To think there is too much emphasis on healthy eating these days?

[Dancergirl]

In particular in schools? It seems that every school has a 'healthy eating' policy these days and it's drummed home what's healthy and not healthy etc. Now I know childhood obesity is on the rise but really...I don't see many overweight children around, let alone obese ones.

I think the real risk is the rise in childhood eating disorders such as anorexia and a psychologist friend of mine told me sufferers are getting younger and younger. Of course it's down to many factors, the whole celebrity culture and desire to be thin being one.

But I don't want my children getting obsessed over healthy eating and a lot of time seems to be spent at school encouraging this. At home I try and give them a good balanced diet but chocolate/biscuits/cake etc aren't banned either.

In those cases DressDown all we can hope is the children are provided with enough information to fight back as they get older and not let their own children be forced into the same trap they were.

However, for that reason any healthy eating messages need to come with teaching children how to cook a healthy balanced meal which is where to often food tech lessons in schools trip up. Teach children how to make a roast dinner, a proper spag bol and other simple recipes which set them up for life

I think the problem is that there's too much emphasis on healthy eating and not enough on physical activity. Children are becoming overweight not because they're eating more (they're not, anyone who grew up in the 70s and 80s ate way more crap than they do today - I know I did!) but they're moving less.

I don't get annoyed with the school for focusing on healthy eating but I do get annoyed with their lack of consistency. For example, they complained because I put 2 small squares of dark chocolate in my dd's packed lunch yet at the aferschool club they serve them crisps and jam sandwiches

That's the thing OP

Some people do see comments like that and immediately worry immensely and think 'eating disorder' if someone says they watch their child's weight (I don't mean you personally btw)

I have 3 boys and my middle boy doesn't play out in the street because he doesn't want to. He does sports at school because he has to, but will do no extra sport because he simply hates it. If I owned car, he'd probably get even less exercise than he does now.

He loves his food..probably more than his brothers, so he knows he has to watch his eating more than them because unlike him, they love exercise and can't get enough of it.

At one point he was getting a visibly podgy belly and it wasn't because of puberty/because he's big boned/puppy fat or any of those things...it was simply because he was eating too much of the wrong things and exercising too little.

I had to buy him 'chunky fit' school trousers and as soon as I did, I made up my mind they were the last pair I would buy him if I could help it...and I concentrated more on fun days at the swimming pool, suggesting family bike rides and more trips to the park whilst subtly buying a lot more fruit than biscuits etc...

...I don't see many overweight children around, let alone obese ones.

There are loads where we live. Any group of kids walking up the road, particuarly high school, will have at least a couple who are visibly overweight.

YANBU not because "healthy eating" isn't important, but because so many of the messages are completely wrong, either out-dated, confused, or based on lobbying from vested interests (Green Giant get Corn counted as one of your "5 a day" but potatoes which are nutritionally superior if anything not...), or simply misleading. There are very, very few bad foods, there's only a bad diet, and the garbage messages that come out of the discussion are all too often more harmful than of a benefit.

Against that though there are too many obese and overweight people, hurting themselves and the wider society. Kids very rightly can no longer be encouraged to point and laugh at them to add social stigma to encourage a change of behaviour. So the message does need to be got through differently. And certainly it's not very likely that diet has had an awful lot to do with the change in obesity levels (the change in activity levels and even the average temperature of our houses almost certainly had a much bigger effect as calorie consumption is no higher now) but something does need to be done to make people not want to be obese.

So YANBU, but you can't just tell the schools and others to shut up, you need to provide an alternative.

I agree. DS got an Orchard Toys game for Christmas called Greedy Gorilla, and I despise it. So preachy! You have cards with all the healthy stuff on and others with all the 'crap' on - burger, pizza etc - and you use the healthy ones to match to your recipe cards and feed the 'crap' ones to the gorilla, cos they're bad foods! Fucking stupid. Whatever happened to all things in moderation?

I agree with ElaineBenes. I was thinking the exact same thing-that I ate a terrible diet in the 70/80s but did a lot more exercise. Nothing wrong with a focus on healthy eating, but it's not consistent in the least and exercise should have as much a focus.

My DSS is totally obsessed with 'healthy eating' - but how he interprets it is 'being thin'. He makes many, many comments about how skinny he is, how thin he is, how no clothes ever fit him etc etc. I find it quite worrying sometimes. As it happens, really he is just always been tall for his age rather than excessively skinny. He is getting to that age now though (nearly 11) that he is starting to get some puppy fat as his body changes.

He has a varied diet - he is only with us fortnightly, we tend to have a relaxed night with pizza or something and maybe popcorn while watching a movie. Other days I will generally cook from scratch, most weekends we have a roast. As far as I am aware, he has the same sort of thing at home with his mum, so I don't really know where he gets it from. I know that for a while his mum was giving him baby food (!) when he was at school as she was afraid of additives - this didn't go on long but maybe she has substituted some other faddy thing?

The common sense guide to eating healthily - eat all colours of the rainbow and no I don't mean smarties, and stick to a 80 percent healthy 20 percent treat split.

