To have come back from Lanzarote feeling geuinely shocked at how fat the British tourists were?

[Illgetmycoat]

I'm not talking slightly plump, I mean seriously, morbidly obese. A whole different race to the German, French and Spanish tourists.

What is going on? When did our country become like this? Whenever you heard a british accent, it would be accompanied by a 3ft wide backside. And whole families, too, all swollen to gargantuan size, with the poor kids unable to put their feet together because of the rolls of fat on their legs.

How has this happened? What the heck are the Brits feeding their children to get them so large? How can you feed an eight year old you love so much food that they become morbidly obese?

It can't just be blamed on poverty, because it's not cheap going to Lanzarote.

I was shocked.

i agree with the odd relationship with food. the adverts showing usually a woman eating something naughty then feeling guilty is stupid

i never use food as a treat (yes i have used it as a bribe not good i know). ds knows some foods are very good for you like salmon (usain bolt eats it every day he tells me) and spinach. he knows some foods are not so good for you like macdonals and too many biscuits can make you fat (not sure where he got this from)

he is allowed food that is not so good for him but he eats far more food that is good for him and he understands why. often it really is down to people being lazy about what they give their children to eat. the odd day of crap food is fine but frozen food everyday is not good for them even if they do not put on weight. you can feed yourself and your children good heathy cheap meals but it does take a little more effort and thought

Soon we will all be just giant larvae shaped blobs with giant pointy fingers.

tinker. Birds Eye battered fish fingers are 14.5% fat by weight. That means that 50% of their calorific value comes from the fat in them. That is high; "The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that 20 to 35 percent of your daily calorie intake come from fats."

What? Its only high if you eat nothing but fish fingers all day.

Can see this rapidly turning into one of those threads where perfectly healthy foods (as part of a balanced diet) are demonised. Its usually pizza so at least fish fingers makes a change.

Actually with the omega oils fish is very important and very good for you. If it comes in the shape of a finger to be it.

doodle, the 50% figure means that fish fingers are not a perfectly healthy food, whatever diet they are a part of. The problem is not the fish, it's the batter.

Fat is not the problem. Fish is not the problem.

The problem is the stodge in the batter.

Fish fingers aren't battered.

BTW I bought up fish fingers as a food peole used to not worry that much about, before food became so fetishised and we were all thin.

I know the "French are thin" canard thingy is thrown about constantly, but it is interesting to see the difference between how my parents (kind of Anglo-Saxon eating habits) and in laws (French/Mediterranean) eat.

DM and MIL are around the same height and build, with MIL a couple of years younger than DM. DM is a size 16 (around 5'5") and MIL is a size 10. DF and FIL are around the same size.

Parents:

• lots of ready meals/ready prepared foods (also connected to my DM hating cooking)
• Many evening meals involving meat
• less vegetables
• desserts (e.g. cake) after many evening meals
• afternoon tea involving shopp bought cake/chocolate/sweets and tea with milk
• little exercise - driving everywhere
• finish everything on your plate
• very carb heavy meals
• snacks between meals

In Laws

• most cooking from scratch
• lots of vegetables (e.g. you have a small salad at the end of the "main course" with lettuce, some tomatoes and mushroom), like 1/2 the plate
• meat only once or twice a week, rest of the time fish/vegetarian meals
• "dessert" is almost always (only on very special occassions) fresh fruit
• start with small serving - if you want more you take more, but don't have to. DH has no probs with leaving food on the plate, whereas I find it VERY hard
• more exercise (e.g. going to the gym, walking around)
• afternoon tea is normally not tea (an espresso) with a small home-made biscuit or piece of cake
• no snacks between meals

My fish fingers are never battered!

50% fat in the batter on your fish fingers doesn't mean you have 50% fat in your diet though does it. Unless you spend all day nibbling the batter of fish fingers!

It becomes a minefield for people. Fish fingers are probably not so bad for you. But people read they're bad so they try to find something healthier, like pasta. Then suddenly it's all about low carbs, and pasta is bad for you. So you try to find something else. I think a lot of people just give up.

