To think that free breakfast at school is a bad idea due to the quality?

[Mushypeass]

Firstly, I fully agree with the principle of free breakfast for all pupils. My reservation comes from the quality of food that is often served up in UK school canteens. Obviously a poor quality breakfast is better than no breakfast at all but AIBU that it could encourage children to eat even more UPFs? For example, children who have may had a relatively healthy breakfast at home may now opt eat UPFs at school with their pals instead.

Seocondly, why is the food so poor in so many schools? How can other countries manage to provide their youth with nutritious and healthy meals but we can’t?

My kids probably the apple they love fruit and I believe that's because I've never banned food groups or ever called anything a treat food, it's just food. When they become adults and choose their own food they won't have this massive list of foods that where restricted in childhood that they suddenly want to eat. They won't have body issues due to a parent who is obsessing over food and naming it good and bad food. If you make an issue of something it becomes an issue

This is a radical idea, but how about you don’t eat the cocoa pops so that you model the Good behaviour for your children?

Outrageous, I know but worth considering
I hate chicken and fish, but I had to cook it and eat it in front of my kids so they did.

the junior school I work in provides about 300 school meals a day currently. Every day fresh bread is made and the cake/biscuits are baked from scratch. Fresh fruit is always an option and includes watermelon, honeydew, pineapple and grapes and is chopped every morning. We have a salad bar too. Meat comes from the butcher, sacks of potatoes are peeled and prepared, veg is a mix of fresh and frozen depending on the meal but broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peas and sweetcorn. The meals are cooked from scratch daily and the only frozen items are fish and oven chips once a week plus a couple of quorn veggie ones. Even the pizza is cooked fresh on the day.
the recipes are varied and not always loved by the kids but the food is provided and is good healthy food with minimal UPFs.
We can’t be unique and our catering company is very keen on using fresh ingredients.

This is very very interesting. And reassuring. One of concerns with the suggestion to swap from lunch to breakfast a few years ago was that I had noticed that the children who i knew to be from most disadvantaged families were often the children who were the most likely to be consistently late. I worried that at least with lunch as their free meal, they got a meal whereas breakfast would not be used. But you seem to be saying that if anything, they are MORE likely to turn up if there's breakfast on offer? If thats true I am 100% in favour.

Most parents can and do feed their children breakfast. It is pretty basic parenting. I think this should be a targeted provision.

2/3 of UK adults are overweight or obese and there is an explosion of diabetes diagnoses. I think “feckless” is pretty insulting unless the vast majority of UK adults are also “feckless”. Let’s be honest there are structural issues here and massive economic vested interests that are driving obesity and diabetes. The government is well placed to exert influence in the right direction. 9% of the NHS budget is spent on managing type 2 diabetes which is largely preventable through lifestyle.

I wouldn't suggest banning foods. What I would suggest is teaching our kids that some foods are better for us than others. And I would never label food of poor nutritional value as a treat!

Yes, of course you can have a bowl of coco pops for example, but once a week, because although they taste good, they don’t provide our bodies with anything they need to function.

My young adults do not have body issues or obsess about food in any way at all. But they generally choose more nutritious food.

It should be the norm that healthy, wholesome nutritious food is our go to, and the less good stuff consumed less often, but as a nation, we are the highest UPF consumers in Europe and a huge percentage of the population believe white bread and cereal are good breakfast options.

As a nation, we are clearly doing something very wrong.

What would actually be way more “mean” is setting them up to get diabetes in later life

Personally I'd say setting a child up for a life of unhealthy relationships with food and potentially eating disorders due to their parents obsession with UPFs is a lot meaner.

There is a middle ground between chocolate cereal for breakfast every day and obsessing over upfs. Neither is healthy.

It’s not just that. A Bulgarian school has far less but manage to provide veggie loaded food cooked from scratch.

This story always comes up on these kind of threads, and I think these examples are the exception and not the norm. Banning food groups is clearly not the best idea, but we need to teach our kids moderation. The same way as adults, the vast majority of us drink alcohol in moderation, UPF should be eaten in moderation.

A glass of wine and a packet of crisps now and then won’t do us any harm. A glass of wine and a packet of crisps for breakfast every day clearly not advisable!

I grew up eating cereal every morning as a child I don't have diabetes this was the 90s diet for most kids or certainly everyone i know and I only know one person with diabetes

Do you think my kids only eat coco pops for every meal or do you think they have a balanced diet that doesn't restrict food 🤔

This is my experience too.

My DC went to a paid breakfast club before school. It included breakfast, although we are together at home first. School breakfast was limited though as the full kitchen wasn't open. They provided fruit, milk, toast (brown bread) or teacakes.

My child’s secondary school have wanted them in from 8am for exams with ‘breakfast provided’. It was a Squares rice crispy bar. Hardly a breakfast?!

I work in a primary. There is a salad bar every day they can help themselves to in addition to their lunch. Plus bread. Pudding always has a yoghurt or fruit option in addition to the hot pudding option. The fruit is really popular.

The main meals vary. But the 'healthy' pizza is a total waste of food. It's made with some kind of brown flour base. It looks revolting and most of the kids don't eat it and throw it in the bin. An unhealthy normal pizza would be so much better as at least they would get food in their stomachs

A crappy breakfast is better than a starving child.
All school lunch’s must meet school food standards which includes providing salad. Any school not doing this is non compliant. anyone having a pop for bad school meals should note that the government gives £2.53 per meal. Bearing in mind this generally needs to cover staffing, equipment, food.. it’s not alot for a nice meal. A recent study showed it should be £3.10. So the government is providing 23% less than required. Yet again underfunding is the issue. If the average 1 form primary school made up the cost difference, it would cost them up to £24k a year, that’s the cost of a TA. So which would you choose if you were trying to balance a budget? This is the problem.

Mental health problems? Is it heck! Trauma causes those not what you eat.

And this is why we have an obesity crisis. Of course it’s harmful.

Mental health problems are absolutely not only caused by trauma!

There is lots of scientific research that shows UPFs change the pathways in our brains. Studies have shown links between high consumption of UPF and anxiety and depression. And newer research is showing a link between UPFs and dementia.

Not to mention the links to diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

And yet we, as a nation, are still eating and feeding our kids, the highest levels of UPF in Europe.

It isn't balanced if they are eating chocolate cereal each morning. They are having too much sugar in their diet daily for their diet to be balanced.

I’m another one who works in this sector and am in favour for the reasons outlined by the teachers/heads above. Yes I’d rather they serve porridge and fruit but if they don’t have the cooking facilities something is better than nothing. Shouldn’t be where we are in the UK but it is, it seems.

A lot would be hungry again by 8:30. It really shouldn’t be compulsory if you have a decent breakfast at home. That’s just treat food.

Mental health issues have nothing to do with issues in the brain or they'd test the brain when you go for a diagnosis. Mental health labels come from the notion that someone's normal reaction to something is that problematic it needs a label. There is no brain science behind mental health. Mental health is nothing to do with changes in the brain.

Being fearful of something is normal nothing to so with what we eat. Dementia is not a mental health issue.