What hope is there with eejits like him in charge?

Looks like parents and people outside politics will have to step forward and sort things out again.

But apart from that, Archie (#2)... do you see anything else wrong with him?

where is Jamie Oliver when you need him, or maybe the Parents could get interested and make an effort to have changes for the better made, easy to say i know, but if we let them run us as they wish then we will get what we deserve. Stand up and be counted whether its on your school board or on election day, make the decision makers listen to you. H

How about deep fried hamsters a la wee Joke?

Sounds like he's going to the top of the Lab/Libdum cabal.
Complete tosser
Vote SNP in May

The man is a genius. I reckon all kids should have the facility to enjoy an oven baked plate of chips, black or white pudding, pickled onion and egg, all covered in brown sauce. A meal made in heaven. You could add a buttered roll, wholemeal of course, if they wanted a chip butty as a carry out.

#2
You appear to have the authority of knowing Hugh on personal terms -when did he tramp on yoour political toes then?

Can't see it will make much difference.

Every day, I see mobs of kids from Boroughmuir, Gillespies and St Thomas's milling about Bruntsfield and Tollcross, stuffing their pasty faces with chips, sausage rolls, cakes, buns etc, all bought from that healthy bakers called Greggs.

The only difference is that if they get the junk food in schools, they won't be dropping litter everywhere in the streets.

Let them eat what they want---they do, anyway. Not that I care.

#2 - Archie - applaud the skilled deployment of the word fud - haven't heard that in years.

There is nothing nutritionally wrong with oven chips, I'm sure there wouldn't be a fuss like this over boiled potatoes.

It would seem that the only way to eat a healthy diet is to live on water and raw green vegetables, All of the so called experts have different opinions depending on who funds them, then you have moronic politicians who seem to think that they know better than eanyone else and who dictate what should be on the menu.
Its no wonder our diets are so bad...

Water - Good for you except in large doses...then it'll kill you and Scottish Water makes it taste funny anyway because of some EU drivel.

Raw veg - good for you except you must remove all dirt and manky leaves as they could contain Ecoli and botulism and must be steamed for at least 20 mins. In times gone by it was boil until destroyed to kill all bugs.

Meat - good for you but can also cause coronary heart disease and can carry Ecoli and botulism and the obvious ethical problem

Milk - good for you except the adult body finds it difficult to digest and there are ethical problems behind the manufacture of it.

Bread - good for you except the white stuff and in large doses when it'll make you fat and smell.

Eggs - good for you except it can cause cholestoral build up and has ethical problems attached to egg production.

Fish - good for you except for the mecury loading and the obvious ethical probelm of catching it.

Excercise - good for you, no downsides toehr than over exertions. Itt is believed that you can eat all of the above, including a bit of junk food and if you exercise in relation to food intake, you may never suffer heart, circulation and other medical problems brought on by being a fatty tub thumper.

I was going to comment but Archie clearly also knows this cadaverous, waste of space.

"My little Rulebook says.... We must control, we must control".

I love my chips.
A fish supper and a bottle of Irn Bru are pure nectar.
The do-gooders can go away and do unmentionable things to themselves.

Power corrupts, and obviously addles the brain of ministers of the Scottish executive. Before we section them, that would cost the tax payer money; let us depose of them one and all in the May elections.

The recipe is in the peoples votes.

I am going to my bed, I left out the slice of lettuce and tomatoe on my perfect meal. The composting worms have to eat something.

Ultimately, all anyone can do is inform on food. People can (and will) decide for themselves nd their children. It's not like you can police every family's meals and snacking ....

I meet a lot of foreign visitors to Scotland through work, many of whom are impressed by Scotish companies, as well as Scotland's international reputation. Indeed, it is part of my job to persuade them to move to Scotland.

However, they only have to be near a school at lunchtime, and see what children eat, and indeed how many are obviously fat and unhealthy, and they say, "no thank you. I don't want my children to eat chips, crips and fizzy drinks at lunchtime. Don't parents in Scotalnd care about what their children eat. Why aren't they eating a sit-down meal at school?"

School dinners were introduced to stop children from bad health due to virtual starvation. Now they suffer from poor health because they eat too much of the worng food. The problem is that the parents east the same things as the children.

The effluence of affluence.

I don't know Carina Norris, the Fife based nutritionist, but the Scotsman staff certainly do! Are there no other nutritionists in our wee county?

Hugh Henry, who certainly knows his onions, is correct to listen to the experts on chips, but he is even more correct to recognise that their advice is just that - advice - and make his own mind up. As the spokesparrot for the parent-teachers says, chips isn't heroin and children like chips. They probably won't be so likely to eat the boiled broccoli the experts would have them eat so what's likely to happen is they'll miss the dinner school and go to a burger bar.

Good for you, Hugh.

