I’m curious to know how Norwegians feel about the author’s thoughts, and whether their experience has been different.
I think she’s blowing things way out of proportion, she writes like they are giving them fast food every day, and acts like salt and sugar in any proportion is detrimental to the kids health.
Im born in 96. Can confirm bread was every meal except dinner. I am interested in food and bother to spend my time learning about nutrition. I agree with most of the authors views, since she is French. If an American wrote this I’d tell em fuck off. The “candy” in the headline I find to be a bit of a stretch. Myself could call Kaviar with a load of sugar for candy, but actually candy is mainly absent from school and kindergartens.
Food culture in general across the globe I think is un educated and unhealthy. Dont think Norway stands out as a big sinner here.
What you don’t seem to get is that there are a lot less additives in processed food in Norway compared to many other countries, especially the US. And we also have different recommendations from health and nutrition than what other countries have.
Things like bread and cheese in a tube is not considered bad food here, but is a recommendation so that kids gets the nutrition they need.
Norwegians use a fraction of the antibiotics used in countries such as France and Spain in their food production. There are many ways to determine the quality of food. You might find Norwegian shrimp cheese nasty, but objectively Norwegian food is no less nutritious and unhealthy than other comparable countries.
Also, the author has had a bad experience, and claims that is the case everywhere. I’ve had my kids in two separate kindergartens; the first one was completely sugar free (as in not allowed to send yogurt, they didn’t serve brown cheese, they baked lussekatter without sugar), the second one had fresh baked bread every day, and warm meals daily prepared on site. Granted, this might not be the case everywhere but neither is the experience of the author.
And as for weaning, i would say it’s pretty similar in France and Norway,. Once the baby starts with solids you start with a single ingredient, soft boiled vegetables, purees and mashed fruits
> “Don’t worry, they also get warm food once a week”.
I dont know which kindergarten is she referring to, but the one I know serves warm food 4 times a week around 12:00
The pålegg with whole wheat bread at 15:00 meal are leverpostei, canned fish, caviar (tube, I guess) salami, skinke and cheese. This is in addition to milk and fruits.
Never heard about candy. They eat ice cream on birthdays.
Edit: They serves fish once a day. I know this because the barnehage changed their food supplier after they found a fish-bone in the food.
Bread contains amongst others, carbs, natrium, kalium and a little fat. These are ingredients that is good for the body in proper amounts. Norwegian children ranks among the healthiest people in the world, and mostly its due to the Norwegian “husmannskost” as we call it.
We could serve things like porridge and stuff like that, but due to our location the world and the farming that comes natural for us, wheat, egg, milk, cheese and farm produces like that becomes a big deal of our daily meals, especially for children.
Its the type of bread that is bad for you, like “loff” that is almost purely just sugar and a little bit of wheat. It gives no nutritional value, but it is also only served on the side to dishes like lasagne etc.
Your cells need broken down carbs, kalium and fat to use for the energy production. When growing up your cells are multiplying at a rapid rate and needs alot of energy from food.
The author is French and still refuses to acknowledge that Norway is not France, especially when it comes to cuisine. I can’t stand her complaining so don’t read her any more.
The child goes to a kindergarten, not a 5 star hotel with a kitchen full of chefs.
Tube cheeses in our kindergarten are of the “mager” kind, so 0g sugar and little unhealthy fat. Yes there are a little salt in them, but we dont use salt when cooking at home.
Tube kaviar is not seen as very healthy, but it is an ‘OK’ substitute for kids who might not like other fish. So they get their omega 3 and acids and all that good stuff. You dont want your child to eat it? Tell the kindergarten, buy something else, write the childs name on it and ask the kgarten to give that in its place.
Bread and knekkebrød is good fiber.
Our kindergarten the kids have kitchen duty twice a week where they make warm meals from the ground up. Fish dishes, veggy soups, omelets, sometimes pancakes, all good stuff. They also have one fruit meal per day.
Does my child get some sugar, salt, bad fat, some processed food from the kindergarten and oh god no maybe even a ice cream on a sunny day? Yes ofc. Cause i am fine with that, we make all dinners and other meals at home from the ground up. No sodas or candy in the week and all that. Now if i wanted everything to be ecological and sugar and salt free then i would find a private kindergarten that offered such service.
Such a easy fucking fix tbh, she says it soooo easy and fast to make everything organic from the ground up. Well just do that then, dont pay food money to the kgarten and send your child with its own lunch.
I think that the author lacks a proper understanding of the actual costs associated with serving warm food in kindergarten. There are three aspects to this:
1 In relation to many other countries Norway tries to have a social profile for the costs associated with kindergarten. This means there is little room for municipalities to raise costs for parents so that they can serve healthy warm food.
