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?

Loving all of the ideas. For what it's worth OP, I think that the ingredients and preparations are the problem. Sugar is sneaked into a lot of things that don't actually require it, so choosing low sugar bread, cereals, yoghurt pasta sauce, soups, etc. makes a big difference. The same with conservatives and artificial colourants, and perhaps pesticides too - they're in loads of things you might not expect, like meat. Of course if you have the time and skill to make these yourself then you can be sure there is nothing bad in them, but if (like me!!) you have neither time nor skill, checking ingredients helps.

For young children, obvious ones include no fizzy drinks, no shop bought cakes and sweets, no crisps, and so on. For what it's worth, I think that kids in places like Italy and Spain eat better in terms of having better ("cleaner") ingredients in their lunches and dinner, but I don't think that their snakcs are healthier. They too eat lots of sugar and additives in their breakfasts and snacks, and are not necessarily better behaved.

My grandma was a cook and taught us how to bake, make pastry and jam, etc when we were tiny. Mum was an amazing cook and fab baker and we all learned from her. Dad did national service and spend two years in Italy (lucky man), so he had that influence too.

‘Traditional’ British food (all the local goodies) can be bloody amazing, and you can’t beat scottish raspberries (my friend in Italy goes crazy for these when she comes over) or out many cheeses.

As with any country though, some can be awful (tripe 🤢).

Sounds like here 🇸🇪 apart from the fish frikadeller on rye bread, what does that look like? We usually have (tinned) mackerel in tomato sauce on rye bread.

We also have tinned mackerel in tomato sauce. The fish Frikadeller is just fish mince meat made into little buns of meat.
https://mambeno.dk/opskrifter/max-15-min-fiskefrikadeller-med-ristet-rugbroed-og-hjemmeroert-remo/

What I miss most from England (most of it unhealthy!) and order online when I can..:

McCoy’s salt & vinegar crisps
Branston pickles
Sarson’s malt vinegar
Warburtons crumpets
Warburtons thick sliced toastie bread
wispa
Terry’s chocolate orangw
brown bag salt & vinegar crisps
reggae reggae sauce
M&S ketchup & brown sauce

…..

😀

Ah ok, we have them here too, I know they were seen as an easy comfort food for kids years ago. Like fish meatballs.

My daughter's food today (she's 13)

Breakfast - toast and marmite, glass of full fat milk

Lunch - we were low on food today as it was supermarket day, so I homemade drop scones pan fried in butter and she had a little tub of syrup and a big tub of sliced strawberries. A yoghurt and a pot of cucumber and cheese sticks.

Dinner - we had homemade chilli on tortilla crisps with salsa, parsley and grated cheese melted over it. Then an apple and a Madeleine cake.

She made a cake so we can have that sliced up tomorrow.

Her brothers are older and hanging about the house sorting themselves out while I was at work; evidence suggests one ate a bacon sandwich, one beans on toast. Then the same dinner of course.

British Asian here. I feed my kids cereals,toast, french toast, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, onlettes, porridge or peatha for breakfast. They normally have yoghurt too.Paratha would be a Sunday treat.

Lunch is more likely to be sandwiches, jacket potato, soup, fritatta, cheese on toast. Basically quick meals, with minimal cooking.

Dinner can be any type of curry with naan, roti, boiled white rice or pilau. They enjoy lamb biriyani, chicken biriyani and prawn biriyani too.They enjoy thai red curry and Thai green curry too. I made rendang recently which went down a treat. Egg fried rice has gone down well as has sweet and sour chicken. Stir fry, spaghetti bolognase, pasta bake, chilli con carne are also favourites. They also enjoy Lancashire hot pot, stews, fish pie, casseroles . They eat a lot of fish so honey glazed salmon, salmon en papillote, sea bass, hake often paired with garlic potatoes, mash and spinach, kale, plus mixed vegetables.

We live in Scotland so mince, neeps and tatties are also a firm favourite.

