To be shocked at the level of obesity of British children?

I care because it is upsetting to see so so many children who are being set up for a lifetime of being more susceptible to a multitude of life limiting and life shortening conditions.
Just as I find it upsetting when you see children sitting in cars with parents smoking.ita avoidable and awful

Yes I'd be curious to see a picture of the guy who was the "fat kid" in my school in the early 90s, I'm sure he would look "normal" now.

I saw a movie from not too long ago, probably 1999 and an (adult) character was teased about his weight but looked pretty slim to me!

YANBU, people don't like to hear it but YANBU anyway.

There's a very strong link between overweight/obese parents and children.

And with over 63% of British adults being overweight/obese, it sadly stands to reason their kids will be too.

Some of them are going without proper food and nutrition because of child poverty in this country . Apparently 5 years olds are 4 inches smaller on average than ten years ago under Tory rule so everything is balancing out. What a country!

It also rains in France and Germany. It’s not a schools responsibility to ensure children take regular exercise - it’s something parents should and can easily do.

It kind of does affect other children too, if the normal weight ones are seen as not normal. Because then health becomes an abnormality, we should all care about this really, societal reasons.

Yes, they have lots of pre-packaged food. I would say similar to the UK, but they have loads more sweets, sweet bread type things, etc. they have similar amounts of pizza etc., fewer to none curries, more filled pasta, same amounts of jars of sauces etc. lots more crisps!!! All in all, pretty much the same.

You have to be living under a rock to not know what a unhealthy diet looks like.

Agreed. It’s abuse in my opinion. If you cannot look after yourself you shouldn’t really be responsible for a child if you are inflicting bad habits on to them. It’s beyond shameful.

Personally I think the weather is a huge factor- in France and Germany theyd be out a lot more and schools generally do a lot of swimming and outdoor activities, camping trips etc.

Pretty much this.

Fat parents raise fat kids.

A cursory look in the shopping trolly of very overweight people explains why.

From reading ‘Why We Eat (Too Much)’ current research shows that it can be a very complex issue and not always simply a case of just eat less. I don’t know however if they also applies to children. Obesity is a major problem and has been for a long time. Some people have lost perspective of what children should look (e.g. ribs visible) as we see so many who are overweight which is becoming more and more the norm.

This is also definitely to do with affluence and poverty. UPF food is cheap and tends to be attractive to children.

As a counter point to another posters stats, my DC are at a private prep in an affluent area. Not one child in the reception intake is obese/ overweight. They also exercise every single day, alongside lots of outside play time. This is a money/ class divide.

I remember when Augustus Gloop in 1971 actually looked fat now he just looks pretty averaged sized.

For people to make proper informed choices about the food that they consume, they need to have the knowledge to make those choices. Money will be a factor in those choices too. But, make no mistake about it, the Government is doing nothing to protect its citizens from the harmful UPFs. They are making too much money from all the kickbacks they get from these food corporations. I would bet that the elite, in this Country are not eating the rubbish that most of the public will be subjected to.

Parents don’t lead by example and food is seen as a “treat” rather than fuel. Mine knows being hungry is fine, snacks aren’t necessary (it’s how I was raised so knew no difference, not some superiority thing I just copied how we were raised). We are gym members and mine grew watching us enjoy exercising and came hill walking and camping from walking age. Guess what? She’s slightly underweight (only by 3 pounds) and stays roughly at that. Obesity killed my father while I was young and I’ve never lied about why there’s no grandad. My mum who was the “you don’t need a bloody biscuit lunch is only an hour” is still alive and independent. OP is right to be concerned. When the fat kids time bomb goes off there will be no fucker to fund their health care and wipe their arse for them (my dads reality for years)

Fat kids become fat, unhealthy and often unhappy adults. Why wouldn't we care?

It's like that for now but other countries are catching up.

Take a football to the local park after dinner, do a weekly family fun run, explore the local footpaths. Exercise as a family is easy and with a few exceptions there is no excuse.

I find it absolutely fucking appalling when I see fat adults inflicting their same shit lifestyles onto tiny children. I know it can be nuanced and health conditions can be at play, but sometimes, often, it’s just shit lifestyle. And that tiny child is being set up for a very difficult life. And that is distressing.

When you see what their parents are buying at the supermarket, what they’re eating when they’re in restaurants, what’s in their packed lunches you start to realise why this is. Imagine being born to parents who have little regard for their diet and are unable to make healthy choices for themselves let alone a child, it’s not the children’s fault, it’s the parents and those behaviours are passed on to the next generation.

I have an old school friend on FB who is morbidly obese, she often posts pictures of days out and holidays and it’s clear that her young adult daughter and preteen son eat the same bad foods as her, huge mountainous plates of junk food, with lashings of ketchup and mayonnaise, full sugar soft drinks, excessive sweets and chocolates galore for ‘film nights’ and much more. She’s passed those poor food habits on to her children who are now overweight for their ages, they seem happy but the long term health implications are stark.

I’d agree with this. I can see with my own modern eye that my kids look ribby and bony compared to other children, but I know from checking the centile that they are between 25 and 50th centile (and my boy was 110th centile when born)

This leads to comments that I’m under feeding them. Which I’m not, we just do a lot of walking.

Yes, we’ve had this. Had to produce evidence for one grandparent that you should be able to see the ribs in a healthy child.

And yes, we’re facing a huge problem. I’m 20 pounds overweight but was never overweight before the menopause. I’ve got students aged 18-early 20s who make me look thin. We need a long hard look at our diet as a nation - especially what we let kids drink. Water is fine. I learned from a mistake with DS1 letting him have the same as his cousins on holiday. Years later DS2 was given water and milk as a toddler and nothing else. At 16 he still only drinks milk and water. His dentist comments on how healthy his teeth are. Wish I’d stuck to my guns with DS1.

We have recently moved to France, the area we live in it’s unusual to see obese people. In the UK it feels normal for people to be obese. Food is much more expensive here than the UK (including junk food) one thing I notice is the children’s play parks are always busy. It seems the culture for the mums to sit and chat after school while the children run and climb. In my eldest daughters school they also do an hour of exercise in the morning before they sit down to an activity.