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?

My last was meant to respond to this

Great post.

Me
I am
My kid and I eat it every day for every meal
See also Nutella on toast
Nutella on waffles
Melted Nutella and cereal on waffles

Pretty much anything goes

Guess what.... My dad ate amazing and went to gym 3 times a week and had manual job in fresh air all day... and still died of a heart attack at 60 for no reason at all

And my great nan ate chocolate every day, never worked and never ever did a minute of exercise and lived to 102

So yeah... We eat shit.

Genetics play a much bigger role than people ever allow for when it comes to food and life expectancy
People just want to feel like they're I controlling their health and life a lot more than they are

I agree with every word you have written OP.

All this 'every now and again' bollocks is putting me into a bad mood.

My DD does actually eat Coco pops 'every now and again' when she stays at her granny's about twice a year. People who have it in their cupboard do not eat it every now and again.

People/society collectively is taking zero responsibility for the appalling health of the majority based mainly on lifestyle. It's shocking.

My mum was very into making sure we had perfect balanced diets when I was growing up but we were still given Cocopops during the holidays.

In general cereal, with the exception of porridge, is not that great as a breakfast meal. However most (including Oreo cereal) are fortified with B vitamins and vitamin D and at under 200 calories per portion, they are not contributing significantly to the obesity crisis.

Me. I buy it for me. Why does everyone think that nice or fun things are only for kids ffs.

Except coco pops. I’m with you there. They’re vile now they’ve removed the sugar and I can’t understand how anyone can palate them! 🤣

Use to love coco pops as a kid but now no

Just wanted to back you up (a bit). My two have always loved pulled pork and I absolutely would put it out at a kids’ party, although we have tended to have bbqs as well! I have never encouraged beige food, but, despite being generally great eaters, they had their fussy phases here and there. I also hate boxed cereals, but my teens do indulge sometimes (they also eat porridge etc. as well). I work on the no food is banned theory and they are far from obese.

@RoseAndGeranium Well said. Unfortunately, I think you're wasting your breath here. Apparently, if you care about what children eat, you're no fun because everybody loves a 'treat' and boxes of cereal and other processed food are fine. It's easy money for those industries - get them hooked while they're young.

@Teasloth Your personal anecdotes are about as useful and helpful as the one about someone's grandad smoking 40 Capstan full strength every day and living until he was 104. They prove nothing.

In fairness, less unhealthy looking cereals probably have as much sugar etc and are equally bad for you

Poverty is a huge problem but largely due to lack of education and beliefs around food I.e. children won't eat porridge/ lentils/ stews etc. So "need" to be feed coco pops and nuggets.

Well you've answered your own question in a way OP. It sounds like you have little understanding of poverty or even people from different socioeconomic backgrounds to your own and with different education statuses.

Your posts just sound very much like a privileged, middle class snob and it's actually quite worrying that you're a GP. How do you respond to patients who are obese? You sound so condescending and completely lacking in self awareness about how you are coming across.

@RoseAndGeranium It's not that caring about diet is middle class snobbery. You'll find that most people care about their children's diets - it doesn't mean they are getting it right or have been privileged with the education/ support that they need.

It's the way OP is talking about it 'I can't understand why anyone would....' it's so lacking in empathy and understanding, especially for a GP.

OP is completely missing the point that some people are less privileged in terms of education, knowledge about parenting and even resilience/ coping strategies. That is what makes her sound like a middle class snob, not the fact that she cares about children's diets.

I agree with everything you said about food corporations. We do not live in a world that is geared up to support healthy eating. OP, as a GP, should have more empathy as to why people struggle and not blame them.

Now a "portion" might be under 200 cals, but I would bet 99% of people aren't weighing out a measly 30g.

It's not the calories alone, it's the sugar and processing that's the issue. It's a poor food choice no matter what. Its fine occasionally,but shouldn't be seen as an everyday choice.

They are contributing,by normalising junk food as a everyday, every meal choice.

Some kids would be given this as daily food;

Chocolate cereal and milk, a chocolate brioche and squash
Lunch could be cheap white bread, billy bear type ham, pack of crisps, penguin, frube and a pepperami.
Dinner could easily be cheap nuggets, pasta shapes and potato waffles followed by custard and cake.

I know kids are my school are sent in with a family pack of Doritos and a fruit shoot for their lunches.

Why do you think they give out free fruit and veg at school and meals? Because that might be the only time they see a carrot or an apple...

You are giving your child the worst possible start to the day. Sugary cerial will cause a sharp spike in blood sugar then a rapid crash mid morning, just when DC is in school. They won’t be able to concentrate/learn anything They will crave junk all day long. Long term it will lead to heart issues and diabetes.

True. I think plain shredded wheat is the only one without sugar or any other additives.

Cereal is not the only breakfast food. Homemade egg muffins with vegetables, omelette with vegetables, porridge or Greek yoghurt with fruits/berries
homemade pancakes and waffles made with oats, cottage cheese, bananas for sweetness
today we had cottage cheese pancakes topped with fruit compote which has no added sugar, I made it with frozen berries and chia seeds. It has natural sweetness and is absolutely delicious

You can also get puffed wheat which has no additives. It used to be made by Quaker’s but discontinued. Sainsbury’s do an own brand version.

How do you manage to make that stuff and get out of the house at 6am for work?

They’re not.

Take something like Weetabix. Less unhealthy looking? Tick. Also actually less unhealthy? Also tick.

Cereals shouldn’t all be lumped together. Anyone giving them to their children should be taking a moment to look at the differences. It’s not a case of ‘they’re all as bad as each other apart from shredded wheat’.

I meant to reply to a specific post responding to one that was itself replying to a snippy comment about Tarquin getting his kale and quinoa. There have been a few of those on this thread, and in discussions of this kind generally I see it a lot. I should have added, and have said elsewhere in the thread, that shaming people for poor knowledge of nutrition and insufficient resources to risk buying food their kids may reject, for instance, is equally unkind and unhelpful. The point is that there is gross inertia on this topic politically and very often the Left bats it away with concerns about poor families and the Right with stuff about the nanny state (though the Toris did at least manage the half arsed sugar tax I guess). And all the while they continue to give undue influence to corporations getting extremely rich at the cost of (mostly poor) people’s health and the NHS’s crippling costs dealing with Type 2 diabetes and other diet related illnesses. Tesco made profits of over £2.9bn last year. Its CEOis paid something nuts like £10m. Meanwhile farmers are going bust, we are losing grip on food security more and more annually, and the nation is getting fatter and sicker. Keir Starmer goes bonkers over a Netflix drama about a relatively niche issue but doesn’t get up in Parliament and say all schools should teach Ultra Processed People. It’s a bloody joke and it makes me really cross.

Up at 4 am to get ready to post the "delicious " breakfast on instagram ! Even the description of the food sounds staged!

Let me also mention my 11 year old son, who has diagnosed ADHD. He can’t look at stuff like Cadbury’s chocolate, Biscoff etc without it producing an adverse reaction. His symptoms worsen. He loves good food so there is no issue for him rejecting the crap and he actively swerves this kind of confectionary without me reminding him to do so. But just think, what’s all this UPF doing to the rest of us who don’t have a diagnosis of ADHD etc? Go figure.

Becuase most people don’t leave the house at 6am. Pancakes mix is also ridiculously easy to prep the night before and leave in the fridge for the morning.

@RoseAndGeranium I suppose the half-arsed sugar tax was some sort of attempt to tackle the problem. But unfortunately, I think it just gave companies an excuse to use cheaper artificial alternatives instead - maybe making the situation worse! (Sorry -the above quote was added by accident and I don't know how to get rid of it.)