I really try to eat healthily but it doesn't matter what you do, people will say xyz is bad for you. Fruit is bad for you - too much sugar. Potatoes are bad for you - same. I am allergic to milk - suddenly soy milk is bad for you too.

I can really see how people just give up because they don't know what is healthy because we get all these mixed messages all the time.

Ifnotnowthenwhen: "No-one was waving "organix" or innocent smoothies under our noses all day long" OMG that does my head in. When I was on mat leave with a toddler and a baby, if we went for just a walk or something with friends, people were always pulling out packets of this and packets of that. (I was the fattest of all my friends so more concerned perhaps, or uptight you might say - I think mothers who are naturally slim after a 70s or 80s childhood with much less packaged food around all the time, followed by maintenance by reasonable eating habits as an adult, don't feel the dangers of constant carbs the way I do).
I don't offer my kids snacks, they only get them (fruit usually) if they say they are hungry and ask for them, and they usually don't, unless they are hungry because it is close to a meal time, and then I say no (meanie). Why be thrusting food at little people who are quite happy doing something else and will be having dinner in an hour?

That Swiss regime would probably have me fat unless I skipped, or was very careful with, the morning and afternoon snack. But I am sure a lot of people do just have coffee. But it looks nice, I have found I work much better eating a proper lunch and less later.

anyway it is obvious that the people who are attracted to an all-inclusive holiday are the ones who look forward to eating a lot so if they are big this should not be a surprise.

Breaded fish fingers are 9g of fat per 100g because who eats battered fish fingers?

Well, it's all about moderation innit?
My experience with feeding dc is similar to Freudians. I do do treats I guess, in that Friday night is sweets night, but a put some sweeties in a dish and we share it. Ds is pretty happy with small amounts of things cos I have always been very mean with the sugary stuff.
It's fine to eat fish fingers, Its fine to eat sweets sometimes. It's not fine for the majority of your food intake to come from these things.
And it's not just about weight, not at all.
There are good foods and bad foods. Good foods are non processed and fresh, have complex structure, fibre, vitamins, iron etc. Bad food are processed pap.
Good foods have a totally different effect on your body to bad foods. They nourish and help your body function properly.
Food which are processed and high in sugar and lard inhibit the functioning of your body. They also leave you feeling tired and low in energy.
In the long term undernourished people (and these can be fat people) develop serious illnesses because their bodies are not being fed the right things.
I really think that if people tuned in a bit to how food makes them feel, they would eat better without it being hard.
I love a donut like anyone, but after eating one I never feel guilty (it's just a donut I didn't murder anyone) but I do feel sluggish and bloated, and I may well redress the way I feel by having veg soup for tea, or something else light and nourishing.

btw the fish fingers I refered to eating woulf have been eated with a side of peas and a scoop of mash, followed by something like a petit filous.

Trills the fat is in the fish

a lots of ketchup

Well the fish fingers in my freezer contain 5.7 grams of fat for three fingers. It says daily guidelines is 70g of fat a day for children. So the fish fingers (assuming they eat all three) only provide 8.5% ish of the fat they should eat a day. (that might be slightly off, can't be arsed to do the maths)

On top of that there is also omega 3 at 120mg.

Well, it's all about moderation innit?

what is moderation?

Moderation is having a little of what you fancy. Not a mountain of what you fancy all day every day.

surely everyone knows fishfingers are not that good for you. I buy the sainburys

Taste the difference ones they are really nice a lot more fish but they still not what I would call healthy

tinned tuna mixed with peppers and peas and a side of mash or boiled potatoes or pasta would be a much better balanced meal less salt which we often overlook, less fat, no other crap additives and the costs are the same if not cheaper

I doubt the fat is in the fish, there is very little fat in the sort of white fish that goes into fish fingers. More likely it's how they glue the breadcrumbs together and stick them on, and some fat is needed to crisp all that up as it cooks #science

Surely fish fingers existed in the 70s?