British kids and eating habits - IABU ?

[lovemycoffee2]

I have two young kids and we live in the UK but we are not originally from here.

At home we cook everyday from scratch our food and we take that food at a lunch box at our workplace. We have a light dinner again made from scratch.

The issue is our kids which are of course going to school/nursery and they love to copy their friends!

In the UK it's healthy if a kid eats sausages (god knows what the meat has inside), or for example Heinz baked beans which have 10% sugar and 20% salt (leaving 70% being actual beans) or if they eat fish fingers which are pre-fried (even if you bake them they were already fried before got frozen) or chicken nuggets (again pre-fried which god knows what was the oil quality).

It's also acceptable to drink juices which have no sugar but plenty sweeteners.

Also, it's perfectly fine to have a ham sandwich for lunch which has ready made processed bread full of emulsifiers and ham which (like sausage) god knows what ingredients has.

It's ok that primary schools offer desserts, even if they are small portions and low sugar on a daily basis - not on a weekly or as special occasion! I don't have a dessert everyday, why my kid is offered one?

Honestly, are all these things ok? Am I paranoid?

I am very worried that the kids will either end up obsessed. with diabetes or with other health issues given all the processed food and the fact that we are what we eat.

YABU - are you crazy?

YANBU - unfortunately this is a "balanced healthy diet" in the UK!

The ‘continent’ kids aren’t super healthy either though.

Yes we try and eat less processed in general, but most kids live off buttered Spaetzle and jam pancakes when out in restaurants here. And bread giant pretzels.

My Ds had a meltdown in the supermarket this afternoon because I wouldn’t buy him a kinderegg..

I think you're right, @londonmummy1966 . Malta is a lovely place and very interesting. However, you don't go there to eat healthy food or lose weight 🤣

I have only come to comment on this thread for one reason, and that’s to talk about how amazing baked beans are.

Full of protein and fiber. Beans on toast a fabulous meal. Eat a quarter of a tin on wholemeal bread for breakfast stay full and start your day with protein fiber and success. Beans are the best.

sorry if I haven’t read the rest of the thread, I only got to page one and had to jump to beans’ defense

Its true!
I am raising my children on the continent and his first words were "mother, please may I have more foccacia" (but in foreign).
The idea that children naturally have tantrums/are prone to misbehaviour is just something Bri'ish people believe because they are too oafish to know better.

Yeah it is another bash Britain thread, second one on here today. If it is so bad why not move back home OP?

I am sure you will deal with your child's drama about their school lunch the same way you handle any other behaviour (eg best friend gets to stay up to 10 o'clock at night/watch TV all day/has an electric motor bike) by explaining that different families have different rules.

I think you're making sweeping statements based on what???? You are implying that you are far superior to all British

I am raising my children on the continent and his first words were "mother, please may I have more foccacia" (but in foreign).

Hahahahaha peak MN!!

None of those things are ok on a regular basis. I am not sure where you are getting this from. My DS never had juice with sweeteners or pudding every day or beans, sausages, nuggets, fish fingers or processed ham on a regular basis. Maybe at the odd party or beans on toast occasionally. Although baked beans are not nearly as dreadful as you've made out.

TBF, when I do my weekly shop, I buy things to live in cupboards and freezers mainly. Fresh stuff such as meat and veg is bought the day we intend to use it. Means we have far less wastage and we don't have to meal plan.
DH used to be a chef so cooks what we're in the mood for or whatever he's inspired to make that day.

Have you met all British kids and adults? And you do realise that there are lots of people from all backgrounds who live in Britain and consider themselves British

😂

Distract her with chocolate.

Never fails.

