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!

Those poor Dutch people, no wonder they’re so short.

I'd really like to know who are these people that the OP knows who says this shite is healthy!

What's your source for it OP?

And could you explain your thinking behind the baked beans nonsense?

All those poor Italian kids. No pizza till they’re 18!

I send my DS with a packed lunch but your example menu is nothing like either his school or his nursery lunches (which were 50% veggie and all cooked from scratch). Our school doesn't allow unhealthy treats or anything other than water to drink. The food is nutritious and balanced.

Absolutely nothing wrong with high quality sausages and baked beans!

Snobby post!

Yeah, it's absolutely true. (Unfortunately my kids never got the memo.)

Sausages and beans are a last resort, mum can’t be arsed, occasional meal in my house. I don’t pretend it’s healthy but has its place. Around 80% of our meals are cooked from scratch and what I would consider healthy, that leaves space for me being knackered or sick, for a party or meal out or just for an easy snack.

I don’t obsess about food because I don’t want my kids to obsess, and I don’t judge how others feed their kids because I don’t know their circumstances. All things being equal I doubt your children will be tipped into obesity by having school dinners given their diet at home is gold plated.

I'm in the USA and they try with school lunches but they really are a bit shit especially as budgets have not kept pace with inflation, and I know the UK hasn't either. But diet is a class and money issue, and no one is lining up to give poor people money to buy better food, are they?

TBH all the emphasis on low fat in your posts is also giving me an orthorexia vibe. Sausages can actually be perfectly healthy, it depends if you're buying good quality ones or not.

And even in Italy, which is the country that has the lowest proportion of UPFs in diet (for what that's worth) has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in Europe and I remember kids there all eating sugary pastries and Nutella at breakfast.

I'll have to tell that to my Dutch sister-in-law and my Spanish and Finnish friends! Those things that look.like tantrums are in fact not tantrums because your DC are European! 😂

I’ve travelled quite extensively and am struggling to think of any country where children only ever eat healthily. Likewise, plenty of children in the UK eat healthily despite what the OP and other ignorant PP assume.

I refuse to believe that children from European countries don’t have temper tantrums and have witnessed plenty of evidence to confirm that they do. 🤣

Sweeping generalisations don’t help anyone and, just like the ones on this thread, usually prove to be wrong.

There are many reasons behind this OP. There have been campaigns to get more healthy food in schools but they only go so far. It's best to pack a healthy school lunch.

Many people don't know how to cook from scratch. When I was at school we had home economics where we learnt how to make basic staples but that's been scrapped.

A lot of families are strapped for time and cash. Mortgages have gone up, rent is through the roof, wages are low, benefits have been cut and it's cheaper to buy less nutritional food. Most parents work and don't have time or energy to prepare a meal from scratch every night.

So, why I see sausages in most places that have kid menus and I have also friends that offer sausage with potato mash and gravy to their kids and it's meant to be healthy and appropriate?

@NotAlexa , what about French children being given a piece of baguette with a bar of chocolate inside for ‘gouter’? Not at all unusual from all I’ve heard.

Might add that I know of Italian children who routinely have Oreos for breakfast….

We can't all be perfect like you, we can only aspire to your levels of dietary superiority.

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).

What a ridiculous and patronising comment! Who thinks a diet of fish fingers baked beans and sausages is healthy?

If you have such an issue do a packed lunch. If your kids moan about about what others have, well that’s parenting. You can’t control everyone else so your child doesn’t see an apple juice!

I think it’s more down to the places you frequent and type of person you are friends with.

I often wonder if there was any real change after Jamie Oliver's campaign. There was certainly a lot of rubbish and Primary and at Secondary it's even more appalling. I do think it is wrong that school meals work against the healthy eating message many parents are trying to instil.

Just send them in with a packed lunch then.

School dinners in the UK aren't great - but much of that is to do with the limited budgets available.

Because eating out is a treat, not an every day thing?

Because sausages, chicken nuggets etc are familiar and generally taste the same no matter where you go which appeals to many young children.

No one thinks they are healthy options.

Just because sausages aren’t the most healthy thing you can eat doesn't mean they are inappropriate.
lots of things can be part of an overall healthy diet. You can’t you everything about someone based on one dinner.

This is a common snack in Spain too. I think all countries have good and bad eating habits.

I thought all French kids had fois graas with a glass of rose and a fag for their school lunch?

😂

Exactly! How is it healthy to have a dessert every day? Last week school menu had: Monday - Chocolate mousse, Tuesday - Lemon drizzle sponge, Wednesday - Chocolate sponge with chocolate sauce, Thursday - Jelly, Friday - pink Jam slice.

They are 4 years old!!!

Always makes me laugh when people speak of 'the continent' like it's some kind of utopia. It's so narrow minded 😂