Literally what the Spanish are having for breakfast 🙈

They have McDonald's everywhere, not just UK.

Every cafe I have ever been to in France ( I lived there for fifteen years) has a menu enfants which was usually some sort of chicken or fish fingers or nuggets . And frites, bien entendu.

You do realise pasta isn't a British dish, so no doubt Italians will feed this to their children!

https://www.schimiggy.com/mcdonalds-happy-meals-from-around-the-world/

Happy meals in many many countries

And my ds had porridge for breakfast, chicken wrap for lunch and cous cous for dinner, tomorrow dinner is mackerel and Wednesday is fish with veg and rice.

Thing about all this is what do we think UK or, for that matter, families in other countries eat? Or do we think it’s about whether people cook or are not really cooks? Everywhere there are families who make meals from scratch - simple or complex - and those who eat more simply. Breaking it down another layer, simple food doesn’t necessarily mean connivence/processed food.

I come from a family where we cook and - if it’s too hot to cook or a lazy night - it’s something ‘with salad’. Do we think those ‘with salad’ evenings are esp unhealthy because they might involve a bit of ham or salami or pate? Am I venturing into the processed world too far if our fish fillets get a bit of jarred pesto and panko breadcrumbs on top? Do we think it’s terrible if the fish gets served with new potatoes as well as broccoli? Honestly, food is fun and tastes should be explored.

On this thread I’ve seen moaning about: demonising people eating cereal and milk. As it goes, I don’t breakfast this way, but only because I don’t really like it. The DH eats bran flakes or shreddies with milk and fruit. Nothing really wrong with that

I have three kids.

Haven't been to McDonald's with them for 15 years...

Breakfast: porridge, or eggs. Fruit juice or milk.

Lunch: sandwiches. Wholemeal seedy bread or wraps, with sliced (home cooked) chicken, or ham. Yes, crisps.
Salad- peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, leaves, olives. Water to drink. Fruit for pudding

Biscuit after school

Supper: home cooked meal nearly every day. Chips maybe once a week. Pasta prob twice a week. Home cooked sauces from scratch (though I do buy tinned tomatoes which I know Mumsnet considers very processed 🙄)
5 a day is usually more like 8/9 a day. Pudding might be ultra processed cake, or fresh fruit.

But there are days when it's beige freezer food.
And there are days when it's takeaway.
Or home cooked soup from garden veg.

As long as kids are getting fed- with reasonable nutrition- surely that's what matters.

My husband is Indian and we live abroad so we feed our kids a mixture of food cultures. For example at the weekend we would have an omelette with feta, sun dried tomatoes and a side of garlic mushrooms … or shakshuka, or oats with honey, banana and cinnamon, or homemade steamed buns stuffed with mushrooms and cabbage and other veggies, or an Indian breakfast like a curry-like breakfast dish made of fresh veg and coconut milk and served alongside a grain. Lunch is also always cooked - we don’t do the ‘sandwiches/crisps’ type packed lunch in this country, it’s just not the done thing and we’d definitely get some negative comments if we fed our kids this! Cold food is a big no no according to traditional medicine which is still highly valued here. Usually it will be some form of veggies/quinoa or brown rice or sweet potatoes/maybe some meat or fish. Dinner would depend on what we ate for lunch. If we had pasta or rice for lunch then we’d have something without it for dinner. We very rarely eat bread which has improved my health a lot, and might eat pasta for a treat once a week or once every couple of week, but mostly not. We have to cook everything from scratch due to unavailability of instant foods here (other than instant noodles and pre-made dumplings there isn’t anything really!) so I feel pretty good about my kids diet, although as with all parents, improvements could be made!

USA. it's my experience that Americans, like the British, romanticise and generalise about the rest of Europe. It's a huge place. Some European countries are really not into food except as fuel. Norway and the Netherlands come to mind.

here, what people eat has massive variation. Well off parents absolutely obsess about their kids' diets, but the supermarkets sell all sorts of crap and the lazy generalisation is that American children eat nothing but chicken nuggets. It all depends on your income and your ethnic background. American supermarket bread being crap is one stereotype that is true, though.

