Junk food warnings-"not for young children"

The Swiss do like rules and regulations, and they hate people breaking them .

Swiss friend told me that.

I know this report is a year old, but it just shows how controversial the UK's voluntary 'traffic light' food labelling system is.

www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Packaging/Europe-investigating-UK-food-labelling

Interesting petra.

I am thinking that research from 1 book is rather limited.
But it may well be true, in which case there is a big problem.

I do think that further labelling, for under 3s, is a good idea.

Wow - stereotypes now! So here is another one, I am from the French speaking part, and we are quite different ;) - and after 40 years in the UK, perhaps the Great Britishness has rubbed on a tiny bit (come on- this is silly, and you know it!)...

Leave you to it. It would be nice to continue the discussion without such nonsense and bullying/rudeness from Jingl- but I don't think this will be possible, sadly as it is a very interesting, and important, topic.

Oh, for goodness sake granjura....

What bullying from Jingl?

Yes, I agree, it is silly, jura. We don't need warnings on food for under threes. People just need to use a bit of sense. And other people need to stop worrying so much.

What about the food industry actually producing food that does not contain excessive levels of sugar, salt, artificial colours and flavours, etc. etc.? It wouldn't go down too well with them because they know full well that some of these ingredients are addictive and therefore guarantee a regular customer base.

I do think there are too many health scares such as don't/do eat butter, don't/do drink in moderation, don't/do drink fruit juice, etc. etc. - I expect a lot of us have grown tired of the endless research results which are then contradicted a little while afterwards by another piece of research. But when it comes to heavily processed convenience "main" meals and breakfast cereals, I think there needs to be firm legislation.

Snacks like crisps and biscuits are not that good for anyone but my view is they are OK if eaten in moderation. To some extent it's up to individuals to ration these for themselves and for their families because it's fairly well known that snacks are not "healthy" foods.

Indeed. And perhaps good to go back to OP- an 18 months old being given Momster Munchies to eat. A 1 off- perhaps ok (hmmm not sure, but ...)- but I imagine it may well be a common occurrence conbined with other such foods- and if this is the case, a real concern for the child and its future health. One could even extrapolate that if a child of that age is given such foods on regular basis, it may well be part of other kind of 'mistreatment' as the parent obviously hasn't got a clue.

Bullying? You perhaps have not read all the threads re. rude and aggressive behaviour from a very few, 1 even, on a regular basis. I have received so many e-mails recently about people not daring to post, lest ... and that adds on to 'bullying ad rude behaviour' - in my book and that of many.

Does the problem of child obesity occur in other countries, other than the USA?

Child obesity is pretty widespread in Australia now, unfortunately, according to DD. You would think that with all the home-grown food and the outdoor life they are supposed to lead it wouldn't happen.

Indian Ocean Islands like Samoa
Samoa is a Polynesian island in the Pacific Ocean, not in the Indian Ocean. I think there is a tradition of - what shall I say? - largeness
Tonga is another island near Samoa - does anyone remember the Queen of Tonga at the Coronation in 1953 in all her magnificence? 6' 3" and proportioned to match.
Perhaps being overweight was regarded as a sign of a prosperous nation.

And some are not great on punctuation!
jingl surely you meant to type:
rock cake's and Viennese finger's

Thanks petra. Your appreciative post made me smile!

rosequarz I'm saying nothing more!

And don't anybody say good!

omg - which would be better then, if my esteem feels a bit low - chocolate or DH's painkillers? Decisions decisions.
I have heard that going for a run has the same effect but my knees would protest.

"DH's painkillers" ?!!!!!!!!

You norty girl!

Stick to the chocolate.

Eloethan your post Tue 05-May-15 17:57:45
I agree. Some of these ingredients are cheap and bulk food out.
Big business is more interested in profit than the future health of the nation.

I think people are confused and bemused as different directives come out and new research disagrees with what went before.
What firms and supermarkets promote as 'healthy options' may be far from that.
No wonder many reach for the easiest option - if it's low fat it must be good as fat is bad for us. How do the manufacturers then introduce flavour? Sugar, corn syrup and the like of course.
If a food is low in sugar it may well contain artificial sweeteners such as aspartame which have a reputation for causing ill health.

The best message would be 'Back to Basics'.

Ah, the GP gave him painkillers recently of which he took just a few. Codeine I think
Chocolate doesn't give you constipation like codeine does.

We have just had fish and chips. From the chip shop. It was Sooo delicious.

In case Glass reads that, we only had one portion of chips between us!

I think people should be responsible, take responsibility for their own healthy eating. I don't think it's the responsibility of food producers that produce "food some people disapprove of" (put in inverted commas because I can't think of a better descriptive phrase just at the moment. If people chose not to eat foods some people disapprove of, the producers would stop and do something else. Consumer power. If people carry on buying and eating foods some people disapprove of, that's their own look out. I think it is patronising to want to tell people what's good for them all the time and to want to remove personal responsibility from them.

I object to the apparent assumptions about the child (and its parent/s) in the OP and in later posts by others. Seeing a child eating Monster Munches tells you nothing about that child except that it is eating them when you see it. Once. Assuming anything else is just assumption and is based on the prejudices of the people doing the assuming. And the judging.

Codiene is not automatically addictive. I've been taking it for years. When I'm not in pain I don't think about it or want it. Therefore I am not addicted to it. I think all these dangers are being magnified out of proportion to the real risks.

In my opinion chips are good food. So is chocolate. Both, as with everything, in moderation.