To think you can't ban food on trains?

[poshme]

In today's times (sorry rubbish at links) there's an article saying the outgoing chief medical officer wants to ban food on trains unless for medical reasons.
AIBU to think this is completely stupid & unworkable?
Apparently it's because we're snacking too much & too many children are obese.

I regularly catch trains with my kids- usually a 3-4 hr journey. Invariably it's a meal time, and part of passing the time is eating a packed meal. Yes- it's not the healthiest meal in the world & includes crisps & chocolate, but as part of a normal diet it's fine.

My kids are not overweight. In fact they're generally underweight.

If this is implemented they're never be able to enforce it surely?

I can understand that there is a problem with childhood obesity, but banning snacking on public transport is probably the most rediculous thing ive heard since last week. Take the traffic-light system on foods, a brilliant idea, and yet similar products keep changing the traffic lights. You may get a amber for sugars one week, next week its red, same goes for salt and fats. Tempting sweets are put by check-outs where they cannot be missed by children. In fact the majority of bought food, either has too much salt, too much sugar, or too much fat. So when does the working parent have time to make, bread, cakes, and healthy meals. I love Indian food, but now every shelf seems to have curries, biriani's, korma's, and chillies high in sugars and saturates. Parents need to be especially vigilant with shop bought food, as it strikes me as odd that our parents were always in the sweet shop, and had spotted-dick and yorkshire pudding without being obese. The only other factor was having to walk three miles to school, and computers weren't invented.

You're on to something with the French lunch culture. My OH used to work in France and the staff canteen was pretty special, lots of different types of salad and veg, fresh meats, and cheeses and all heavily subsidised by the employers. IKEA are also really good at this. I was a visitor to their staff canteen and it was brilliant - fresh salad, veg etc all in an all you can eat buffet style and again cheap as chips.

It's ridiculous. I work in the community and sometimes the only chance I get to eat is a snatched sandwich on the bus in between client visits.

What is ridiculous is that people have jobs that impose these types of working conditions on employees. That's what needs to be addressed - the convenience of employers shouldn't really prevent action to improve children's health.

Eating on the hoof never used to be a thing. I reckon it's part of the fast and furious lifestyle people lead (or think they do!). Also to do with the proliferation of 'eat as you go' food options and people living less local to schools/work than they used to.

The thing is 'local transport' means different things to different people. Living in large cities, a bus journey at a busy time of the day could take longer than a one hour train journey covering tens of miles more! Do you not allow eating on the former whilst it being okay to do so on the latter?

Bringing back the buffet cars on trains would help the issue - serve a proper , healthy meal instead of those trolleys serving unhealthy sandwiches, crisps and chocolate bars.

I live in Scotland. My father lives in Devon. I'd not be able to eat for 8 hours or more under those rules if I go to visit. It would basically push me into having to fly or drive (which are my other options). Currently I try and get the train because it's more environmentally friendly. If it becomes a weird starvation endurance test I won't.

Eating on the hoof never used to be a thing. I reckon it's part of the fast and furious lifestyle people lead (or think they do!).

Read the comment immediately above yours, where working patterns force eating on the move. My working hours force eating on the move unless I quit either my job or my hobby. There's no "think they do" about it.

You're on to something with the French lunch culture. My OH used to work in France and the staff canteen was pretty special, lots of different types of salad and veg, fresh meats, and cheeses and all heavily subsidised by the employers. IKEA are also really good at this. I was a visitor to their staff canteen and it was brilliant - fresh salad, veg etc all in an all you can eat buffet style and again cheap as chips.

We went on a Baltic Cruise in Summer. There was a huge buffet restaurant which had loads of unhealthy stuff (chips, burgers, pizzas, etc), but also all kinds of fresh healthy foods, salads, pastas, rices, fruits, veggies, etc. Normally, we eat fairly basic unhealthy food, but seeing as the buffet was free, we tried all kinds of things, safe in the knowledge that if we got a plate we didn't like, we could just ignore it and get something else. We've never enjoyed such a variety of food ever - barely ever chose chips. We all actually lost weight despite eating our body weight in food - the difference was what we were eating, not the quantity. Usually, we've been very wary of trying new kinds of food, especially in restaurants, due to the cost if you don't like it (and inconvenience of having to cook/wait for something else). It's given us a new interest in food, and we've been a lot more experimental since we've come home - far more salads and lots of different kinds of things we've never tried before. So, like the poster above, perhaps school/works canteens should adopt the same approach of an open buffet with lots of variety (and repeat visits allowed) to encourage people to try different things risk free.