What betting he is being sponsored by McCain's?
I'd rather my kids ate chips (not that they do, except very occasionally as a treat) made from fresh, real potatoes properly deep fried (when very little of the fat enters the food) than extruded potato powder products coated in (probably hydrogenated) vegetable fat mixed with whey powde, then deep frozen and stored in plastic for god knows how long. Sack this man now.

Incidentally, my picky eater youngest son won't eat any sort of greens - except broccoli, which he loves, especially with a dab of butter and a squeeze of lemon juice. He gave up chips -of all kinds - after the school started promoting healthy eating. The message does get through, and schools should keep going with this one.

#23, Jennie's comments: very good point!

Most eurapean schools dont let the kids out at lunchtime (why should they?). therefore the kids have sit down hot meals designed by a nutritionist. No more chip vans or Greggs.
Expenditure on school meals in Scotland is less per head than it is for prisons.
Finland, once one of the sickest populations in the world, is now one of the healthiest, thanks mainly to school meals
Oven chips are not healthy for you - nor do they have any nutritional value. It's just the equivelant of eating sawdust. A healthy diet is a balanced diet - but that shouldn't mean we load one end up with fats & carbs & then have to force everyone to eat raw spinnach.
Oh...& i used to work for Renfrewshire Cooncil & #2 is bang on about HH.

Hugh Henry rins his spell-checker ower incomin e-mails.

I can't believe this man...he should be re educated on the contents of oven chips. Its all down to money as usual. During a spell on my local primary school board at a time when the Scottish executive were reviewing its guidelines on school meals it was interesting to note their recommendations at that time (ten years ago) that chips should not appear on the school menu more than twice a week. When the company that had the tender to provide school meals at my local primary school were challenged over fried products they denied using them....errrrm...those turkey dinosaurs you happily throw in the oven dearie has previously been deep fried, is full of salt and oil and very little nutrition!! I would like to think that there has been changes in the menu of the school in question but i doubt in real terms that much has changed. My kids always loved baby tomatoes and corn on the cobs....grapes...and satsumas...there is really no excuse for not providing decent nutrition to primary school children....

5 portions of veg a day, chips,chips,chips,chips and chips "please".

Allowing chips which meet stringent standards for fat and salt content to be served as part of a (healthy) meal seems a sensible, pragmatic and real-world decision. Here in England low-fat oven chips are classed by nutrition boffins as deep-fried; and "deep-fried" products can only be served twice a week. What's happened? Schools still deep-fry chips twice a week and, overall, school meal uptake is plummeting as kids walk away to the takeaway. Healthier meals are only healthier if kids actually eat them; the ivory tower nutritionists need to get real like Hugh Henry has.

Whilst its not a good idea to serve chips every day, it is a good idea to exercise every day. This single-issue approach will never work - whether you like chips or not!

While schools are getting the attention over meals, it looks as though the biggest and newest college in Scotland, EDINBURGH TELFORD COLLEGE, is being overlooked.
We, the students, have complained to CEC catering who have the contract, about their unhealthy choice of foods and the extortionate prices. Over £2 for a large coffee, nearly £4 for a filled roll AND £5 for a curry or chinese meal.
Are we the only brand new college that has a CHIPPY??? Yes you heard...its a CHIPPY!!
Most of the younger kids buy a paltry bag of chips for £1 because that is about all they can afford and it fills them up.
Someone with a bit of clout should come and see this set up because it is a joke.
OVER INFLATED PRICES FOR RANK FOOD. and they are supposed to be feeding students who traditionally have very little money but need nutritious healthy food for concentration and energy. We have a large sports and dance dept where students are taught about nutrition but they cannot put what they learn into practise at college because CEC Catering put their profit before us kids and when we try to approach them, CEC management are aggressive and not prepared to listen. SHAME ON THEM!!
So if there is any health/cost conscience company out there...please contact Telford College and make our canteen one we can be proud of.

#1 Paul : Did you say PARENTS will need to sort things out again?

Are you for real? Parents are the reason that most British kids are unhealthy, rude, slovenly,disrespectful and entirely unable to communicate in a mature and reasonable manner..

The schools are in total and utter chaos in a system that protects the 1 trouble causer over the 20 wannabe learners. The kids dress in the most slovenly manner and wear jewellery and almost no uniform. Make up and cell phones are permitted as is foul language...let any headmaster attempt to change it for the greater good of children and the parents will go mad.

The food issue is also parental failings, the kids eat crap because their parents feed them crap..Most other nations have access to better food, but nor Scotland. You allow your kids to leave the school premises for lunch. Keep them in the premises and feed them out of a healthier canteen or tuck shop as they do in other countries. If they dont want that food they can bring a lunch box from home. But try that and the parents will go mad.

Wake up man!

Did you read that post yesterday which joked that people should only be able to purchase alchohol if it came with food? Now school kids will only be able to purchase chips if they come with a healthy main course. Next - methadone cut with sushi and a nice salad.

Wait - won't this create a generation of super-Neds?

