Children that are allowed to eat/graze constantly?

securityguy

notanewuser wrote: »

It is less nutritious. Take chicken for example. In the 1950s they were grown for about 26 weeks, were low in fat and a high quality, tasty protein.

And also much more expensive, to the point that chicken was a once-a-year Christmas treat. You can't entirely divorce issues of quality from issues of price: high quality food you can't afford doesn't do anyone any good. You can today buy chickens raised in the manner you describe, but they are at least twice the price, if not more, of a conventional chicken.

There's a strong whiff of "let them eat cake" to the debate about intensive farming, and if people want to argue for a return to the 1950s (when food accounted for around 60% of the household budget of the working class) then they should be honest about the consequences.

mumps

I grew up in 50s/60s. We were never forced to eat everything on our plate, I rarely left anything as I liked my food but that is another story. Snacks? Well granny baked nearly every day, fresh bread and butter with some jam sometimes was eaten regularly. Fresh buns for after school as well as fruit kept us going till dinner. At school breaktime the teachers sold penny tea cakes or wagon wheels, I think this was to raise money for books. School dinners changed alot when I was at senior school and the set meal started to disappear. A plough mans with salad was popular at my school.

Broken biscuits were sold as a cheap snack, they came in a big tin and the local grocer would weigh them out in small amounts. At the sweet shop there was a penny tray and a half penny tray so our pocket money was spent on toffees and chews. And I still have all my own teeth. We didn't have McDonalds but the local chippie was a popular place to spend 6d.

I was only overweight for a brief period when my weight started to sneak up due to undiagnosed hypothyroidism, as soon as I got the diagnosis the weight dropped off again. As a teenager my nickname was Twiggy as I was very thin. I don't know the calorific value of anything as I have never dieted, I eat what I enjoy and can afford, I have never had hang ups about food and although two of my kids were picky eaters they grew out of it.

I can't begin to imagine letting a child go hungry, forcing them to eat something they don't like or not letting them help with baking and cooking.

No wonder food is a major issue to some young people, some people seem to know how to take the joy out of everything. Think I will go and do some baking for when I pick the grandchildren up later.

lostinrates

koalamummy wrote: »

Though I think it may be the types of snacks rather than snacking that is the problem! I have a medical condition where to keep the medication and blood glucose levels balanced I am required to eat three meals AND three snacks a day. This has been ongoing for over 35 years now and I still have never required any dental treatment. My brothers and sisters ate mostly the same as me at the same times and they too have yet to have any dental work either and they range in age from 24 to 42, so we aren't young. My children eat the same things at the same times I do and our dentists compliments them on the fabulous state of their teeth. On the other hand my DH who grew up eating only three meals a day has required regular dental work ever from I have known him!

I am not a dentist, and I am also meant to eat little and often. I vacillate between whether I do or not though as I actually think I feel better when I don't. . I quite enjoy intermittent fasting, it suits me well. (Incidentally, its also claimed that is more 'natural' than 'grazing' by some).

But, as I understand it tooth safe food is todo with pH. Water and milk are fine.....and that's pretty much it I think. Fruit between meals is one of the worst for dental health yet undeniably healthy in other ways.

Edit: you cannot really draw conclusions from such limited personal experience. E.g. In my family people tend to have very, very good teeth. Barely a filling anywhere. My health problems have meant a combination of bad factors for my teeth and I am ashamed to admit despite regular cleaning and attention I have fillings. This more complicated than just what and how I eat or don't eat, but certainly the latter must be a compounding factor. Drinks, btw are as important a factor, so three meals a day but the wrong drinks between meals could be a significant problem. As I understand it its the number of acid attacks one's teeth suffer that is the issue.

brook2jack

Fruit is fine so long as not too much is citrus and nothing is done to it ie it is not dried (eg raisins), pulped (eg smoothies and juice ) or processed..

Ph is a problem with acid erosion hence not too many citrus fruits, fizzy drinks (even diet) but the main damage to teeth is done by sugar.

Dentally speaking you can eat as much as you like as often as you like so long as no more than three eating/drinking occaisions contain sugar a day.

So for drinks water, milk,tea, coffee are fine, snacks should be sugar free. Yoghurt is mostly terrible for teeth unless plain because most yoghurts contain a large amount of sugar and acid.

The average Briton eats seven times a day and this increased eating activity has alot to do with the problems children still have today with decay. Tooth problems are in the top three reasons children need a hospital bed in the UK. In my area over 45% of children have tooth decay by the time they are 5.

lostinrates

brook2jack wrote: »

Fruit is fine so long as not too much is citrus and nothing is done to it ie it is not dried (eg raisins), pulped (eg smoothies and juice ) or processed..

Ph is a problem with acid erosion hence not too many citrus fruits, fizzy drinks (even diet) but the main damage to teeth is done by sugar.

Dentally speaking you can eat as much as you like as often as you like so long as no more than three eating/drinking occaisions contain sugar a day.

