If you believe "everything in moderation" where food's concerned, answer me this, please

[SneakyMouse]

I was wondering - why aren't more people actually quite pissed off that so much of the pretty expensive food and drink marketed specifically at children so often has low-grade cheap (and shitey) ingredients in?

Most mothers go "ah well, moderation's the key" and often get bitchy and snippy at anyone who mentions the yard-long list of ingredients in so many soft drinks and other foodstuffs.

But I don't think that this is the issue. Yes, moderation's the key when it's FOOD made of , but a lot of this is ingredients you'd never have in your kitchen, put there to preserve food so it can live on a shelf for two years, improve the "mouth feel" (fgs), or make it "appealing" colours.

So, all you "moderation" mums - why doesn't it bother you that you're being marketed at and taken for lemons (with added E numbers, glucose fructose syrup and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil)?

I mean why aren't you more pissed off with the companies who make and market this stuff, btw. Not sure that's clear from the OP.

because I don't buy it

so I don't give a bugger

I think the theory behind the "everything in moderation" brigade is, you can't stop your kid from ever getting their paws on this stuff. (Birthday parties etc etc). So it's best to let them have it sometimes with you and get used to it, so they don't go mad.

Sweets were largely Forbidden when I was a kid, and I did go mad once I could, but I really do moderate my sugar intake now. The food at home was dreadful though, and I'm hoping that by feeding my children tasty generally healthy food (with fat and sugar in), they will be less tempted by processed crap.

It does seem to be true that whatever you grew up with is what you get used to, and if you grow up seeing scary weird additive-laden crap as "food" and a "treat", you probably will still feel that way when you're an adult.

But if this crap wasn't marketed at anyone - if it didn't exist - then nobody would have to get used to it.

Agree that it's bloody weird to use bizarre chemical additives and transfat as treats too.

Well I have used that expression on here and in RL a lot - but I don't mean literally 'everything' in moderation, just 'anything'. So it's not going to kill my child or damage his health significsantly if he eats one supermarket chocolate biscuit with hydrogenated fat or inverted oil.
Ditto, not going to hurt if he has a fruit shoot at a party when the rest of the time he is offered water, milk or watered down fruit juice.
I generally use that term 'everything in moderation' to justify the fact that he's having a home made cake for pudding instead of fruit. Or homemade wholemeal pancakes with lemon and sugar for lunch last saturday as a treat.
Let's face it, we're all being marketed at one way or another...I try and teach my kids that first, and about the evils of advertising, how it lies and manipulates, rather than telling them they cannot eat this or that without any other explanation.

Well I have used that expression on here and in RL a lot - but I don't mean literally 'everything' in moderation, just 'anything'. So it's not going to kill my child or damage his health significsantly if he eats one supermarket chocolate biscuit with hydrogenated fat or inverted oil.
Ditto, not going to hurt if he has a fruit shoot at a party when the rest of the time he is offered water, milk or watered down fruit juice.
I generally use that term 'everything in moderation' to justify the fact that he's having a home made cake for pudding instead of fruit. Or homemade wholemeal pancakes with lemon and sugar for lunch last saturday as a treat.
Let's face it, we're all being marketed at one way or another...I try and teach my kids that first, and about the evils of advertising, how it lies and manipulates, rather than telling them they cannot eat this or that without any other explanation.

oh ok, hadn't seen the 'do you feed your children crap' thread, so some of this is old ground. (The answer to that one BTW is yes. Sometimes. Because I would never dream of offending whoever is offering the crap by saying 'oh we don't eat that'. Or by spending so long looking for somewhere healthy to eat on a day out or shopping trip that everyone is in tears.)

I discovered all of this, HM, when we cleaned up DS1's diet to sort out what he was intolerant too. I don't buy any Kelloggs cereals now because they all contain glucose-fructose syrup and barley malt flavouring - I buy Waitrose equivalents which contain real sugar and actual barley malt extract !!!

Why is there annatto in Cheerios? Why is there annatto in Ambrosia custard or Muller vanilla yoghurts - how yellow does custard have to be? I try not to buy anything that contains ingredients I would never have in my kitchen.

Horrible food, unfortunately, seems a treat to my children because they don't have it, and that's what other people have. So though DS1 is given posh crisps which are just potatoes, sunflower oil and salt, he wants Walkers Cheese & Onion which contain disodium guanylate and ribonucleotides. Yummy. Must put some of them in my shepherd's pie next week to bring out the flavour of the leeks.

I discovered all of this, HM, when we cleaned up DS1's diet to sort out what he was intolerant too. I don't buy any Kelloggs cereals now because they all contain glucose-fructose syrup and barley malt flavouring - I buy Waitrose equivalents which contain real sugar and actual barley malt extract !!!

