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

No a child eating UPF is not best - they only restrict themselves to this food because they have been exposed to it repeatedly.

Yes, I remember when my daughter was tiny and just started eating older relatives being desperate to feed her crap! Ice cream, chocolate, chips! And the grief I got when I asked them now was unreal! They went on about how precious I was, and how it didn't do their kids any harm 😳

As many PP have pointed out, there are a multitude of factors that have caused this problem. I fully agree the government need to be held to account because it is a public health issue and one which is already costing the health service a fortune, with spending inly heading in one direction.

Attitudes to food also need to be changed. From the outset, the 'fed is best' mentality prevails (I am referring to solid food, not breast vs bottle which is entirely different). No a child eating UPF is not best - they only restrict themselves to this food because they have been exposed to it repeatedly. Also, weaning your baby on a diet of pre-prepared jars is also not good for them however you may dress it up. Posters are so quick to jump down the throat of anyone who may dare suggest that this food is not good for their child.
Moving on to a bit older, teaching children that UPF/high sugar foods are to be enjoyed in moderation is also not setting them up for a lifetime of disordered eating. These foods should not be readily available at every meal and by keeping them away, children are not being deprived or encouraged to binge when they get older.

Education on food and cooking is truly appalling. Why are children not taught how to chop vegetables and cook meals from scratch, how to economise when using appliances so each time the oven is turned on, the electricity is justified by filling it up, pot in pot cooking to cook multiple things at once. You hope they won't fall on hard times financially but these skills are what will get them through if they do. This was all missing when my generation were at school so the majority cannot pass it down to their children. If school does not teach it, they will never learn.

Sadly this will never happen but society should not need two adults working full time for a household to stay afloat. They should be able to survive on max 1.5 x average wage. I would hope men to be just as likely to reduce hours as women so it does not get filed off as our responsibility. That extra time makes such a big difference in having time to prepare food when running a house

Whilst this seems to have worked for your neighbors, it's also really common for that attitude to backfire and go the complete opposite way. It's the forbidden fruit theory, theore you say they absolutely can't have it, the more they want it. To a degree everything in moderation will foster a healthy relation with food, and if you're having a largely healthy diet with whole, non processed foods, the odd 'treat' won't cause any lasting damage.

Being firm with kids is also key. My neighbours were always very disciplined about not allowing their children to have any sweets whatsoever and they were made to sit and eat vegetables.
If they didn’t, they would go to bed hungry. Roll on 12 years and they have two girls who actively asked for vegetables, and don’t particularly like sweets.
I was less disciplined and I now regret it.
However, I have always cooked our own food. anyone who says it’s more expensive cooking for yourself and using veg is just being absurd.

You can get both if diet quality is poor - insufficient key nutrients

I think there must be different circumstances between obese children and children not reaching their potential height

I understand the link between poverty, deprivation & UPF consumption. But if children are obese they have too much to eat not too little - too much of the wrong kind of food.

I think this is so sad. It will only be solved by a three prong approach IMO:

1. Education - really educate so that people genuinely understand and are keen to eat well. Cookery lessons included in this.
2. Promote and subsidise non-UPF foods by taxing the endless crap foods. The revenue can then be used to subsidise fruit, veg, etc.
3. Social adjustments - reduce the hours people are forced to work so that they have time to plan, cook and eat well, as well as exercise. This will be the most difficult one and will take thought but it will save money in the long run.

Casseroles are super quick if you have a slow/pressure cooker. Throw all ingredients in, then come back when it’s cooked.

I agree. I also thought that, if you are literally watching every penny and unable to overspend, you might be more inclined to feed your children food you know they will eat, so there’s no waste and no chance of running out of food. It’s just so awful.

We rarely cook things like casserole often as they take ages.

Fast food for us on days we get home late without anything pre prepped is something like omelettes, scrambled eggs, toasties, grilled fish or meat with salad/ bread, pesto pasta.

I usually always have stuff either batch Cooked in freezer, or leftover from day before in fridge for speed.
Ie we had curry and rice last night, I double batched both curry and rice. The curry leftover went in freezer for another night, rice in fridge. Tonight I can make fast egg fried rice with using up veggies in fridge, and fried rice always works better with cooked rice anyway. It’s also cheap and way of no waste of veg.