#2 Archie

He is an idiot - Archie, that is.

He is a self-important blowhard and some posters have seen through his fraudulent posturing.

Ignore him and we will all have a sane day.

#33 Well said Media1! Our school system is a disgrace. It's a problem competing with Greggs though ...

My school didn't let you out of the grounds at lunchtime until you were in lower 6th. If caught outside you got detention, simple as that. It successfully ensured that folk only ate in the school canteen or brought in their own lunch. Worked fine.

The recommendation that a variety of extra bread, including brown and wholemeal, should be provided free every day along with school lunches, has been rejected. Instead, the minister said schools and local authorities will be "encouraged to consider" the recommendation.
Wheat comes from America. And the relationships of the Blaire and Bush at the moment are dicey. So no wheat. Whole meal means the full not cut, how on earth they will eat the whole meal, or is these full vitamined meals. If this is it then I see no fuss. Let them have these also as a supplement to the chips. Look I mean no offence but if you part the kids and the youths who are in love from the chips and popcorns there will be depression. Better let them have these.
Extra bread means one only. Not “Can I have some more please”. That will not work. Providing free has been rejected. So the kids bring their bread, chips and burger and bread from USA and home? Instead, the minister said schools and local authorities will be "encouraged to consider" the recommendation. I love this one. Free not allowed but bring from home encouraged. Let us see what the next menu is.
"You have to convince them that just because chips are OK, it doesn't mean that chips alone are OK. It seems silly to ban chips simply because they are called chips when they can be lower in fat than other foods and when potatoes are a good source of nutrients.
Okay. We can have no chips from the potatoes. How about cassava or sweet potatoes? We have them plenty in Tanzania and we can give at the reduced rate to the schools only. Barter. You send some bright boys, we send cassava.
Sarah Schenker, of the British Nutrition Foundation, said: "There's not much wrong with oven chips, but children will probably not understand. Sarah you had your time. Now you want no chip give to kids. Come on the life is give and take. You potatoes, kids take chips.
Now here we are back to the menu

#33

Hi media 1!

Agree many many parents have a lot to answer for. But not all, what I meant was that it will need some ordinary parents to take this up and try to do something about it because the politicians clearly won't.

Chips are part of the staple diet with school dinners. What's wrong with continuing to serve them? Growing kids need wholesome food, not salad crap and nouvelle cuisine.

This obsession with low fat foods is just a trendy fad which bears no resemblance to the real world.

Oven chips... Pah!

No 37
Change the school leaving certificate. No chip no jobs
NO 36
What do you mean OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM? WE ON CHIPS, NOT ON GEOMETRY. THAT IS TOO DIFFICULT FOR YOU if you do not eat chips.
NO 33
What can parents do if MacDonald’s is near the school or you are selling the chips near the schools.
NO 31 You swim well but not with heavy chirpy tummy.
NO 29 We are trying not to give chips What are you talking about. Spreading terrorism in schools bombarding all with chips and fish bones?
NO 27 You smoke peace pipe. Too bad the pipe blocked by the ministry. Get the plumber then talk.
NO 23 and NO 24. jennie, inverness we are not interested in ones kids. We are talking about the school systems not the apple mac of my eye my picky eater youngest son won't eat any sort of greens - except broccoli, So let him eat. But the schools children? Do you have a garden of these brrrokolliiiiss I need some.
Nutritionists and politicians accused the minister of sending out "mixed messages" to children about what they should eat. MIXED. This is mad, CAPITALS MAD MAD

NO 42
When did you escape from the Guantanamo bay prison? Petrol head you better hide Mr. Brown has a price on your head if you are 4 wheeler you GO KAPUT FAST.

why is the Scotsman so devoid of any stories about Scotland? I see the Herald has a new web-site with the same instant comment system as on here.

hello

i ate nowt but crap when i were a kid - i'm now a perectly healthy adult. its all blown out of proportion

As someone who has recently left school I can say that I would have welcomed this decision had I still been there.

I love mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, new potatoes, rice, pasta but if anyone had seen the watery powdered potato thing (void of all salt and butter) they dished out at school you would have opted for chips to. Until they improve the quality of school meals this is the only realistic option. I wonder why our private contractors aren't using the best ingredients...

46 - connaughtboy

Aye, the have, but judging by the very few posts as compared to here, it looks like a lot of people have had the same problem as me - it doesn't seem to work - I've tried typing in the number code as displayed, but it just keeps coming back round in circles - even after I registered the same thing keeps happening.