Why is there annatto in Cheerios? Why is there annatto in Ambrosia custard or Muller vanilla yoghurts - how yellow does custard have to be? I try not to buy anything that contains ingredients I would never have in my kitchen.

Horrible food, unfortunately, seems a treat to my children because they don't have it, and that's what other people have. So though DS1 is given posh crisps which are just potatoes, sunflower oil and salt, he wants Walkers Cheese & Onion which contain disodium guanylate and ribonucleotides. Yummy. Must put some of them in my shepherd's pie next week to bring out the flavour of the leeks.

i htink my kid will not die and aslso cnanot live on rice shite cakes foever

Sorry for double post - it's very slow at the moment.

Because I don't buy it...

Full Moon Fiend puts it very well.

However while it doesn't stress me personally, when it comes to making decisions about what we & my dd eat, yes it does make me angry that companies do this, especially when what they're doing is precisely trying to appeal to parents who are trying to feed their children healthily but don't really know how (Sunny D being the classic example).

Is the key perhaps the longevity - that's why there's so much of it about. Dunno really.

Found the tone of your OP a bit off though.

Do you write for a broadsheet "lifestyle" supplement?

I agree with you Sneakymouse

I ply my children with ice-cream, chocolate and crisps without any qualms, but I wouldn't touch anything heavily processed

My parents never bought it, it certainly isn't a "treat", I just think it tastes like shit, makes me feel terrible and sluggish afterwards and contains stuff that isn't good for my body. It's a no brainer to me.

Do kids get this sort of stuff at parties? I've never been to a party where Fruit Shoots and bowls of crap have been served - I think that me and my friends value our OWN chatting time too much to get our children stoked up on e-numbers at a social event! It's pizza, sandwiches and crisps chez Morningpaper...

I think there are extremes of "everything". My DD for example is allowed to have a glass of lemonade if we're in a restaurant of something. But I don't allow her to have coke (coca cola ... not, obviously, the class A drug variety). If we're in said restaurant and the children's menu is of the 'stuff and chips' variety, then I ignore the chicken nuggets and steer her towards fishfingers, for example.

I have a friend who never lets her children have chocolate or sweets. Whenever we're at a party, they sit there guzzling all the sweet things, whereas my DD (who is allowed them sometimes as occasional treats) has a couple and that's it.

Sneakymouse - your post makes it sound like anyone who believes in "moderation" is actually giving their kids a diet of turkey twizzlers and mars bars, washed down with a pint of coke. Reality for me is healthy food with the occasional treat ... and this might be homemade cake, bread & jam, dried pineapple, etc ... not a bag of sweets. That occasional treat isn't going to kill her but she does get to enjoy all types of food without making any taboo.

ah morningpaper

it's when they get older and you start not knowing their parents that this motherhood business really starts to suck

to be honest, if they are other people's house eating crap then I don't care

As long as they aren't bouncing on MY sofa ...

I also made the comment on the other thread that I think the key is "everything in moderation" I did mean within reason. I read the ingredients of everything I buy and apart from his weekly bag of chocolate buttons and the odd gingerbread man in a cafe I don't buy ds anything with additives in. BUT as Cod has said nobody is going to die because of the odd piece of 'junk'. If you hold a completely 'no junk' stance you quickly lose friends. Ds had lunch around my sisters house the other day and if I had gone rummaging through her bins to check what ingredients were in the food I would not have made myself very popular. Lighten up everyone, I still stand by comment that everything is okay in moderation.

I don't understand people who don't let their kids eat chocolate

What's wrong with chocolate?

I think they are just mad women who have spent their lives thinking that Chocolate is the Enemy because it gives them a big arse

I think my OP was more from the POV of mothers I know (in RL, so I'm sure there are some on here ) who trill "everything in moderation" and cheerfully dole out all sorts of shite - moderation's not actually what they mean, more "don't judge me, you narky tight-arse".

LOL at write for a broadsheet No, I spend too much time arsing about on here

My children are young enough to like rice cakes still though...so maybe I will one day feed them bright blue bootlaces without a backwards glance?

there is a day ( go knows when) when you do stop all the hysteria thoguh
for eg there is a dy when kids have crisps

you enevr rememrb how you cross that brideg imo

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that either DS will shrivel up and wither away if they touch something with "crap" in it and I don't stop them eating anything when we're out - well, DS1, nobody gives DS2 food atm. DS1 isn't fussed by weird artificial food though and treats it all with utmost suspicion, but he does like crisps.

There's a big difference between crisps/chocolate/birthday cake/gingerbread men etc, and the likes of this!

I don't disagree with you really. It was just the "most mothers" and "taken for lemons" bit.

Made me think of Times2 somehow