Jamie's School dinners

rainbowrisin

TNG wrote:

I think there is a contradiction there, rainbowrisin. Either people are intelligent and make informed decisions OR they choose not to make sensible choices, surely?

If people are intelligent and make informed decisions, how are the fast food corporations still in business? Surely No intelligent person, in posession of all the facts, would choose to feed their kids cr4p.

Believe me, people ARE that stupid. They DO fall for it

:rotfl: I work on the basis that people are basically intelligent and are able to make informed decisions. This also means they are able to make "bad" choices as well as "good" ones. I choose, at times, to exceed the speed limit. That is a "bad" choice which I, as a (debatable I know) informed and intelligent adult choose to make. Certainly it begs the question why I make a bad choice knowing the consequences and being able to choose otherwise, but I don't think I've been contradictory?
I don't know why fast food corporations are still in business - maybe you're right and there are a million or so muppets stuffing themselves to death on toxic waste in the name of nutrition? Maybe enough intelligent people making a "bad" choice every so often is enough to keep them going?
I just hesitate to relegate people to the "thick as pig poo" brigade TBH.

seraphina

thriftlady wrote:

I'm not sure about this...surely bread and potatoes are part of a healthy diet ? I try to vary the carbohydrate element of meals through the week to include wholemeal bread, potatoes, rice, pasta and maybe couscous, bulghar or barley and oats. I'd be a bit fed up with pasta or rice every day.

Me, I love pasta and rice so perhaps I'm biased:rotfl:

It came across to me that she was objecting to the pasta and rice in themselves rather than their nutritional value - it struck me as a "meat and two veg" mindset, and that pasta and rice were foreign or not proper food. This is just my interpretation of her reaction, so I could have got the wrong end of the stick entirely and judged this parent too harshly. The point I was trying to make was that potatoes and bread fulfill similar roles in a diet and I don't think that this parent would have objected to potatoes/bread every day, as she objected to pasta and rice appearing every day on the menu.

I could have misinterpreted her though

Queenie

rainbowrisin wrote:

Some interesting points Queenie. I don't think advertising is to blame, despite your claim that my view is complete nonsense. The logic of paying over the odds for a pile of rubbish because someone from an advertising agency tells me I should defeats me, and I think defeats a lot of other people as well. Yes, supermarkets do offer BOGOF on processed foods, but they're still way over priced for what they are, even at BOGOF prices. I honestly don't think that people are so stupid as to fall for it - clearly my naivity coming through eh? I think most people are intelligent and able to make informed choices about things in life, including what they eat and what they feed their children.
If people choose not to make sensible choices then that is their perogative, but to then blame advertising for "making them do it" I think patronises their intelligence.
w.r.t peer pressure, perhaps you have different experiences to me - certainly my experience of peer parent pressure is that there is huge pressure to feed the littlies healthy stuff, as well as make sure they do lots of activities, read lots of stories etc. I haven't once encountered a parent belittling me or the littlies because we don't eat rubbish. The usual view I encounter is that rubbish is cheap to feed children, and that providing fresh fruit and veg and home cooking is the more expensive and therefore preferable option.
Yes, maybe I am naive in thinking people should take responsiblity for their actions instead of blaming everyone other than themselves. If that's the case then so be it.

I think I actually said " to say that advertising etc isn't to blame" is a complete nonsense The etc., referred to your complete list which I couldn't be bothered type out in full.
No one single aspect is to blame, it's all those things added together.
Nor did I call *you* naive; I called your sweeping statement a little naive.
It's not as cut and dried as you suggest.
Parents can feed their children good wholesome healthy foods at home, but what about when those children go to friends houses? Parties? What about when those children are old enough to go into town on their own and grab something to eat while they are out? In all fairness to these parents you are so quick to judge, lets not forget that children have minds of their own too - "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink!"

You seem to be basing your point of view on the assumption that everyone has equal intelligence and level of education as yourself. But that in itself couldn't possibly be accurate.

