What are we feeding our kids? - BBC

Exactly nanna8.
A lot of parents today can`t be bothered to cook,you only have to look in shopping trolleys to see how much processed /junk food they buy.
And not just younger parents either.

One thing about life here is that most people do still cook their own meals because there are only a limited selection of frozen ready meals. They are increasing but nothing like the number in Europe. It never really took off here. I object to being told what to eat,though. I know and so do most others.

nanna8 Out of interest where do you live?

It’s not so much about telling people what to eat but more about preventing parents from poisoning their children.

When it comes to telling people what they should eat I think the important message here was to look at the ingredients and check how many of them are things that never appear in your own cooking. The more there are the bigger the risk.

MerylStreep - some of us have been boycotting Nestle since the 1970s when I learned of the way they have pushed formula milk in remote and underdeveloped areas causing so many unavoidable deaths. I believe Baby Milk Action is still going. Alexa I remember that - at the time it was billed as David v Goliath.

I can honestly say I have never knowingly bought a Nestle product since the 1970s and have written to them to say so every few years. They used to send me glossy info about how amazing they are - last year I just got an email with links to their corporate responsibility stuff.

As far as I'm concerned they are not honest now, and likely never have been.

I will never again regard Nestle as an honest business As others have said, Nestle were never an honest business. Many years ago National Childbirth Trust were running a boycotting campaign due to Nestle pushing formula milk in countries where breast really was best due to the lack of clean, safe water supplies.

I have my own copy of the nutritionist's bible; McCance and
Widdowson's Composition of Foods (sixth edition, published by the Food Standards Agency). which gives mineral and vitamin content of all basic foods. Their first edition is now
virtually unobtainable, but it showed that food was much more nutritious during the war. Alas soil has been depleted by over-use, and this applies to grass-fed meat as well as vegetables. A number of people find that food is tastier abroad.

correction ... causing so many avoidable deaths.

Studies show nutritional value has dropped since the data was first compiled. So, not only are the foods bland, but less nutritious than they were in the past. No wonder manufacturers 'enhence' their products. However, this really shouldn't be the way forward.e

I remember going on holidays in France in the 80s & looking for quick food to eat back at our Key Camp chalet. There was very little - not even a pizza. A few years later the supermarkets there stocked all sorts of nonsense - about the same time I was trying to avoid ready prepped & processed foods.

This programme is on again tonight at 11.45pm if you want to record it, or still on BBC iPlayer.

I'm still reeling to be honest.

Thank you for mentioning this elsewhere Chestnut as I hadn't seen this thread.

I was struck by the finding that when 2 groups of people were given food that was matched for levels of fat, sugar & fibre - one group getting ultra-processed food and the other getting minimally processed food - those who got the ultra-processed food ate more of it and gained more weight.

So the symbols on packaging can't tell the whole story.

I hope there is soon a study into the effects of this food on children.

A few years ago, it was depressing to see the level of resistance to Jamie Oliver's ideas, from parents as well as children.