Really?
I met a tired, harassed grandfather in the chemist queue yesterday. His wife was home with the three grandchildren. It is school holidays and they have had them "all week" instead of "just before and after school".
"We've had enough. I thought I'd give R... a break and bring them up here for an ice cream."
R...is his wife and does a lot of the caring because he volunteers as a driver for Meals on Wheels - something that needs to continue.
"What happened?" I asked thinking that most children would jump at the chance of an ice cream and that they must have been playing up.
"The eldest told us she didn't want an ice cream because ice cream is bad for you. It is apparently what she is now being taught at school."
He went on to tell me that she has, at the tender age of seven, started to dictate what the family can and cannot eat. It all comes from her teacher and a "healthy food" program at school.
"She won't eat this and that and the other thing. We had a set to at breakfast on Monday because she won't eat toast and Vegemite any more."
"What did she eat?" I asked wondering if this was more the beginning of a serious illness.
"Porridge."
Porridge is fine, very good in fact. Toast and Vegemite (the Downunder equivalent of Marmite to you Upoverites) however is the other breakfast staple.
"And what is wrong with toast and Vegemite?"
"It was the wrong brand of bread and Vegemite is too salty."
"But surely your daughter doesn't allow her to get away with this?"
"She is trying not to but you know time and the running battle every morning. R.... says send her to school without breakfast and a note saying she refused to eat it."
That probably won't help a lot.
"And lunch boxes are checked I suppose?"
"How did you guess? At that age - well a bit older - I would go to school with four rounds of white bread slathered in butter. One would be left over meat from the Sunday roast or peanut paste or Vegemite and the other would be jam. Mum would throw in a piece of fruit if we happened to have any. All of that apart from the fruit would be frowned on now. "
I remember those sandwiches. White bread was almost the only sort available. There was something called "brown" but it had very little colour. In our family it was almost always Vegemite - Vegemite was cheap. A jar went a long way. Occasionally we would get cheese or tomato. We never had jam sandwiches but that didn't stop use from swapping Vegemite for ersatz raspberry occasionally. We did get a piece of fruit because we had fruit trees. Our mother would cut it into pieces and wrap it firmly in waxed paper.
It never occurred to us to question what we were given to eat. We didn't like everything. What child does? We still ate it because there really was nothing else in our house.
Ice cream was a huge treat. It was almost always our paternal grandfather who bought it as a "once in the school holidays" treat. We were "little angels" when we knew that was likely coming up.
I thought of all this and I thought of this seven year old who is being taught about "healthy food" at school. Did we learn about healthy food too? I remember lessons about food groups and the things that we should try to eat and those that were good for us. I know we were taught about too many sweets "rotting your teeth" but we were never told we should not eat those things. We were I suppose taught about "moderation".
Before we moved out to rural parts again our family lived next door to a Serbian family. This was highly unusual when I was a child. I remember Mrs S... making what we thought of as strange things to eat. She would sometimes give my mother a tray of something or other. It would be in return for the English lessons my parents were giving her family. We children were happy to devour whatever came our way - and often hugged her for it. I know some of it was very sweet. I don't know how "good" it was for us but we were a healthy and active lot. We survived very nicely on all that "unhealthy" food. Part of it was probably to do with being so active.
But the three grandchildren missed out on ice cream because the seven year old refused point blank to go with her grandfather to get what should have been a treat. There is something very wrong about that.
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3 comments:
I have a friend (doctor) who points out that most of the “food” aisles in supermarkets are actually full of confectionery. And much of the “food” is actually manufactured from cheap things, to be sold expensively. I think it is a big, evil plan to sell us rubbish to make us sick to sell us medicines!
I took sandwiches of buttered white bread with bananas as filling, a piece of cake, and a piece of fruit for lunch when I was at school and for many years at work. We had “the usual” sort of breakfasts, and meat, potatoes, red, green, and another vegetable and a milk pudding with fruit for dinner. Often morning and afternoon tea, with biscuits. All washed down with cups of sugary tea. Most food home made, sometimes home grown. Lots of playing outside, walking, etc.
We are now allowed out of our houses (in Victoria) for exercise, to buy essentials, get/give care, and for work/school. I think most things in most supermarket trolleys are not essential! And not food, either.
“Eat what your grandmother ate” (or great grandmother) is good advice.
Well, that’s today’s rant done... but I do feel strongly about this.
LMcC
PS. Ice cream is an essential occasional treat! To be enjoyed.
I would not object to the powers that be trying to educate the young to eat healthily, but, and it is a big but, they are so wide of the mark on a lot of their prejudices that they might as well call it " How to hate food and eat the wrong things"
Two of the stupidities:
Two of my workmates putting skimmed milk in their tea(double yuk) saying we have to keep up our calcium intake. Without the vitamin D which is in the butterfat (removed) the calcium can't be absorbed, and passes straight though.
Butter is naughty, but cream is naughtier - ok, so how do you make butter - take some cream and remove the water and other stuff, by churning it. So butter is concentrated cream, but is not as naughty -that does not add up.
Eat what your Grandmother would recognise as food is good advice, but the trouble is that Grandmothers are getting younger!
My paternal grandmother grew up on a farm - loads of butter, cream, and fatty meat! A doctor once told me "no eggs, no dairy products, no fatty meat". He was happily telling all his patients this. His daughter, another doctor, told me, "Ignore my father. My view is everything in moderation."
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