So for drinks water, milk,tea, coffee are fine, snacks should be sugar free. Yoghurt is mostly terrible for teeth unless plain because most yoghurts contain a large amount of sugar and acid.

The average Briton eats seven times a day and this increased eating activity has alot to do with the problems children still have today with decay. Tooth problems are in the top three reasons children need a hospital bed in the UK. In my area over 45% of children have tooth decay by the time they are 5.

Thanks brook! I was thinking of asking you and tooth smith for infor for this thread!

Sorry for getting it wrong!

adouglasmhor

notanewuser wrote: »

Would you like to eat cereal 1.5 hours after the milk got put on it?

My parents would have made me eat it if I had asked for it. They ran the household not the children.

andygb

notanewuser wrote: »

It is less nutritious. Take chicken for example. In the 1950s they were grown for about 26 weeks, were low in fat and a high quality, tasty protein.

Today's chickens live for 12 weeks, and are fed hormone-rich feed to fatten them as quickly as possible. They're no longer as low in fat, nor as tasty, nor do they provide the same level of protein quality.

That very much depends where you buy your chickens from (the same as any other food). We buy from a local butcher/farm shop and they do not use intensive methods. They are all free range, are no more expensive than shop bought (cheaper actually), and there is real texture and flavour in the birds. The meat on the legs is noticeably darker.
We grow some of our own tomatoes, and because we do not use any fertilisers, they have tough skins, but an extremely intense flavour.
I make my own bread, and I know exactly what goes into it - less salt and no preservatives/additives.

andygb

peachyprice wrote: »

You seem to be confused somewhat, what you describe isn't grazing, it's being greedy.

I am describing exactly the same scenario which the OP described in post #1

"One mum friend from the school was saying that she allows her children unlimited fruit each day, plus other snacks, and of course their meals. She has four children and she was saying that on average they snack on one punnet of fruit EACH per day, plus other snacks such as crisps, dried fruit, cheese, biscuits, ice lollies, and then fruit and veg in their meals too. Her food bill for a family of 6 is £250 per week! I have to say I was quite gobsmacked when she told me this.

Another friend allows her 3 children to eat from the moment they get up in the morning until the moment they go to bed at night; they have cereal and toast for breakfast, often 2 or 3 bowls of cereal each, then constant snacks until lunchtime (cheese strings, crisps, crackers, fruit, biscuits), then lunch, then constant snacking until tea time, then tea, then cereal and toast before bed. She too has said that her food bill is £250+ per week, for 5 of them, and they are absolutely skint."

In the modern World, this is known as grazing (something quite different to the "caveman diet"), and it has nothing at all to do with a healthy diet.
I do of course agree that it is greedy (gluttony is a better word).

ash28

brook2jack wrote: »

Fruit is fine so long as not too much is citrus and nothing is done to it ie it is not dried (eg raisins), pulped (eg smoothies and juice ) or processed..

Ph is a problem with acid erosion hence not too many citrus fruits, fizzy drinks (even diet) but the main damage to teeth is done by sugar.

Dentally speaking you can eat as much as you like as often as you like so long as no more than three eating/drinking occaisions contain sugar a day.

So for drinks water, milk,tea, coffee are fine, snacks should be sugar free. Yoghurt is mostly terrible for teeth unless plain because most yoghurts contain a large amount of sugar and acid.

The average Briton eats seven times a day and this increased eating activity has alot to do with the problems children still have today with decay. Tooth problems are in the top three reasons children need a hospital bed in the UK. In my area over 45% of children have tooth decay by the time they are 5.

I have 3 grown up children and when they were young our dentist told us if we had to let them have sweets not to ration them but just to let them eat them all at once....and not to dole them out a few at a time 2 or 3 times a day. And to give them chocolate if we were going to give them anything...try to avoid gums, boiled sweets, lollies etc. Advice we always followed.

Ours never had dried fruit as snacks...the nearest they came to dried fruit was in a teacake.

Fizzy drinks were a treat, as was fruit juice, they managed on water, milk or very weak squash.

2 of our 3 have no fillings and one them has 2......when she started work the began drinking tea with 2 sugars...it didn't take long, though once she found out she cut out the sugar.

And they all still like their chocolate.....

brook2jack

Three spoons of sugar in one tea cake with nothing on it. http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=250203677

It's as your dentist said it's not how much sugar you have its how often that causes problems.

Your teeth are under attack for an hour after each sip or bite of something sugary, so for instance having a sugary drink at your desk and taking a little sip every now and again is worse than drinking it down all in one go . Tea is a very good drink but even half a spoon of sugar makes it dangerous to teeth.

Energy drinks with ten to twelve spoons of sugar in are terrors because people will sip at the bottle.

But I make the point about the tea cake because alot of foods have sugar in them that you wouldn't suspect even savoury dishes e.g. tomato soup 2 spoons per serving http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=258147391 even in weight watchers !!!!! http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=260749154