Scott Barbour. Thank you for the picture. The speech is lousy. The photo excellent.
Minister sends out mixed message on chips every day in school meals.
KEVIN SCHOFIELD
• Education minister Hugh Henry allows chips five days a week in schools
• Decision goes against advice of Executive's advisory body
• Only lower fat oven chips as part of a main meal to be allowed
• The picture. The newspapers give always also so yummmmy. The articles are pickly and I love these papers of Scottish origin. I don’t like the snobs English.
WHY don’t the readers understand HE LOVES MIXED spaghettis? That is what he wants to introduce when Blaire goes. Right now even he is tangled up with them Iran holding the English soldiers. Don’t worry, Iran will release the. I have faith in MULLAH (I am mulla) not Mullahs. Just missed the AHHHHHAALLL
I just read there is negotiation going on. They will come back safe and sound. But his minister who hates chips must to go Iran indeed.
NO 44
WE have at the moment the bird flu and the cow pox and the hay fever and the chips fried in water. We can’t afford oil. Too bad the politicians’ kids have big portions from home. They get them some how. Don’t know why and don’t please don’t quote me. They are all corrupted the kids too and the chips also. We have just introduced the Valley fever that comes from Serengeti. That is the biggest park in the world. We have these and tourist come pay so the Zebras can see them… we but chips flied in h2o

NO 44
When you grew up I saw. How are you? Still eating them chips in the and under the bed out off sight from ma and dad

#37 SS
Your school sounds nice. Bet the kids got chucked out into the snow at break time without coats on to "make them stronger and build character"! Ee those were the days...youngsters nowadays don't know they are born!!
Mmmm the photo is making me hungry...now where's the nearest chippie?

#48 Furby:

When I had school dinners, we always had a choice of potatoes. The choice usually included chips but there was normally a choice of boiled, mashed or roast as well.

You didn't HAVE to eat a cooked meal. There was often a salad option.

This whole thing is about choice. Something which the politically correct/nazi/do-gooder brigade do not respect. I never thought Id ever say this but I think that Hugh Henry has made the right decision. Let's hope that it does not get soured by the PC/nazi/do-gooders.

Is it "school lunch" or "school dinner"? A school cook locally tells me that the kids get far too much choice. There is always soup, bread, salad, sandwiches, baked potatoes and fruit available under the guise of healthy eating but there are also days when turkey drummers, fishy whales, burger, chips, roast dinners, pizza, pasta and so on are available, not to mention stodgy puds. The kids are allowed 2 courses. Faced with such a choice they will nearly always pick the turkey drummers, chips and beans option followed by sticky toffee pudding and custard. The salmon and broccoli bake usually ends up in the bin untouched. Even when the kids head for the salad bar they will fill themselves with ham and cheese and leave the green stuff. Councils will always go for mass produced mush because its cheap, requires little prep and few resources to deliver it. Parents are kidding themselves if they think their kids are eating healthily at school, or for that matter, getting enough PE and exercise.

It seems I live in a country where the number of chips to be eaten by a child is decided by a government minister and a panel of experts. Please tell me I'm having a bad dream.

olive oil, or is it too expensive for OUR kids

The school my daughters go to offers 'healthy choices' instead of chips. The choice is pasta in a tomato sauce at £1.65 for a tiny portion - it must have cost 20p to make. Why would any kid choose healthy when you are being ripped off for this choice. Chips are not that unhealthy given that the school still sells sausage and bacon rolls. If ministers want to interfere then let them subsidise school meals at a proper level for all rather than doing healthy on the cheap.

Well he's had his chips come the elections.

More often than people want to admit, the school lunch is the only meal that many kids get during the day. Unfortunate but true. I have volunteered for many school programs that my (4)kids participated in, and the one that had the most impact was the BREAKFAST program. So many kids were arriving at school hungry, it affected their learning, attitudes, etc.etc.. We had juice, toast, milk, and fruit. Over the 3 years I worked with this program, the change in student behavior was startling. The kids were not as likely to eat junk food during breaks, and were starting to demand and bring a healthy lunch. The learning improved dramatically, and the wee ones that would usually fall asleep in class around 2pm were wide awake and learning.
Forgive me if I am being long winded, but nothing in our kids lives is more important than nutrition, and people caring enough to provide it.

I ate all of this junk when I was at high school. The chips were greasier and there was never any issue with going to the icecream van at the top of the road - to buy utter junk. I wasn't fat, very few in my year were fat, few in the school were either.

Of course food plays a massive part here - but when I was at school, I got off my backside at did stuff outside. Even when I was p*shing down outside, I am sure the to and fro action of my snooker cue was more activity than these kids do now. I ate whatever I liked, whenever I liked - because that is what we all did. But we were ACTIVE and that is why we weren't all bloaters. No, we didn't have Greggs then - we had the local baker whose sausage rolls contained more lard than 10 Greggs ones.

Most of the above comments are totally irrelevant - food is the accelerator to our fat and lazy kids syndrome - not the catalyst. Think back to your own school days....I am right aren't I. Ryvita was what your Gran ate. Salad was what your pets ate. Water was what fish swam in. Coke, Mars Bars, chips, lardburgers...and football, golf, squash, tennis and just buggering about outside stopped us looking like the jellytubbies you see outside most schools now.

