A mother of a student described the behavior of Jolanta, the teacher of second-graders at a primary school in Bolesławiec. It concerned the teacher’s obsession with the diet and healthy food of eight-year-olds. When the children returned to school after the pandemic, in the second grade, the subject of healthy eating began.

– The teacher said that my daughter was fat – the mother says. – She checked the children’s lunch boxes. At a parents’ meeting, one father said that he had put a candy in his child’s lunch box, and the child was terrified and began pleading: Dad, take the candy away. At the meeting, the teacher explained to us what kind of parents we were for giving children sweets, and that they should not eat sweets. She did not give the students the cartons of milk they received from the school because she believed UHT milk was unhealthy, and asked how we could give it to children and pour it into coffee. What kind of parents were we? She sent me to an endocrinologist and a dietitian. She also thought I was too fat. She ordered me to keep a notebook recording what I gave my child to eat. My daughter did not want to undress during physical education and did not want to go to the swimming pool. Even though I had taught her to swim earlier and told her it was an asset, that she could show the class that she already knew how to swim. My daughter refused. No, absolutely not, she would not change clothes. She cried in the morning that she did not want to go to school, and when I tried to talk to her, she lowered her head, covered her face with her hair and stubbornly remained silent – the mother recounts.

Apparently, one of the mothers of a child from the same class became seriously upset when the teacher took her daughter to the middle of the classroom because, instead of plain water, the child had brought flavored water. The teacher took out her phone and began reading what the flavored water contained, asking how the mother could give such a thing to her child. That was also when the issue of the oaths came to light.

– An acquaintance called me and asked whether I knew anything about the oaths – the mother recounts. – I knew nothing about it, so I asked my daughter. She burst into tears. Crying, she admitted: I can’t tell you. I said to her: You have to. And my frightened daughter replied: No, because you’ll go to the school. In the end, I persuaded her to tell me. The whole class stood up and swore that they would not put anything sweet in their mouths. I went to the school principal about it. She promised she would talk to the teacher. There was a brief period of silence, and then everything returned to how it had been before. The only solution was to transfer my daughter to another school – the mother adds.

Since September 2022, the girl has attended another school.

– At the new school, the teacher treats the children like children – the mother says. – My daughter is doing well. She has begun to open up a little, and it is easier for me to talk to her. One day she told me something that made my blood run cold: I didn’t want to go there anymore (to the former school – editor’s note), I would rather kill myself – the mother says in a breaking voice.

After hearing this story, we decided to ask psychodietitian Karolina Puchała-Mielczarek what she thought about the teacher’s methods of persuading children to eat healthily. Can a school-aged child eat sweets, and in what quantity? And how does such a drastic approach to a child’s body affect their mental health?

The response of psychodietitian Karolina Puchała-Mielczarek:

Healthy eating and habits in a child’s life are very important because this is precisely when they are easiest to establish. However, after hearing the story from the school mentioned above, I am genuinely horrified.

The teacher’s behavior has nothing to do with teaching healthy eating. It is an unhealthy fixation on sugar and physical appearance. Such actions do not encourage healthy eating; they can only lead young people to psychodietary disorders such as anorexia, bulimia or depression. The fact that children are afraid to admit to their parents what they do at school shows what such methods lead to.

Controlling the amount of sugar consumed in the diet is important, but we must also consider whether it is sugar added to products or sugar found, for example, in fruit. Teaching children to read ingredient lists should be supported at school, but certainly not by ridiculing or insulting a child who was given flavored water at home.

We must remember that carbohydrates are essential in our diet so that a child’s brain can function properly and children can also concentrate during lessons. We should replace typical sweets with fruit or products containing dried fruit or xylitol.

Children learn everything through observation, so we as parents must also show children how to eat healthily. Banning a child from eating candies while we ourselves eat them in large quantities will only have a negative effect on the child’s self-esteem and undermine our authority.

Banning children from eating any kind of “sweet treats,” even on special or festive occasions, will have the opposite effect in the future, when the child is no longer constantly under a parent’s supervision – “forbidden fruit tastes best”. Children from families that strictly enforce a ban on anything sweet may develop compulsive overeating, which can lead to obesity in later years.

We should therefore use common sense and find a middle ground while following the basic principles of healthy eating.

  • Eating five meals a day at regular intervals of 2–3 hours
  • Eating the first meal within an hour of waking up
  • Eating the last meal 2–3 hours before bedtime
  • Remembering to hydrate between meals (at least 1.5 liters of water a day)
  • Eating plenty of vegetables, more than fruit, which contains simple sugars

We should also remember that cocoa used in chocolate with a good composition (without palm oil and unnecessary additives) also has beneficial effects – it contains nutrients such as magnesium.

If we want to treat children by giving them something sweet, we should choose products with nutritional value. For example, choose dark chocolate instead of candies, and avoid products containing added glucose-fructose syrup. We should use common sense; if in doubt, it is also worth asking a dietitian or psychodietitian for advice.

School principal Edyta Górczak denies everything.

In response to the journalist’s inquiry, I inform you that, as part of the curriculum for Polish and environmental education in the 2020/2021 school year, various topics concerning healthy eating were covered in Grade 2.

Lunch boxes were never checked, but during lessons on healthy eating, the children themselves reported what they most often ate for breakfast.

The series of lessons concluded with a discussion about the impact of sweets on health, which clearly showed that limiting their consumption would bring only health benefits.

As for drinking milk: the teacher never influenced the children to stop drinking it. Especially since the school participates in the School Milk, Fruit and Vegetables program.

Discussions about healthy eating were held very often, including during meetings with parents.

In summary, the school’s role is to promote a healthy lifestyle among both younger students in Grades 1–3 and older students in Grades 4–8. Cooperation with parents and the development of health-promoting attitudes complement this role. It is important, however, that such activities be carried out in a planned and systematic manner.