You can't have cake at school

[old man emu]

Last night we had a birthday dinner for my adult son. As part of that dinner, I made his favourite cake. Since there was a good bit left over, I told him to take it home, and he could give the grandson a slice to take as part of his school lunch. "Oh! If a teacher sees the cake, he won't be allowed to eat it." Wot-tha? 

 

It seems that eating cake is not allowed as cake is not "healthy food". However, it is possible to buy pizza, hot dogs, chicken nuggets etc., etc. from the canteen. You can't send a kid to school with a peanut butter sandwich, but there's nothing to say that the bread in other sandwiches must be gluten-free. Nuts are a nutrient-packed food, but they are banned. Processed cheese dips are allowed. Where's the sense in these rules?

 

I quote here from this article entitled In loco parentis: not only wrong, but dangerous. [Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 32 No7, October 2009, p27]

 

For a long time, the expression "in loco parentis" was used to describe the nature of the relationship between a teacher and a student and the source of the teacher's authority. It was particularly used in the context of assessing the nature of the duty of care owed by a teacher to students. More than 40 years ago, the High Court of Australia made clear that this conceptual approach was incorrect.  Accordingly "the Crown must be regarded as having taken over, in respect of the pupils those obligations of which their parents have been deprived, including the obligation to take reasonable care for their safety".

 

But does that "duty of care" extend to specifying what foodstuffs a parent provides for their own child? I acknowledge that there is a risk involved with children swapping lunches if it involves food allergies, but that problem is stopped in its tracks by a rule that swapping lunches is not allowed. In an age where children of Islamic and Christian backgrounds come together in our public schools, should the school have the right to ban ham sandwiches, simply because pig meat is a no-no for one group?

 

Teachers who behave as though they are a parent or a quasi-parent ..., put themselves at risk of being disciplined by their employer or by teacher registration authorities for "crossing the professional boundaries".  This point was made very strongly in a case in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal reviewing a teacher registration decision. The tribunal said: " In common with other professions, the teacher is in a position of trust. It is often said that a teacher is in loco parentis to a student. However, this does not mean that a teacher must literally act as a parent of a student. Indeed, he or she must not do so. The teacher must maintain a professional detachment from a student. His role cannot be that of a parent. 

 

In a litigious age, all these rules must be stored in some file on the Dept. of Education's server. A teacher only needs to do a quick topic search to find

 

 

 

[facthunter]

The last school my wife worked at they  were giving the Kids a breakfast because most of them hadn't had one at home.. Nev

[Marty_d]

Depends on the school.  In the schools my kids have been to, pretty much everything except peanuts are allowed, and even that's not a hard and fast rule at their current school.

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

I acknowledge that there is a risk involved with children swapping lunches if it involves food allergies, but that problem is stopped in its tracks by a rule that swapping lunches is not allowed.

Peanut allergies would be a big problem for them. They don't have to swap lunches to have an allergic incident. It only takes one peanut eater to touch another kid who then touches the allergic kid. I remember one year when a bunch of us were camping and a mate's son had to be taken to hospital. He was unrecognisable with his face swollen to the size of a soccer ball and breathing difficulty. He didn't go near any peanuts, but some at the gathering were eating them. That's how easy it can affect the allergic.

[old man emu]

Here we dive into the murky pool where swim the likes of anti-vaxxers, flat-earthers and tin-foil wearers.

 

Why do 3% of Australian children suffer from allergy to legumes? Peanuts are the most common, but soya beans, wattle seeds, baked beans, hoummus, and peas are all legumes. Peanut allergies are uncommon in children of undeveloped countries where peanut products have been used to relieve malnutrition. The hygiene hypothesis proposes that the relatively low incidence of childhood peanut allergies in undeveloped countries is a result of exposure to diverse food sources early in life, increasing immune capability, whereas food selection by children in developed countries is more limited, reducing immune capability.

 

Prevention may be partly achieved through early introduction of peanuts to the diets of pregnant women and babies.[8][6] It is recommended that babies at high risk be given peanut products in areas where medical care is available as early as 4 months of age. No one would consider giving whole peanuts to an infant, but a lick of peanut butter on the dummy or from a spoon is an easy way to introduce this, egg, cow's milk, and all the other identified causes of allergy. The problem is that modern mothers have allowed the Corporations to convince them that the packaged stuff is "best for bub". 

