Harmful additives

needmoney

catznine wrote:

Hi

I have started to print up some of the articles. I am making up a file with as much info as poss. The children at our school have to have school dinners so I really think they should be as healthy as poss. As I said earlier I have already drawn attention to the issue and to be fair they are interested but I guess more information is needed if decisions to change the food are to be made. If only Jamie Oliver would visit our school;)

So glad you're making a file.

jellyhead

i know lots of parents who've had to stop their kids having school meals because of the colourings used in cheap tomato sauce (in beans, spaghetti, bolognese, pasta, etc. etc.). my son doesn't have school meals anyway, but he certainly has a reaction to certain food colourings. hubby is ill after eating chip shop peas, and looking at tins of mushy peas on the supermarket shelves i can see why - they all contain TARTRAZINE! how much media attention has tartrazine had, yet it's still added to foods willy nilly, either that or my personal hate sunset yellow :mad: mum in law used to wonder why my sis in law was a nightmare child, it's because she went mad when given tartrazine, hubby doesn't go hyper he just gets migraine and feels ill. my son hasn't had tartrazine and he never will, but it's just as hard avoiding sunset yellow. he also reacts to most reds, so anything with orange sauce is suspect. greens are usually made with sunset yellow. the cheaper versions are the worst, and like sarahsaver says, they do make children wet the bed. caramel colourings are okay for young spud so he can drink coke but not cheap cola, not that we buy coke but at least he knows it's 'safe' if he's out - our kids have to be protected at parties etc. too, tuck shops at boys brigade/cubs/etc. so i'm all in favour of banning the bad colourings. if asda and tesco can make their '3 bags for a pound' sweets without azo dyes why on earth can't haribo do the same? lots of dyes we use here are banned in other countries. look at http://www.bryngollie.freeserve.co.uk/Enumbers.htm#E120 for a rundown of numbers, their names (because hardly anyone prints the numbers, you only get numbers if they sell them overseas and you look in the ingredient lists for a different country) and which ones cause allergic reaction. E122 for example, a nasty red "Whilst being a commonly used colour in the UK its use is banned in Canada, Japan, Sweden and the United States" - so why is it considered safe for UK children?

i help out with the PTA at school and i caused uproar when i refused to do ice lolly duty at the summer fete - the lollies contained tartrazine but nobody cared. i couldn't sell them though if i wouldn't let my son buy one. it was a school night, no way could he have artificial colourings. it's so easy to buy boxes of cheap lollies that don't contain artificial colours, i stamped my feet and demanded that somebody run down to a supermarket and buy some without the colourings. you can't buy throat sweets without evil dyes, i've tried. why can't tunes use natural colours?

(okay, i'm a hypocrite, i say on the mcdonalds thread that i don't see a problem with my son eating there occasionally, but it's colours that really upset us, the other additives we can live with on an occasional basis)

needmoney

Thanks jellyhead perhaps we may get somewhere if I can compose that letter properly and we all send one

ps we're all probably hypocrites at times I've just eaten a pile of sweets with god knows what in them and like you say we can have junk from time to time but there's no need for so much of it piled willy nilly into foods that don't need it.

Queenie

Well !!!!!! me sideways!!!!! :eek:

D10yo came home tonight from his Friday church club with a newsletter (very interesting read, 1st one, about proposed trips etc.) BUT, the *relevant* bit to this thread is ...

As we are finding that some children are becoming a little 'unruly' and cheeky and we think it may have something to do with the quantities of sweets being consumed (Queenie inserts: consumed at the Youth Club!) So, we have decided to restrict Tuck Shop purchases and also introduce some slightly healthier options....(Queenie: then a bit about restricting kids to 50p spending money)

:j :j

How delighted am *I*!!!? (Actually, my 10yo takes only 50p anyway, plus 40p of that goes on a bottle of ...................... WATER!).

At last! The "message" is getting through even to Youth Clubs (well, our one at least!) :think: wonder if the organiser is an MSE member :rotfl:

calleyw

You say that a lot of parents are miss informed. To be truthful a lot of them don't care what they feed there kids or themsleves. I know it is hard when on a budget. But a lot of people manage.

My hubbys ex is always moaning about the kids and how they miss behave. Well lets not tell hubby that the youngest should not have squash or coke. It was left up to the eldest to tell us what he can and can't have.

So I try and keep it simple when he comes to visit things like scrambled egg and sandwiches. That way there is not a lot of colourings or rubbish in it. With a choice of water, milk, apple of orange juice for a cold drink or tea of coffee for a hot drink.

Also a lot of comes down to not being able to cook. I heard on the radio the other day about a conversation over heard in a supermarket. It was two girls in late teens early twenties food shopping. One said to the other about getting dried pasta for tea. And the second girl said "no I don't know how to cook it."

Don't know how to cook dried pasta. Even tells you on the packet how to do that.

Being able to cook a proper meal and bake is becoming a lost art. And I find that very sad. Maybe home economics should be brought back. And boy and girls both learn how to plan and price a family meal. As well as baking bread and cakes. And even cooking a sunday roast with real gravy and not instant granules.

Hubby cooks with his son when he visits. It is only fairy cakes but it gives them something to do and he gets to take home something he has made. And he can be proud that he can cook.

Yours


Calley

Queenie

calleyw wrote:

.............. Being able to cook a proper meal and bake is becoming a lost art. And I find that very sad. Maybe home economics should be brought back. And boy and girls both learn how to plan and price a family meal. As well as baking bread and cakes. And even cooking a sunday roast with real gravy and not instant granules.

Hubby cooks with his son when he visits. It is only fairy cakes but it gives them something to do and he gets to take home something he has made. And he can be proud that he can cook.

:T Well said that woman!!! :T Hear, hear!!

VixxAnn

I and many others have been discussing similar issues in another thread (originally about McDonalds!)
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=516723#post516723

Needmoney posted about this thread on Harmful Additives - I really think that there are a lot of us out there now so vent up that we are ready to do something about this.

For starters, I don't know much about the exact workings of this forum but is there anyway we can get one big main thread going that EVERYONE will see? I am sure that so many MSE'ers will agree on this issue and we know that we can do something if we all club together (as has been shown with so many financial issues)

Also I have found this (sorry if link is too big - don't know how to shorten:o , if anyone else can, please do so)
To join the Children's Food Bill mailing list, and register your support for the campaign, please click here >>

come on folks, we are talking about improving the health and future of our children (& therefore our country - if you want to look at the "big picture":D )

Debt_Free_Chick

It looks like the Government is already on the case, generally. And Food in Schools specifically.

More HERE

And HERE

And HERE

There's loads more. I can't blame the Government for this one. There's plenty of information funded out of tax - some people just aren't listening :mad: Or they're plain lazy and filling their trolley with "convenient" junk from the Supermarket.

How do we educate those who won't listen or listen politely then shrug, whilst reaching for a pot noodle and a can of coke?

needmoney

Glad it's revived I really feel strongly but am a bit flumuxed (spelling) as how to move forward as VixxAnn says perhaps now we can all get together, better brains than mine.

VixxAnn

This is another link to a national campaign being run to.. support government action to regulate the promotion to children of food that can contribute to an unhealthy diet. http://www.womens-institute.org.uk/campaigns/childdiet-actionform.shtml

Please click and add your name (also the childrens bill link above)