What she said. And make sure the little buggers run around a lot.

Agree it's exercise that's important. Finding something you love and making it part of your life is also a good outlet for stress.

I also don't see so many overweight children, but my goodness there are a fair few overweight teenage girls about.

I think there is too much emphasis on 'healthy eating' in a way. It sounds like something to do for a short period of time to be 'good' after being naughty; that it's a kind of medicine to swallow. It sounds depressing.

Instead of banging on about 5 a day and banning things in lunchboxes, take the guilt away but promote good food, fresh food, home cooked food (and that includes sweet things too), eaten and enjoyed at the table with the tv off.

Stop grazing and shovelling in things between meals - that is something that really seems to be normal these days whereas when I was growing up it wasn't. Make time to stop and enjoy it and keep and eye on the portion sizes.

Stop grazing and shovelling in things between meals - that is something that really seems to be normal these days whereas when I was growing up it wasn't. Make time to stop and enjoy it and keep and eye on the portion sizes.

Absolutely...and recognise that slight hunger is not going to kill you. Some people feel the need to eat the second they feel a slight hunger pang, because ready cooked food is all over the high street...so rather than wait til they get home, they'll nip into Greggs/any other shop and get something to eat in the street to stop it.

The other thing is portion size: portions today are huge compared to those eaten by previous generations. My 2yo DN is overweight for her age and size, not because she eats crap but because she has portions that would fill a 7yo. If we go round there for meals, we have to ask her parents to give DS half what they were going to serve him. My neighbour's kid was five kilos overweight at 3yo because her mum had got the healthy eating message but didn't regulate how much healthy food her DD has, so a light snack was two rounds of wholemeal toast and two nectarines.

I do think parents are getting 5 a day but not how big the portions need to be.

The difference in portion sizes then &now is interesting We've lost track of what's 'normal' and what should be a treat.

Just looking at that link - the popcorn is something I especially notice. I'm always when I see those humungous containers - the size of the dustbin in my bedroom

A relaxed attitude to food is good...but disciplining through food isn't demonic (as MN seems to think). A lot of it is simple, just to do with portion sizes and snacking.

I disagree OP.

Take a trip to your local council swimming pool and you will see that there are more overweight kids in the pool than normal weight ones.

And i am not talking a bit of puppy fat, but real unhealthy looking fatness.

I dont know what these kids are eating but i doubt there is much fruit or veg in their diet.

The healthy eating campaigns arent aimed at you anyhow but the parents who really do not know about nutrition and balanced diets.

BendyBob, we bought a big popcorn as a splurge and the kids used it as a dustbin in their bedroom!!

There are not enough good fresh natural foods around, and nowhere near enough exercise. Don't ban sweets from lunch boxes, ban bloody X Boxes!

I think its more a return to healthier eating. Growing up in the 70's I certainly didn't have the amount of processed crap kids have been having up till this point.I'm so glad to see the tide is turning.Its not so much healthy eating but natural eating that should be encouraged - the meat and 2 veg and less of it.

I don't find school is over restrictive to my DD's.They have a good cooked meal and a pudding,which may be chocolate cake or it may be fruit salad.

What I find weird is that primary schools bang on about healthy eating, then cancel PE lessons in order to do endless rehearsals for the nativity play. I'd much rather my dc did some running around. Then dc go to secondary school and the canteen sells all manner of processed shite (chips, garlic bread etc) and has vending machines full of chocolate. Does being healthy no longer matter once your kids hit 11?

That said, I miss the 70's. No one gave a bugger back then and I long for the guilt free days of Findus Crispy Pancakes, Ice Magic and gold top Ski yogurts!

There are not enough good fresh natural foods around, and nowhere near enough exercise. Don't ban sweets from lunch boxes, ban bloody X Boxes!

Ahh yes well mine can't fit his X Box into his lunch box anyway

My DDs school is not at all restrictive with food - in fact they let them eat a diet I wouldn't consider allowing at home. My 8 and 11 year olds in particular have dessert with their lunch (and I'm meaning icecream, sponge, pie type desserts not fruit and yogurt!) most days of the week. Completely unnecessary in my view. They also have fish and chip Fridays when I would prefer my children not to have fried foods.

But they are all healthy and skinny as rakes (except one but se;s underweight not over!) because they get at least an hour of sport every day at school as well as doing hours of dance and gymnastics every week and doing informal outdoor activity at school and with family.

Exercise is so much more important than diet imo. I can count the number of fat children in my dds' school in single digits - and it's certainly down to the compulsory exercise because the diet is far far from exemplary.

That's true about exercise

I know a lot of parents say "Well my child does PE and Games and runs around the playground at school"

But that's nowhere near enough for them

If it was, there would be no fat school pupils really.

I know a lot of parents don't let their kids play in the street, but they don't compensate for that by taking them regularly to the park...or even sitting in the street to keep an eye on them if they're that nervous.

Most children are overweight nowadays,

On a healthy 10 year old you should be able to feel their ribs.