I think you are very fortunate to be surrounded by peers who are "pressured" (?) into feeding their little one's healthy foods, read them stories and engage them in lots of activities. Not quite sure what you mean by the "huge pressure" to do these things though. But hey, that's a very positive pressure to be subjected to compared to the alternatives. But I say again, to judge everyone else based solely on your own experiences, is a fairly narrowed viewpoint.

As you say, it's a subject you "get soooooo cross about". Maybe you wouldn't feel quite so cross if you were able to appreciate and respect that not everyone has the same experiences as you, nor the same education and no, not everyone *is* of equal intelligence or as well informed.

I don't consider myself a "muppet" , but yes, sometimes, just sometimes, I also partake (I don't 'stuff' myself, brought up with better table manners ) of "death on toxic waste in the name of nutrition". I don't live on it, I exercise by walking and no doubt breathing in the toxic fumes polluting my air as you speed by

recovering_spendaholic

I think that food is only a part of the jigsaw, and TBH the junk food wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't combined with hours sitting on the computer/playstation/mobile phone or watching TV. Kids today are nearly all taken to and from school in cars, don't play out at all and are not allowed to do so many of the things we did as youngsters because of parental fear. I grew up drinking full sugar pop and really cheap penny sweets which were no doubt full of e-numbers, and loads of chippy chips. But I spent hours each day walking to and from school and when I got in from school I was invariably sent out by my mother to the shop for messages, I rode my bike (without a safety helmet), and often had another kid on as a seater. In the summer holidays I went out after breakfast and spent all day playing out without my Mum ringing me on my not yet invented mobile phone. I ate whatever food my Mum put on the table and it wasn't always the healthiest stuff in the world but then there wasn't the HUGE choice that there is today,and it wasn't advertised every hour of every day on Telly the way it is now. It's alright the government banging on about childhood obesity but they are the ones who allowed these giant multinational corporations to grow and take over the world. Okay rant over!

broomstick27

rainbowrisin wrote:

I honestly don't think that people are so stupid as to fall for it.

My mum buys anything that is bogof and more often than not gives the spare to me and still thinks she is saving money :eek: She also thinks that waitrose reduced meat (usually reduced by about 20p) is a bargain but wont go anywhere near properly reduced stuff in Tescos And she calls herself a mathematician!

rainbowrisin

Queenie wrote:

I think I actually said " to say that advertising etc isn't to blame" is a complete nonsense The etc., referred to your complete list which I couldn't be bothered type out in full.
No one single aspect is to blame, it's all those things added together.
Nor did I call *you* naive; I called your sweeping statement a little naive.
It's not as cut and dried as you suggest.
Parents can feed their children good wholesome healthy foods at home, but what about when those children go to friends houses? Parties? What about when those children are old enough to go into town on their own and grab something to eat while they are out? In all fairness to these parents you are so quick to judge, lets not forget that children have minds of their own too - "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink!"

You seem to be basing your point of view on the assumption that everyone has equal intelligence and level of education as yourself. But that in itself couldn't possibly be accurate.

I think you are very fortunate to be surrounded by peers who are "pressured" (?) into feeding their little one's healthy foods, read them stories and engage them in lots of activities. Not quite sure what you mean by the "huge pressure" to do these things though. But hey, that's a very positive pressure to be subjected to compared to the alternatives. But I say again, to judge everyone else based solely on your own experiences, is a fairly narrowed viewpoint.

As you say, it's a subject you "get soooooo cross about". Maybe you wouldn't feel quite so cross if you were able to appreciate and respect that not everyone has the same experiences as you, nor the same education and no, not everyone *is* of equal intelligence or as well informed.

