To wonder who is buying chocolate cereal

[Blueyseviltwin]

Who om each is buying Lion bar and Oreo cereal? See also lucky charms, nesquick and coco pops
These aren't breakfast foods (or any sort of food). I literally cannot imagine anyone thinking it is a reasonable way of feeding children?

Many families don't have time smash avocados either! I worked full time and had four DC, it was usually porridge or Weetabix in our house.

This is only anecdotal of course, but I was very careful with my eldest as a baby and toddler. I did Annabel Karmel, checked sugar and salt etc, only water for drinks. He's 13 and is an absolute fiend for sweets, which he can buy himself now.

It happens, especially in the teenage years. In my experience that wears off! Mine are adults now, are interested in cooking and have good diets of their own choosing.
Don't fret, you'll have set them up well.

They do indeed. I didn't wean the eldest. She arrived at 18 months but the little two I weaned on anything we ate so they have never known different.

Some children don't get fed at all so if it's a choice between that and a chocolate cereal I know what I would pick!

It's not a binary choice? Surely children in adverse circumstances should be fed more wholesome foods as they are largely cheaper.

I'm female.

That's what we did (although not with all that meat, but plant based food). They sat at the table with us and ate what we ate. It all went very well, then the teenage years hit.....
Anyway, they're healthy adults now with good diets. You may of course have a trouble free adolescence for each child. Good luck!

Mine also enjoy venison, duck and pulled pork. They also enjoy a bowl of Nesquik coco rocks. What exactly is your point? Or are you just here to virtue signal about the diet you feed your children? Because - as a doctor - you’ll realise that all things in moderation are fine for children and adults alike.

It’s about children having a healthy relationship with ALL food types. That includes the less healthy ones as our bodies do need sugar and fats as well as the vitamins and nutritions from vegetables etc.

I know a family that are all obese. Their 8 year old daughter is very large bless her. Guess what they have for breakfast? Nothing! They skip breakfast. They’re obese from all the bad snacks and very sedentary lifestyle.

It’s about being sensible and enjoying treat foods in moderation and when extra calories are needed etc.

I agree that foods (like ketchups) are unnecessarily loaded with sugars but that’s a different conversation.

This, all day long!

I was encouraged to join my mother on her latest diet fad from the age of 6...I had my first McDonald's when I was 12 at a cousin's party (I felt too guilty to eat it all!) whilst also being told to "think of all those starving children in Africa, now clear your plate". What a head fuck the 80/90s were! When the pressures of college and work hit, my diet was crap - all these healthy foods and 'don't eats' just bashing around in my skull. I still don't like sweet foods (cereal isn't that sweet IMO) especially fruit or puddings 🤮 but 'everyday' meals has taken a LOT of refocusing and purposefully education for my children.

My DH prefers white bread but likes the M&S or Morrisons soft thick-sliced wholemeal.

Sadly the OP comes across as the stereotypical patronising GP - which I know is not fair to GP's in general.

They may have been up since 9am so felt like dinner time to them. Try not to judge

When I take my GC to school we often see babies and toddlers in pushchairs eating chocolate croissants, almost anything would be better than this,

What's your view on Frosted Wheats @Blueyseviltwin?
Souch sugary goodness on the top of the wheats 😋

I'm buying ice-cream because I don't own an ice-cream maker and haven't yet got round to borrowing one from the Library of Things to check out whether this is a bit of kit I would use regularly. I buy ice-cream from a farm shop that makes very short runs with a very limited shelf life, hence they can do it without UPF/stabilisers/emulsifiers. It's expensive and an occasional buy only. Ice cream should be an occasional, discretionary buy anyway.

All joking aside, it's the way these packet cereals, this really mucky pretend food is presented as a treat, and the parents who want to avoid giving this stuff to their children and inculcate good habits and preferences are somehow killjoys.