So, quick bit of light reading on google. Malta has six existing services in Malta that are meant to address the needs of children with challenging behaviour. These services included a residential mental health unit for youngsters, two residential homes, two special schools and a rehabilitation service for young offenders. Of the 14 participants, 8 were males and 6 females. All of the respondents were Maltese. Ten of the participants were still at school, 2 finished school but were not working, 1 was following a course to become a tile layer, and 1 wished to begin a course at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST). Before entering the current service, only 5 of the 14 participants were living with both parents. Four of the participants were living in a residential home, 1 with their parent etc.

Then, we have: 'Research has shown that around two in five deaths in Malta could be attributed to behavioural risk factors, while one in five deaths are linked to dietary risk, such as low fruit and vegetable intake and high sugar and salt intake.
This emerged from the Malta Country Health Profile published in February 2020 by the OECD and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies'

Oh and...“Look at the fast-food outlets selling fatty foods – pastizzi places have cropped up on every corner. Food is served with heavy creams. People eat lots of bread and huge amounts of pasta. Here a portion of pasta is around 200 to 300 grams whereas in Italy a portion is 100 grams,” Mallia says.

The Maltese also tend to accompany their dishes with butter and the feeding habits appear to be transferred to children...

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...not looking so healthy now In Malta. OP is a total liar or a wind up lol.

I'm from Sweden and I do agree with you OP. I moved here for uni and it was the first time I ever met adults who wouldn't eat veggies 😬 Like, I understand not liking something specific eg mushrooms or whatever, but I'm talking wouldn't eat any veggies at all unless they were blended into a sauce and therefore not visible to the naked eye. In contrast, we had salad with dinner every single day. We also never ate at restaurants and only had takeaway a few times a year, and it was always pizza which is a very big deal in Sweden. Here, everyone we know have at least one takeaway a week (including us!!). I think a large part of the reason for this is that people in the UK are largely overworked and underpaid, so there's simply not enough time or money to cook from scratch on a daily basis.

Having said that, it still horrifies me that the first time my child ever had something to drink that wasn't milk or water was at nursery - they gave him squash. The whole dessert with every meal thing annoys me too.

WRT to baked beans and sugar you've misread the label - look again

I manage it. Maybe you don't know how to cook if you don't know how to make it tasty without sugar?😂😂😂

SQUASH? Fuck me, how awful!!!!

A bit of diluted SQUASH!!!!

This is peak european child, and it makes me think she might grow up to be a psychopath, but she doesn’t like chocolate. Papa can deal with it, its my time off!

Sorry!

Funny. I go to Spanish supermarkets all the time and I’m pretty sure there’s a varied selection of packet and junk food, especially in the freezer section. The kids love going because of the different kinds of ice lollies and plastic cheese we get there.

YANBU but in the UK the quality of food is terrible and I think people are absolutely used to processed food in the supermarkets. Also it’s a culture where ‘being busy’ is seen as a good thing and cooking from scratch requires a slower lifestyle to a point which I think in the UK is not peoples’ priority. Even things like bread which are massive staples in the UK for most people - and would consider brown bread ‘healthy’ is full of processing and additives as you say. In the UK it’s about industry and pricing - so supermarkets reign and keep costs low as they can which means less good food as they won’t pay the suppliers decent money. And in turn people want cheap food so it’s a vicious circle which I expect will get worse and worse. The book ‘Ultra Processed People’ is very informative on this exact issue!

I really want bangers, mash and bens now........ misses point of thread

Apparently not 🙄

Not the point, but Malta has a huge obesity problem - more so than the UK.

I find this whole thread depressing. I weaned my babies on healthy food but standards have slipped a long way. I hate shopping, cooking and have little time / interest / patience for food prep. It’s another stress on top of working and trying to balance every other element of life. Increasingly we eat bits and pieces (hummous, veggie sticks, pitta, olives etc). My husband is useless and doesn’t have the best idea of nutrition. But I try my best. What would be more useful than bashing us over the head with how terrible we are is offering some quick and easy recipes you use and that your DC will eat. My go to easy and healthy meals are pan fried salmon with veggies and rice and chickpea dahl with rice and naan.