg calcium or protein

If you sat what she could have picked side by side with what she picked her choices were better yours excluded two vital nutrient groups. Arguably you would be doing more damage excluding those two nutrient groups than she would be by the sugar. Certainly I wouldn't call her choice worse than yours.

Unless you have actually checked the sugar content on both the ice cream and the milkshake assuming they are high in sugar is a big mistake

I think most parents will continue to turn their children into inactive lardballs whatever the government recommend. But there's always a reason for it so that's ok.

But tech

Look at the cost and the fact. Buy a mandolin?

Strain yogurt overnight with a tea cloth?

Again if you had the time and money to do all that you are probably not the people it's aimed at.

And at the end it says to keep a stash of yogurt tubes.

Which is surely the very high sugar or highly processed crap that's part of the problem?

Too much mucking about with food on the assumption kids won't eat it otherwise.

Time spent baking sliced apples with cinnamom is surely time thats could be put into making a lunch or breakfast that will actually see them through

Faff

Not fact

Auto correct strikes again

Again toffee I think you're a bit confused. They're not my choices. And no one will tell me that picking a sugary milkshake and a sugary ice cream is healthier than picking or just replacing one of them with a fruit/veg and plain milk or water.

Do you have children? Do you give them a shop bought tub of strawberry ice cream and shop bought chocolate milkshake at lunch? If so that's too much sugar. Just is. No one can argue that. Her school bought lunch was made up of too much sugar. No veg offered, no middle of the road sugar content drink offered (squash) just potato, cheese, sugar and sugar.

My choice wouldn't have been potato, grapes and water. I was stating that that was her only other choices. It's not enough and it's not balanced.

Toffee I know the brands and sugar content of the choices. We buy them, love them actually. But it's not the right choices to have them together.

7g if sugar in the milkshake actually.

Now if you know you no both take you over the limit over need to be canvassing the school to get the choices changed or restricted. But check first you aren't meant to have one or the other.

Personally I wouldn't be any more eager to give a meal that was absent the protein component (your healthier pick of just jacket potato or red pesto pasta from your packed lunch choice) than milkshake and ice cream.

Packed lunch is also really challenging as (and here I'm not necessarily thinking you) the calorie content of a packed lunch can be hugely variable depending on everything from bread and sandwich filling to bag of crisps. Which is why as a broad brush approach I'd rather all kids generally ate a proper school lunch (even if it had milkshake and ice cream!) Than we gave people the choice of packed lunch. With Parents like you the damage done by a lunch that may be a bit high in sugar can be easily balanced out. The calorie damage done by a really bad put together packed lunch can be impossible to sort.

Which goes to show the issues with any goverment food campaign. Most food is only health or unhealthy depending on how you consume it as part of your overall diet. Most government campaigns are trying sort to extreme ends

www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/254755063
One scoops of this nepolitan ice-cream and your milkshake example and youd be well in your 24g sugar allowance

So no it's not clear cut

Well, it's aimed at those who are obese and/or have a poor diet, isn't it. There's no need to 'change for life' if you are healthy with a healthy diet already.

I also think that snacking is important, not something to be sneered at or avoided. I'm currently in treatment for an eating disorder and psychs/nutritionists always teach that regular eating is the best way to prevent either over or under eating. I'm not supposed to go more than about 4 hours without eating and aim for 3 meals and 3 snacks. I don't think it would be possible to get the right number of calories without any snacks at all.

It's not aimed at everyone it's aimed at people who struggle to balance their child's lifestyle. I'd be surprised if it applied to many mners at all

On the flip side toffee

If a child spends their whole day in child care and has to eat cheap processed bread and cereals for breakfast, and may or may not eat whatever a child minder provides and possibly dubious quality depending on what is provided, a packed lunch could prove to be the one opportunity a parent has to provide a well balanced, healthy lunch where they will actually eat it all.

And certainly when dd1 was on school dinners she was actually quite I'll.

She was so bloated and full and and feeling generally a bit crappy from living off bread and pasta and potato with the odd egg, due to the inedible vegetables and he real yucky slop served that she couldn't even really eat properly when she got home either.

As I said on the other thread...

How long has change4life existed, and how much has childhood obesity decreased in that time?

In what universe can they possibly think this government campaign is aimed at them?

This is true, what you can possibly see though is that some schools will take it upon themselves to rigidly enforce this guideline as a definitive school rule, which is problematic for those whose children are of low-weight (by the proper charts), super-active but with a small appetite and actually need a dose of healthy fat at break time.

True

Which is again when I think any campaigns are difficult.

I'm damn sure NONE of us are perfect at feeding our kids a completely balanced diet. I'm not even convinced it's possible to do so within a healthy calorie allowance.

In every respect there are restriction on how well any campaign can work. Because the reasons why people eat what they eat are complex.

Ie if your not happy with how you child is fed at the child minders, why do they go there? It's your choice they go there therefore your responsibility. But yet it actually isn't that simple either as there are probably a million good reason why they go there as opposed to somewhere else.

Which is why not one campaign is perfect