And as for the 'well, we're all going to die anyway' - well, yes, obvs, eyeroll. But how you get there does make a difference to your wellbeing and happiness, whether that's being able to move freely and do things like get out of a chair and walk to the shops without knee pain, not relying upon an increasing range of meds, not becoming too fat for the nice clothes you bought just last year...

I don't think anyone is pretending that the odd bit of cake/ice cream/chocolate is a problem. It's the daily consumption of refined sugar and processed food that generates health problems. Everyone knows this, it's not controversial.

I could happily munch 4-6 big bowls of cereal a day. I really loved it. I've been calorie counting and no longer buy it for myself. It's not worth the calories for me any more.

I buy for my daughter. She is thin enough that even our GP says she needs to eat high calorie foods.

I’m 70 and still like coco pops,also still here to tell the tale and all
my own teeth!’

I also think your post comes across very judgemental! Who are you to tell people what to feed their children!!

@Giggleslikespickles I agree we need fats and sugars. There are plenty of fats and sugars in unprocessed foods: milk, fruit, nuts, meat etc.

I don't buy them - but if coco pops are on offer as part of a hotel breakfast will always have some.

I was slightly teasing about controlling all ingredients, but I do think that if you like ice cream and care about avoiding UPFs it's worth investing in a basic ice cream churn. I find commercial ice creams way too sweet, and I've yet to find a nice farm shop version that is worth eating. (I've tried a couple, but besides being ruinously expensive they just weren't very creamy or delicious). Fresh home made strawberry or chocolate ice cream is so delicious and you can experiment with flavours and ingredients that never make it into the commercial brands. My favourite is date molasses ice cream, which gives you a wonderful fruity caramel flavour and, whilst date molasses is obviously full of naturally occurring sugar, you do avoid using refined sugar and get at least some of the micro nutrients available in dates. Both of my children are difficult to feed in spite of having tried, probably for too long rather than not long enough, the 'they eat what we eat' approach described in some posts so my general philosophy is that wherever possible the food they're given, including treats, needs to be nutritious. So fresh ice cream full of egg yolks, good quality milk and cream, and often fruit as well, feels like a decent treat option. That said, given that they will eat nothing rather than porridge, and don't appear to like toast in the morning either, the weetabix/alphabites/unardorned cornflakes end of the cereal market are a regular fixture in our household. You do what you can.

You are very judgmental for a GP. Are you the sort of GP that blames people’s weight no matter what their symptoms are. ‘Oh you are suffering with headaches? It’s because you’re fat’ ‘oh you are suffering with a bad eye? It’s because you’re fat’
Surely it’s better to have something to eat like coco pops than nothing at all?
You go on that your kids eat a varied diet, so do mine and they had that cereal that you are moaning about (granted it wasn’t daily) Although they would probably draw the line at Venison but that’s because I don’t eat it and they haven’t had it themselves. My kids are now 26, 20 and 16 and they are all healthy. Please stop with the judgements, they blaming those that make the cereal. Maybe start a campaign encouraging parents to try other breakfasts? Use YOUR education to help others.

Interestingly if you read the Weight loss injection threads you’ll notice how many slimmers report ailments clearing up since losing weight, so actually a lot of the time being ‘fat’ to quote you is often a leading cause of a lot of health issues. People push back on doctors saying this because they struggle to face the reality that they’re being overweight can usually be blamed.

Being overweight IS bad for your health regardless of how you square it. GPs aren’t being judgmental they’re being honest and frank.

Ah, well, apologies for that.

It's still a silly judgmental shaming post that displays a shocking lack of understanding and empathy for a GP (and a teacher) about the realities of life, parenting and economics for many people, including, I would guess, many of your patients.

How are the plans coming to introduce some kind of nutritional awareness classes in your surgery? I would imagine they would be enthusiastically received.

I was involved in a project for a while where we distributed food boxes to families living in very difficult circumstances. As part of the box, we included all the ingredients needed for a couple easy to prepare (not requiring a lot of kitchen equipment), nutritionally sound meals, along with recipes for those meals. It had an extremely positive response. You'd be surprised by how many people haven't been taught the basics.