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!

What is wrong with fish and chips? A healthy amalgam of potatoes deep fried, sadly, these days, in vegetable or sunflower oil, or possibly oven-cooked with little oil at all; fish, sometimes with batter, but more likely breadcrumbs. It's nutritious and will provide you with a considerable amount of the vitamins and minerals, protein and carbohydrates you need in a day. How would you like your country's food insulted in this way? Have you tried roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and roast potates, green vegetables? Or roast lamb with mint sauce, mash, roast potatoes, carrots and green vegetables? Have you tried our numerous and varied puddings, both sweet (summer pudding, eve's pudding, eton mess, apple or cherry pie etc, or steak and kidney pudding, pease pudding, haggis etc?) and savoury?
British food ranks high in the world, is varied across both original British cooking and the dishes from the various cultures that have made their home here. Your protestations about rubbish food are almost racist.

Ham is quite literally absolute crap…

How about wholemeal pasta? I do that for my son with tuna and sweetcorn. Filling with some protein, veg and fairly healthy?

I'm sorry OP, but installing the ability of your children to accept that they don't always get to have what others have is part of parenting.
Your child is going to want the latest fashion that their friends are wearing or try the vape that the cool kids are using, so teaching them that they are not having pudding every day or brownies in their packed lunch is part of it.

School dinners in the UK are unfortunately produced on a very small budget. They could and should be better but in the mean time give your child a pack lunch and teach them to accept differences.

AvacadoBathroomSuite
Tried it, they hated the texture of the pasta after so many hours in a lunchbox and they eat pasta three night a week anyway!

I agree with you especially about the ham. Everyone I know thinks ham is a healthy protein for kids (and everyone else). I only found out myself it’s not recently.

Yes you are wrong - I work in this area of healthcare and there is zero chance of it being changed to 4m. It has been at 6m for at least 20 years.

You can instantly make the packed lunch healthier by baking your own bread, a bread machine can be purchased cheaply second-hand. Put a loaf in every day, it’s not difficult. We switched about a year ago and never eat supermarket bread anymore.
Ham could be swapped with lean turkey or cheese. Add some cherry tomatoes , radishes, chopped cucumber, strawberries.
rice crackers with no chocolate or sugar. Popcorn without sugar.

From the available literature it seems like processed meat significantly increases the risk of colon cancer but people love ham too much to be ready for that conversation yet

Send them to private school, ours has a pretty balanced menu. Easy-peasy

JollyPinkFox
It’s protein that they’ll eat for lunch. Look I just mean, writing off every food when to some people it’s their only option isn’t great. School lunches have always been a bit of an argument here, if they had their way it would be Nutella on bread, crisps and a brioche/ croissant/ pastry!!! I’m just lucky 3 out of 4 like water for their drink

The answer is that he is 4 and you set the rules. He may not want to take a packed lunch, he may whine about it, but if this is important to you then you have to set the parameters. Comparison with peers only gets worse as they get older, so may as well start practicing some variation of ‘not in this house’.

i would say that while it is fine for you as parent to set the parameters (no dessert except in x circumstances) your child should have some experience making choices of their own about what they eat - otherwise the healthy eating is likely to end as soon as they are out of your control.

Chicken is not that expensive and British food regulations mean it is humanely and sustainably reared and not full of chemicals.
As to ham, don't buy the 'reformed' stuff. But reformed or not it will not be full of chemicals - outlawed - and the pigs will have been humanely reared and humanely killed. The UK is in the forefront of animal care in animal husbandry - one of the reasons many voted to leave the EU, where standards of husbandry are neither as humane (e.g. pate de frois gras is now banned in the UK) nor as well-regulated.

Also the dessert thing is ridiculous. My parents cannot eat a meal without dessert. If I serve them a big delicious meal and there’s no dessert or just fruit, they’ll go and get an ice cream from the freezer. Like a children’s lolly. lol. This is so British imo.

In the quantity you’re giving it, it’s hardly got any protein in at all. And the protein benefit is outweighed by the overall negative health impact. Give your kids what you like but I feel it’s important to know what you’re feeding them. Ham is really the pits.

And what is your comment meant to bring to the thread?

Surely the poor little darlings will break their teeth on bullion? 😔

You’re right to question and look after what your children eat, and teach them good habits. But my god, educate yourself on British culture. Most of the foods you named can be part of a balanced diet. No food should be off limits, it’s all about moderation and making sure there’s enough nutrition.

I went to m7ddle school in France, and wouldn't call lunch menus at school particularly balanced, they were quite revolting in fact.

Obviously not canned beans, fried fish fingers and nuggets, with daily dessert.
I found same problem in nursery too.

If you offer children fast food they will likelly select it over salad! The whole pount is that school should educate them about high quality food too, not just dump crap at them.

Healthy food would include:
Piece of roast chicken, not chicken nuggets.
White fish filet not fish fingers.
Cooked beans or lentil stew, not canned baked beans.
Meat with vegetables in sauce, not ham.
And I see no point in offering sweets daily. Surelly parents already feed children with enough. School should provide fresh fruit.

It is not that hard.

My parents are the same!! I never eat dessert at home, none of our family do, it’s not a thing, but at my parents there is always cake or homemade fruit salad (which I love but prefer for breakfast) and I fall into their trap of eating it too when we stay. Cake and custard…yet my dad is the slimmest, fittest man I know. He’s never ill, he’s in great shape and has amazing mental health. I always joke that he needs to be studied.

Well, I rarely have a dessert. But what is wrong with ending a meal properly with a sweet course, cheese and fruit? More food Puritans!

Me too 😅 20% salt, 10% sugar (of your daily recommended intake, really not that bad btw) must be 70% beans then! No, that's really not how that works🙈

Yes - a lot of people say well there’s fresh fruit and veg on offer but realistically when there’s other more junky options on offer, the kids don’t generally choose/eat the fruit and veg! (In our primary canteen anyway!)

So your parents are getting it right. Fruit salad is fine for breakfast, but you should be eating something more sustaining. And you cannot get better than: fried/poached/scrambled eggs, bacon, black pudding, baked beans, tomatoes, mushrooms and possibly toast for breakfast. You will not need to eat until dinner.