[Graham Barnes]

One for all of you out in NZ at the moment...

Have just finished watching Jamie's School Dinners-compulsive viewing as ever-even if rather depressing.
Got me thinking...what are school dinners like out there? Is it a decent cooked meal, junk food or do most pupils bring packed lunches or get snacks from local shops.
Most feedback is that the NZ diet isn't the healthiest in the world anyway-am I right to expect this to be mirrored in schools??

[Tanya]

Only home packed lunches at my childrens school I'm afraid. :no I guess there must be some schools that cater for hot meals - found this on a website

http://www.yellow.co.nz/site/JamesStPreschool/Meals.html

guess you have to like vegemite sandwiches!!

Tanya

[Carol]

I dont know of ANY schools at all that provide school dinners.

Not in our immediate area anyway.

The majority of them dont even have a hall to serve them in!

[Wannaway]

No school dinners at my son's school - everyone has packed lunch. As someone commented to me the other day, no wonder they have a problem with child obesity - snack food and drinks in school and no backyard to run around in when they get home because it has been subdivided!

One school somewhere in Auckland has just imposed a "no drinks other than water on school premises" rule which seems a very good idea and seems to have had a good reaction so far,

[Carol]

I kid you not....

I have seen kids in my class with jelly crystals in their lunch box regularly!

They eat them like sherbet!

[Wannaway]

Hmmm, giving my 5 year old jelly crystals would probably have about the same effect as giving Kriss Akabusi a double espresso coffee laced with speed!

[Carol]

yep.

THen we are expected to teach them!
:eek

[jocalla]

My kids school offers hot meals, not like sit down meals, you just order the food and they give it to you at lunch time. My kids don't have any, they are sandwich, and museli bar kids, but I have dug out the menu

Mince pies $1.50
Lasagne $2.20
Chicken Cordon Bleu $2.20
Beef Roll $2.20
Bacon and cheese chrunchie $2.20
Sausage roll $ 1.30
Sandwiches $1.50
Rolls $1.50
Muffins $2.00
Fruit 90c

And on a Wednesday they have food from the local tavern

Fish and chips $2.00
Hotdog and chips $2.00
Donut and chips $2.00
1 Scoop of chips $1.00

Joanne

[StevieD]

EEk! Here's me thinking NZ was a health conscious place.

Yes, the Jamie Oliver programme is very disturbing. I shudder to think what state the nation is going to be in in a few years time. I didn't really take any notice of Jamie before, not particularly liking him. But watching him in this programme makes me think he deserves a medal. The guy has got balls, and the bit in last nights show that showed him "making" chicken nuggets in front of a bunch of renegade kids, then offering them to the kids to eat alongside chicken legs was fantastic! Not one took the nuggets :clap It is very disturbing and frightening to think of the power that these food manufacturers have over our lives.

One very interesting thing from last nights show - the almost total reduction of inhaler usage in one school since the kids stopped eating the processed rubbish previously on offer. This is a very frightening statistic which need extensive research if you ask me.

Which leads me to ask the question, going off thread a bit, what is the incidence of Asthma in NZ compared to UK.

We have decided this evening to bin cordial completely now, going on to proper fruit juices and weaning the kids off the junk that has started creeping in to their diet. (Can't stop the grandparents though! :? )

Well, I'm off to look at a few more posts and to cook my lentils! :laugh

[Tanya]

Which leads me to ask the question, going off thread a bit, what is the incidence of Asthma in NZ compared to UK.


http://www.asthmanz.co.nz/

Over 600,000 people in NZ have Asthma

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of asthma prevalence in the world
Asthma affects 1 in 4 New Zealand children
Asthma is the most common cause of hospitalisation for children
Asthma is responsible for 550,000 schools days missed every year




Tanya

[Timbo]

Those figures really make one wonder about the causes of Asthma.

[StevieD]

Wow, scary! Seems funny that the programme last night noted and almost 100% reduction in inhaler usage after the diet took hold in the school mentioned, is it chemical overload and pollution? Because NZ is supposed to be one of the cleanest environments isn't it? So maybe it is a bit of a junk food place too?

Now I have to go and look at some sites about poss. causes of Asthma!!

