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!

To be honest I work with the elderly and it’s pretty grim once you get past 80. I wouldn’t worry too much. I want out by then.

*beans - obviously beans 🤦🏻‍♀️

I live on a street with 5 new builds and a bunch of old cottages. Right now, all 13 children living in the street are out playing in those houses in the garden. Some of the kids are running back and forth between my garden and some of the neighbours (we are all fine with this). My eldest has also just had 2 friends walk from their house down to ours to play in the street. there are literally kids everywhere in my village.

Hmmm. All toddlers are wannabe psychopaths.

Not all of them grow out of it (I blame his father).

@lovemycoffee2

Heinz baked beans which have 10% sugar and 20% salt (leaving 70% being actual beans)

Heinz baked beans have 4.3% sugar and 0.6% salt. They are mostly beans 50% and tomatoes 36% and water about 8%. But I agree they are not very healthy.

Same here, my autistic daughter only eats pizzas sometimes! Fortunately she makes them herself so it's less processed.

Tomatoes are about 3.1% sugars.
https://www.britishtomatoes.co.uk/tomato-nutrition

Some of the sugars in a tin of baked beans will come from the tomatoes and beans. Yes, there's probably more added sugar than is ideal, but it's not all added.

Schools are advised not to serve beans more than once a week, and to use low sugar/salt varieties. I looked to see how much it varies - some baked beans have only 2.4g sugars per 100g, and 1.4g of that will be from the beans/tomatoes themselves.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-food-standards-resources-for-schools/school-food-standards-practical-guide

There are clearly a lot of parents who feel personally attacked by your post, @lovemycoffee2, but I agree with you. I went to school here but was born elsewhere and the British diet is vastly different and inferior to anything I have encountered abroad (bar the American diet). So much processed food everywhere. For everyone feeling so offended, most kids menus do revolve around chicken nuggets, sausages and processed pizzas. I should know because that’s generally all my child likes to eat! The fact that I allow my DD to eat that crap doesn’t mean I can’t also acknowledge that it’s shite food.

What isn't healthy exactly though? Beans, tomatoes and water? Small amount of seasoning..?

I did BLW with my kids - they were eating homemade food and veggies from their first bites. I’ve always tried to make as much as possible at home, I eat very well myself and not only model good eating habits, I explain the reasons why I make certain choices. Their
rural primary school has delicious, balanced meals made on the premises, sometimes using food grown by the kids. We have an allotment and spend much of the year eating homegrown vegetables and using things like chard and pak Choi in interesting recipes.

I am currently on an all-inclusive holiday with them. So far they have had pancakes and croissants with Nutella for breakfast, blue slush and Pringles mid-morning and nuggets and chips followed by cake for lunch. All accompanied by ice cream and fizzy drinks. Do they make reasoned, intelligent choices of their own accord? No they fucking don’t. I couldn’t have tried harder. They are drawn to eating the worst type of shit like iron filings to a magnet. I am insisting on at least two fruits and vegetables a day (there’s delicious vegetable dishes, a salad bar and bowls and bowls of lovely ripe fresh fruit!) and that’s painful. Peer pressure, the “norm” and marketing win out. I don’t know how to change that.

@Maddy70 - Spain with all the processed and cured meats, and supermarkets full of convenience food?.

Agreed!

So, why I see sausages in most places that have kid menus and I have also friends that offer sausage with potato mash and gravy to their kids and it's meant to be healthy and appropriate?

I'm not saying people don't feed it to their children, but no one gives sausages thinking "what a lovely healthy option".

It's on kids' menus because children like them - there's plenty of unhealthy things on adult menus as well.

I was brought up on healthy food in the 70s/80s! We had fresh fruit and veg .Honestly unless you are going to a food bank ,This sort of menu just doesnt add up! I was a Nursery School Teacher ,and one of my charges favourite meals were Jacket Potatoes ,cheese and baked beans.Healthy and tasty. Fish fingers or chicken breast frozen are well balanced and widely liked by children everywhere . Pizza and salad some garlic bread or chips occasionally .fresh fruit for snacks or carrot sticks/cucumber too

Maybe put in their favourite fruit for dessert? You can cut it into fun shapes too.

It’s worth pointing out that that's only about 1/4 of the sugar content of the same weight of grapes.

Too much salt and sugar.

DONT BRING UP GRAPES!

Didnt someone on here once describe them as literal bombs of sugar 🤣🤣🤣

I teach in secondary and the food seems to be better - felafel wraps and salad, pasta with tomato sauce, no desserts, only fruit. However, that won't suit the OP's narrative.

@SeeSeeRider it's fine. It's literally fine.

😂

Kids menu's on the continent are also significantly better - there are no chicken nuggets and pizza's; kids eat what adults eat, just smaller portions!

So Italy isn't in continental Europe?

We also don't have a problem with children and tantrums. Somehow european kids palates are well developed and they simply don't want unhealthy stuff.

I'm sorry, but this is rubbish. I'd love it to be true, having lived in continental Europe for the best part of 35 years, but my children were born and brought up here and they threw quite as many tantrums as your average toddler. In fact I can hear my neighbour's little one throwing a wobbly in the courtyard as I write.

Also, Macdonald's, Burger King and the like thrive here just as they do elsewhere, so somebody must be visiting them.

Remember bananas are also pure sugar and will kill you, if you admit to eating one on the low carb thread you’ll be treated like an actual criminal.

I think you’ve fried your tastebuds with all that sugar you’re eating 🤣

Tell that to my health visitor who told me to give all of these foods plus chips to my 9 month old baby when I asked for advice on finger foods!!! I think my jaw visibly dropped open!