Europe @feddit.org overstep8556 @jlai.lu 1w ago

Schools in Spain required to serve fruit, vegetables and fish in fight against obesity

www.theguardian.com Schools in Spain required to serve fruit, vegetables and fish in fight against obesity

Rules brought in this week limit amounts of fatty and fried food and levels of sugar and caffeine in drinks

38 comments

Children don't need any caffeine.

Edit: Buncha 12 year olds with a Mountain Dew habit cashing in lunch money to buy downvotes in here.
- Yeah. I wouldn't serve any caffeinated drinks to a horde of children. I suppose the limit on caffeine must mostly be in regards to colas.
  
  Or tea?
  
  Even coffee?
  
  People can also drink water, you know, like there's in the toilet?
  That's what we had at school, I don't remember any complaints.
- Yes, energy drinks shouldn't be sold to children. An age limit that prevents selling to people below 16 seems like a good idea to me.
  
  Some countries do that already and I wouldn‘t recommend Cola to children under 12 either.
  
  I'm not suggesting we start carding everyone who buys a soda, but schools are a controlled environment. Just don't sell caffeinated beverages at the schools.
- Nobody needs caffeine. It doesnt give you any energy, just squeezes more out of your body when you want it.
  
  Instead, school should start WAY later, 9:00 is a good time. I had many "bus kids" in my class, who stood up at 5:30 to get to school. Fucked up
  
  This is the way. My caffeine habit started in middle school because I was needing to be up stupid early for the bus, missing breakfast, and passing out halfway through first period.
  
  9 am is the official starting time of basically every single education institution in Spain, from nursery to university.
  
  There are "early morning care" from 8, or even 7:30, but that's optional and basically just playing or breakfast.
Why would fish be better than something like legumes?

In general, school lunch programs tend to be a subsidy to the regional agriculture and animal farming sectors, a guaranteed market for their products. Few places do school food well (actually trying to feed children with nutritious food and to teach them how to eat well), Japan is probably the most famous of those.
Did they also increase budgets to pay for this?

It's great and we should copy it, but you also need to put the money behind these things so the food is edible at the end
- This is Spain, we grow some amazing food here - if anything this is going to be cheaper than stuffing them full of preservatives and pizza.
  
  For reference my work canteen is 4,50€ for lunch, but there's usually too much good food in a serving so I always take some of it home, and it's good stuff :-)
Great! Maybe Spanish food will stop being all potatoes and pork finally.

Nothing but love for Spain, together with Greece my favorite country in the world, but Spanish food sucks lol. I know very subjective and all, but I just don’t get how you can be surrounded by France and Morocco and then still not use any spices and stuff :D
- Have you ever been to Spain? I can't remember the last time I had pork and potatoes
  
  Yes! North and south, east and west, love Spain. But seriously, even if you order something veggie like croquettes they’ll just put bacon on top of that lol. Or like you have dinner and they just casually bring you a tapa that has tuna in it without even asking if you’re eating fish. Like, the concept of not eating certain stuff seems alien to many places there.
  
  I have no idea what people cook at home but your typical Spanish restaurant e.g. in Madrid or the south is tortilla de patatas, patatas bravas, croquettes (ideally with ham), lots of ham in general, some other potato stuff. Some seafood. I’m vegetarian and I just suffer there :D

38 comments