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!

You have the national issue right there in your habits.
Unfortunately the only reason you havent 'broken the habit' is because you wont stop buying and eating junk.

It effects how you sleep perform and think, so that the next day your system requests the same cocktail of rancid fat sugar carcinogens and chemicals allover again.
The only way to stop, is to stop.

Have you seen the latest research on how a parents diet affects the next generations genes, grandchildren great grandchildren?

UK sausages, which if good quality are just ground meat with a bit or bread/rusk and spices aren't an issue as they don't contain nitrates which is where the health risk comes from. It's an issue for Bratwurst, hotdogs etc. not the British banger.

It's about balance surely? A little bit of 'junk food' won't harm. My Dd had chicken nuggets and pizza, the difference being we made them.ourselves so no added flavours or preservatives, however we would occasionally go to Macdonald's too. Try to strike a balance or they may crave what they can't have

And that is a direct result of UK tourism and US influence.
And it very much depends where you are and the kind of places you go to eat.
On the whole the poster is right.

Not sure if this has already been posted but the study confirms OP’s point.
UK teenagers get two thirds of their calories from upf.

https://www.mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk/blog/2024/07/19/uk-teenagers-two-thirds-calories-upf-conversation/#:~:text=Our%20new%20study%20analysed%2C%20for,proportion%20for%20any%20age%20group.

I couldn’t agree more. I find the OP’s post insulting.
Please don’t project your obsessive views about food and how you view the UK’s food habits on to your children.

Agreed that nobody thinks the above is healthy, but to be fair beans on toast and a glass of milk, a ham sandwich, bangers, mash and beans are hardly horror movies nutrition wise! I’d also agree that if you make this a big thing, eg I don’t know who said it above that they were going to show their child a picture of an obese person etc … my god you’re doing more harm than bad foods could- they will forever be paranoid, label watching, calorie counting, fasting etc.

My heads fell off with this thread. Maybe you would have gotten more support if you hadn't gone in with slating the humble baked bean. How very dare you!

Processed meat is really unhealthy, nobody needs two kinds of processed pork in one day either

My DC never wanted anything off the children's menu. They always wanted what I was having. Probably because that's what their used to. You can ask for a childs portion off the adults menu. If they don't do that then get an adult portion and an extra plate. They can't refuse if they aren't offering what you want on the menu.

Best pub I went to for a family meal did portions for toddlers and portions for children up to 12. Maybe look at packed lunch. You can do homemade egg muffins without pastry. Homemade brownies with beetroot are really nice. Or flapjacks with honey instead syrup.

There is nothing healthy in a ham sandwich, particularly if it’s a supermarket bought bread full of sugar and preservatives.
Most shop bought sausages and ham are also ultra processed and proven carcinogens.

So you have never been to Germany? I am a German in Germany and of course there are pizzas and chicken nuggets here! At lunch time, the local Lidl is full of kids from the nearby school buying energy drinks and junk food for their lunch break.
I tend to do cook from scratch most of the time (but do like the occasional pizza!) but many people here do eat a lot of ready meals and overly processed food.

Who cares about carcinogens! We luv are sausiges xx

Don’t know what lingonberry is but the rest sounds delicious 😋

Do kids have tantrums there?

Mighty / fallen 😆

I don’t agree that it’s mostly a poverty related issue (although it is a contributing factor). Someone posted a chart earlier showing that Romanians had the lowest proportion of upf in their diet and they are hardly a rich country.

My British husband is middle class and well educated and yet he thinks that white bread with ham and a packet of crisps + juice is a nutritious lunch for his kids. He sometimes puts crisps in his sandwich too.

Our school serves chicken goujons, and breaded fish sticks which in reality are just rebranded nuggets and fish fingers. .

I don’t know anyone whose kids eat purely like this, although I imagine there are some, and in my DCs school they have a rule about crap - no chocolate, biscuits etc.

Maybe it’s the school you’re at?

Oh and before anyone says anything, we’re not middle class or wealthy at all.

Or who would eat it habitually out of choice.

Lots of countries eat sausages, though, and they are traditionally made from offcuts of meat.

OP, you’re doing the classic massive generalisation (and complaint) about a whole country based on your own limited experience while also looking back at your own country through rose-tinted glasses.

Exactly, Spain, Germany, France - they all love a sausage!!!

All the food you mentioned is literal junk & my children would never eat it so a bit of a generalisation 🤷‍♀️

I would happily eat fish fingers every day! A fish finger sandwich is the food of the gods!

Also there is something to be said regarding the fact that we introduce babies to solids at 4 months old, in the UK they all look at me like I'm an alien. @NotAlexa

What is there to be said about it other than a crossover between early weaning and gut issues?
I’ve never seen any proven positives to early weaning.

Seeing people pour purées down the throat of a slumped baby who can’t sit up, which 99% cannot at 4 months, and have limited head control makes me cringe.

Not sure which UK you’re in but it’s not like that where I live! I have 5 children who eat what we eat and they don’t have tantrums! Oh, and we don’t eat shit either!!