Sugar shaming, the new health crackdown facing parents

SEPTEMBER 25, 2014
News.com.au
YOU may not have experienced it yet, but anyone who has can tell you it may be well-intentioned but it’s also brutal.
Welcome to sugar shaming and it’s far from sweet.
Parents have revealed how they have been left ‘sugar shamed’ after packing their children unhealthy snacks or food considered junk.
Their stories follow a move by one Sydney school where teachers are now monitoring students’ lunch boxes to get rid of sugar.
And parents told news.com.au it was far from an isolated incident.
Teachers at North Sydney Demonstration School who found chocolate, chips or other unhealthy food in a student’s lunch box were told to confront the parents and “recommend healthy ­alternatives.”
Principal Myra Wearne told The Mosman Daily it was part of push to curb unhealthy eating and to ensure students reached their learning potential.
North Sydney Demonstration School is leading the charge to keep sugar out of children’s l
North Sydney Demonstration School is leading the charge to keep sugar out of children’s lunch boxes and its school community supports the approach, particularly Olesen siblings Max, 10, Ava, 8, and Scarlet, 5, Picture: Eelenor Tedenborg. Source: News Corp Australia
She said so far parents had taken the change well and seemed to support the move.
“If children eat a lot of sugary foods, you can definitely see that their concentration is impacted,” she said.
Education authorities contacted by news.com.au said while inspecting lunch boxes was not a national standard, there have been cases of parents being warned about inappropriate food choices.
Parents have told news.com.au while they understood the need for healthy food, there were better ways of schools going about it than rifling through kids lunches and “bullying parents”.
One NSW mother said she received a one-page letter from her 12-year-old son’s school after she packed a Milo bar in his lunch box.
The outraged mother who was called to the school to pick it up in person told news.com.au she was read the riot act, despite his lunch also including a banana, sultanas and juice.
“My son is far from overweight and my husband and I make sure all three kids have generally healthy lunches,” she said.
“But this was plain bullying, I had the riot act read to me.
“I thought you’re kidding me, it’s one Milo bar and it’s not like his lunch box is full of Coke and chips.”
The mother added there were much bigger issues going on in schools and this wasn’t the way to tackle obesity or health issues.
Another news.com.au reader, who did not want me be named, said her daughter’s daycare was so strict that if parents put something deemed ‘inappropriate’ in lunch boxes, such as a muesli bar, a bright fluoro note was sent home.
The note warns them not to give it to the children because it was not to standard and not to send it again.
“I know one mum that put a homemade muesli bar in her kids lunch and they sent it home,” she said.
“It’s now to the point were my daughter will actually say to me ‘no mummy, don’t give that to me I will get in trouble’.”
Reader Lauren Thomas said she thought a child’s diet, health and weight should be a parent’s responsibility and the pressure for schools to have anything to do with it should be lifted.
Joanne Fraser-Fisher agreed it was time to stop policing everything about kids who already had so many restrictions on what they could eat in school.
Others argued it was an issue for parents and banning sugar at school wouldn’t stop kids eating it at home.
However, some people said there was nothing wrong with encouraging healthy eating.
Personal trainer Jenny Adams commented: “I know this is going to be a good initiative”.
Another reader Fiona Mary Anderson said: “Wonderful, let’s shame kids for bringing lunch when children around this country are going to school without lunch! All the lunch box experts are coming out! I don’t care if a child comes to school with no books, no shoes or a bag of caster sugar in their lunch box, I just want them AT SCHOOL…..that’s what is important”
In NSW, the Department of Education policy stipulates all public school canteens offer healthy options and menus are categorised according to the traffic light system where red means only occasionally.
However, food brought from home is not included in this system.