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 think you’re misunderstanding the amount of salt in baked beans.

20% of the can, which is what you suggested, would be completely inedible.

The difference in food culture is economic - countries where the cost of living/housing is low enough and there's enough social will that one partner, invariably a woman, makes the sacrifice to stay home and do all the shopping and cooking. Because it's affordable and socially expected.

It helps if you live somewhere with a culture where traditional food for working people is healthy, like Italy and France etc. in the UK traditional food for working people tends towards meat and potatoes, bread and cheese etc. And now a lot of processed food. Cooking from scratch, with lots of different veg etc is often perceived as middle class and fancy.

I know about nutrition but my kids often end up with fish fingers etc as real food tends to go in the bin. I don't know what the answer is! Probably valuing homemaking more, so men and women do it and it's seen as important for the health of the nation?

when we were in Italy with a small child, everywhere offered to make her pasta with butter and cheese. And this was some time ago, the child in question is now a teenager. They absolutely didn't expect her to eat like an adult.

Expectations are high these days. My DM in the 50s abd 60s cooked good nutrional food but you got a good big dollop of plain mashed potatoes (with gravy but we couldn't afford for everyone to add dollops of butter), or you filled up with bread and butter (cheap white sutff). we ate for energy.
Nowadays we expect every meal to be tasty, salty, spicy and that ends up with people preferring the manufactured stuff where scientists have gone to great lengths to add the right amount of sugar and salt to make it tasty, food thats easy to eat, fingerfood and pizzas, and lots of fried and crispy stuff. Rather than the dull old fashioned version - look at baked potatoes, it used to have a bit of butter, now recipes say take all the potato flesh out and mix it with various unhealthy, flavoursome ingredients then put it all back. Tasty but it was healthier when plain.
If we simplified food and made it plainer it would be healthier. The other problem is that people aren't that hungry - they haven't walked a mile or two to school or walked a good distance to the bus stop for a cold bus journey to work.

I think you are misunderstanding. I am saying with the right parenting I believe they can self regulate (although I do think it is easier for some than others!) At the end of the day they need to learn how to for adulthood! But I don't necessarily think parents are guiding their DC to self regulate hence adults not being able to do it and therefore increased obesity. I'm not saying this is the only reason for obesity - I think it is very complex. But I do think it is important for parents to guide their DC to be able to self-regulate.

I agree. Fresh white bread from the bakery is much better than wholemeal or seeded supermarket bread.

I'm not misunderstanding. Obesity runs in families. Parents who are obese and can't self regulate for themselves can't possibly be expected to teach their children how to.

The current evidence suggests it's genetic rather than environmental, though.

I now genuinely think posters want answers like “you are doing the best you can, keep going , the food you provide is not actually bad, there is nothing wrong with what you eat, healthy food is too expensive and no one has time for all this prepare- from -scratch nonsense anyway. “ They don’t want advice, they want validation.
There is no point. Every diet related thread goes like this.

I agree with everything you said.

Validation and vindication. People literally want magic pill. Or an injection. Any personal responsibility has gone out of the window.

Many people.don't want to be educated so that they can take responsibility for what they eat and feed their children. They want to be absolved of that responsibility.

The genetic element is a predisposition though, otherwise it doesn't explain why obesity has only been such a huge problem for 40 years. There are people who store fat far more easily. In the Stone Age, they would have survived longer as they would have been able to survive longer during lean periods. Now they ( we) are the ones suffering from weight related illnesses. That means it's more, not less important to control what our children are eating. Asian people have an unbelievably low BMI. The weight related diseases kick in at a far lower weight.
The problem is that food over the past 40 years is far more available and far more processed. We need to hold food manufacturers to account. People who hire scientists to ensure their food is as hyper palatable and as cheap to make as possible. Becsuse it's people with a genetic predisposition who suffer, not them.

