To wonder what non British folk feed their kids

[Mamabear04]

I heard a comment the other day about how British folk fill their kids up on cereal, pasta, bread etc. While I do feed my kids plenty fruit and veg, make home made meals, don't allow too much sugar or salt, the base of what I feed them is some kind of pasta or bread, for lunch at least, to fill them up (we eat more rice and potatoes at dinner time). The person who commented was French and now I'm thinking out of interest (and ideas!), what do other cultures feed their kids if not pasta and bread etc?

I find what different countires fees their children so fascinating and try and take ideas for my girls.

My close friend is Vietnamese, her family eat 3 hot meals a day usually all with rice.

I'm not British (though dh is) and I can't honestly say that pasta or bread is a staple for us for most meals. I don't think that's because of my non-Britishness though (people in my home country definitely have a less healthy diet than the average Brit). It's more because we have money to bulk out meals with things that aren't just white carbs and we have access to lots of fresh produce (that we grow ourselves because we have the space to, and the money to have bought the space originally).

For example, yesterday we had pork roast with potatoes and lots of roasted veg. The pork is from our own pigs and we grew all the veg. Potatoes, yes, because it was a roast.

Tonight we're having chicken with a big salad. No carbs at all actually.

But if money were tighter, I think we'd be eating a lot more toast and pasta, tbf.

So much food snobbery in one place 🤣

Well I live with a Southern European and it's not dinner unless there's bread...although he makes a lot of stews and nice salads, and when I suggested quitting cured meats for health reasons he said he would rather keep eating them and die young. Oh, and Spanish hot chocolate...which is never served without churros...not so healthy!

Also, why do MNetters not include potatoes as a vegetable? They are most definitely a vegetable!

A friend told me a traditional Chinese greeting usually translated as 'hello' actually means 'have you eaten rice yet today' which tells you something

I had Chinese and Thai housemates for a bit, rice for breakfast, lunch and tea and maybe dessert made from rice noodles after

I’m Swedish, used to live in the UK now back in Sweden. My teen DS has so far had:

breakfast - sourdough toast with avocado and scrambled eggs with a milky coffee for breakfast

lunch - two hotdogs

snack - protein shake (after gym) and watermelon

dinner - we’re making ramen with vegetable gyozas, vegetables, egg

He will probably have toast before bed too.

As a kid he liked omelette for breakfast and the. Just regular food for lunch and dinner. We have never been big on oven chips and nuggets so he still doesn’t eat food like that.

Mostly S Indian diet

Breakfast: semolina stir fried with onions, spices and curry leaves, or rice flakes done the same way, with a banana or other fruit to follow
lunch: chapati with stir fried okra and a paneer-peas curry
dinner: rice cooked with lentils, carrots, peas, beans, and various spices ( like a biryani but different) and a raita with cucumber and tomato
Rice or chapatis are a staple, so not carb light though DH and I try to eat less of the carbs.

A lot of people think this is child abuse, but I don't and neither do the DC!

Personally I’m a great believer in the Scottish dish called ‘shite wie sugar on it’ for a standby meal instead of a takeaway.

I’d enjoy eating at your home.

Because they don't count as a one of your "five a day".

They're a starch.

I don't think it's snobbery - it's concern. The food industry is very powerful in the UK and has been allowed to do whatever the fuck it wants. And as a result ultra processed food are the norm for children and adults alike and only wealthy families can afford to eat how we all used to eat forty years ago.

For example non-processed bread (literally almost all supermarket bread including sourdough and 'posh' bread) has gut bacteria destroying stabilisers and other additives in it, and we now know that gut bacteria have a huge impact on everything from mental health to obesity.

To call it snobbery is to shoot the messenger.

Mediterranean here.

The problem with British kids diet isn't pasta and bread, it's how it's prepared. Parents here love to take shortcuts and that's what's appalling to the rest of Europe. Most things you see are mass produced and full of sugar/salt (supermarket bread, jarred pasta sauces, jarred pesto, frozen pizza, cereal, jarred curry sauces, oven chips, processed meat.... and so on). On top of that Brits love takeaways which are..........

