UPF, poverty, obesity.... children’s healthy eating - an impossible challenge?

People lack fundamental skills. Like they have never peeled a potato etc.

I don't buy fizzy drinks and juices and my Dc can take them or leave them. They're happy with water.
When I do buy fizzy drinks, I really try to find ones without too much crap like appletiser.
My dc enjoy them when we eat out but we hardly ever have them at home.
I do buy crisps occasionally because we all love them.
We bake cakes and biscuits at home rather than buy them and the dc can bake really well now. I'd love to get to the stage of baking bread at home but that's still occasional. I can't keep up with the demand.
With the price increases, I think there's not much difference in the cost of baking a standard loaf of bread at home and buying it. Probably the same for some basic cookies and cake.
Way better for you though.

There is no real excuse nowadays for those proclaiming they can't cook. Most folk have a smart phone and Google is full of recipes and step by step guides . It's seriously not rocket science. Get off tiktok and bloody educate yourselves!!

To be honest, fizzy drinks are a hard line for me, it's always a no, as are sweets, and mad cereal like fruit loops and frosties and the like.

I'm a bit more relaxed with chocolate and crisps

The thing is, as much as people jump up and down and shout about drug adled parents feeding kids cans of Monster for breakfast and everyone forgetting how to cook, these are societal changes, eg. changes that happen gradually at different rates through different sections of society.

That's not what is happening here.

The obesity crisis was a sharp increase in obesity that began in the early 90s. Unless everyone, from every section of society (every race, religion, class etc) all forgot how to cook, across the western world, all at the same time, lack of skill in the kitchen is not what caused this.

What did change in the 90's was a sharp increase in UPFs being used.

Ditto this recent change in childhood obesity, unless every new parent, from all sections of society in the UK have suddenly turned to drugs, become ill educated and forgot how to cook, that is not what is happening. What did change at around the same time was austerity.

The average MNetter might be able to rustle up a healthy, nutritous meal for the same price (including fuel costs and time) as a frozen pizza, but evidence shows that is not the case for wider society.

I was allowed chocolate, crisps and some home made sweets but not everyday and in small quantities. Like 2 squares of chocolate, not a whole bar. No fizzy drinks. I did the same for my DC.

The cry of " Your kids will get an eating disorder if you restrict junk " always goes up on MN. But more kids are obese than have an eating disorder.

It can become forbidden fruit. I had an incredibly healthy diet as a child and now eat too much chocolate.

But loads of people eat too much chocolate - people who had loads as a child, people who had none as a child, and everything in between.

@Mirabai I have no idea. I might just love chocolate and find it hard not to eat too much whatever my mother did. I do love healthy meals as well and vegetables.

Similar to that poster’s neighbour we never had sweets/chocolate/crisps in the house growing up although we did have chocolate biscuits.

It never became “forbidden fruit” - I just grew up not liking or wanting it.

I agree. Whenever that theory is said on MN I always think it's bollocks. Growing up, we didn't have squash or fizzy drinks, and never had chocolate bars or crisps (I was born early 90s so other children would have chocolate bars etc in lunchboxes). They weren't demonised, they were just not bought. I didn't grow up unable to contain myself around mars bars and cans of Coke. (We did have some home baking so sweet treats were totally banned)

Obviously you don't want to be really restrictive and controlling and tell children they mustn't ever eat "bad" foods, but simply not buying fizzy drinks isn't going to create a child who is obsessed with them. If I'm being honest I think that's just what people who buy them want to tell themselves.

How do you know you wouldn’t have eaten the same amount of chocolate now if you had been allowed it as a child?

I can't say I haven't restricted my daughters diet at all, I definitely have, but I have gone down the everything in moderation route, which I'm happy with. On the whole she has a great diet, but like @peachgreen I had a terrible relationship with food, which I had to work really hard to repair so I'm super conscious of getting the balance right.

I think the idea that we should just feed children what they will eat is very damaging.

It can become forbidden fruit. I had an incredibly healthy diet as a child and now eat too much chocolate. I don't eat crisps though. I am just not interested in them.

Life expectancy will continue to fall.

The government are going to drag their heals on UPFs in the same way they did with tobacco.

It's incredibly sad.

Same here.

I don’t know if forbidden fruit theory is true for some. I do know though that I have seen an awful lot of people on here using it as a reason to not restrict their child’s diet at all. I don’t know whether they genuinely believe it or not, maybe there really are parents out there who think they’re doing the right thing by not limiting their child’s junk consumption.

This is just an excuse.

Similar to that poster’s neighbour we never had sweets/chocolate/crisps in the house growing up although we did have chocolate biscuits.