If obesity is genetic then the idea of learning to self regulate is even more of a nonsense

I've not read all the comments, but I'm going to try and address your issue of your children accepting the fact that some kids have unhealthy treats for lunch and why they can't. Firstly, I have the 'eat well plate' magnets (see image) on our fridge which from a young age I showed them regularly so they know what they should be eating. I also emphasised that eating healthily whilst they are young means they will have healthy habits and healthy bodies when they get older. That they will be unhappy and life will be difficult for them as an adult if they have unhealthy eating habits. Also let them know that me saying 'no' to treats is not a punishment. I tell them I don't actually enjoy cooking - it's hard work, boring and takes time, but I do it because I love them and care for their health. I've told them it would be much easier for me to just give them a bag of crisps and a chocolate bar for dinner - it's no effort for me, and they would be happy and not moan - but do they actually want me to do that?! And they've actually said no, they would rather eat the healthy dinners I make. You do really have to play the long game. It has taken years to get to where I am now with my kids (10 and 12). Another thing that has helped is getting them involved in cooking. I always say there is one special ingredient in every meal I make, which is 'love', and if one of the children help prepare a meal, then their love is also in that meal. But equally, if I give them a ready meal, then I'll say 'there's no love in that meal'. And of course my kids get treats, but they are occasional. They wouldn't be treats if they were everyday. The other children will have lots of reasons why they have treats in their lunchbox, but you just have to keep repeating the healthy eating message at home and stick with it. I know they are only 4 years old, but the drip drip effect will eventually get through and you'll be glad you stuck with the consistent message.

Yes, environment explains the rise in obesity on a population wise basis. I mean prevalence within a family at the same point in time. It's not because obese parents aren't teaching self regulation.

The OP's horror at 'sausages, mashed potato, and gravy' was quite a surprise. Generations of British people thought sausage and mash was a perfectly normal, tasty meal, and in general the obesity problem then was nothing like it is today.

Plump, browned sausages, bursting at the sides! Lovely, buttery, mashed potatoes! How can anyone feel such disgust at the very thought?

Another thing that has helped is getting them involved in cooking. I always say there is one special ingredient in every meal I make, which is 'love', and if one of the children help prepare a meal, then their love is also in that meal. But equally, if I give them a ready meal, then I'll say 'there's no love in that meal'.

Oh my goodness gracious me, if only Mumsnet had a Pseuds’ Corner like Private Eye.

I’m guessing that you don’t often serve ready meals with a side order of “and I hate you”.
😂

Ha ha, it's done in jest - and sometimes they answer back that the loveless meals taste better 😂

Sorry if someone has answered this already, but it's not peer pressure, the norm or marketing, it's that this type of food is engineered to be irresistible to human taste buds, and especially to kids with their natural sweet tooth.

You seem to be remarkably ill-informed and judgemental

Try reading the ingredients if you don't know what's in something

There's absolutely nothing wrong with sausages and mash unbelievable that they are being slated on this thread. Look Ive been called a food nazi too and I don't agree with kids drinking sodas and eating sweets constantly which I do know some families where that's normal and I'm secretly low-key judging haha but there's nothing wrong with good quality sausages (it's literally just ground pork in casing and last i checked they are loved on the continental mainland too especially by Germans) and mash is potatoes and butter. A side of peas and this is a fine meal.

I grew up eating this too and I'm fit and healthy unlike the 60 or so percent of overweight people in Malta

There’s a far bit on this thread that has tickled me 😂
Demonising food groups is never a healthy attitude to take - for example I do make my kids pizzas (because I have the luxury of time, which I doubt I would have if I were working full time) where I make the dough, base etc but if I didn’t use sugar then both the dough and the sauce would taste shit.
As my lovely grandad would say ‘anything in moderation!’

I haven't read the full thread but those things you have listed there are fine as part of a balanced diet. We cook from scratch almost every night too but we do still have some processed foods because some weeks when we have both worked 60 hours, we flop on a Friday night and it's healthier and cheaper than a takeaway. We buy the best we can afford so with the least ultra processed ingredients. I can't get wound up over a tin of beans. For some people that is the most nutritious thing they eat.
Learning to read packaging will help you a lot OP. And there is absolutely no way you can tell us that other European counties don't have processed products in their diet. We are currently in Montenegro and the amount of processed meat they have here is unreal!

Leah5678

Good quality sausages are fine on occasion but not all sausages are created equally and some are dreadful.

Orangewall

Clearly, it's individual preference. I've never added sugar to any dough or sauce that I've made. And I think that it is completely unnecessary and doing so would make it taste shit.

60% of people here are overweight or obese too.

I do. Just because they’re vile and fatty and taste of - well - sausages.