2 Many kindergartens are small. Meaning that having a dedicated cook would come at a large increase in expenses (salary + employer expenses ca. 550 000 or more per year).
3 For most norwegian employees mixed roles are not often very attractive (from personal experience people usually do not enjoy being expected to roles not associated with their education/ job).
Additionally eating bread for many meals is the norm for most norwegians, and eating a warm meal for lunch is seen as somewhat of a luxury expense.
Yes, barley porridge (vassgraut), the staple of countless former generations, would be much healthier than all that processed, industrial bread.
Nobody gets candy in kindergartens
Norwegians of all ages typically eat one hot meal per day, at dinner.
I don’t think the food she describes is actually that unhealthy, but I can see how it seems that way for people who are used to proper hot meals at lunch.
There has been a battle at my son’s barnehage (daycare/preschool) for the past 18 months: a small but vocal minority in the parents’ group insists that the kids (ranging in age from 9 months to 5 years old) should receive freshly made, warm meals every day. They also insist that all of the staff eat lunch at the same time as the kids, and the exact same food. I think this is ridiculous for a few reasons: warm food isn’t necessarily healthier than cold food; the staff deserve a true lunch BREAK; adults should be allowed to eat whatever they want when they are on their break.
Our son is offered breakfast, lunch and 2 snacks at his barnehage. Every meal I have ever seen is heavy on fruit, fresh vegetables, and healthy proteins and fat (cheese, yogurt, fish, chicken, eggs, butter, etc). Does he eat (whole grain) bread? Yes. Is his diet healthy? Yes. Does he occasionally eat processed food like fiskekaker, kjøttkaker, fiskepinner, “cheese from a tube”? Also yes. On Fridays, when it’s warm outside, does he get a sugary popsicle? Yeah, sometimes. His overall diet at “school” is healthy and a reasonable one to expect already overworked (but nonetheless excellent) barnehage teachers to prepare for 12-15 toddlers. I’m beyond pleased with everything they do and provide for our son.
>At this stage I was in hyperventilation.
Oh go the fuck back to Brooklyn or whatever hipster shithole you crawled out of.
There’s nothing wrong with any of the food they mentioned in this “article”.
Holy shit. Took a cursory glance at her blog, what a fuckin joke.
From the way this lady is writing i’ll now assume that she will be providing two meals and a snack everyday for her son with every thing low fat, salt and sugar and everything made from scratch, and that she never allows her son to indulge on a piece of cake for special occasions because clearly norwegians are doing it wrong. She can also pay for the extra electricity required to heat the food, heat the water to clean the dishes afterwards or hire in a personal chef. If this means that she has to leave her work place and make these meals from scratch at the kindergarten then so be it because otherwise isn’t good enough.
She gives the impression that she did next to no research on normal norwegian meal culture at all or ask what the kindergarten usually serves.
My favorite thing about this sub is that anytime someone posts something either obviously, mildly or even that could be perceived as negative re: Norway, within seconds there is a response calmly explaining that it is clearly wrong and obviously the way Norwegians do things is clearly superior than any other way. It is pretty solid entertainment. Most other national subs are the same ofc….
As an immigrant who has moved from the UK to Norway and attended Norwegian school I’d say that the bread and toppings that were provided were much healthier than the alternative offered in the UK schools I attended.
I have also noticed that in Norway it is very common to have this kind of bread and topping spread for lunch and then have a hot dinner as the main meal of the day.
You know what, this is difficult for me to admit, as a Norwegian, but she’s right. I wouldn’t want my son (who is 1.5 and goes to daycare in Germany) to eat like they do in Norwegian daycare. It’s not healthy and it’s terribly unvaried.
HAHAHAH IM CRYING SHE IS SO TRIGGERED OVER FUCKING TOMATO SOUP AND CHOCOLATE CAKE I CANT BRO
Food culture is broken in Norway. I don’t really know why. Did it use to be better before egalitarianism struck? All I know is I am working on fixing it by learning to cook myself (my parents were useless) and passing it on to my kids early, teaching them to enjoy all the benefits of cooking nutritious tasty food with friends.
I can’t speak of lower grades but when I went to college in Norway, they had the best cafeteria lunches- delicious fresh made seafood and soups- i actually wish I ate more of it while I was there… and the bread and the packaged lefsegodt were sinful.
Good food is wasted on toddlers
How about if you don’t want your kids to eat leverpostei, kaviar, makrell i tomat, baconost, brunost or fårepølse you can gtfo back to France?
