Is this right? If someone tells me what to eat, I 'll feed him a knuckle sandwich. I do believe what one wants to eat is still a freedom. This isn't North Korea. Let the boy eat what he wants. Let them all eat cake!

The problem with UK schools is they are not handing out enough condoms and Ritalin.

I am upset by how the school in question dealt with the student, punishing him for something his parent(s) did.

However, there is no question that while famine may stalk Africa, obesity is an epidemic in Western countries i.e. North America, Europe, and Australasia.

The main causes of obesity are environmental, plus sedentary lifestyle. F.e. most meat-eaters are unaware that animal feed switched from grasses to cheaper grain feed (esp. corn). This has had a huge impact on how meat interacts with our bodies.

I believe that any State institution that serves meals (such as a school cafeteria), should not have any junk food and non-organic foodstuffs officially on its premises.

Obesity's impact isn't about looks really, it's about mental and physical health. Obese people are more at risk for all sorts of ailments, and their brains are naturally fuzzier as yeast feeds on unrefined sugar and clogs up even their neural pathways. Of course, the yeast releases chemicals that demand further fast sugar e.g. white pasta, bread, rice, etc.

That's Voyager's link in the post headed Photo.

I had a look at the article from the link in Voyager's post. The picture of the lunchbox here doesn't tally in any way with the verbal description of its contents. Has anyone compared the two? 

The caption to the picture is very vague. It doesn't actually say that this is a picture of Ryan's lunchbox - as far as we know, it's just a random pile of junk food, thrown together in the absence of a relevant picture, and nothing to do with this boy at all.

If I thought for one minute that the picture was a fair representation of the lunch in question, I'd eat my words like a shot. But I can't be sure that it is. It still seems to me that the school recognises that talking about "healthy food" will impress people, but doesn't have much of a clue what healthy food is.

"Michael Stupples, 41, said: "What 10-year-old boy won't get upset when he's out of a dining hall in front of everyone and made to eat his lunch in the head teacher's office?""

What 10-year-old boy won't get upset when his father gets him mentioned in national newspapers - and international websites! - over a trivial matter of school discipline.

Bob Doney

Read Ann Coulter's book Godless where she writes of a child in tears because teachers said his sandwiches were "garbage"  because the mother had wrapped them in plastic

Would these schools either please employ someone with a working knowledge of nutrition and a bit of common sense, or keep their noses out.

Ryan's lunch sounded like a well-balanced meal that a ten-year-old boy would enjoy. And there was fruit in it, for goodness' sake - and water! We don't know what was in the sandwich, but I bet it was made with the same thought and care as the other things.

The sad thing is that another child might go in with a sandwich made of white sliced and fish paste, a bar of chocolate and a flask of squash, and be praised for bringing a healthy-lunch-by-numbers.

What gave the do-gooders at Ryan's school the right to humiliate him in front of his peers for something that was not within his control? The boy's father has every right to be angry.

Why do schools act in loco parentis only when it suits them?