To think banning fried eggs is a step too far?

[NameChanger2026]

Whilst I agree with most of this, what’s wrong with an egg in decent oil?

Every few years different governments have a stab at this same trick. It's a quick easy vote winner to look like they care about kids wellbeing, but if you actually drill down into the changes it all falls apart. It's all about optics, the same as everything governments do over the last decade. So fed up of the fucking micro managing interfering twattery in this country.

I agree with this. At the end of the day, we are targeting children because they are there, and they are vulnerable. A secondary school child will be able to eat whatever the hell they want at uni, or at work. We don’t tell anyone else what they should be eating.

yes childhood is a great opportunity to educate and embed habits.

But the reality is children’s bodies are best able to tolerate an unhealthy diet anyway. An 8 year old won’t suffer from being overweight the way a 75 year old will. An 8 year old won’t get blocked arteries or fatty liver from their diet. You only have them under state control for a short amount of time, and it is very unlikely to hold the sort of influence posters like to think it does

Because parents won’t. If parents did, schools wouldn’t have to.

I thought that several chefs proved that if it is cooked on site from scratch, it can be cheaper and far more nutritional. There was Jamie Oliver and Marcus Brigstock? in hospitals. It depends where you buy it. Outsourcing was a HUGE mistake.

This is absolutely not true. The main cost- 90% of the cost- is labour, and people working in kitchens and serving up food rather than industrial kitchens is hugely more expensive.

and in Jamie Oliver’s day (what was that, 20 years ago?) we didn’t even have minimum wage and recently increased NI.

They still have to have kitchen staff to give the kids the crap they serve, surely?

You don’t need as many though do you?

In isolation fried eggs are fine. But children aren’t eating in isolation - they’re eating in a wider dietary context and what studies show is that context is filled with too much fat, saturated fat and calories. So adding more oil and fats to their diet contributes to an unhealthy diet - especially as excessive unhealthy fats are risk increasers for diabetes and obesity.

Now, the other issue is acrolein and oxidised cholesterols. Acrolein: When oil hits its smoke point, glycerol breaks down into acrolein, a respiratory irritant found in smoke and burnt fat (it’s also a carcinogen!). OCs: LDL cholesterol that has been chemically damaged by free radicals, turning it into a highly inflammatory, artery‑injuring form called oxidised LDL (oxLDL).Both are present in fried eggs.

You shouldn’t fry in olive oil. It’s smoke point is too low no matter if it’s good quality or not. Cold pressed rapeseed is better for high heat’s.

Zero? It has calories, B vitamins, is generally fortified with iron, folate, calcium. Certainly not 0 nutrition and modern cereals are far lower in sugars than the 90s.

Oh my god are you serious? Do you know that obesity starts in the mind??? And can start with habits we form as children??

It’s really dangerous and hard to put a teenager on a diet due to the eating disorder risk, my main aim is to keep my 5 year old healthy so he doesn’t end up worry about weight in his teens and twenties etc.

All i can think of are the eating disorders that will follow in a few years.
Some parents are over the top with healthy eating and now the schools.

I was always hungry as child because of this crap.

This is nonsense. Children aren’t tiny adults their bodies repair and heal better BUT they are enormously affected by diet because their physiological stage is entirely different from adulthood - it’s a stage of enormous energy requirement as well as maturation of immune systems, organs, lean mass, growth, brain development etc.

The most common form of malnutrition in the UK is micronutrient deficiencies - you can have obesity and be malnourished at the same time (double burden) by eating an unhealthy diet too high in calories, fats, sugar and salt and not high in Mns. Micronutrient deficiencies can lead to long and short term issues .

In the short term, it often shows up as tiredness, irritability, trouble concentrating, digestive issues, and more frequent infections because their immune systems rely heavily on steady nutrient intake.

Children have small stomachs and high nutritional needs, so even a few days of low‑quality food can noticeably affect their energy and behaviour.

Over months and years, consistently poor nutrition can lead to more serious conditions. These include obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, iron‑deficiency anaemia, vitamin D deficiency, and weakened bones. Growth can slow or falter, and learning can be affected because the developing brain is extremely sensitive to nutrient shortages. Emotional wellbeing can also suffer, with links to low mood and anxiety.

The risk is higher in childhood not lower - because this is a period of rapid growth, brain development, and immune maturation.

Obesity starts in the mind?! No it doesn’t, what a ridiculous thing to say.

im sure we’d all rather our children weren’t obese- that doesn’t mean it’s the schools responsibility to make sure it doesn’t happen.

society has a responsibility to ensure it supports healthy lifestyles. But it is really limited in the impact it can have.

Eating disorders aren’t started because schools served pudding with fruit and baked chips instead of frying.

Butter is saturated fat. Kids get too much of it as is.

Microwaving is no worse than cooking by any other means - it's just a different way of heating. I certainly don't worry about it. It can be healthier than boiling and losing nutrients in the water, and it saves on energy bills!

Because parents won’t isn’t a reason schools should.

You’re still not going to solve that with five meals a week during term time.

Also - if the government actually wanted to do something, it would raise the pitiful amount of £2.66 it pays for a free school meal. This becomes the default expected cost of a school lunch, no matter what it contains.

So I’ll believe it’s anything other than meaningless bollocks when we’re looking at £3+ a meal - and schools have to pay the NI increase on staff, many of whom are part time workers and were previously much cheaper to employ.

Meanwhile, out in the real world, children won't eat it. So those families that relied on the free school meals, which has just been extended to everyone on UC, will have to go to packed lunches. That'll mean, hungry kids and families in food poverty again. I can remember when Jamie Oliver changed things. No-one in my DD's SEN school had a hot meal because of it. Re fried eggs, this will now apply to other providers PGL etc, now it will just be scrambled, no big hardship. Children aren't suddenly going to eat something different. People can't afford what the Scandinavian's eat, or a lot of the suggestions on here. Posters aren't getting that families are also in fuel poverty. When you wake through the night because it's cold and then get up in a cold house, you don't want bloody Greek yoghurt, before you walk to school in the cold/rain.

Our borough is £3.20, which is enough, thanks to it being subsidised. But again, children are going to go hungry, because they won't want what's on offer.

Well fuck the kids then, they can all get fat and unhealthy. Why should anyone care about them?