[onetrack]

I detest all nuts, and peanuts and peanut paste, in particular! I once had a very bad reaction to Macadamia nuts in an icecream, ending up with a choking, burning sensation in my throat, so Macadamias are a no-no for me, too!

However, I'm not that allergic to nuts that I go into anaphylactic shock at the taste of a peanut. I do feel for those people who do have these kind of severe allergies.

 

I suspect a lot of these allergies are caused by excessive food-additive chemical ingestion - particularly those food-additive chemicals that are petroleum-based or which utilise industrial chemical processes to produce.

I suspect a serious number of these food additive chemicals are "hyping up" peoples immune systems, until their bodies start to react badly with natural chemicals found in foods. Or perhaps there are by-products in the foods that are creating the allergic reactions.

 

I often wonder about the number of agricultural chemicals that are used, ending up in animal meat and causing problems. Not always necessarily the actual chemicals themselves, but possibly new compounds formed by those chemicals reacting with chemicals in the soil.

I have never forgotten an industrial chemist being interviewed on ABC radio in the 1970's, when agricultural chemicals were being widely introduced as the saviour for farming practices. This chemist warned that the basic rule of chemistry is that you can never totally destroy chemical compounds - only break them down into their basic elementary constituents - but you can easily create many new compounds, by adding agricultural chemicals to soil, or by feeding them to animals.

 

As with dioxins, many chemical products were blamed for the damage caused by dioxins, until it was discovered that dioxins were produced as a by-product of the production processes, and it was not understood how dangerous the dioxins were, until extensive studies were undertaken.

 

Edited November 29, 2021 by onetrack

[facthunter]

Human milk is great for Human babies. Funny That. Nev

[spacesailor]

Full cream !.

ONLY.

spacesailor

[Jerry_Atrick]

I love dairy food of all types. As a teenager and young adult, I used to drink about 1.5 - 2 litres a day of the stuff (I guess that is the price for not starting drinking alcohol in my younger years). I could live off properly made ice cream, love butter (unsalted).. In my early years, I wasn't terribly fussed about cheese, but these days, I don't know what I would do without it. The school I went too had a dairy farm and when we had trips there, after milking the cows, I was in heaven having a class of freshly "squeezed" but chilled milk..

 

These days, I still love the taste of cows' milk, but as the kids both have dairy intolerances (not major), we moved to goats milk. It clearly is not the same, and over the years, I have got used to the milk, but still will sneak a pint of cows milk now and then. But the yogurt us wonderful, and the cheeses are also fantastic. Deserts of any type from ice-cream to cheesecake are mediocre at best.

[spacesailor]

As a kid l only saw ' salted Dutch '  butter !.  How l hated it,  now l never eat butter, but can tell " Stork " from butter.

The only cheese l eat is fruit infused soft cheese  ( melon & mango ). ( cheese smells like curdled milk ).

spacesailor

[Marty_d]

What a friend we have in cheeses!

 

In France I found that while the boulangeries (bakeries) were heaven, the fromageries (cheese shops) were hell.

The French can make cheeses that smell like your unwashed socks took a dip in a septic tank.  If you never understood where the saying "cut the cheese" came from, one whiff of these will tell you.

 

But their milder ones are wonderful - and so is their butter!  Spacey's comment about Dutch salted butter reminded me of the French stuff - with visible chunks of salt through it.  Spread on fresh baguette - I'm not even hungry and I'm salivating thinking about it.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I will take British cheese over French, anyday.. although having said that, I do have a nice chunk of camembert in the fridge. The family complain about the smell when I open the door.. but alas, it ain't the camembert - but a wonderful British Stinking Bishop.

 

The rest of the family eat goats butter, but I do have D'isigny butter; and yes, I occasionally get the sea salted butter, as it doesn't pervade the buttery taste.

