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!

Ahhh the "Continent". That homogeneous place where al children eat identically.

Let's ignore the popular children's meal in Germany... Spaghetti and ketchup for example.

Or the bowl of hot chocolate and a croissant popular in France

Or the Greek pastries, like the one with a hot dog sausage in.

Don’t most schools have restrictions on lunchbox content now also?
Ds can’t take chocolate, cake, sweets, or anything in packaging.

Obviously some people could decant packaged food, but the general expectation is a sandwich or similar, fruit and raw veg.

Remember you do need some fat to absorb your fat soluble vitamins.

I don't think your attitude to food is amazingly healthy, OP. Obviously not diagnosing you on the internet, but there's a tiny bit of an orthorexic vibe and I'd be a little bit careful about what you're transmitting to your kids around food.

I mean fruit shoot for example which has these ingredients:

Water,Fruit Juices from Concentrate (Apple 6%, Blackcurrant 2%, Plum),Acid (Citric Acid),Natural Flavourings,Acidity Regulator (Sodium Citrate),Carrot and Blueberry Concentrate,Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid),Sweeteners (Acesulfame K, Sucralose)

Lol I get from other posters that it's 10% of your daily sugar and 20% of your daily salt, but you also said "leaving 70% being actual beans" so either you thought the product was literally 20% salt and 10% beans or you think the product provides 70% of your daily beans allowance!

I can reassure you OP, I have 4 adult children and we ate at home as you do (although tbh I did offer dessert most evenings but it was often fruit or yoghurt)
they were exposed to all the junk food at school and as adults choose to eat healthily and are very keen cooks

I agree that the diet of many people in this country is rubbish, not just kids food, its partly a money/class thing and partly cultural

In general food in the UK and what the majority of people feed their children is very bad.

OP you haven’t understood the label on the baked beans.

I didn’t know anyone when I lived in the UK who thought fish fingers etc were healthy.

We live in mainland europe, chicken nuggets, chips, tomato sauces etc are featured on the majority of children’s menus when you eat out. I always find it odd when British people claim all sorts of things about mainland europe, always complete rubbish.

I travel a fair bit. I was in Denmark a couple of weeks ago and the kids were all eating plenty of pastries, ice cream, hotdogs, chips, Smorrebrod toppings with mayo on and the adults were too. Plus the drinking culture there seemed more extensive than here, 16 year olds can drink weaker lager etc.

Most European places have a mix of food and I'm don't really come back from those places thinking 'Woah, they've really cracked the healthy eating thing in that country'. I'm not sure it's just a UK issue?

Yes, Ace-K is pretty bad. There are numerous recent studies conducted that proove Ace-K increases weight gain and shift gut microbiome, which in turn is responsible for immunological and immunooncological conditions.

E.g. study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5464538/

OP, drop it. Not worth it, some Brits will never agree, even if you show them the cost of healthy meal is significantly lower than fish fingers and sausages. It's cultural+ class issue. Not all brits would feed this to their kids, just try to explain the differences of healthy eating to your child with real examples in the shops and on TV.

It doesn't matter what you feed your DC they'll always be telling you everybody else has endless treats! Just tell your DC it doesn't matter what everyone else is eating, you decide what they eat.

Do you let them eat treats for example at a party,?

Ham sandwiches and fishfingers with baked beans, what is the world coming to? So much wasted effort when a Gregg's sausage roll and bag of haribo will suffice.

School meals are shit. Lots of cheap white wheat crap, rubbish meats. Mine had one school meal a week but otherwise ate healthy pack lunches and home cooked meals. In addition they had party food at parties and ate what was on offer when on play dates. They were relaxed about trying different foods.

No one thinks fruit shoots are healthy. I never gave them to my children although they did have some Capri sun (not the sweetener laced ones, though.) Most people if you hey give them are an occasional thing.

If you're that bothered about our awful food then send them in with a packed lunch🤷

😆

I agree with you on sweeteners. Cannot understand why anyone thinks they’re ‘healthier’ than sugar. Vile things.

There certainly are pizzas and chicken nuggets on the continent. Lots of processed meat and chips in the Netherlands, for example.

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).

I don't know anyone who would describe that as healthy.

I thought in this post-turkey twizzler world that we all live in, that there were very strict guidelines for school dinners. Certainly any desserts have to be low sugar. Packed lunches aren’t allowed chocolate/biscuits/crisps etc. OP, surely you’ve seen the threads where poor little tots have had their sweet treats removed by evil dinner ladies. Where are the brownies and jellies coming from?

Only if it's socially awkward not to let them or if I make them feel different. In these instances I let them eat whatever, otherwise I don't let them.

Fascinating to read that European kids don't eat pizza and don't have tantrums.

I know right. Our daughter obviously missed the memo.

I think there are a few schools doing healthy lunches but it is very few and far between!