It never became “forbidden fruit” - I just grew up not liking or wanting it.

I never used to eat very healthily but I was always skinny. Then I went on a medication that made me really hungry and I put on weight even though I eat more healthy now. My teenage son is naturally skinny and he eats lots of biscuits and noodles and I can't see him ever getting obese if he tried. I don't think it is to do with quality of food it's how much you eat

I think the government should take a leaf out of Japan’s book and involve employers.
Not to the same degree (I am not proposing measuring everyone’s waist and fining employers if too many of their employees are over….) but I do think the possibility or impossibility of eating a healthy diet while you are at work should be seen as a health and safety issue. We look back in horror at people having to operate dangerous machinery without safeguards but we accept people being expected to work long shifts with no time to do more than grab a Mars bar at your desk, or workplaces with nowhere to eat, or only junk food vending machines available. We spend a lot of our waking hours at work and it’s clear from talking to a lot of people that their job tends to undermine their efforts to eat healthily.

Poverty and the cost of food is obviously a contributing factor, but so many parents do not have the time, energy, or skills necessary to provide healthy, home cooked meals every day. Some parents work multiple jobs to make ends meet and grew up in households where their own parents were also short on time, money, and skills. They didn't have the opportunity to learn how to cook and sure as hell don't have the time now.

I read an interesting article regarding "food deserts" in the USA but the overall point applies the UK as well. Many parents from deprived families find that food and drink is the only resort they have to show their children love. Left to their own devices, children would obviously consider junk food, fizzy drinks, chocolate and sweets a special treat. It's the one tiny source of happiness that families living in poverty are still able to afford. Parents who feel guilty about depriving their children of material things or experiences will attempt to compensate with food and drink. Of course, this goes off the rails very quickly but the driving factor is more complex than lack of knowledge about cooking.

One thing you often observe at leisure locations (soft play, funfairs, parks etc) is that those children being allowed to eat pure junk actually appear extremely happy. Giving children sugary or unhealthy treats is a surefire way to make them happy and it's easy to see how the parents end up doing this in a misguided attempt to feel some sort of joy amidst the constant struggle of everything.

It might not be the government's direct responsibility.

But a lot of the picking up of the pieces when it all goes wrong falls very much to them, and the tax payer - not just in terms of paying for the NHS, but also the number who leave the workforce (completely or on reduced capability/hours) because of conditions that are caused or exacerbated by obesity.

So I think it is very much in the country's interest to have a government which seeks to counter, where it can, the factors that are making our society obesogenic

Rather than put the onus onto the consumer, the government should put measures into place at production level.
I'm not sure what because I'm not an expert on food production, but just like we no longer use plastic straws because the responsibility was passed onto the producers, we should no longer be consuming highly processed crap.
It's not food. It's not a treat. It tastes good on our tongue because of the manufacture processes but it's harmful for our bodies.
A treat for our bodies is something like a portion of protein with lots of veg. High in vitamins and nutrients that our bodies can actually utilise and benefit from.

It's both. If there are things the government can do, then they should. It's a problem that affects all of us even if our own families are healthy. The assumption is that parents with overweight children are just not trying, or don't care. On the whole, that is inaccurate and unfair.

Poverty and the cost of food is obviously a contributing factor, but so many parents do not have the time, energy, or skills necessary to provide healthy, home cooked meals every day. Some parents work multiple jobs to make ends meet and grew up in households where their own parents were also short on time, money, and skills. They didn't have the opportunity to learn how to cook and sure as hell don't have the time now.

I was incredibly lucky to grow up with a SAHM who was very knowledgeable in the kitchen. 99% of our meals were cooked from scratch, often using vegetables from the garden. She was teaching us how to do it while we were still very young, and we also had fairly decent cookery classes at school. I am very aware of how rare this is now. Being able to choose that life as a parent in 2024 is a luxury, and that is so wrong.

I also think there needs to be a radical shift in the way children are taught at school. Sitting at a desk all day does you no good at all; learning shouldn't have to be a sedentary activity. You don't need sports facilities (or even PE lessons) to get up and move around. Think of how many office workers put on weight when working from home over lockdown, when they only real reduction in their physical activity was their daily commute and a bit of socialising. Just walking - being on your feet, moving your body - can make the world of difference to both physical and mental health.

Unfortunately I think this is all going to get worse before it gets better. There needs to be a real crisis before everyone properly pays attention and tries to do something about it.

Sadly I experienced exactly the same when weaning both my children. I was repeatedly accused of being over protective, precious, even told I was depriving people of having a relationship with my child! For some stupid reason, people equate giving sugar and junk as showing love and affection

People want to have a can of coke that isn't extra taxed