Oh no not lentils!

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

I’m seeing a lot of outrage at this, including from people I like.

https://twitter.com/TheGNPE/status/2099362509006499910

Education Secretary Lucy Powell said the new standards for England are a once in a generation change and take effect from September 2027 with secondaries getting until September 2028 for some rules

Fried eggs pastries chocolate spread and high sugar cereals are also out and ketchup is limited to 10g of a reduced salt and sugar version

Cakes and desserts will be once a week in primaries and twice in secondaries and every dish must include fruit or vegetables

Yes, and? What’s so awful about that? Deep fried food is in fact not a great choice, so why not decide to eliminate it from school meals? If the kids must have their grease-food they can still get it at home; why should schools provide it?

Is it really bad to serve vegetables or fruit with every meal? In fact isn’t it kind of gross not to?

It’s odd to see adults furious that children won’t be able to eat deep-fried foods at school. There really are more delicious foods you know…

Comments

9 responses to “Oh no not lentils!”

  1. iknklast Avatar
    iknklast

    Man, chickpeas. I wish my school had served chickpeas. No, we got chicken fried steak with sausage gravy. I dislike chicken fried steak. I dislike sausage gravy. I am quite fond of chickpeas.

    There seems to be something in today’s culture that thinks of healthy foods as abuse. I think of fried foods as abuse, myself. I love veggies and fruits, and stock my kitchen with them.

  2. Artymorty Avatar
    Artymorty

    This strikes me as an example of social media’s power to warp people’s attitudes: it’s actually plain-obviously a good thing for the government to establish a healthy-food policy when it is feeding meals to children while they’re at school!

    But social media — twitter in particular — has a way of turning everything into ragebait. It’s become like AM talk radio but even crankier, more bitter, and somehow even more closely wired to the trigger: a hive mind, eagerly anticipating the next outrage to pounce on, to send a rush of dopamine coursing through the rabid group.

    I don’t like it anymore.

  3. chigau Avatar
    chigau

    I really hate living in interesting times.

    Really.

  4. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks healthy food is not a form of torture.

  5. 601 Avatar
    601

    Health issues aside, I always thought Fish & Chips on Friday’s was a nod to the Catholics. Maybe some are worried this is a move to halal.

  6. Ian Hargreaves Avatar
    Ian Hargreaves

    Context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie%27s_School_Dinners

    20+ years ago when a celebrity chef banned junk food at one school, parents were shown bringing junk food to the school at lunchtime and passing it through the fence to their own kids so they didn’t have to eat healthily.

    This is what you’re up against.

  7. Piglet Avatar
    Piglet

    @Ian Hargreaves: I was going to say, this cycle repeats every few years. Government decides kids should eat better; right-wing papers scream about nanny state and lentils; school catering companies hacked off because cooking healthy meals from scratch is more work than applying heat to premade beige foodservice slop; kids refuse to eat healthy meals cooked from scratch, causing massive food waste while parents sneak junk food through school fence; school agrees with caterers that some junk food can be permitted; junk food slowly returns to baseline.

  8. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    Golly how pathetic. There’s France right next door and yet…

    (France does gourmet food for schools. I read a long thing about it once, I think in The New Yorker.)

  9. John the Drunkard Avatar
    John the Drunkard

    School food is a big business. Attempts at reform are doomed from the start. Instead, we’ll get another round of Hegseth-styled ‘fitness’ suggestions. Yeah, the kids are fat because we aren’t whipping them hard enough. Feeding them trash is the American (and British) way.

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