Yesskydriller wrote:
Do I understand correctly, that these schools your kids are going to are dictating to the parents what they are allowed to feed their children???
Rightly or wrongly, yes. They’re not dictating (i.e. you must eat this) but restricting (you mustn’t eat that). I occasionally slip in a chocolate bar and haven’t been called out yet, but if I gave him a fizzy drink and a packet of crisps and a bar of chocolate, I would be.
My son gets a piece of fruit every morning, and for the first few years they all used to sit down and eat their fruit at the same time. It was very effective in expanding his rather fussy diet, and wouldn’t have worked at all if half the other kids had come in with a bar of chocolate. Personally I support it (as you probably guessed).
aart wrote:
Or maybe take an active approach, like to include in the curriculum how metabolism works and the advantages and disadvantages of various types of food? Would fit in perfectly as part of Biology.. Kids may find it more interesting to learn something that has a direct bearing on them.
That comes in at a secondary school level. I think it’s a bit abstract for the little ones. It is also the reason we managed to spend a whole term of cookery lessons just to make a sandwich.
Dont get me wrong, I dont think a can of coke, mars bar and packet of crisps should be lunch, and I certainly would NOT give this to my kids (both mine have always had school meals, with the school posting the menu online), but there is just something about the idea of someone dictating what I should and shouldnt give my kids that just wrankles – Im fully capable of deciding what my kids should eat and I dont need some do-gooder in a school to tell me…
skydriller wrote:
Do I understand correctly, that these schools your kids are going to are dictating to the parents what they are allowed to feed their children???
What they are allowed to bring onto the premises yes. BTW, there is an exception to the no-sugar rule for birthday cakes :)
What you do outside of the school is up to the parents to decide.
Some of these things are also practical considerations. Fizzy drinks (including gazed water) is more likely to blow up in the bag and leave a mess, the same goes for a Nutella . Interestingly, marmalade and honey are allowed.
kwlf wrote:
I think it’s a bit abstract for the little ones. It is also the reason we managed to spend a whole term of cookery lessons just to make a sandwich.
Depends how you tell them. My little one is starting to ask me these questions, whether something is healthy or not or under which conditions. She also has learnt that if she is given something sweet, she has to go wash her teeth. These things they do understand.
Just about sums it up.
Silvaire wrote:
Obviously I used that to demonstrate that without any doubt when you don’t eat much, you lose weight.
It surely is. Nobody doubts that you loose weight when you stop eating. And if just loosing weight is your target, that is actually an acceptable thing to do.
The vast majority of people, however, do not want to loose weight just because they want to be lighter, but rather to increase health, longevity, quality of life, you name it. In all of these cases, however, just eating less is one of the more stupid thing one could consider because it is very likely that one actually further worsens health and pretty sure will decrease life expectancy.
The right way to increase health and life expectancy is a balanced combination of physical activity and the right diet. Finding a right, calorie controlled diet is actually one of the more tricky parts – many people when doing so eat to few carbohydrates and thus increase their mortality by increasing their blood cholesterol.
Sky driller wrote:
I’m fully capable of deciding what my kids should eat and I dont need some do-gooder in a school to tell me…
Where do you come from out of curiosity?
You’re not the sort of parent the do-gooder are worried about. Round here we had a home schooled kid die of scurvy a few years ago. That’s an extreme that I think is fair to call child abuse. There have also been a number of deaths in children of fruitarians and other people living on unconventional diets. I think it’s clearly fair for the state to intervene in such cases.
These cases are rare; milder cases where kids are not in any imminent danger but are perhaps too obese to run, are reasonably common.
I would not want the school to dictate exactly what everybody should eat, but somewhere in the middle, we should be able to find a compromise.
Malibuflyer wrote:
The vast majority of people, however, do not want to loose weight just because they want to be lighter, but rather to increase health, longevity, quality of life, you name it. In all of these cases, however, just eating less is one of the more stupid thing one could consider because it is very likely that one actually further worsens health and pretty sure will decrease life expectancy.
Your opinions never cease to amaze. Eating too much and progressively gaining weight is the biggest health problem many or most people have, in the western world.
I think the problem is that we are programmed to eat whenever food is available, under the assumption that more may not be available any time soon. That leaves us in a situation where the healthiest approach, and the one that keeps our weight under control with its well known benefits, is to remain just very slightly hungry most of the time.
I don’t disagree, but I think it’s a fair point that there’s more to healthy eating, than eating in moderation.
Then there is a risk of yoyo dieting. The idea of being gently hungry is a good one.
Peter wrote:
Yes; exactly so, but this works only for a person of some sort of “normal” weight, and regulating weight at/below rather than at/above.Once you depart from that (and most departures are in the “above” direction ) then you can lose control very fast and with zero effort
That’s not true, either. My weight is well above “normal” for my length and unless I actively try to diet, it is rock stable.
Don’t eat and you will lose weight.
I believe there’s saying in English “You can’t outrun the fork”. Exercise is important but if you don’t control the intake, you won’t achieve much.