25 comments
I’m curious to know how Norwegians feel about the author’s thoughts, and whether their experience has been different.
I think she’s blowing things way out of proportion, she writes like they are giving them fast food every day, and acts like salt and sugar in any proportion is detrimental to the kids health.
Im born in 96. Can confirm bread was every meal except dinner. I am interested in food and bother to spend my time learning about nutrition. I agree with most of the authors views, since she is French. If an American wrote this I’d tell em fuck off. The “candy” in the headline I find to be a bit of a stretch. Myself could call Kaviar with a load of sugar for candy, but actually candy is mainly absent from school and kindergartens.
Food culture in general across the globe I think is un educated and unhealthy. Dont think Norway stands out as a big sinner here.
What you don’t seem to get is that there are a lot less additives in processed food in Norway compared to many other countries, especially the US. And we also have different recommendations from health and nutrition than what other countries have.
Things like bread and cheese in a tube is not considered bad food here, but is a recommendation so that kids gets the nutrition they need.
Norwegians use a fraction of the antibiotics used in countries such as France and Spain in their food production. There are many ways to determine the quality of food. You might find Norwegian shrimp cheese nasty, but objectively Norwegian food is no less nutritious and unhealthy than other comparable countries.
Also, the author has had a bad experience, and claims that is the case everywhere. I’ve had my kids in two separate kindergartens; the first one was completely sugar free (as in not allowed to send yogurt, they didn’t serve brown cheese, they baked lussekatter without sugar), the second one had fresh baked bread every day, and warm meals daily prepared on site. Granted, this might not be the case everywhere but neither is the experience of the author.
And as for weaning, i would say it’s pretty similar in France and Norway,. Once the baby starts with solids you start with a single ingredient, soft boiled vegetables, purees and mashed fruits
> “Don’t worry, they also get warm food once a week”.
I dont know which kindergarten is she referring to, but the one I know serves warm food 4 times a week around 12:00
The pålegg with whole wheat bread at 15:00 meal are leverpostei, canned fish, caviar (tube, I guess) salami, skinke and cheese. This is in addition to milk and fruits.
Never heard about candy. They eat ice cream on birthdays.
Edit: They serves fish once a day. I know this because the barnehage changed their food supplier after they found a fish-bone in the food.
Bread contains amongst others, carbs, natrium, kalium and a little fat. These are ingredients that is good for the body in proper amounts. Norwegian children ranks among the healthiest people in the world, and mostly its due to the Norwegian “husmannskost” as we call it.
We could serve things like porridge and stuff like that, but due to our location the world and the farming that comes natural for us, wheat, egg, milk, cheese and farm produces like that becomes a big deal of our daily meals, especially for children.
Its the type of bread that is bad for you, like “loff” that is almost purely just sugar and a little bit of wheat. It gives no nutritional value, but it is also only served on the side to dishes like lasagne etc.
Your cells need broken down carbs, kalium and fat to use for the energy production. When growing up your cells are multiplying at a rapid rate and needs alot of energy from food.
The author is French and still refuses to acknowledge that Norway is not France, especially when it comes to cuisine. I can’t stand her complaining so don’t read her any more.
The child goes to a kindergarten, not a 5 star hotel with a kitchen full of chefs.
Tube cheeses in our kindergarten are of the “mager” kind, so 0g sugar and little unhealthy fat. Yes there are a little salt in them, but we dont use salt when cooking at home.
Tube kaviar is not seen as very healthy, but it is an ‘OK’ substitute for kids who might not like other fish. So they get their omega 3 and acids and all that good stuff. You dont want your child to eat it? Tell the kindergarten, buy something else, write the childs name on it and ask the kgarten to give that in its place.
Bread and knekkebrød is good fiber.
Our kindergarten the kids have kitchen duty twice a week where they make warm meals from the ground up. Fish dishes, veggy soups, omelets, sometimes pancakes, all good stuff. They also have one fruit meal per day.
Does my child get some sugar, salt, bad fat, some processed food from the kindergarten and oh god no maybe even a ice cream on a sunny day? Yes ofc. Cause i am fine with that, we make all dinners and other meals at home from the ground up. No sodas or candy in the week and all that. Now if i wanted everything to be ecological and sugar and salt free then i would find a private kindergarten that offered such service.
Such a easy fucking fix tbh, she says it soooo easy and fast to make everything organic from the ground up. Well just do that then, dont pay food money to the kgarten and send your child with its own lunch.
I think that the author lacks a proper understanding of the actual costs associated with serving warm food in kindergarten. There are three aspects to this:
1 In relation to many other countries Norway tries to have a social profile for the costs associated with kindergarten. This means there is little room for municipalities to raise costs for parents so that they can serve healthy warm food.
