More on healthy food horror

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

More of how ridiculous this fuss is.

Now the Government has a different solution in England to help children maintain a healthy diet: don’t give them a choice. New standards announced this week will further restrict fried, battered or breadcrumb-coated food; limit consumption of cakes and biscuits; apply restrictions to packed lunches; and demand high-protein meals, resulting in endless lentils and chickpeas, which are historically not English in the slightest.

Wtf? So what? Is there some rule or norm that says children can eat only food that is historically [relevant nationality here]? Lentils and chickpeas aka garbanzo beans are not so weird or gross that they can be eaten only by citizens of Legumeolandia. They’re a tad boring if cooked boringly, but then so are the everlasting fried potato sticks. With any luck the schools will serve the lentils in delicious curries and tomato sauces and similar.

Comments

8 responses to “More on healthy food horror”

  1. Sumi Avatar
    Sumi

    “… which are historically not English in the slightest.” Neither are curries. But fish-and-chip shops now sell curries and kebabs just to get young people through the door.

  2. Ian Hargreaves Avatar
    Ian Hargreaves

    Why is the voice of Cat Stevens singing “my lady D’Arbanville” going round my head? Must be the chickpeas

  3. Jim Baerg Avatar
    Jim Baerg

    I would hope there are non-curry options. I would expect at least some of the students to share my intense dislike of spicy-hot.

  4. NinetyEight Avatar
    NinetyEight

    In my experience of institutional food in the USA ‘delicious’ is not to be expected. Our college offerings, for one example, undoubtedly ticked all the nutritional boxes but were entirely flavorless. We tended to rely on the salad bar and self-serve ice cream. Those were the two things that could not be made worse. And we looked forward to times we could get fast food burgers and greasy pizza. Any lentils, were they served, would be stodgy, unappetizing, and not resembling any Indian dish.

    Perhaps the UK institutions can do better.

  5. Piglet Avatar
    Piglet

    Lentils and chickpeas are just legumes that grow in warm climates. We’ve been eating cold-climate legumes in the UK since forever, because medieval peasants sure as hell were not able to afford meat every day. (This is why English has Germanic names for animals and Romance names for their respective meats.) Personally I think “fried, battered or breadcrumb-coated food” is pretty disgusting but I’m in a minority.

  6. Piglet Avatar
    Piglet

    Jim Baerg: most Indian food isn’t spicy-hot, especially when it’s for kids.

  7. What a Maroon Avatar
    What a Maroon

    As long as there are options for kids with allergies to legumes.

  8. iknklast Avatar
    iknklast

    As long as there are options for kids with allergies to legumes.

    I imagine this is just a shorthand for healthy foods; I don’t imagine anyone would expect to serve the kids anything but lentils and chickpeas! There are so many healthy (and tasty) dishes out there, it would be silly to have no options.

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