[Carol]

Those figures really make one wonder about the causes of Asthma.

I agree.......


scary stuff.

[Tanya]

Some websites imply that damp houses can be a trigger - without insulation that must be a majority of the houses in NZ!! :laugh

Tanya

[Carol]

I've wondered about that too Tanya......but when we were kids every house we lived in (pre central heating) was damp...and I just dont remember the incidents of asthma like there are now.

It might just be my memory.......I'm convinced food has much more to do with it!
:uhoh

[Tanya]

True - food and all the additives is also a trigger -

Enjoy the gravy DIny sent you!! :laugh :laugh :laugh


Get better soon :hopeso

Tanya

[Wannaway]

A couple of misconceptions I perceive about NZ;

1. its a health concious place - no, they love their pies, cakes, fast food and bread. Sugar and additives - bring em on! Howvere, maybe they haven't larded up quite as much as the rest of the world so far because people have been more active (running, cycling, watersports etc everywhere!).

2. it is a green country. Yes there is a lot of lovely pasture but ecology? Well lets just say so far NZ is not anywhere near the same league as Switzerland when it comes to recycling etc.

[ruthyroo]

Have to agree on both counts with the above poster. The amount of crap food eaten here is quite staggering - and was a major disapointment as I too had these illusions of NZ as a healthy, clean living kind of place. In the school canteen where DH teaches they recently brought out their 'healthy heart' options on the menu. Interestingly mince pies and flavoured milk get little heart symbols while salad and water do not. When asked why, the response was that these were low fat i.e. stuffed with sugar and additives to make them taste better, alternatives to regular meat pies and flavoured milk. So much for educating kids about healthy eating.

It's also an issue of expense and poverty. Good, healthy, unadulterated food costs more than crappy cheap carbs and reprocessed 'meats'. Good food costs money - it costs more to buy a decent chicken and salad than it does to stick some chicken nuggets in the oven and heat up a tin of budget baked beans. And because junk food is so cheap out here, it's probably cheaper to head to MacD or Pizza hut as well. No wonder there are so many obese people wandering the aisles of Pak n Save with jumbo sized bags of crap.

[veronica]

you do get the same mix of people here as everywhere else. Some families are very health conscious, they're the ones that eat well and have the kids in loads of sports clubs etc, then, like everywhere else you get your couch potatoes who eat a lot of carbs. and little else.
New Zealand is populated with the same mix of people you get anywhere else in the world, the good the bad and the ugly, its the country thats different.

[Wannaway]

Yep, agree with all the fast food junk that is here, the scourge of McDonalds.

However, anybody go to Subway much? We do auite a bit and my 5 year old son loves it - mainly because he gets to tell the person what he wants in his sub (he loves bossing people around, must get it from his mum!). He is now been successfully weaned away from all things "Mc" etc. True he does have an oat and date cookie, but what is the point in being a child if you can't have the occasional sweet thing.

The four of us (2 adults/2kids) can get a decent sized sub etc with all the salad ingredients we want, drinks for all plus a cookie each for about $20 and I for one thinks that pretty good value.

PS When you do need something sinful, try the fish and chip shop on Ponsonby Road, jeez their chips are lovely :angel

[lindajax]

talking about healthy diets...mmm...
the prevalence of joint conditions here isalso quite high in children due to wieght. But one has to sort of bear in mind that some ethnicities here are of a large stature naturally. Yes some are over wieght but being large framed is also decieving.
linda x

[wilson182]

However, anybody go to Subway much?

Subway does seem to be popular over here, and there are quite a few around here in Christchurch anyway.

My daughters pre-school is promoting healthy eating quite heavily at the moment, and have actually succeded in weaning her off of juice and onto water. She will drink nothing else. They also like to see healthy food in their lunch boxes, and once when I sent a chocolate snack (well it was Friday and we were due to go shopping :oops: ) they sent it back and my daughter told me off :eek

[leslie]

isn't jamie oliver great? i'd say give him an obe but its an irrelevant title and he deserves a legit pat on the back...

even tony b is on the run, the only people who rest unabashed are marg hodges (child min) and ruthie (ed min). who said the world would be better if women were in charge. sigh.

for those of you who missed it earlier i am a woman and fast becoming a disappointed one.