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!

The food in the UK is noticeably more processed than in other countries I've lived in. The higher obesity rates reflect this. YANBU

🙋‍♀️me pre kids would have thought like you.but you’ve pretty much described my child’s diet. She’s 2. BUT I think you think this stuff is worse than it is. in my case the sausages are high quality meat, similarly fish fingers. Chips are natural ones, I use no added sugar Heinz beans and the salt is 0.4% I was skeptical of your suggestion of 10% sugar, 20% salt. Normal version is 4.3% sugar 0.6% salt. We give low salt free range ham sandwiches. My daughter refuses many foods. I do try her on other things, she loves rice and fruit and occasionally veggies. I’d love her to eat the lovely home cooked meals I make. But she doesn’t and so I think this is fine.

With respect, it is a bit of a tradition to have dessert after a Sunday roast.
You are within your rights to give your child what foods you think are best. I’m sure most children haven’t suffered terribly having baked beans and sausage.

What utter b*llocks

It costs hardly anything to make veg or lentil soup, or a jacket potato with toppings, or a vegetarian chilli though.

I would say, for the sake of your kids try to explain to them the back of the ingredients list on packaging and definitely show them pictures of obese people so they know what can be the result of sugar/aspartame overdose and processed food eating. Definitely going to do that to my DD when she is old enough to read.

This sounds like a future eating disorder just waiting to happen…

Apologies if this has been said…but instead of a subtle underhand mocking of British ‘people’, what about recognising the marketing and food production methods used in the country, presented to parents, normally frantically running around a supermarket with small children following, (because our childcare system is shocking and we are spending a full wage on paying for nursery-but that’s a different story), or struggling to find food to fill their children because of low wages, and the BOGOFs and ‘frozen meal bundles for £5’ are the only thing that person can manage.
School lunches-not conjured up by parents. The guidelines are created by the government, and councils have minimise funds to provide the food.

I don’t think this is true or anyone I know and you can certainly buy processed meats and cheese in Northern Europe and people do, In fact certain cheddars here are better for your gut bacteria than the above. I have Scandinavian heritage and sausages, bacon are certainly a feature of the diet.

Can't believe MN has let the racism on here stand. Literally people telling OP to go back to where she came from. Horrific, can't believe you aren't all seeing that for what it is. It's ok to ask a question about British culture, and it's ok to not know if those things are the same in other countries if you haven't also been a parent in the other country.

Why not just stick to discussing what is healthy food and if schools should and are providing it, why get into a "go back to where you came from" cesspool.

If you don't like the food provided at your childcare surely the options are to only have a packed lunch, get over it, or lobby the school - the option is not omg you must leave the UK for wondering if something is as good as it could be.

@NotAlexa is right. Read the french children don't throw food book. It has been the model for how we raise our little one. Veg and meat mainly followed by fruit, cheese and yoghurt. In France, nurseries serve three course meals. Veg/salad to start, meat or fish course and then a cheese and fruit course. I can't believe reconstituted chicken and smiley face potatoes can be cheaper than some grated salad, chicken drummer and a slice of cheese.

There is nothing you can do about that though. If this is important to you, you need to just say no. Just as dome parents say no to screen time.

In our house what ' so and so i allowed' is never a valid argument. You just have to fight the battles you feel are worth fighting.

Also, a lunch at school/nursery still gives you plenty of chance to instil good habits at home.

You cant change what others feed their kids, or what the school feed them. Chances are you willncome
Across as pretentious or unpleasant. Just feed them what you like at home.

You also see it on kids menus in restaurants. Id always much rather order a selection of adult food that introduces new tastes, textures and varieties for the kids and share those than the usual tomato pasta, burger, fish fingers or chicken nuggets shown as suitable for kids. Don't think this is an issue in Europe.

Schools in the Netherlands don’t provide lunch

I don’t think that most kids would eat lentil or vegetable soup or vegetarian chilli unless they were vegetarians and used to it.

What cheap jacket potato fillings are there if beans are excluded? A “delicious” chickpea curry?

My half-Spanish kids living in Spain do but maybe it's my dastardly British influence. I have occasionally been known to feed them baked beans 😱
I would agree that baked beans are very frequently referred to as a pretty healthy option, though. One of your 5-a-day, their protein and fibre content being described as positive.

Swedish school lunches are rank 🤢

🤢

No she’s not. Sweeping statements comparing ‘the continent’ to the UK as if everyone in these places all think and act exactly the same way - that’s bllocks. (My SIL is from ‘the continent’ and she eats shed loads of processed crap btw) Also, kids from ‘the continent’ don’t have tantrums - utter bllocks.

We took DS to France when he was 6 months old. His first weaning foods were the frites and chunks of baguette the waiters kept giving him in restaurants!

LOL

yes, bread is well known to be quick and easy when made from scratch. 😂

Are you on crack?

You could do a starter, meat/fish main, yogurt, fruit and cheese for 95p?

Kids only think lentils and chickpeas are weird because they’re not given them from a young age. Lentils are strange veggie muck but mashed up pig is normal because it’s what parents familiarise their kids with. I grew up on the kind of freezer junk OP would be horrified by, didn’t encounter a lentil or chickpea until I studied nutrition as an adult and they’re among my favourite foods now. A lot of it is just down to education. Lentils and chickpeas are cheap, filling, and high in protein. No reason for kids to turn their noses up if they’re introduced along with processed meat.

What have you got against the sausage 🤣 not all sausages are made equal!

And you can make your own beans you know. Or buy low salt/ low sugar ones.

They should be used to eating beans and pulses. If children can eat baked beans then they can eat variations of beans and lentils. A coconut based Dahl is delicious. The issue is that we narrow children's food horizons from the get go in the UK and then complain they'll only eat nuggets.

Re jacket potato toppings- cheese and coleslaw, cottage cheese and chives, bean chilli, tuna and sweetcorn, ratatouille....

Yes if bulk catering