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!

I often had sausages & mash when I was growing up.

My dad left my mum with 3 children, she'd been a sahm and the only job she could get was low paid clearing tables in a canteen. My DF did not give my mum any maintenance - there was no enforcement of payment in those days - he preferred spending it on his OW (I'm not bitter, lol) . We were poor and my mum was worn down physically & mentally. She did her very best to feed & clothe us and I understand the circumstances where for financial reasons and because you are at your wits end and you're knackered, you'd give your kids sausage and mash for their dinner.

I don't put on my judgy pants criticising other people's food and feeling Im in someway superior, because I don't know what it's like to walk in their shoes.

For what it's worth, my siblings and I were never overweight.

Popcorn is a choking hazard in young children

Eh? A bog standard loaf in a bread machine is very quick, it’s only bread like sourdough that takes a long time

My nephews are Greek and though I used to fetishise the Mediterranean diet I’ve realised after extended visits my British children eat far better than them - less pastry, less meat, fewer biscuits and sweet treats, ice creams and things. Culturally, in Greece children seem to be less encouraged to try all the salad and veg that me and my friends consider part of a healthy nice-tasting plate.

It’s a complicated mix of culture, class, education and access and not easily summed up as ‘sausage meals’

As does increasing rates of diet related cancers

I don't have space for a bread machine. And I've made plenty of bread from scratch. During lockdown. And no, it wasn't sourdough. All that faffing around waiting for it to prove.

Haven't RTFT but I think you're largely right OP.

No one likes home truths though, so I'm guessing you're getting backlash from English mums who are doing they're best.

Even when I try to shop healthily for my toddler I end up coming away with processed rice cakes and some ready meal type foods like chicken nuggets and veggie straws.

Advertising has a lot to answer for.

We see other parents doing the same so think it's OK, but this country is pretty shit when it comes to healthy eating (me included).

Hence why the poster said in a bread maker... It takes 1 minute to prep.

Well, I think that's OP's point.

1. Budget for school meals is not enough.
2. They have to provide meals the children will actually eat, because their diet outside school is so bad.

In some other countries these two things may not apply.

Our London state school only offers fruit for dessert - 5 days a week. Sponge desserts are very 1980s - maybe start talking to your school

Also my child's nursery has got all the toddlers hooked on veg soup....now my little one gets so excited about any soup (beans and lentils included) and it has so much goodness in it....you can also reduce down and use as a pasta sauce. Thing is we spent the entire weaning process giving my toddler mashed sweet potato, bananas, mashed root veg...all cheap stuff....but no processed food at all. As soon as he sees bread on a table that's all he wants...but if you don't stick it on the table he'll eat all the good stuff. School lunches should be exactly like that....all the good stuff. If they are hungry, they'll eat and they'll get a taste for healthy things and a broader pallet.

Even by hand the total manpower involved in making a normal loaf is minutes. Whilst proving most people don’t sit and wait but go and do something else. Honestly think it’s a sad state of affairs that people can’t be bothered even when it doesn’t require you to do anything much. This is all an education thing though. No proper nutrition or food tech in schools anymore

You measure out the ingredients, put them into the machine, press a few buttons and wait. Hardly rocket science and very limited effort.

Your crack comment is just rude.

There are cheap sausages and good quality hand made sausage.

Just as their are kids and there are children.

Some recipes add a roasted carrot for sweetness.

I'm surprised you say you're from Malta because that is the only southern European country that actually has high levels of overweight and obesity.

I like baking bread. It makes me feel wholesome and I can pretend I am a 15th century rural matriarch. But I'm not 100% convinced its that much healthier than shop bought. I mean sure there's the longer rise time and there is probably less sugar.** But shop bought bread isn't poison. Its bread. Its fine to eat. Especially children that need a certain amount of carbs for energy. The idea that lunch can only be healthy if it involves fresh baked bread is a bit ludicrous.

**Except its easy to cram half a loaf on home made bread into your gob while its still hot from the oven. Which almost certainly cancels out the lower suar benefit.

The diet in the U.K. is worse than I have seen in many places. Our kids’ private school offers proper meat, grains, salads etc…but still, dessert every day, French fries once a week. It ends of up being too much processed food and too much junk.

They crap people feed their kids is crazy, Pom bears, those bear dried fruit things that just rot their teeth, so many sweets, crappy white bread, pastries, snacking all the time. No wonder there are so many fat kids. Parents set them up for a lifetime of health problems because they can’t be bothered to instil proper eating habits.

I cook from scratch every day, it’s time consuming etc…”dessert” is fruit or yogurt. Sweets are for special occasions. I’m hoping my kids will have a common sense concept of what proper eating habits and a diet look like.

Try soda bread instead. Literally like making a cake, no time needed for dough to rise.

It’s all the other crap they add that’s the problem. Most standard supermarket bread has a very long list of ingredients including emulsifiers etc.

This is right. Although I have found one brand now with only four ingredients so as good as home baked

and hence my comment as not everyone has a bread maker, or space for one. I don't actually know anyone who has one. Perhaps in 2014... but now everyone seems to have air fryers.

What’s this please? I eat properly baked bread but sometimes I fancy the shape and texture of a bought sliced loaf but never buy it any more!

The continent is a very large area. As someone who comes from a Mediterranean country, I can tell you now that children there are still eating chicken nuggets and portion sizes are much bigger than here and children are constantly being fed. Many children don't eat a proper meal in the evening but will get a kabab on their way home from school and then eat bread at home. The stats agree with me too with many countries on the continent are projected to have massive childhood obesity problems.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1305394/european-countries-with-highest-projected-levels-of-child-obesity/

I also worked in another school on the continent and they didn't get school lunches. Packed lunches were a sandwich and fruit, but there was still a huge queue every break time for sweets and chocolate at the kiosk.

UK eating habits are not brilliant but as a teacher, I would argue that packed lunches have become healthier over the past 10 years and schools are making a more conscious effort than ever to be healthier. But you have to be realistic too. Schools in the UK are catering for much larger audiences. Many schools on the continent close at lunchtime or have longer lunch breaks and many don't provide school dinners full stop.

it tastes amazing buy seriously, who has time? not me. cakes are quicker.

Then there was no need to make a rude comment about it being time consuming then when it actually isn’t time consuming at all with a bread maker - which is what the poster was pointing out (and yes I have a bread maker as do at least 3 people I know!)