#62. Spot on!!!

#59. I've noticed this too. "Health" foods come in smaller portions and cost up anything up to 6 times as much.

Chips, by comparison, are both cheap and filling.

Exercise is what we should be promoting. Not faddy foods and slagging off old favourites.

Now .... pass me my afternoon cheese n biccies!!!

What is wrong withj the parent/s of those children teaching them proper dietary habits from veryy early on. but no, it is way to easier filling them with crisps and pop and sweeties.

Who pays for schools? how many of those so called parents bother to lobby the local authority for a healthier diet.

How many look on in dismay as their elected officials take trips abroad on "fact finding" missions but say nothing.

Until parents take full responsability for their offspring Scotlands no 1 product is going to be hyperactive podgy, peely wally excuses for humans, with no thought for self care.

Those who do not fall into that catagory will leave Scotland.

Come on folks its not down to politicians get your acts together and make the best for your children by learning to SAY NO!!!!!!

Thanks #63!

I should add that I am, at 34, a lazier swine than I really should be - but I eat "a little bit" more sensibly than I did at high school. My daughter called my stomach "chubby" the other day, but I am supremely confident is my limited exercise which I will be putting right as soon as the degrees go up a few. I can then eat more Gregg's custard slices for energy purposes!

#49 Bill - Don't register by typing in the on-screen number. When you get to that screen click on the Blue link that says "register". I did it that way this morning and have had no probs. Best of luck!

Chips aren't unhealthy.

There is no such thing as "junk" food.

Fat is an essential component of a healthy, balanced diet. It is not a poison.

If you eat too much you get fat. Eat less - problem solved.

I always thought it was the responsibility of the parents to ensure that their children eat right - even when the children are at school. ( Packed lunches and all that.)

Slainte

#49 Bill - in addition to what #67 said, you have to type in the number with every comment.

No-one seems to post on the Herald tho - there's a better crack to be had at this Auld Reekie Red Rosette Pravda rag.

#70 I don't need to type in every time, strange. Also, give it time to develop. :)

Until the schools keep kids in over lunchtime and make them eat school / packed lunches, they will always have the choice of going to the local chippie or bakers if they don't like what's on offer in the canteen. So, although 5 portions of oven chips a week is far from great, isn't it better than pushing the kids towards the deep fried variety or a fatty pie and doughnut from the bakers...?

(Come to think of it, shouldn't we expect our kids to be kept under school supervision the whole day? It would cost, but it would mean more control over food and hence health?)

#62 M - you're spot on re lack of exercise being the main cause of the 'teletubbies' in school these days.
BUT how many of us, fit at school, are now getting middle age spread because the cr*p we ate then formed our grub habits for life? Then, when we slow down and take less exercise, the fat piles on.
It's not just about keeping kids from becoming bloaters at school, but encouraging them to avoid the heart attacks at forty....

Also, the nonsense about us all being 'happy' with our body shape, to improve the self image of the bloaters and trying to reduce anorexia is all very well, but the health harm the overweight do to themselves FAR outweighs these problems. Fatties (and I've been there myself) need to be told that they are fat and harming themselves and to DO something about it, not to be told to 'think positive' about their lardy a*ses!!

"If they have no bread, then let them eat chips!"

Why do children need to eat chips anyway? What's wrong with jacket potatoes or wholemeal pasta...
There are loads of healthy options which could be made available, but the first thing is to educate parents who think it's acceptable to associate food with treats and make going to McDonalds to fill up on e-numbers and saturated fats a socially acceptable thing to do.

#73 I disagree strongly with you about telling people they are fat, especially if the person is a child or young adult. Young people who are overweight and have no metabolic disfunction need to encouraged, not mocked, to take more excercise and to eat more sensibly. There is no need to look for fancy gyms or excercise facilities, walking is good excercise and if the weather is really foul you can walk inside.

Never heard such nonsense: the photo at the top of this article shows an egg on beans, with chips and tomato ketchup on the side. If there were an apple or orange for dessert with this meal, it would be an excellent lunch for an active child.

As to keeping the children from eating or drinking chocolate, that's way off from fact. Chocolate contains important nutrients that are necessary for health, and especially, in the case of chocolate, for the circulatory system.

Yes, there is sugar in chocolate milk; but sugar is the only substance that the brain can use for growth. Mother's milk is packed with sugar. Cow's milk, by contrast, has more protein than sugar.
Children, if they are active, metabolize sugar very quickly, as does any human body. It's the proteins and fats that take longer to metabolize, which is why a high-fat and/or high-protein lunch makes you feel full longer.

Hi Tarchin 76 -
What I was suggesting was not mocking, but being honest with those who need to lose a few pounds. The 'what' (eating well and excercising) needs a 'why' (being fat may kill you) to give it proper meaning, ESPECIALLY for kids and young people. After all a child is NEVER satisfied until he has a satisfactory 'why' answer from his parents about anything!!