 

I had a gig with Ralph Lauren where I had to be in Paris 2 consecutive days per fortnight and in Reggio Emilia 2 consecutive days every other fortnight. When in Paris, the staff canteed of the shipping company Ralph Lauren was buying his franchise back from had an amazing staff canteen (bistro).. warm food counter for every major region of france, and the drinks - I kid you not - there were some soft drinks, but mainly red and white wines from half-bottles to bottles to magnums and to the size bottles I can't pronounce . Unf, RL didn't allow his staff to have a drink at lunch time. Anyway, the staff canteen was too much after a while, and I found a fantastic boulangerie around the corner. Refreshingly, they didn't speak a word of English, and of course, to get good service, I maid it known I was from Australia.. They had the yummiest food I have had.. and for next to nothing.

 

A couple of times, they threw in a half bottle of Burgundy (Pinot Noir) on the house.. Had it back at the hotel woth steak and Frites..  Lovely!

 

Ahh. I miss those days...

 

[edit]

The Parmesan (ish) cheese from Reggio Emilia is so good - you don't mix it with pasta!

Edited November 30, 2021 by Jerry_Atrick

[old man emu]

2 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

wonderful British Stinking Bishop.

That's an oxymoron if ever there was one!

 

For those who don't know this is a very boutique,  washed-rind cheese produced since 1972 by Charles Martell and Son at Hunts Court Farm, Dymock, Gloucestershire, in the west of England. It is made from the milk of Gloucester cattle. Sounds very foodie, doesn't it? But don't let it fool you. It looks like dog poo and smells about the same. 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Indeed.. But I have just downed the last bit.. and it tastes great.. I suppose the dairy equivalent of durian...

[old man emu]

I wonder if the bit I got was off.

[nomadpete]

You lot would probably love the boutique award winning cheese that I once bought from a cheese maker on Brunie Island.

In spite of all the alleged awards, I couldn't make my mouth open enough to taste it - my nose wouldn't let me. Next day we drove back to Hobart with the windows open, and it was mid winter. I was just lucky that the car rental people didn't charge me for deep cleaning the hire car. I even threw out the esky.

[facthunter]

It's hard to tell. ALL cheese is OFF to a certain extent. I'm a bit of a fan of blue vein. camembert and  the one you sprinkle on Bolenaise. As a kid you wouldn't get me to eat any of that stuff under threat of violent death. Australia and Tassie and King island make some good cheeses and our good wines are the equal of any in the world. (more fool the Chinese for knocking them back) .Nev

[spacesailor]

Like l said ! I. like fruit -infused cheese.

But without nuts, buth Wooly & all the other supermarkets, will not stock the fruitcheese without nuts.

Only get it from the ' meat-market ' of all places. 

spacesaklor

 

[Old Koreelah]

You blokes are making me hungry!

Growing up on a dairy farm, both my dad and I developed allergies- he to cows, me to milk, but only diagnosed after I’d drank lots of it for decades. Soy milk since, but I can eat cow’s milk cheese.

To keep healthy, I try to stay alcohol-free thru the week. Several styles of cheese in our fridge are waiting for Friday night so I can wash them down with a good red.

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Condolences on the allergy to milk.. For me, life would be all but over, I think...

 

Have you tried oat milk - much "creamier" than soy or almond, and it's like having a glass of porridge...

 

 

[old man emu]

Milk is a nutrient-rich liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. As much as I love flowers and grass and trees, they aren't mammals. So how can something made from a plant really be called "milk", unless that word is an allusion to the white appearance of a liquid?

[Old Koreelah]

13 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Condolences on the allergy to milk.. For me, life would be all but over, I think...

 

Have you tried oat milk - much "creamier" than soy or almond, and it's like having a glass of porridge...

 

 

Yep. Tried all sorts of “milks” and even bought goat milk for a few weeks. Yuk.

About fifteen years ago I had a port and polish job done on my nose, which reduced nasal congestion by about 90%. 

I’m booked in to get it opened up again next month.

 

Quite happy to stay with Soy milk, which seems to be the least wasteful way of making it.

I actually prefer almost all Japanese food, especially lots of toffu; it’s the best fit for my health prejudices.

And no, I haven’t grown boobs after years taking in so much Soy product.

[old man emu]

2 hours ago, Old Koreelah said:

I haven’t grown boobs after years taking in so much Soy product

Youv'e gotta fight oestrogens!

[Jerry_Atrick]

Ah that's Mark Latham's trick!

[Old Koreelah]

We need a “went over my head” emoji. Lots of things go over mine and it’s higher than most…