"There is absolutely no need to eat every 4 hrs"

Please try telling my body that. I have no medical issue but feel queasy and faint if I don't eat little and often.

It’s not a good suggestion it’s not enforceable at all

Please try telling my body that. I have no medical issue but feel queasy and faint if I don't eat little and often then you have a medical issue.

batvixen123, it's been said several times it's LOCAL transport they're talking about.

While I agree that it'd be hard to draw the line on where this begins and ends, I'm fairly confident that Scotland to Devon wouldn't be considered local!

Bringing back the buffet cars on trains would help the issue - serve a proper , healthy meal instead of those trolleys serving unhealthy sandwiches, crisps and chocolate bars.

Trouble is that many trains are packed, so if you're lucky enough to get a seat, someone will nick it if you leave to go to the buffet car. Sometimes, they're too full to even move from carriage to carriage so you'd never get there anyway.

Patte, I completely agree, there is a whiff of classism here too. And discrimination against those like Witchofzog who work in the community and have to eat on public transport.

While I agree that it'd be hard to draw the line on where this begins and ends, I'm fairly confident that Scotland to Devon wouldn't be considered local!

But people will be getting on/off that same train for just "local" journeys, so where do you draw the line? There are very few people who'll do the whole Scotland to Devon route, but the train will be full to capacity around the Midlands who are only on it for 30-60 minutes - how do you police that??

On one hand I think this is ludicrous, unenforceable and seems like DSD is totally out of step with reality. I've been known to let my children have a few Percy Pigs when on public transport.
On the other hand, I agree that the snacking culture is wildly out of control. Every summer holiday my fb timeline fills up with parents complaining their children 'won't stop snacking'. When some of DD's friends come to play they make endless demands for snack after snack. I always give them a treat after school but after that it's 'wait for your dinner'. They probably all think I'm a wicked witch. I know her best friend is allowed a lot of junk snacks at home and subsequently never eats her tea there.

She probably means well but totally unworkable proposal.
Kids need to eat at certain times without some ban on public transport/places.
I would ban food at cinema and theatre. Not only is annoying having people eat/drink during a film or play, but it is totally unnecessary. Anyone can survive 2-4 hours without touching food. OK I’m sure there might be a minority with some medical condition to do with glucose levels and other things but 99 % of people can spend this time without any food or drinks.
I find grazing and constant snacking unbelievably annoying and I don’t understand this obsession with constant eating at all. In the office, on the street, obligatory cake with a coffee, chocolate snacks at every corner, it doesn’t even look appealing to say it was hard to resist.
I’d put a worldwide ban on crisps as well. And sweet non-alcoholic drinks.

I'd like to see food banned at theatres.

Kazzyhoward Yes, that's true. We need longer trains at busy times too!

Mind you, I've often been on a long journey where they've had to withdraw the trolley because the train is too crowded to push it through. I take my own lunch if I'm on a long journey travelling over lunchtime.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 I also think it’s partly to do with scrapping workplace canteens. Thirty years ago, everywhere my husband and I worked had a subsidised eating place of some sort where you could get a hot, nutritious, mostly cooked in-house meal cheaply. In the same workplaces now, you have to either go out and spend a fortune buying lunch, rely on vending machines or bring something from home. If people are too disorganised or busy to bring lunch, then they inevitably end up eating “fast food” of some description.

then you have a medical issue.

Jesus there's always one who thinks they know better than others. I'll tell my doctor that someone random on the internet knows better than him then.

@Branster A worldwide ban on crisps 😢😢😢

Years ago in the city I live in you could use all the leisure facilities free during off peak times on production of your benefits card. I used to swim 3-4 times a week & could have used the gym, sports hall, tennis courts, ice skating if I had wanted to. This is what is needed, not clutching at straws by trying to ban eating on public transport.

It's very simple really.
No crisps or nuts or sweets.
The odd shortbread bar and healthy sandwiches, fruit.
The manufacturers are calling the shots.
This is what pisses me off. The gov makes a pretence of advising people on their diet but don't really give a monkeys as they like the taxes paid by Krafts etc. Likewise with alcohol - piss farting around with one or two units a day when they actually want sales to rise, if anything, cos of the tax. Tell us to drink a unitbut fill supermarket chillers with delicious lookin fizzy wine. Tell parents to sort their DCs diet but let McDs, fish and chips be available in all poor housing areas.
Bastards. This could be sorted if they actually wanted to.

It's stupid. When I go on long journeys, I generally want something to eat or drink.