Martha #77 -
The human body does not need sugar, as it metabolises complex carbohydrates (starches etc) to make it's own sugars (glucose), which provides nearly all cellular energy requirements.

People in developed countries continue to live longer than ever before in history, despite the high fat and high protein diets they eat most of their lives.

In the USA, the AVERAGE age of death is 79.6 for males and 80.5 for females. That means HALF of the population lives longer than that; some of them much longer. A centenarian is no longer rare here, and living to 100 is well within reach of many people, especially if they are of European ancestry.

I would also like to point out that life expectancy jumped upward when Americans began eating of Mediterranean food more often. The Mediterranean diet, high in olive oil, and fish, with lots of vegetables cooked in appetizing ways, is very healthy, apparently just as healthy as a Japanese diet of fish and soy products. Both these diets apparently increase longevity significantly.

Flash 67: people have eaten sugar in the form of honey for many millennia-- as much as they could get, as often as they could get it. Sugar in and of itself is not harmful, except if taken in inordinate amounts. It's so important that the starchy foods that human beings around the globe eat begin turning to sugar even before these foods reach the stomach.

Humans love the taste of sugar; it is something that is hard-wired in us-- since as I mentioned, mother's milk is extremely high in sugar and infants need a LOT of it.

You can eat what you like; but self-styled nutrition "experts" are just parroting their favorite ideologies. They usually have no scientific training and also usually don't really know what they are talking about. It's a religion with them, not science.

###73## AND ###76###

I'm in my fifties, and was as thin as a rake until a few years ago---as a young person, I ate well and sensibly, and burned off the calories through work and exercise. None of my friends were obese, the way so many young people are now.

Now, through a sedentary lifestyle, I found myself 3 stone overweight.

In January, The hospital laid it on the line, warning me of either serious heart problems and/or diabetes, something I wouldn't have imagined as a fit young person. They were not 'mocking' me, just giving straight from the shoulder advice, which I have heeded.

Through cutting out fat, and exercising/walking everywhere, I've lost almost a stone, with two to go, and feel great.

My point is that anyone who is overweight should heed the medical advice before they end up with serious problems. Young people think they are invincible, that 'it will never happen to them', but they are not, and it can happen to them.

Sadly, all this pussyfooting about, and worrying in case someone's offended, is causing more health problems.

People appear to forget the basic rules of nutrition:

---more calories in than are used up, results in a fat body, and fat around the heart.

---fewer calories in than are used up, results in a slim body.

81 Martha -
I would agree re some nutrition 'experts'. I was just saying that we do not 'need' sugar, unlike fat and protein, as the body makes it's own. The very fact that we are hard wired to like this 'quick' energy source is what makes simple sugars so addictive, and why it is so important that we keep them to an absolute minimum in a child's diet.

#82 - Spot on with your summary at the end, but if we all bought into this explanation ,then what would all these lifestyle / womens magazines do to fill their pages that are currently all about diets and food?
;->

ps (and then I'm heading home for ma tea!) - too much of anything isn't good - My 3 year old son has had his intake of apples restricted, for the good of his teeth and his - ahem - digestive system!!
(is there such a thing as an 'apple-ivore' ??!!)

i keep myself anon. as I had a powerful article written by myself and printed in the evening news about anorexia nervosa, i wish, at this moment to remain so, however, I feel i must comment on this story and touch on a story in the evening news the other day from a Doctor who stated that the lothian health board has treated more people for eating disorders because they had the best treatment plan, that other health boards sent their ill persons, I would like to ask the Doctor, is that why I and lots others in this area, lived here all our lives, are not receiving the treatment we need?

Onto todays article, I can remember back to primary school, in the 70's, I had school dinners everyday of the week, we sat at tables of eight and two p7 "monitors" dished out our food, the food was good, normal food, only rarely did we get chips, but we did get things like mince and tatties and spam and potatoes, remember spam fritters?. There was no problem with the food, quality or health wise. We needed the energy anyway, as as soon as we had done our homework, had our tea, we were out playing till we were dragged in for bedtime.

The amount of publicity going on to do with what's in food, what children should be fed, and what not, fat kids, skiny kids, kids spending far too much time eating or fretting terribly about what they are eating. The answer to this problem is education, as I have stated before in previous correspondance children need to be educated, at a young age, about food, however, parents and or guardians have to take a large amount of responsibility. Exscuses along the lines of not enough time, too tired after work etc, not good enough, to put it bluntly, you have the child, you are responsible for keeping that child well, that's not tough love it's the law.