I don't consider myself a "muppet" , but yes, sometimes, just sometimes, I also partake (I don't 'stuff' myself, brought up with better table manners ) of "death on toxic waste in the name of nutrition". I don't live on it, I exercise by walking and no doubt breathing in the toxic fumes polluting my air as you speed by

I don't think I've ever mentioned my level of intelligence (except to suggest it was debatable). I also don't believe, although please correct me if I'm wrong, I've ever mentioned my level of education, as I don't think it's relevant.
For what it's worth I'm not sure that there is a correlation between education and feeding children healthy food. I'm not even sure it takes a particularly large amount of intelligence.
Considering the enormous amount of information out there on the importance of healthy eating, I do find it difficult to believe that most people aren't aware of the basics. Similarly I would find it hard to believe that people aren't aware that smoking damages their health.
I fully appreciate that children have more access to junk food as they get older and have increased freedom, but would suggest that if it is confined to parties / nights out with friends and so on then it is a minority of their diet, provided healthy balanced meals are served at home.
I will continue to be soooooo crooosss when I see children being poisoned by eating high levels of junk food. Children are developing behavioural disorders, lacking ability to concentrate, developing diabetes before puberty and various other medical conditions due to eating far too much rubbish. I don't find that acceptable.
I don't really see much value in continuing down this line, as it's way off topic. If you wish to pm me then you are more than welcome to do so.

elisebutt65

Queenie wrote:

I can't completely agree with that statement. I do agree that parents are responsible for making sure their children eat properly and to lead by example, but to say that advertising etc., isn't to blame is a complete nonsense.

If advertising wasn't successful, why do companies plough so much money into it? Where did the phrase: "The power of advertising" come from? Supermarkets *do* have a tendancy to offer BOGOF's and deals on the cheap, processed, c.rap foods and very little in healthy range! Peer pressure is an interesting one because in my experience, although children are deemed the one's to be the victims of it, in actual fact, more often than not, it's the parents themselves who, perhaps through guilt (?) are more susceptable to peer pressure on their children's behalves.

Totally agree Queenie. I've been doing Marketing as part of my Business Mgt degree and I was doing some research on Ethics and to put it bluntly, none of the advertisers give a t*ss about ethics when it comes to children!!!

The marketing budgets for the fast food/junk food companies are HUGE!!!!

Why would they spend this money if it didn't work??? Look at the free toys in MacVomits? Cos they know if you can hook them when they're kids, then they're a customer for life!!!!

Peer Pressure, pester power - It all comes down to the adverts inthe end - if these products weren't advertised then the kids wouldn't know about them!!!!

Yes parents can say no, but unless they walk them to school and back everyday; how are they to know whether their kids has stopped off at a shop to top up on sugar fixes???

We don't have a PTA at our school - we have the Parent/Carers Support Forums ( A rose by any other name?) And it is my DS1's first term at secondary so I have actually decided to join - first meeting tomorrow night. I also joined the Exam stress mentoring team as well(RAFLMAO).

If I had the time then I would try and become involved as a parent gov. but until I've finished my studying as well, that looks unlikely, which is a pitu as I'd like to become more involved, especially in the school dinners issue. My DS hates the main courses(all healthy eating) so he just gets a plain cheese roll, cookie and a milkshake for his £1.75 and I give him extra cash so he can buy juice as well. He usually gets toast and hot chocolate in the morning as well, this is after he's had weetabix at home!! He's still a skinny weed though, growing up NOT out!!

patchwork_cat

From what my son says the amount of kids at his school who just have sweets for lunch is terrible. As I say he is overweight and can't understand why his friends aren't. I must say I wonder too.

He was saying that if you want a proper sit down lunch from the everyday specials you can't get a table. He says that jacket potatoes come in a take away carton that you can eat anywhere, but not a table - I was shocked.

There are about 1500 kids at his school though, so I am not surprised. There just isn't the facilities.

TNG

rainbowrisin wrote:

I just hesitate to relegate people to the "thick as pig poo" brigade TBH.

I will ALWAYS give individuals the benefit of the doubt, but I am of the long held opinion that 'Joe and Josephine public' are as thick as a docker's sandwich. Hey, they voted THAT WOMAN back in twice!!!!!

Finished going OT now......

Linda32

When I was at school during the mid 80's and we bought our own lunch in the school canteen, our school had a rule that if you had chips then you had to have fruit or yogurt for pudding.
If you had salad for dinner you could have cream cake for pudding.

Anyone else remember anything like this?