T think that a piece of cake is not fruit or veg, really?

[Clary]

Our school has a healthy snacks policy where parents are asked to send in a fruit or veg snack four days a week - then if they like they can send in a treat (eg enormous chocolate bar) on the final day.

So what could you send...apple, banana, pear, carrots, raisins, cucumber, tomatoes, dried apricots, School Bar, smoothie, grapes, strawberries, satsuma, orange, buttered malt loaf ... oh no hang on that's cake isn't it?

I got a bit peeved when I saw that was what a few of the children in the class I have been helping in were bringing.

I guess you are all going to post saying why does it matter, and the truth is it doesn't, not really, not to me directly. But surely it is an easy way for parents to promote a healthy snack (personal bugbear of mine), plus it's a pain if yr DC moans about carrots when "X gets cake at snack time" - plus, y'know, why can't parents do as they are asked?

I know, I know, it's the end of a busy week and I am a bit overtired. Just need a moan I guess.

I didn't think Malt Loaf was a cake, I use it as a savoury food with a thin scrape of butter on. Dd has it instead of a roll or sandwich once a week.

I'm actually not even sure what it's made of, but definitely not a cake.

Actually, I think that malt loaf may well contain enough fruit to count as a fruit based snack. I bought a fruit loaf today, it clearly states on the bag that 2 slices is the equivalent of one portion of fruit. My dcs are small and had one slice each and I think that probably counts as a child sized portion each.

Same with (for example) home made apple pie with decent chunks of apple. Yes it's pie, but it also contains a reasonable amount of fruit.

I would count malt loaf in the the same type of category as crumpets or plain scones. Not as healthy as bread, but definitely not cake as such.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

malt loaf

I don't suppose jaffa cakes would count as an orange-related treat then

YY of course it's cake. well anyway it;s not savoury

Ingredients are flour, water, raisins, sugar (Soreen that is).

One slice will have about 2 raisins in it, surely. Hardly the prescribed "handful".

If your dc moans about carrots then then answer is simple.. bake a carrot cake

I love buttered Malt loaf (or Soreen Doreen as known in this household) and will not hear a bad word about it.

YABU

I'm not calling malt loaf, I like it too.

But it's not fruit and veg and none of you will persuade me otherwise. So there.

Fruit has a natural suger content.
Doesnt bread have suger as part of its ingredients?

Mandy1966 - the minimum you can make bread with is yeast, flour, water and a bit of fat (oil/butter). If it has to keep, you need preservatives. You don't need sugar in bread, yuk!

It's bread the clue is in the loaf bit.

Bread is not cake.

Bread is bread.

And when I last slices through a fruit loaf there were loads of raisins & sultanas in it.

It's treated the same as pancakes, soda bread, potato farls & crumpets in my house - bread.

Being a loaf doesn´t make it bread does it?
Doesn´t that just mean it´s baked in a loaf tin and can be sliced?

My DH would argue it is part of 5 a day, but then he thinks that jam is healthy cos it contains fruit! (he would probably try to claim that Jaffa cakes are good for you too!!!)

I think the problem is less that other parents interpret fruit or veg as malt loaf and more that it should not be a problem if your DC moans that so-and-so gets cake when they have to have fruit. Even my 3 year old can comprehend that not everyone gets the same for the same reasons and that different parents have different rules and sometimes she not allowed to do something that her friend is.

Whether its bread or cake, its certainly not fruit or veg!

Banana loaf isn't bread though, so just cos it's got 'loaf' in the name doesn't make it bread, surely.

And malt loaf definitely isn't savoury!!

ITA, putting malt loaf on a list of healthy snacks is a bit bonkers. They wouldn't put fruit cake on would they, and that's probably got more fruit in.

MAlt loaf is definitely not savoury.

It also isn't fruit.

It's on the borderline of being cake.

It's yummy.

DH likes malt loaf a lot. He also claims it is "healthy". What he means is "i like eating lots of cake but I can pretend that this isn't really cake and so eat it all the time".

Experiment: Just asked DH what he would say malt loaf was and he licked his lips and his eyes glazed over. Then he said it was halfway between a fruit cake and bread, and it very nice. This is a man who has spent the morning baking chocolate things with DD so he knows his stuff...

Whichever way you look at it, it is not fruit or veg.

What is a school bar?

Malt loaf is not a fruit or vegetable snack.Parents are sometimes just bloody minded about doing what they are asked by school. Let the kids have malt loaf as part of their packed lunch but if there is a fruit / veg snack policy then do as you are asked and let it go.

But nightshoe it's not the parents' rule, it's the school's, that's the point.

They all go to the same school.

Fruit loaf is cake btw, and yes I know there is sugar in fruit but it's a very different thing from invert sugar syryp which malt loaf has as 4th ingredient.

A school bar is a bar of chopped up fruit etc which actually is just fruit I think - a way of making kids think they are getting a bar of treat when in fact it's fruit (dried fruit, but still) here

Its not cake. Not at all. Neither though is it fruit or veg.
So YANBU, they are breaking the rules. but YABU for calling it cake. Sweet bread is not cake.

cakes that count as fruit and veg.
fruit loaf
carrot cake
parsnip cake
apple cake
apple pie
blueberry pie
cherry pie
banana bread
banoffee pie (ok pushing it a bit with that one)
wedding cake - theres so much fruit in it, it must count right?

oh almost forgot these -> - they got rasberry jam!

nope malt loaf not cake , its not on the list

The school are being unreasonable for following on this stupid trend that the only healthy foods are fruit and veg