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.

HelpOneAnother - exactly. All these crappy little packets are making some people very rich. Fortunes are spent on promoting rubbish made from the very cheapest ingredients. The packets and ads are honed by the finest minds. It works, people eat it, and they get fat. It would be astonishing if it didn't work given that so much money is spent on getting it to work.

OK the buffet at Lanzerote was probably not promoted by the finest minds at Nestle or Unilever, but the thing is, once you have got your body going that way, the monster has to be satisfied. You become physically dependent on over-consumption of certain sorts of energy. The evil geniuses start the machine of ravening hunger, make the big money, and then the common or garden petty criminals mop up the minor profits.

I'm sure you could've seen overweight Brits without out having to go all the way to Lanzagrotte I saw quite a few people in Haven Hafan y Mor,who were noticeably overweight but you'd have been very disappointed if you'd gone to Haven Devon Cliffs, because nearly everyone looked a healthy weight, so you'd have had nothing to be shocked by and tut over.

It's funny how years ago, most people were a healthy weight but you'd never have heard anyone worrying about fish fingers being horribly fattening (which they aren't) Partly down to the fact they had more exercise and foods such as cake and biscuitswere far more expensive and things than crisps weren't available.

I'm sure fish fingers were around in he 70s. They were certainly very popular in the 80s when I was a child and you didn't hear much about childhood obesity then.

Surely fish fingers existed in the 70s?

They were around and so were the captian birds eye adverts -they were certainl available in 1971/2

Moderation is having a little of what you fancy

how much is a little and how much is a lot and how much is a little to much?

Anyone else currently dying for a fishfinger?

tinned tuna - it doesn't have any omega 3 though not tinned tuna

Just seen an asda advert on ITV and it is showing a whole table of stuff that is on offer for 50p, a few healthy bits such as pasta, soup but other than that the items that stand out are pot noodles, haribo, jammy dodgers, super noodles.

I do believe this is part of the problem, it costs £2-3 for a punnet of strawberries at the moment, this would last approx 5 mins in our house so 50p for a pack of jammy dodgers may actually seem more appealing for people that cannot afford to spend £20-30 on very expensive fruit each week.

Every time I go food shopping it irritates me that all the junk food is on offer in particular cereals - Asda own brand cereals have a selection that are 3 for £3 but the only ones including in this are chocco snaps, chocco hoops, frosted flakes and honey hoops. The supermarkets are a huge part of the problem in the UK.

Yep just been searching in my freezer so I can have a fish finger sandwich but we have run out!

yes we had fish fingers when I was young (70's) not often and frozen burgers

Not sure it was seen as a healthy meal back then

They were certainly very popular in the 80s when I was a child and you didn't hear much about childhood obesity then.

That was the point I was making upthread before everyone started banging on abot how fishfingers ARE BAD FOR YOU!

I was just thinking that Ariel!

ivykaty- a little is when the bulk of your diet consists of real, healthy foods, and you sometimes supplement it with a cream cake, or bag of crisps.
A lot is when you actually get full on crisps, or cake, or biscuits, using it in place of real food.

I would not say bad but they are not a healthy meal just an easy meal

we have potato waffles sometimes lovely with egg and beans they are not healthy it is an easy meal to make there is nothing wrong with eating crap food but there is somethng wrong in not recognising what is really bad, a little bit bad and what is good for you

nothing wrong eating crap food sometimes ...... Is what I should have said

I think it's happening to all nations. My ds is OK and I've seen about 5 overweight kids in his huge school We go to ILs in Italy every year and the village has possible only 100 kids and over half are bigger than overweight. DS spends two weeks and actually comes back fat as he's done nothing but eat pasta, watch tv, be ferried around a tiny village in a car, drinks only fanta and snacks are only pringles. He can go two weeks there only eating about 10 tomatoes and no fruit. No physical activity at all. Its very hard for him when he comes back and I drag him out to the park.

Also I've seen a step change. When I started going about 20 years ago it was hard to get hold of 'snacks' so people ate proper meals. Now it's snack city and my sil was just recently raving to me about this amazing thing that only exists in Italy called FINDUS CRISPY PANCAKES. OMG - OMFG. Not great [- I had those growing up in the 1970's when you were considered affluent for being able to afford 'ready meals'.

I'm very much an eat what you like that you've prepared yourself and also move your arse person but there seem to be more and more reasons for kids not to move at all.

The reason strawberries are expensive at the moment is because they are flown in from God knows where because British strawberries are out of season. No offence, but this is part of the problem. People don't actually know about food.

how often is sometimes? Is there a few months between each some or is the times closer and possibly only a few weeks between sometimes?

There is omega 3 in tinned tuna. It's better to buy it in water rather than brine or oil.

Strawberries? I know, have you SEEN the price of caviar as well? ;)

But all fruit goes out of season in winter. That's why forced rhubarb in Feb / March was such a dramatic luxury. With the right sort of estate, managed correctly, you could keep (some, preciously rationed) apples (of the right variety) right up to when the forced rhubarb comes in. And then you are a house of great luxury. The rest of us eat cabbage.

I have a bag of very manky looking coxes that I am regretting buying. So many bruises and I am sure the flesh is probably sawdusty.

I am going to pretend you are not being facetious ivykaty and answer you seriously, ok?

I would say in the time frame of a week (that's 7 days before you ask) you should be able to say you have eaten mostly healthy meals every day, and that if you have 3 biscuits or a kit kat or a sugary yogurt every day that would be fine, as long as the majority of your calorie intake was healthy.
Sorry, I should say-the yogurt would be a Muller fruit corner. Cherry flavour.

HTH

Ariel I fully understand that but lets face it they are never cheap. Why say no offence when you are actually being rude.

It may have been a bad example for those reasons but if you could tell me when I could buy strawberries for 50p I would be grateful as I have never seen it. I am not going to replace fresh fruit with junk food as I can afford not to but there are lots of people that cannot afford to buy things like strawberries all year round so it is a massive issue.

Fruit is very very expensive as is fresh meat and fish but if I bought breaded chicken grills it is 2 packs for £3 which does 4 meals as opposed to 2 chicken breasts for £3 which does 1.

my mum grew up whippet thin on egg and chips in thr '50s. My kids are all slender and frankly i don't think boiled egg and home made chips is a bad meal, neither is fish fingers/chips/mash with peas and carrots. We don't have crisps in the house though and they seldom get a sweet dessert - just fruit.

mil was very poor, shared a bed with her sister til she left home at 17, but again was skinny.
On fridays her mother would deep fry slivers of potato and put them hot into thickly buttered rolls and give them to her 5 children.
MIL says the difference to today is that she grew up on veg grown in back garden, wild rabbit trapped by her father, there were no sweet shops, takeaways or convenience food on the council estate where she grew up. high excitement if ever the ice cream van arrived! And they played out constantly - kicked out in the morning and not back til teatime.

Strawberries have always been expensive, especially whe out of season, if you could get them at all. Apples, bananas etc are cheaper.

I think is about norms changing and that is about capitalism.

1974 - cup of tea and a digestive - about 100 cals and 10p (in today's money)
2012 - cappuccino and a muffin - about 600 cals and £5

(Ok wildly guessed figures, does anyone know if they are remotely right?)