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!

’m not saying that to show off

🤣🤣🤣
God I love this thread.

I totally agree with you, OP.

Also my DS’s tastes changed and be became a very fussy eater after starting primary school. I’m can’t help but wonder if school lunch was partly why!

This totally depends on where you live. And how involved/ active parents are. My DC's state primary serves fresh non-processed food, and organises menu tasting for parents. No sweets, no crap. No juice.

Are you aware, OP, that you can influence what school is serving to your kids? Get together with other parents and campaign. That's what parents at our school done. Or give your kids packed lunch every day.

I actually see where you are coming from OP. The average height of 5 year olds (a key indicator for nutrition) in the UK is declining. We were 60th in the world in the 1980s and are now the 100th.

But if you mention UPFs, or how shit school dinners are in the UK people get extremely defensive. I understand why, cooking from scratch and reducing UPFs costs in both money and time that many people don't have and schools are given a pittance to try to produce the meals they offer. People don't like hearing that giving their child a ham sandwich is giving them a proven carcinogen.

I don't really have the answers and my family are by no means perfect on this matter. I try to reduce UPFs at home as much as possible but DDs get free school lunches and I know they're pretty crap, but they make things more affordable for us and I try to ensure that they don't have much UPFs at home. If they say "so and so gets XYZ" I just tell them no and the reason why.....that we need to balance healthy food with food that is less healthy.

They're not going to have diabetes and the food you mentioned like sausages, baked beans, fish fingers and etc. are actually fine as long as kids eat too much and too often.

It’s only insecurity that makes people interpret such comments as “bashing”. It’s not personal.

They’re at school 5 days a week. What do you count as ‘too much and too often’?

I mean I don’t really know what to say to people who ignore facts, evidence and normal human psychology. Not really worth saying much I guess.

Interesting thread. I am surprised to see my European country of origin towards the bottom of the obesity ranking someone posted - people do like their meat and sweet things but are also very into sports, nature and wellness, so perhaps this evens out a less than 'perfect' diet.

I nearly always cook from scratch in the evening because I like it and find it relaxing after work, including baked beans*, but insisted that my DC should eat the food offered by nursery and primary school because I wanted her to learn to eat what's offered and be exposed to a wider range of foods (now making lunch boxes). I remember a French mother being outraged about desserts every day (her son was not allowed to have it) but due my own origin where a sweet dish can occasionally be a main course I felt always relaxed about it, particularly as my DC has always been very slim.

Two things that have left a lasting impression on my DC: a visiting colleague who refused a piece of home-made apricot cake as fruit and vegetables make him gag (I don't think he is from Manchester!) and watching a German educational children TV programme about German school dinners that included pre-made potato mash that was surprisingly processed.

• my recipe for 'baked beans': cook a thinly cut onion on mid-low heat for 10 min to bring out its sweetness (no need for sugar!), then add a bit of garlic, a minute later a tin of Mutti chopped tomatoes and a tin of cannellini or butter beans. Season with a bit of chilli flakes and/or smoked paprika. Cook for a while on lowish heat until it's ready.

I wonder how many people would’ve become so defensive about this if OP wasn’t a nasty foreign /s. We have too many fat unhealthy people here, this is a fact regardless of the reasons for it, facts shouldn’t give us hurty feels.

Go ahead?

I agree OP. The UK food culture is terrible and there is a huge issue with UPF consumption, 2nd highest after US.
https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj-2023-075294

Prospective studies since 2015 have found associations between consumption of ultra-processed food and altered lipoprotein profiles in children5 and increased risks of obesity,6 type 2 diabetes,7 and cardiovascular diseases8 in adults. Over 70 long term prospective epidemiological studies (some of them reviewed elsewhere9) and a handful of short term interventional studies1011 have also consistently observed that consuming ultra-processed foods is linked with weight gain and increased risk of various diseases, particularly cardiometabolic conditions. It has also been suggested that these foods meet the criteria to be labelled as addictive substances using the standards set for tobacco products.12

Hurry feels ...... WTF! 😬

@AGodawfulsmallaffair

Cheered me up too...good link! 😆

I spent time on Malta at an all inclusive resort, whilst we were there were teams of mid teen lads from all around the world, so well behaved, no heads stuck in phones, the came into the restaurant unchaperoned and were a joy, they choose salad, veg, fish, meat and pasta, the ignored the chicken nuggets and fries. In the morning they had fruit, pancakes or omelette. Biggest shock was that they actually spoke to each other, held conversations without shouting, looked at each other when talking and were so smiley and didn't act like 5 year olds. Same when it was groups of girls from around the world the following week. They even managed to come into the restaurant on their own to eat without having a crisis. Oh how different to the GB teams.

You need to just tell your kids no and send a packed lunch.
Healthy or unhealthy it’s what British kids enjoy in the main.
We aren’t generally renowned for our culinary flavour 🤷‍♀️

See what??

If it offends you so much then just send your kids with a packed lunch….problem solved. 🤷‍♀️

Ortorexie is a mental illness OP. I suggest you contact NHS pronto to get some help or you will transfer your obsession on your children.

Also, I'm not fan of your judgemental attitude towards people who choose to do differently than you. I give my children healthy eating habits (nothing is forbidden!) but I'm not judging those who don't. Some don't have the time/knowledge/means to eat healthy. Who are you to judge?

My cholesterol is fine.

Is anyone else wondering what a curry and dip dip is? Sounds much nicer than the fresh salad full of grains.

This is a bit baity isnt it.

Britain was built on Spam, corned beef, baked beans and other tinned delicacies. Nowt wrong with giving kids any of that plus all the freezer specialities like alphabites, fish fingers and findus (horse) crispy pancakes.

Go ahead and what? There’s no point to it. It’s such a stupid thing to list the prices of healthy v unhealthy food as though that was the only variable. Seriously what next? The parrot call of “personal responsibility”? Blame individuals all you want, I’m doubtless that it’s extremely satisfying to look down on people you see as lesser. But it’s futile. As long as we have food companies lobbying governments and putting addictive ingredients in food, and as long as we have people ground down by long-term poverty and all that goes with it, we’ll have an obesity crisis. Not linked solely to the UK but to all countries where the prevailing ideology is to get people to consume.

So just because they’re tall their diet can’t be full of fried food?

Mine very rarely eat most the foods you listed. They have severe autism some children have a limited number of safe foods they will eat. Mine are the complete opposite love fruit and veg. Son would choose a peice if fruit over a biscuit. Processed foods gives me son indigestion. I only figured it out when he was coming back from his support workers house hitting his stomach. Was always processed fattening foods with no nutrition. They also have epilepsy so what they eat has an impact on that. Manufactured foods is the worse they can eat.