Cereal bars are not a healthy snack...are they?

[NoComparison]

DS2 has brought home the school's decree on what constitutes a healthy snack. They are allowed cheese, fruit or a cereal bar, nothing else. A Kelloggs Frosties bar or Rice Crispy chocolate squares is acceptable, but flapjack, a piece of fruit cake or a biscuit is not.

To my mind, this is ridiculous. I'm all for educating parents and children about health eating, but this is not it. Cereal bars are full of sugar and fat in just the same way that the banned items are. They have the added downside of being ridiculously over-priced, so parents are being "forced" to spend money that could actually be just as well spent on a cheap packet of biscuits (or homemade cake ).

Or am I completely wrong?

43.5% sugar! :o

That was meant to be a

I think it varies though- although highish in calories, I think things like eat natural, 9 bar, even frusli aren't unhealthy, depending on what else you are eating. Coco pops type bar are however crap and flapjack would be yards better!

I wonder if whoever decreed it hadn't seen the frosties type ones?

The school has committed the cardinal error of trying to differentiate 'good' and 'bad' when it comes to food. Leaving the whole is it a cake? is it a biscuit? debate to one side, cheese, it could be argued, is a heavily salted wedge of saturated fats and not particularly healthy. Even fruit, being high in acid, can be damaging to teeth. In your shoes I'd be writing a letter back saying you'll be ignoring the guidelines and providing Comparison Minor with regular servings of whatever you see fit. :)

Here's my suggestion:
Bake your own organic flapjack.
Cut it into bars rather than the usual squares.
Tell DS it is a cereal bar.
Put it in his snack bag.
Wait and see if the school reacts, and have a printout of the BBC article to hand in case they do.

The whole Lunchbox police is silly. Surely something homemade is better than something with additives in? We have so far had no rules re lunches but I hope I'm striking a good balance and I shall be sending my homemade flapjack in ds lunchbox!

Flapjacks contain equivent amount of sugar and butter to the oats. Flapjacks organic or not as not a healthy food. You can omitted sugar for agave an use coconut oil as butter.

I send DS to school with wholemeal sarnie, peach/apple, yogurt and small slice of homemade slice of cake. What I cant understand that DS tells me that his friends have crisps, chocolate spread sarnies, sugar laden bottle of pop and sweets even though they have been told that they should have a healthy lunch.

What many people confuse is putting fruit into something then makes it a five a day hence healthy - this is not the case - a 5 aday is 5 unadulterated items and should form the basis of a healthy meal only its sugared/covered in fat it is no longer part of the 5 aday. 5 a day is the minimum too as some countries work on 7 a day.

I would address this fact to the school governors.