How to stop the lunchbox police!

milliebear00001

onlyroz wrote: »

And why is it worse for you than the premium ham from the deli counter that costs four times as much?

PS those dairylea dunkables cost a fortune and I don't know why any same person would put one in a lunchbox.

Reformed meats usually have a lot o water and salt added, plus lots of e numbers - colours/preservatives etc. Generally, the less you pay for sandwich meats, the worse the nutritional value. It is impossible to get ham without added water and preservative in my supermarket for example.

Peanuckle

If only cooking lessons in school actually taught cookery but they don't (at least at the school my lot attended). The vast majority of lessons involved using packets, I could never work out how crushing digestive biscuits mixing with butter and covering it all with a mix of jelly and angel delight was classed as cooking? The lists of stuff I had to buy for their lessons consisted of packets, tins and jars that I didn't even buy normally. Lessons on healthy eating weren't much better, to be honest it reminded me of the pigs in 1984. All fruit good, all fat bad.(repeat ad nauseum) Nothing about moderation or how putting fruit into something doesn't magically make it healthy.


How can we expect the next generation of parents to feed their children a balanced diet when we're not teaching them either what a balanced diet is nor how to cook from scratch?

msb5262

Peanuckle wrote: »

If only cooking lessons in school actually taught cookery but they don't (at least at the school my lot attended). The vast majority of lessons involved using packets...how can we expect the next generation of parents to feed their children a balanced diet when we're not teaching them either what a balanced diet is nor how to cook from scratch?

Hello, I posted upthread about my school being part of the FFLP. You'll probably be glad to hear that children throughout the school get the chance to work with food and also to attend after school cooking club. At cooking club they make bread (from scratch), as well as pizza, muffins, biscuits and other things I can't remember offhand...but the packets are well and truly OUT!
MsB

sassyblue

onlyroz wrote: »

And why is it worse for you than the premium ham from the deli counter that costs four times as much?

PS those dairylea dunkables cost a fortune and I don't know why any same person would put one in a lunchbox.

Because the meat isn't from premium cuts - not even from nice parts of the animal. Plus, the BSE / CJD crisis was said to be from MRM (mechanically recovered meat), the meat is blasted off the carcass by the aid of pressure washing - and parts of infected spinal cord went into the meat.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1482140.stm

Sure some people can't afford meat off the bone and l don't judge them for it - you do what you can afford. I'm glad l have the choice.

sassyblue

milliebear00001 wrote: »

Reformed meats usually have a lot o water and salt added, plus lots of e numbers - colours/preservatives etc. Generally, the less you pay for sandwich meats, the worse the nutritional value. It is impossible to get ham without added water and preservative in my supermarket for example.

I've seen posts on here where people have managed to get small joints of ham, cook and cut them finely enough to really bring the cost down. Our local co-op now sells off cuts of ham, some really chunky pieces too, you really don't always have to buy the cheapest for value.

marleyboy

I will be sure to include a note in my Sons lunchbox stating clearly that ANY item removed from his lunchbox, I will personally give him twice the amount the second he gets home. Up until we can delve into these teachers lunchboxes and dictate what they can and cannot eat, they will have no say in what I decide is good enough for my Son.

If they don't like it, he is welcome to have his lunch at home up until he is old enough to have his own lunch money.

[Deleted User]

I am horrified by what I am reading here. My children are 34 36 and 40 and I would be absolutely fuming at this interference. We have always eaten healthily ie take 30 years ago, all home grown veg, suma wholefood co-operative etc and me, the mum who always cooked from basics. Loads of fruit and veg and in fact 7 a day before they invented 5 a day

Lunch boxes were always made by me and made to be eaten so a sandwich, a small fruit, a yoghurt and a small piece of cake or a choc bar. I knew the children had a good porridge start and came home to a very good meal, so lunch was only meant to be an energy provider for the school day. We all know about celery sticks and the like but a time and a place for everything

I am ok with them gently `educating` certain parents but that is all. Anything more smacks of dictatorship and nanny state. I don`t know how you parents of small ones put up with it

Mojisola

marleyboy wrote: »

Up until we can delve into these teachers lunchboxes and dictate what they can and cannot eat, they will have no say in what I decide is good enough for my Son.

I've never seen a staff room without at least one packet of chocolate biscuits doing the rounds.

WhiteHorse

What you put in your childs lunchbox is up to you. No-one else has any say in the matter.

Interestingly, the phenomenon of the lunch box Gestapo is nothing new. My 80 year old mother told me that when she was a child, a teacher took her lunch box off her because should did not approve of the contents.

Unfortunately for the person concerned, her father was a Policeman. He visited the school and forced the teacher to hand the food back. That or be arrested on the spot for theft.

msb5262

To be honest I'm a bit horrified by what I'm reading here too.

- 40000 people a year are dying from preventable cardiovascular disease - defined as something which wouldn't happen if they made good food choices (statistics from NICE - National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence).

- Children are growing up with parents who don't know how to cook any kind of meal from scratch.

- Packaged and processed foods have never been more widely available - and many people only eat these and takeaways.

We are actually killing our children by feeding them on fat, salt, sugar and additives -
yet people on this thread feel that "interfering" with lunchboxes is totally unjustified.

The evidence shows that parents will happily feed their children on all kinds of food which are totally inappropriate.

I feel that being a parent is not in itself enough to make your choices sacrosanct...look at the examples upthread!

A close friend of mine used to give her child chocolate spread sandwiches on processed white bread, a chocolate bar and a chocolate mousse every day - and she was a health professional.

Her child is now adult and struggles with her weight.

If there had been rules about what could go in lunchboxes, her daughter might have learned some better habits.

There is no doubt about it - learning poor food habits in childhood is a dangerous thing to do.

Parents aren't allowed to let their children smoke.

Why should they be allowed to send them to school with a box full of foods which will shorten their lives?

Please can someone explain?

MsB