Whatever happened to the tuck shop?

When I was at school we weren’t rich enough to enjoy school dinners so off we went with our packed lunch. My older brother and I were treated to a sandwich, two pieces of fruit, a homemade yoghurt in a glass pot (which as I remembered used to roll off the table and smash about 50% of the time – health and safety nightmare) and a bottle of water – sometimes Ribeana (made so weak it simply coloured the water).

I think back to those days now and marvel at how lucky I was. Homemade yoghurt? Two of my five a day already ticked off by lunch?

Our one guilty pleasure was the tuck shop – open at morning break with it’s shiny wrappers delighting us under-10s. If we’d saved our pocket money or found the odd 20pence down the back of the sofa, we might have shared a Mars Bar. And what a treat it was. So much sugar in your mouth your taste buds felt like they were going to explode.

My parents weren’t especially strict – in fact I have one of the most un-quenchable sweet teeth of anyone I know – sweets and fizzy drinks just weren’t as readily available back then as they are now.

This food-scare picture of a little boy with the average amount of junk food a child his age will eat each year in the UK is pretty terrifying. Check out all those chips and fish fingers! And how about those party ring biscuits! I’m not au fait with what the ‘Dinosaurs’ are but even in my ignorance I’m pretty sure they’re not actually dinosaurs. I can see the E numbers form here.

Picture c/o the Daily Mail

My Grandmother was an orthodontist so I guess my brother and I are probably the only two over 30’s in the UK who don’t have a single filling. Still, had I eaten all this every year I’m pretty sure I would have a mouth full of them. Let alone considering the affects of the sugar highs and withdrawal lows that come with it all – something I only remember having at Easter after nailing all my chocolate eggs and finding and working my way through my long suffering brothers.

There’s got to be an answer. My parents both worked and still found time to make a family dinner each night – even if the dog did used to end up with all my vegetables. How will we ever beat child obesity if this is still what we’re feeding them?