The rest of Europe eats bakery or homemade bread, homemade pasta sauces, seasonal fruit and veg and cares where ingredients come from. We eat out at restaurants but greasy takeaways aren't as common.

So yes, we eat a lot of bread and pasta but in a much cleaner way.

Hope this helps.

Ha thanks @PollyThePixie I am not sure others would. Of course we have our pizza and pasta days as well. And snacks often will be crisps.

But this is what we mostly eat.It's not really snobbery; it's just how some other cultures eat. We definitely eat too much rice; it's our vice!

When I first started teaching in Spain lunch duty was an eye opener. Small children with their huge plates of seafood cracking the heads and shells of prawns so skilfully

Sitting down "nicely" eating their three courses always a healthy salad to start.

It made me realise the huge differences between our "British" junk school meals and theirs.

We’re British and it isn’t true for us! My younger boy doesn’t love bread, so a typical lunch for him would be: cold meat, cheese, salad & fruit. Today they’ve had:

Breakfast: cereal & fruit
Lunch: school lunch - I think it was veg curry
Dinner: homemade paella with veg sticks
Supper later will be yoghurt & brioche or toast maybe with some fruit or veg

Poor people in France eat the same shit as poor people in the UK. Clean eating is for wealthy people.

Yup, can confirm!

Particularly as sandwiches for lunch. Not something I was ever fed as a child.

I think there is also a lot less reliance on crisps, in general. You cant really buy multipacks in the supermarket. All crisps come in sharing bags, so its not something you would use for a packed lunch.

A packed lunch is whatever is leftover from dinner, a proper meal with a knife and fork.

And dinner ALWAYS had soup! It took me years into adulthood to be able to enjoy soup again!!!

We (french) dont eat that every single day though.

We eat a lot of South Asian and Middle Eastern food due to our cultural background which also includes Scottish. In fact we eat anything as like most people nowadays there’s an international aspect to their meals. So for instance when I was out with some of my children a few weeks ago we decided to stop for a quick dinner and we decided on Masala Dosa. In fact what you feed your family is often our choice of meal out. We also love a Thali. It’s our fast food. That and a Dosa but we could equally stop for a falafel sandwich.

Re the snobbery - this is evident when brown rice became white rice because brown rice was considered inferior amongst the Raj. So the British would eat white rice whilst the Indian population stuck to the healthier brown rice. Snobbery on a plate. My kids used to love it when the next door neighbour would call them in in the morning before school and give them paratha and a clear soup as an extra breakfast.

Regarding rice - we love our rice also.

French school meals are good, but French toddlers eat absolute crap. Everything marketed as children's snack food is biscuits and cakes with loads of chocolate in, and when I took my toddler to the playground on holiday all the French parents had those delicious BN biscuits with the chocolate filling. They also do totally eat bread every day - boulangeries all close on different days of the week so there's another one available for you to get your daily baguettes.

We have a mixture of nationalities I will not specify. My kids have a combination of typical British fare and

Stews / soups made with lentils, chickpeas and beans. Mostly veggie, ocassionally with some meat thrown it. These are the main meal several times a week

Fish - white, oily and shellfish. Freshly bought or tinned as I'm not keen on frozen. Again several times a week.

Omelettes

Snacks of yoghurt, cheese, nuts and seeds.

Dessert is fresh fruit unless we are at MIL's - then it's puddings with custard etc.

I'm in Italy. Today my kids have eaten:
Breakfast - DD milk and biscuits - not great but v common here. DS has weetabix and fruit, slightly better.

Lunch - pasta all'amatriciana- normally I make lunch but I was at work and their uncle took them to the supermarket restaurant to eat. Dd said it was not good! 😂

Dinner - will be cold chicken and greek salad.

I find it hard now that mine are all teenagers. They often prefer (especially Dd) processed foods to homemade. My oldest ds is a healthy eater and likes fresh foods.