Ds has various allergies which has also forced us to eat less processed

'Choices', are not made in a vacuum.

I agree. The amount of stay at home mums, when I was young, was normal. My mother worked from home though, and always cooked lovely meals, made from scratch. That is how I learned to cook. It is not easy if both parents are out at work everyday, but there are ways to eat well, even if it is homemade burger patties, with salad, that is far better than a substandard cheap takeaway, of a night.

Nobody ever thinks advertising affects them, which makes the £36bn a year spent on it in the UK seem like quite the waste of money...

You may not like it but advertising and indeed the government have an enormous influence both subconsciously and not on what you get at the supermarket.

No, I can assure you they don't...
Neither for that matter does anything I see on social media.

While some may need the Government to do their thinking for them it, equally, needs to be accepted that others can and do think for themselves.

Exactly. It is very easy to simmer some meat, and veg, once cooked, get a stick blender, and whizz. This can then be kept in small containers in the fridge for a couple of days, and the rest frozen, and defrosted in the morning for use later on in the day. it is cheaper, and can be made using whatever meat, or vegetables on offer in the supermarket.

The government is encouraging people to have children via the child benefit, statutory maternity leave, publicly funded schools, etc. It's in the interest of any country not to have a declining birthrate.

You may not like it but advertising and indeed the government have an enormous influence both subconsciously and not on what you get at the supermarket.

I agree parents absolutely need to take responsibility and make good choices, but this is only possible on a broad scale if the right framework is in place.

There must be a cohort of people though, for whom ‘treat’ foods equate to love and caring.

I worked with someone who was very overweight and still is, which is bringing its own health problems. Three of her four children are obese and six of her grandchildren.

These people aren’t short of money and they aren’t short of time either. They regard taking their children to fast food outlets, ice cream parlours and chip shops as showing their love.

I only discovered Lurpak wasn't 100% real butter the other week. I was shocked. I thought, given the price of it, it must be the purest of the pure of all butters.

I'm sticking with own brand.

My DPs both worked in the 70s/80s and we had home cooked meals every evening.
The differences were I think that those days jobs and traffic weren't as full on, so they were generally both home by about 5. Household roles were more sexist and ingrained so DM did all the cooking, but she did have a repertoire and routine.
I remember ready meals were coming in in the 1980s and DM threw a dinner party where she served M&S ready made curries and that was seen as being really posh < in our neighbourhood anyway > maybe that was the beginning of the end .

Of course, why wouldn't I as a parent of two DC think, no hold on, know it's my responsibility?

The government didn't ask me to have DC that was a decision made between my DH and myself.
I choose what to buy on the weekly food shop, the Government, nor for that matter TV advertising dictate what I buy food wise or in any other way.

If not a parent/carer who's responsibly do you think it is to bring up DC?

DD's very best friend was raised by a dad who doesn't eat vegetables. His whole diet is beige. He was raised by a mother who thought white bread was 'posh' so his diet was a lot of jam sandwiches. He feeds her utter crap. Sports drinks for breakfast and no vegetables at all.

The reason this issue isn't just about parents is that it's now multi-generational. Many parents don't know what a good diet looks like, and weren't taught to value it. It's a social issue with poorer families suffering worst. If all your friends eat crap, you feel weird not eating it.

DD's best friend is overweight and depressed and anxious.

Well that’s because you and your friends are clearly a cut above the general public and evidently superior.

I don’t rely on a food bank - I’m not sure why you think I do but I’m pretty lucky that is the case. As I pointed out I do make casseroles (frequently) as my DC are teenagers so they don’t mind waiting. I tend to cook food that I grew up with so British stuff but also have scandi heritage so probably had more fish than the average Brit growing up. My Teenagers are really thin, DD I worry loads about as she is probably too thin but my DC generally have a good diet as much organic food as I can afford - I am unsure if you are mixing me up with another poster.

I think it is poverty of time rather than of money that plays a big part in food choices.

There is obviously some correlation as people with less money are more likely to work longer hours but hectic lifestyles with tired parents going from work to school to home with overtired children are more likely to make poorer food choices that say in a family where one parent works part time.