Is chocolate unfairly demonised as unhealthy?

[JambonetFromage]

DC are supposed to take a "healthy snack" into school for break.

What I send varies depending on what's in the house - sometimes it's something like a babybel, ricecakes, fruit etc. Often things which are questionable like hobnobs, banana bread, malt loaf, flapjack. But it's all been fine.

This week I sent them with homemade chocolate cornflake cakes - these were just cornflakes mixed with some melted chocolate. DC came back with a letter from school saying these were unsuitable snacks.

Now I'm not trying to claim that chocolate cornflake cakes are "healthy" but I don't think they're nutritionally any better/worse than a flapjack or a slice of maltloaf which I've sent the DC with on many an occasion. I think the problem is one contains chocolate and the others don't.

AIBU to say that chocolate isn't evil and something containing chocolate doesn't necessarily make it less healthy?

Just actually send them with something healthy. You've been pushing the boundaries but most schools it's fruit or veg only.

It’s not a healthy snack.

Chocolate isn’t healthy unless it’s very high cocoa content and that in moderation.

Meanwhile, you can guarantee the school dinners will have a sugary pudding and the after school club will give kids biscuits. I thought we weren’t supposed to be teaching kids that there were “good” foods and “bad” foods anymore as it’s supposed to cause disordered relationships with food. And yet…. 🙄

It’s all a box ticking exercise. All food is fine in moderation. I bet the chocolate cornflakes would be fine in the lunchbox. It will just be about playing the game with the morning snack.

flapjacks and malt loaf can be just as unhealthy too, depending on sugar content.

We make home made banana/or veg based wholemeal muffins or cereal bars and add dark chocolate chips.

Its really easy to knock up no or low sugar veg based snacks.

Very dark chocolate is actually quite nutrient-dense, but I'd be surprised if most children's palettes were happy with 90% cocoa chocolate.

Probably they just haven’t noticed the flapjack/banana bread, but you could always ask for the definition of ’healthy’ they are following

The no chocolate rule is there because otherwise kids would be bringing in bars of aero or dairy milk as their snack

it’s much easier to blanket ban chocolate, and then you avoid this issue- “miss but they’ve got a chocolate cake!!!”

I wouldn't say it was 90% but it was actually decent quality dark chocolate, we had a surplus left over from xmas I was trying to use up. Not that the school would know that, obviously!

Yes that's fair I suppose. It does just seem a bit arbitrary that chocolate is "bad" but anything else is fair game.

I didn't say it was. I was just interested that this was where they draw the line.

The school aren't saying chocolate is 'evil' though, are they?

They're just saying it's unhealthy.

Having said that, I don't know why they keep encouraging snacking anyway.

Most kids can wait the few hours from breakfast till lunch without having to eat inbetween.

I sent my DS in with a bag of propercorn popcorn once and he was told it wasn’t suitable. Also sent him in with a homemade gingerbread man at Christmas as a treat and again, he was told no.

He takes a piece of fruit, Babybel/cheesestring or bear yo-yo in.

This is where we need to sing the song from Wonka: "Weeeeellll ... there's chocolate... AND there's chocolate ...."

Good quality dark chocolate is a good source of lots of things - anti-oxidants, magnesium, even iron.

Sugary bars that you tend to find at the corner shop or 9 to 9 are essentially candy.

I think your snacks were probably fine health-wise but can understand the school don't want them bringing in aero bars and having a philosophical debate about the point at which a chocolate item becomes unhealthy. Just dark? Or a small amount of milk choc? Good quality milk choc?

So while there's chocolate and there's chocolate, I guess the other side is if it's chocolate, well, it's chocolate.

Some kids don’t or won’t eat breakfast or have very minimal breakfast so start to lose concentration.

Yeah the DC are hooked on cheap custard creams thanks to after school club, just a slab of UPF! I'd rather they ate a homemade cornflake cake that's just cornflakes and chocolate.

So would I.

NHS states children under 5 should eat more fat than adult should. Chocolate is about 55% coco fat.
so, how old were the kids?

Jeez the snacking police are clearly more on the ball at your school, popcorn makes a regular appearance for our breaktime snack. One of the better options I'd have thought!

They serve loads of sugar and UPFs in our school for hot dinners. Cake with icing, huge slabs of shortbread, potato waffles, fish fingers, oven chips, crisps as a side option on the salad bar etc.

I don't give a flying fuck about this new moral panic around kids eating treats. My kid has severe food phobias due to autism and I live by the motto that "fed is best".

Cornflakes are not healthy. High in refined carbs, blood sugar will spike and crash.

I am currently eating a piece of Dairy Milk - inspired by this thread. I was given it for Christmas!

I'm not saying it is a top source of veg, but popcorn actually counts as one of five a day!

Chocolate itself isn't inherently unhealthy. But that's only if consumed in moderation. Trouble is that too many people have no self control and eat far too much of it. A small bar of chocolate occasionally or a few strips from a large bar isn't a problem. But, when someone buys 2 or 3 small bars and eats them in one day, or an entire medium/large bar in a day, then it clearly is a massive unhealthy problem. Everything in moderation!

Actually you raise an interesting point. If a mainstream supermarket brand, chances are they were in fact worse than the chocolate.

Rude Health is an excellent brand however. Some of their spelt flakes in dark choc would be 👌