2 Many kindergartens are small. Meaning that having a dedicated cook would come at a large increase in expenses (salary + employer expenses ca. 550 000 or more per year).
3 For most norwegian employees mixed roles are not often very attractive (from personal experience people usually do not enjoy being expected to roles not associated with their education/ job).
Additionally eating bread for many meals is the norm for most norwegians, and eating a warm meal for lunch is seen as somewhat of a luxury expense.
Yes, barley porridge (vassgraut), the staple of countless former generations, would be much healthier than all that processed, industrial bread.
Nobody gets candy in kindergartens
Norwegians of all ages typically eat one hot meal per day, at dinner.
I don’t think the food she describes is actually that unhealthy, but I can see how it seems that way for people who are used to proper hot meals at lunch.
There has been a battle at my son’s barnehage (daycare/preschool) for the past 18 months: a small but vocal minority in the parents’ group insists that the kids (ranging in age from 9 months to 5 years old) should receive freshly made, warm meals every day. They also insist that all of the staff eat lunch at the same time as the kids, and the exact same food. I think this is ridiculous for a few reasons: warm food isn’t necessarily healthier than cold food; the staff deserve a true lunch BREAK; adults should be allowed to eat whatever they want when they are on their break.
Our son is offered breakfast, lunch and 2 snacks at his barnehage. Every meal I have ever seen is heavy on fruit, fresh vegetables, and healthy proteins and fat (cheese, yogurt, fish, chicken, eggs, butter, etc). Does he eat (whole grain) bread? Yes. Is his diet healthy? Yes. Does he occasionally eat processed food like fiskekaker, kjøttkaker, fiskepinner, “cheese from a tube”? Also yes. On Fridays, when it’s warm outside, does he get a sugary popsicle? Yeah, sometimes. His overall diet at “school” is healthy and a reasonable one to expect already overworked (but nonetheless excellent) barnehage teachers to prepare for 12-15 toddlers. I’m beyond pleased with everything they do and provide for our son.
>At this stage I was in hyperventilation.
Oh go the fuck back to Brooklyn or whatever hipster shithole you crawled out of.
There’s nothing wrong with any of the food they mentioned in this “article”.
Holy shit. Took a cursory glance at her blog, what a fuckin joke.
From the way this lady is writing i’ll now assume that she will be providing two meals and a snack everyday for her son with every thing low fat, salt and sugar and everything made from scratch, and that she never allows her son to indulge on a piece of cake for special occasions because clearly norwegians are doing it wrong. She can also pay for the extra electricity required to heat the food, heat the water to clean the dishes afterwards or hire in a personal chef. If this means that she has to leave her work place and make these meals from scratch at the kindergarten then so be it because otherwise isn’t good enough.
She gives the impression that she did next to no research on normal norwegian meal culture at all or ask what the kindergarten usually serves.
My favorite thing about this sub is that anytime someone posts something either obviously, mildly or even that could be perceived as negative re: Norway, within seconds there is a response calmly explaining that it is clearly wrong and obviously the way Norwegians do things is clearly superior than any other way. It is pretty solid entertainment. Most other national subs are the same ofc….
As an immigrant who has moved from the UK to Norway and attended Norwegian school I’d say that the bread and toppings that were provided were much healthier than the alternative offered in the UK schools I attended.
I have also noticed that in Norway it is very common to have this kind of bread and topping spread for lunch and then have a hot dinner as the main meal of the day.
You know what, this is difficult for me to admit, as a Norwegian, but she’s right. I wouldn’t want my son (who is 1.5 and goes to daycare in Germany) to eat like they do in Norwegian daycare. It’s not healthy and it’s terribly unvaried.
HAHAHAH IM CRYING SHE IS SO TRIGGERED OVER FUCKING TOMATO SOUP AND CHOCOLATE CAKE I CANT BRO
Food culture is broken in Norway. I don’t really know why. Did it use to be better before egalitarianism struck? All I know is I am working on fixing it by learning to cook myself (my parents were useless) and passing it on to my kids early, teaching them to enjoy all the benefits of cooking nutritious tasty food with friends.
I can’t speak of lower grades but when I went to college in Norway, they had the best cafeteria lunches- delicious fresh made seafood and soups- i actually wish I ate more of it while I was there… and the bread and the packaged lefsegodt were sinful.
Good food is wasted on toddlers
How about if you don’t want your kids to eat leverpostei, kaviar, makrell i tomat, baconost, brunost or fårepølse you can gtfo back to France?