Try asking your child what they would like for tea on a particular day, then together make the meal, this is a massive plus in many ways, the obvious fun of time together, the child

I just had a school lunch the other day when I accompanied our High School Choirs to a choir competition.
Had a choice of mac and cheese with a green salad, hot dog on a bun with chili and cheese served with a side of green beans or a turkey roll up sandwich with a side of raw veggies and veggie dip (this was my choice). I think any side could be had with any main dish. Included drinks were a choice of 8 oz lowfat milks both plain and flavored or 6 oz. juices. The cost for kids was $2.20 US and $3.40 for adults. Fries (you call them chips) were a side dish for an extra $.75. Vending machines that dispense bottled soda juice and water are automatically turned off during the lunch hour.

School lunches here are subsidized for kids, free if one qualifies financially for free or reduced price and full price for adults.

I thought the roll-up was good with lettuce and tomatoes and ranch salad dressing (kids will eat anything with ranch dressing on it) and the cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and broccoli raw veggies were crisp and cold and delicious.

Would Scottish children eat a lunch like this? It seemed that a lot of US kids (typical size high school about 1000 kids plus the extra 300 who were there for the choir competitions) were eating the same as me although they did run out of the hotdogs before the end of lunch.

Kids here cannot leave the school grounds at lunch time unless in the last two years of high school. Many do bring a lunch from home and I know from my high school daughter many do actually skip lunch because the time is short (40 minutes).

# 76&82
My post was directed at the need to prevent young children being stigmatised e.g. called fat boy/girl by their peers.
Generally I think we are singing from the same hymn sheet.

In the USA, food is abundant and inexpensive, so we do have excellent programs for school lunches.

My kids usually take their lunches to school, and these always include a meat or peanut butter sandwich, fruit, and either a cookie or crisps. They bought their milk at school. By the time they returned home at 3:30 p.m., they are ravenous again, and head for the refrigerator. Then they eat a well-balanced supper at 6:00 p.m. , and maybe a light snack before bedtime. They are in the school's sports program, run miles every week, play water polo, and so on; they are actually a tad underweight because of the strenuous exercise, but they eat huge amounts of food.

My father lived to 93, and my mother to 89; they both died last year. Neither smoked nor drank any spirits, and only very rarely a glass of wine. On the other side of the family, my children's paternal grandfather died in his early 70s from lung cancer, and their paternal grandmother in her mid-eighties, also from cancer, despite excellent diets during life. These two people smoked all their lives and drank liquor, sometimes to excess, and seldom if ever took any exercise.

This is a purely random sample, but may shed some light on what really kills people. It isn't food; it's usually lack of exercise and self-indulgence in harmful substances.

What a treat it was for us oldies, during rationing, to go to the chip shop on a Friday (pay day) for a carry out. It was about the only thing you could buy without needing a ration book. I can still smell them at the thought. A little of what you fancy does you good!!!

I have often dwelled on the notion that unhealthy food be taxed excessively.the money ring fenced and used to subsidise healthy foods.
Would it not be nice to see those in poverty eating healthy food because thats ALL THEY CAN AFFORD!

There are ways of dealing with these kinds of problems. The start will be the removal of all the assholes in the current executive on May 3rd who allocate themselves a budget of thinking for each day,and exhaust it filling in their expense claims!
Then things will start to happen. Not before.

As a youngster in school I ate what my mom packed in a sack. I never complained.

I am now 70. At age 60 went to China to learn the language. I ate in the university dining hall. Great food, rice, lots of vegetables and very small amounts of meat every meal. Then on to my bike for the 20 minute peddle home. Good inexpensive food well prepared.

This clown must be brain damaged-should he possess such a thing!
His words of wisdom only reinforces the *THEM AND US SOCIETY*. Bad and nasty food for ordinary people's families; crap education for their children; a once NHS the envy off the world, now a shambles; a transport system nearing Third World standards; one of the most disproportioned taxed people in the industrial world between the wealthy and the not so wealthy;one of the smallest inhabited islands on planet earth and fighting wars all over its surface.
What else can one expect from the New Labour's amatuer lying Champagne socialists?
By the way all you loyal Scots; where has the slimy Darling disappeared too? Hasn't he been rather quite these past few months. Or, has he hibernated to keep himsef out of political harms way?
What a load of political garbage this outdated New Labour Party crap really are?
Roll on their final demise!

#89>Martha, how many off the USA's millions of underdlass live to their 93?
It would be nice to know?

Ye cannae hae yer porridge if yer chips are ready and yer horse hasnae been led tae water. Maer info at

www.tattieland.com

Wattie: what underclass would that be?

If you had bothered to read one of my posts above, you would see that the average age of males in the USA is 79+, (for the year 2005) and for females, 80+. Average is the midpoint, just in case you skipped school that day. So half of our society live to be less than 79+, and half live to be more than that same number.

People of European ancestry tend to live longer than our large minority population, which includes at least 15,000,000 recent immigrants whose health was compromised in childhood in their native lands, who have parasites and chronic diseases, and who don't follow the rules of good hygiene that are taught to American school children. The reason that we have 15 million undocumented hispanic immigrants is because conditions in their own country are appalling, and even as a member of the so-called "underclass" in the USA they are living remarkably better.

