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?

It’s probable that those bakeries are also using the Chorleywood process and that therefore the bread is no better than supermarket bread. Even bread that calls itself sourdough is processed - they just add a bit of starter to the yeast mix so they can charge a premium price - unless it is made solely with salt flour and sometimes oil.

I think British people often have a somewhat romanticised and outdated view of how the average person in most other European countries eats. They are not immune to the convenience and appeal of processed food, and modern working schedules have messed with traditional tendencies to spend a long time over cooking and eating meals. Just like here, there is a big difference between how the poor and the wealthy tend to eat.

That doesn't follow. Food from garden doesn't feature in food purchase, so from food purchased it's not possible tell what proportion of food eaten is ultra processed.

As a child I used to eat curry, lots. So fish, egg, beef curries, with rice with butter, home made chapattis or rice.
I'd eat vindaloo for my tea when I was 4/5, my brother's favourite which my DGM would make for him.

Cereal or egg and toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch though. Convenience has to play it's part.

My Indian grandparents always gave us pudding after dinner on school nights too, ice cream, Angel delight or a caramel pudding.

1980s fusion cooking 😁.

Enormous, HUGE reliance on grandparents in Spain. They do childcare. Both sets.

Nuseries are cheap (40/80 euros a week depending on hours) and it is all home cooked. I think it may start to change in the next generation.

Absolutely. There are always lots of MN comments about how no one in France or Italy eats convenience or processed food - so strange, then, that they have so much of it in their supermarkets. Is it decoration?

Thanks! That sounds hopeful!

Dencanto Language School. First time abroad for DD. First time flying but she is very good at languages.

Loved the thought of that fresh orange juice sorbet with mint.

Thanks for reply. I've told DD to follow local lead and adapt behaviour according to heat i.e late dinner perhaps as she is staying with a family.

Once again thanks for reply! 😀Didn't mean to derail thread but seemed relevant as it is a foodie thread!

This. Sugar and carbs, the devil's work.

Sorry, I don't even particularly like potatoes but to be told they are not a vegetable they are a "starch" is nonsense. I grow them fgs! They grow in the ground, and they are full of fibre and vitamin c. Children need carbs, also. Carbs are not the devil.

Sounds like watered down natural yoghurt similar to the one they have in the Levantinian Middle Eastern countries it’s called Laban.

Food with seasoning

It’s kefir, they sell it in Tesco in the Polish section. Seems to be gaining popularity as they now have lots of flavours now in Waitrose. Even better is Latvian cold soup with kefir, boiled eggs and beetroot - the kids love it!

She will have main meal at 2pm ish.

Dinner will be 10 pm!

They"ll look after her. The sort of people that do this are extremely nice and caring. Just tell her to drink lots of water.Valencia is a very nice and "proud" place.

Language teaching here is great, absolutely brilliant for grammar xxx

All these sound delicious. Much nicer than anything English.

@Forestfriendlygarden !

Potatoes are really good for you- in moderation like everything else!

https://www.popsci.com/nutrition-single-food-survival/

Yes, the idea of a sandwich for lunch is ridiculous here!

I noticed that. I look at my children’s food menus and the choices are always hot meals and there are no choices for a cold meal which I find odd in the warmer months.

I grew up with four choices at school in the States, two hot choices and two cold choices (a salad with fruit and bread or a sandwich with fruit and vegetables) and in warmer months you would have three cold choices and one hot choice depending on the day. Before anyone points out the weather in the UK, I grew up with extreme cold and hot temperatures, floods, tornadoes, and 6-12 inches of snow and the occasional blizzards.

At home, the boys get plenty of raw fruits and vegetables. I use brown pasta for pasta dishes (I could eat the stuff plain tbh) and make sauces from scratch after seeing that the pre-made sauces here were not much better than what I would get in the States so continued making them myself. DH (British) loves his crisps, buys the curry and Chinese sauces (I rather just have a takeaway once in awhile than eat those), the typical fare (sausage, chips, and beans, mini roast, meat, potatoes, veg), and the occasional salad with fish and potatoes.

It’s a balancing act between us and thankfully both boys eat a variety of foods despite the oldest being autistic. He pretty much lives on lean meats, fruits, veg and some bread while youngest enjoys about everything but I limit snacks otherwise DH would let him eat them every time he asks for them if I didn’t say anything. I don’t want it turning into a habit at 5.

Yes, even what his face said this last week. The famous gut dotor "20 a week guy"

Sugar is to be fair, naturally occurring sugars in fruit at least do come combined with the nutrition and fibre from the fruit, but processed sugar is the devil- its ridiculously bad for your body and usually in items that have little additional benefit.

Oh thanks for this. I have brought present for family. Really appreciate this info I was getting stressed about it.

USA. When my teen eats breakfast, I make him an omelet and bacon, or oatmeal with a sprinkle of brown sugar, pancakes with bacon on a weekend day. He likes a bowl of cut pineapple or a banana for breakfast. Loves a baguette with soup, just not my soup, he prefers tinned soups 😏. I make pizza every week for dinner, homemade which he does like a lot. And I make pasta every week. Also Asian chicken stir fry with onion, broccoli and bell peppers. Chicken fajitas. Salmon with broccoli or sautéed spinach. Hamburgers and French fries (chips). Chicken strips and a big green salad. His favorite snack is chips (crisps). He’ll make himself sandwiches like peanut butter and jelly or tortilla wraps. He likes meat most of all, fruit and vegetables, fish, chips (crisps).

I think we can count on the fingers of a fraction of one percent in terms of the proportion of food eaten in the uk that is grown in the family garden eyeroll

Well we are English. Breakfast is an English muffin with marmite or yoghurt or porridge qwith lashings of honey.

Lunch sourdough sandwich, ham/ cheese/ tuna plus salad no dressing or omelette plus salad or soup. Often gazpacho in summer, vicychoisse or chicken consommé

Snacks fruit, halloumi, sometimes crisps, oatcakes, olives

Supper usually protein, plus sald or two types cooked vegetables plus a rotation of brown rice, cous cous, mash, baked potatoes, steamed new potatoes. DH loves potatoes he is the only one.

Right?

Potatoes are a vegetable. But because we ate so goddamn many of them anyway the powers that be declared that they didn't count towards the five a day health advice. Going further to say that they weren't a vegetable at all - they were just a starch - as if there had been vegetable starch level discounter operating the whole time.

I've always felt a bit sorry for the discredited potato.

I understand. It look me a while to get used to the bread here but now I miss it when I'm back in the UK visiting😅I stick to the cereals I've missed instead.