Before I make an idiot of myself (again) can anyone tell me why a bought cereal bar is healthier than homemade cake or, if it isn't why not?

[sameagain]

I know the answer - I'm sure I do, but DS2's infant school insists on only healthy snacks for break-time. I always send fruit or carrot sticks, but it bugs me that they are allowed a commercially produced cereal bar, but not homemade fruit cake.

How can that additive and sugar laden thing be better for DS than a piece of homemade fruit cake?

Would you bother taking it up with the school? I like the fact that they teach about health food but I do wish they's get it right!

are they really not allowed home made stuff?!?!

I would have thought the fruit cake, that you know exactly what is in it, would be better than something packed with additives/flavourings that most of us can't even pronounce!

I'd take it up with them if it were me, but I like a battle & to kick upa fuss

I don't see why they would have an issue with home made fruitcake, it certainly sounds healthier than a cereal bar to me.

IMO even a non-iced home-made sponge cake is probably healthier than a bought cereal bar!

It's a blinkered and uninformed attitude: cake = baaaaad, muesli bar = good (well, it's got muesli in it, and it says that it's good for you on the wrapper...).

I would take it up with the school. Give them a sheet comparing the ingredients in your home-made cake with those in a bought bar. There are very few bars that aren't sugar-laden in one form or another.

well, i would point it out to them and ask them./

although, you can buy cereal bars that aren't laden with sugar or additives. we buy lyme regis fruitus bars which are yummy and have no refined sugars added

Message withdrawn

They've banned cake, not specifically my homemade cake (I don't think what DH says about my baking has reached the school yet anyway )

And it does make sense, if you're trying to encourage healthy eating, to avoid cakes, but IMO a cereal bar is no better and in many case worse.

In the junior school attached they're allowed only fruit/veg or real cheese (no cheese strings/dairylea etc)

Personally, I'm not sure why they need a snack at all. My DSs very rarely have anything between breakfast and at 12 o'clock lunch at home.

The less suggar-laden bars are generally substantially more expensive than the average muesli bar. Whereas a home-made cake is very cheap, and far better value-for-money.

Many pure fruit bars don't have any added sugar, but they can't really be compared with cereal or muesli bars. They're more comparable to a piece of fruit.

aren't they THICK?

Message withdrawn

bloss (hi, by the way ) - are you saying that you think cake (of the homemade variety) is not a suitable snack? My boys could not survive on just fruit and veg snacks. They have loads of fruit and veg each day as part of their meals and they have fruit for one of their daily snacks, but they have homemade cake, homemade flapjacks, etc for one snack per day. For my eldest, those no sugar type commercial bars are just not filling enough - not to mention expensive. What on earth do children eat for snack normally then that is filling enough but not cake or similar?

Mine are only allowed chocolate things if it has fruit in it.

My kids would have say - Cheese, bread sticks and apricots as a snack. Or a marmite sandwich. I agree though a slice of fruit cake sounds much better than a 50p 'cereal/muesli bar'

The Famous Five did incredible things on half a fruit cake. What do you mean they aren't real.

Could you send flapjack instead of a commercial bar?

Cereal bars can be 50% sugar and 30% fat. Nowt good in them.

DS1 is allowed totake a cereal bar for morning break ( coco pop cereal bar)
but not a home made fairy cake ( uniced)
I find it baffling

Could he take a homemade rice crispie cake which would be a fraction of the price.

What pillocks. Most cereals bars are utter crap. Print off some ingredients an show them.

My DS1 is only five and I sometimes "run out" of fruit/veg and pop in a couple of oatcakes for his morning snack. They're healthy enough in my book.

Message withdrawn

why not make your own cereal bars?
just to test the school's logic

I wrote a very long post on the other thread when someone got my back up saying "I give homemade blah with virtuous doodle and a cereal bar .." (actually there are a few posts along the same lines). It made me cross that people are getting on their high horses about penguin bars and crisps but then saying that cereal bars are ok. It smacks of daily mail logic to me. Just because something says it is a healthy choice it does not follow that it is actually healthy at all! (I deleted before posting though as I am pretty sure I would have been flamed!)

I had a fight discussion with dds step mother because she was touting "healthy" cereal bars (ie special K and Alpen) as a form of weight loss. Now I have no problem with people watching their weight or whatever but I do object to my (skinny and acive) child being told that a cereal bar is a healthy alternative to a balanced low fat/calorie meal.

I do not see how on earth the "establishment" expects children to adopt a healthy attitude to food when they are willing to endorse such idiotic assumptions as the ops school make!

A two finger kitkat is lower in fat and calories than a cereal bar. It is madness!