And in your country....? As I observe each time I visit Britain, your standard of living is at least 1/3 lower than ours, your choices in housing, food, clothing, schooling, and other commodities are far less than ours, and you are taxed higher. You earn less per person, and spend more for the same item as we do. For example, a pound is worth $1.65 on the currency markets (approximately), but we can buy for $1.00 what you spend $1.65 for. Food and petrol are noticeably much more expensive in Britain, and your houses are much smaller than ours for the same money.

We have and are justly proud of a high standard of living. Otherwise, people wouldn't be trying to enter our country illegally. Two days ago, somebody from Canada was picked up in the Niagara River trying to cross to the USA. They come in ship containers, they paddle or float over from Cuba and Haiti, they buy false documents in every country on earth to get here. Every day, thousands of people from Mexico sneak into America, but extremely few, if any, A

#96 If your freedom loving country; along with certain sections of the establishment in the UK kept your greedy paws and gung-ho military out off other peoples countries and let them get on with their own way of life; maybe, there would be no such people as illegal immigrants entering your land of milk and honey to exploit and abuse? In my history lessons during the early part of the twentieth century here in Scotland, we were taught then that the former illegal immigrants now controlling the USA, actually stole the country from the indigenous people by brutal superior military force and as usual, with it history of inherent violence, attempted to mass exterminate them into the bargain.
And your nation's inherent violence during it short period of history has been used to traverse the globe continuing in its killing and plundering on the way ever since. Fortunately, many good US citizens, and there is many, recognise the facts, about your countries, brutal and callous history; MARTHA.

Shame that so many kids have to eat their lunches in School. Only a couple of decades ago and everyone who could went home for lunch. Would guess that was approximately half my school.

Why can't fat/cholesterol free oil be used?

Weeshooie 1.
I delivered 144 rolls each morning at age 11, up Dumbarton Rd. near the Empire picture house, if I had any left I sold them to shipyard workers outside the main gate at John Browns.

Did they run at the greyhound track at Yoker?

#96 Martha,
How about almost $2 dollars to the pound. I go home each year and the cost of everything in Scotland is double what it is in the US.

#99 Weeshooie 1

Aye yer right son.

Like you I delivered messages on a bike -like 'Open All Hours'
Delivered milk, in the winter it was loaded on my sledge and I dragged it around.
Made a few pennies splitting sticks for peoples fire.
Ran messages for the neighbours.
Walked to school come hail, rain or shine.
Played fitba, rugby, went swimming, roamed the hills etc.
Ate almost anything including chips, drank Irn Bru.
Never been overweight in my life.
Now at the wrong side of 70 I am still not overweight.
There is a message there somewhere.

Have a good day.

Wiz

Wiz, Thoroughbreds don't fatten.

Look, I know chips is a very serious subject...so forive me while I hold my sides laughing at all you natural comics here...now c'moan be serious.

#105 - Sambo

Whit's this, ye ur trying to compare Scotland wi the USA...fur wan thing the "Aggravated States of America" is a helluva lot bigger than Scotland and Scotland has a population of approx. 5M while the USA has over 300M population.
Scotland is (the best) part of an island and they huv tae import a lot of their goods, unlike the USA.
So there's nae use comparing Scotland tae the USA.
But wan thing that the USA disna huv is the friendliest people in the world, Scotland kin lay claim tae that.
Ye ur tryin' tae compare oranges tae apples...grow up fur goodness sake.

#106-The Wizard-OZ

As I left school at 14, ma first job was being a message-boy for a chemist in Pollokshields, Glasgow, pedalling ma bike carrying a load of whatever in the basket on front, in aw weather's, fur very little wages.
Second job was a vanboy for Rowan's of Buchanan Street...the driver was as fat as one could be, ah wis slim as I wis the wan who did aw the deliveries, runnin' hither and thither..wisna much o' a job but at least I wisna getting soakin' wet when it rained. I was like a wooden match wi' the wood scraped aff until ah got married, then her cookin' sure pit the fat on, and efter a heart attack when ah wis in ma late 50's and ordered to eat less o' her food and tae eat better, I lost aw my puppy-fat-plus and next time ah saw ma Dr. I tell't him ah hud the body o' a 21-year-old an' he said, "Ye better gie it back as ye ur gettin' it aw bent oot o' shape."
Ah think ma best year wis when ah wis 69...ma gourmet year!! Ah'm over 70 noo but still living life tae the full and hoping fur anither 30-years o' the same.
Cheers.

#89 Martha's rubbish.............what really kills people?
Having just had a break from school lessons and you're apparently seeking some truth; the US with its over - overwhelming military superiority that they use against those that differ from them, is what prematurely kills most human beings. They are not all that fussy about the age of the innocent victims they slaughter; from the youngest of babies, to the most elderly, what does it matter to them? They are not so good at the killing game when they meet opponents on an equal basis.