Junk food warnings-"not for young children"

Lack of clear information!?!? Lack of information!? We are swamped with information about food!

The evolutionary thing means if we don't adapt we will go extinct. Yes. That's how it works.

Of course, it may mean adapting our diets rather than adapting to eat an excess of salts, fats and sugars. That's what the education bit is all about getting us to do.

In short, I simply don't believe that people need a 'warning' on certain foods. There are already enough warnings, some of which have been wrong all along and are now changing.

I quite like the traffic lights thing trisher. Although I usually check the nutritional info myself tbh.

You do worry a lot don't you trish.

Would you like labelling on cakes in baker's shop windows? You know - rock cakes: 'mmm, perhaps'. Down to - Viennese fingers: no fucking way!

Perhaps, although I could see some objecting to your language jbf. Still I understand people using such words often have an inadequate vocabulary.
thatbags things do change that isn't really a good reason for doing nothing.

And some are not great on punctuation!

Feel free to correct any mistakes jbf. Mind you I can spell "jingle".

A good balanced diet with the occasional treat has been my goal when feeding my family. A very wary eye on the sugar content of food and not too much fried stuff. However my twin grandaughters who live with me and are 17 have problems with their weight. The younger is obese at 12 stone 9 pounds (5ft 2) and the older now weighs 11 stone (5ft 6). They take no exercise being too busy on their laptops and phones. It drives me mad - they won't come with me when I walk the dog, they don't do anything physical. One of the difficulties is the 'grazing' habit amongst the young these days. (My mum would have told me that it was common to be seen eating in the street). Another difficulty is the idea that if you use the 'fat' word, the young person will immediately develop anorexia or bulimia (little chance with the twins I hope). There is little advice given in schools today to children and young people who are 'curvy'.

Three of my GDs took Food Technology GCSE - most of what they did involved analysing packaging and trying to replicate ready meals or cafe food. Very little on nutrition.

Soft drinks, coffee with sugar (1022cals) and hot chocolate drinks with cream (675 cals) aren't thought of as food, but will pile on the pounds.

I don't have biscuits, crisps, sweets at home (I would be tempted too) to try and help them out. Wii Fit and Just Dance are there should the fancy take them - usually used by older GDs after Sunday lunch and and . But they still sit on the sofa with phones.

Well, I have had a little rant and think that calorie information should be in large print on the front of food and if a ready meal, for the whole meal, not just 100g. Printing the calories of soft drinks in large letters too - for the whole drink, not 100ml.

That feels better!

Oh give it a break folks, I came on for a few minutes after spending 4 hours trying to clear out under the stairs 'helped' by DGS age 3.
Can I just drink my tea in peace please.

Sorry shouldn't be goaded into replies. Apologies to all other posters.

There is a long, and quite complicated story, behind my name which you obviously haven't been on here long enough to know.

I make no apologies. No one needs to read it.

NanaDenise I sympathise with you and your GDs I was overweight as a teenager and have battled ever since. Hope they and you manage to deal with things. I lost a lot of weight when I left school and went to college-a complete change of lifestyle and I was much happier. It is still something I need to monitor.

If granjura is right, and young people do get addicted to sugar, that is quite alarming in my opinion.
Addiction to anything is alarming.
I have not heard of that research before, and had a brief google, but couldnt see anything.

The ready availability of food information is not nothing, trisher, neither is what children are taught at school. I suppose we only differ about how much is done, but 'society' certainly isn't doing nothing right now.

soon, I think the word "addicted" is being used loosely with regard to sugar, just as I might use it loosely with regard to the game Spider Solitaire.

Bother! Why do I always think of something else just as I press the post button?!

I think the idea behind talking of sugar being addictive is that addiction is a frightening thing.

Jingle. Your post at 14.16.01 cracked me up. Great.

On the subject of addiction. I smoke and I like sugar sometimes. But I can tell you from personnel experience that when I get a sugar craving it's much stronger than nicotine.

From 'Little sugar addicts' by Kathleen DesMaisons, PHD:

Here's why this discovery was life changing for me, and why it has been life changing for thousands of other sugar sensitive people. Sugar sensitive people are born with low beta-endorphin. Low beta-endorphin produces low self-esteem. It causes you to seek things that raise your beta-endorphin so you feel better about yourself. The substances and experiences that do this quickest tend to be addictive. They include drugs like alcohol, heroin, morphine, and codeine and behaviors like gambling and debting. You remember the rush and go back for more. But after a while you no longer get a rush, and you feel terrible when withdrawal hits. Life becomes a search for ways to stave off the withdrawal. This is the cycle of addiction.

While not deadly like heroin, sugar similarly affects beta-endorphin. It impacts the same neurochemical system as heroin, though not as intensely. Opioid drugs are painkillers that cause their effect by activating beta-endorphin. Heroin, morphine, codeine, Percodan, and Oxy-Contin are all opioid drugs. Sugar acts like an opioid drug in your child's brain. A child with low beta-endorphin will naturally go for what makes her feel better: sugar And if she has very low levels of beta-endorphin, she will seek her "fix" even more. When you joke about your child being hooked on a can of soda, you are very close to the truth. And when the drug effect wears off, your child will be in opioid withdrawal.

End of quote.

You don't need to read it Jingle, nor make rude comments. Your comment re Trisher is way out of order, again.

Thatbags, I agree people are confused re being bombarded with info, often conflicting.

But what would be wrong about all prepared foods having a colour code.
It takes so much effort, on a daily basis, for busy mums to read all the labels and check everything. I didn't realise for ages that the Yogurts I though were healthy due to low fat, were chockerblock full of sugar to compensate for lack of taste, for instance. Colour coding would help on a daily basis.

Our grandson is severely allergic to eggs, some additives and nuts- and it is a total nightmare having to check all the small print! In his case, there is no choice as it is live threating- but in normal circumstances, colour coding would help all, for children and adults, no?

I seriously (no, really) think there is a danger in over labelling in that we have become so brainwashed focused on " nutritional information/advice/ best before dates /average daily guidelines" blah, blah, blah that if thre is NOTHING in writing we assume it must be OK
What happened to common sense, or judgement?
It is like looking at laws from both sides
1) you MUST NOT do x, y, z
OR
2)you MUST do . .
Just because something does not fall into one category, does not mean it necessarily fall into the other.

I have never shopped daily. I have always and do always when I try something new read the small print on foods. I've never found it a bother. It's just what one does. I guess my busy mother (five kids) taught me well. My daughters also read small print. I do not accept that it is a Big Deal to do that.

I suppose there would be nothing wrong with all prepared foods having a colour code, but I would still read the small print because I know that sellers of food would be selective about what information they were making obvious. Sorry, but saying it's all too hard is just a cop out from my point of view.

You can always go back to basic foods anyway. Cooking from scratch doesn't have to be time-consuming or difficult.