We do always have some sort of starch with meals. 2 of my 3 are autistic though, and balancing everyone's likes is tricky. Also 2 teens.

today:
breakfast: the one who actually ate it had cereal. I have proper British children who still eat weetabix. It's summer holidays here so the others slept in (one had work, but later). Sometimes my teens will make themselves eggs and toast.

lunch: I was working. I made a selection of things this weekend for them all to devour at will, or make a sandwich. We had gazpacho, roast chicken pieces, potato salad, spinach quiche. School time they generally have sandwiches though one has recently taken to salads.

snacks: cookies, homemade bread for toast, fruits

dinner: our dinners are fairly varied. Today was chicken sausage (we don't eat pork) with peppers, onions, and tomatoes served over pasta and a bowl of salad. Unashamed to admit I do buy bottled salad dressing, though.

of course, with the teens, they are old enough and competent enough that they can do some cooking for themselves, and the one working can buy her own fast food if she wants it. I personally try not to eat that very often because I have diabetes.

I lived with a Spanish guy and his diet was shit: pizza pizza pizza, churros, salami and so much bread. It was disgusting. I don't think I ever saw him eat a vegetable other than tomatoes.

There are people who eat badly everywhere.

Snacks aren't as big of thing everywhere either, I do think that's what causes a lot of people to be overweight here, sure some people have calorific meals which doesn't help but snacks can easily add a fair amount of calories; often more than people realise.

As long as kids are getting fed- with reasonable nutrition- surely that's what matters.

Well obviously the priority is for them to be fed. But what constitutes reasonable nutrition? A diet full of ultra-processed food isn't really reasonable nutrition imo. I think we are only beginning to understand what UPF is doing to us. I only hope that as more evidence is established, governments will have the guts to take on the powerful food lobbies and massive corporations.

I’m British but have lived in a few different European countries . A typical day for us when everyone is at home would be-

Breakfast- muesli and fruit or eggs. Kids (teens now but it was the same when they were younger ) sometimes just fruit and tea.

Lunch- usually have a fridge full of things I’ve made which are on the table and people help themselves to what they want eg hummus, some sort of savoury tart, chickpea salad, raw veg, plus nice bread and cheese.

Dinner- could be anything. Made shepherds pie last night, tonight is homemade pizza, or something like salade nicoise with bread or roast chicken, could be anything.

I’ve never noticed a big difference between what people eat in Britain and other European countries. It’s a myth that no child in France ever eats processed food, there’s just as much rubbish there as here. Also a myth that Brits don’t eat good food- some do, some don’t.

The real split seems to be between high and low incomes rather than the country you live in. The richer you are, the more likely you are to eat well, whatever your nationality. Not saying all poor people eat rubbish, of course, but it’s a lot easier to eat good, fresh food when you have the budget for it, plenty of time to prepare it, a nice big well-equipped kitchen etc. This is also reflected in health outcomes.

So it seems a lot of other cultures have a full blown sit down meal at lunchtime? How do people find the time to cook during the day? We usually have our main meal at dinner time. Does anyone have any low carb easy cooked lunch ideas? I have a 3y and 1y and they won't eat salad but will eat spices and cooked vegetables galore! I must admit my go to lunch usually is a sandwich/beans on toast/cheese and Crackers etc. I personally don't think there's anything wrong with these lunches as we don't eat processed meats/ready made food. We also have a low fat/low sugar and salt/vegetable based diet but saying that I would like to cut down on bread. I saw a documentary the other night that talked about the pesticides etc that they treat wheat crops with and it's completely put me off...

We are from Yorkshire and my kids had yesterday..

Breakfast: Cereal with fruit

Lunch : homemade sausage rolls, apples and ham salad baguettes.

Dinner: roasted garlic and paprika chicken breasts, potato waffles, mixed vegetables and baby carrots.

Treats were Magnum ice creams and some oat biscuits.