To not be surprised our kids are so fat

[Babycham1979]

When they're fed utter crap like this;

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-2957301/What-school-lunches-look-like-world.html

No wonder obesity rates are so high,mand no wonder so many British children are incredibly picky when they're fed processed shite as is evident in these pictures. Imagine some of the pickiest UK children being handed a bowl of miso soup, or prawns, or plantain?!

Is the issue budgetary, or culture? Either way, we're failing our children.

Worra those comments were made in regards to the sugar tax comment, I meant that even basic cheap shitty food will become too expensive if there's a sugar tax as they shove sugar in everything (along with nueroua other bits of crap).

Sorry, haven't had enough coffee yet and not being very clear on what I mean

• numerous

But if you find yourself in financial difficulty things do have to change. If you want to continue eating healthily resorting to burgers and other cheap meat - it's not exactly healthy anyway is it? The more sensible option would be to eat better quality meat less often and eat other healthy ( non-meat-based) meals.

Sorry wind, not enough coffee myself. I should have realised that

Bumble I think we will just agree to disagree on this one. When my DF was made redundant there's no way he would have a meat free dinner so he resorted to cheaper cuts/products. My DF is in his 60s and not going to change his mindset

I think in those types of situations the change in mindset is more that they know they won't be eating as healthily. If people still wanted to keep eating as healthily on a lower budget the type of food would have to change.

Happy to agree to disagree though :)

Yeah that's stubbornness for you!!

I'm just going to put this here

Health at Every Size

Also can we please remember there is nothing evil about being fat/overweight/obese, you are all moralising talking about people here.

Had anyone said it's evil?

Bit defeatist in that link saying we've 'lost the war on obesity'. Aren't the figures starting to decrease?

Who's evil? I've not seen anything evil!

Being fat/overweight/obese is unhealthy, but that's not to say the people themselves are not lovely - no one is being demonised here!!

But not everyone who is fat/overweight is unhealthy. The same as not everyone who is thin/skinny/lean is healthy

This is about children, and obesity in children needs to be addressed, yes you can be skinny and unhealthy but again this is children so children should not be skinny and unhealthy either. No one has all the answers, just an no one knows all individual circumstances but I am pretty sure most people want children to be as healthy as possible, wanting that does not make people evil.

Whilst obese people may be healthy- healthier than their thin counterparts- you're still stacking up future problems and you're still expecting your skeleton to support a lot of weight it isn't designed to. That's indisputable really. It's not fat bashing

In children yes, I totally get that
My skeleton is big. Not doing the heavy bones thing but my wrists are huge, my shoulders don't fit in coats

i found secondary schools offer a range of buffet style foods with lots of salad and healthy options and very few chips and burgers where as primary school was a lot more limited you were served by a dinner lady and it was usually a hotpot/curry/cottage pie with chips beans/ veg and a sugar pudding there was very little salad on offer usually a small tupperware tub of lettuce some quarted tomatoes and sliced cucumber this was when i was in primary school im in my mid 20's now so things may have changed i think my primary school should have had the same set up as high school i lived on rice salads and pasta at high school primary was a river of hot barely nutritious meals i enjoyed them a lot but they probably weren't the best option.

My sons High School serve chips, pizza, burgers etc everyday

My DD's high school is the same - junk - and not very nice... and 'expensive'. (She misses primary school lunches...which weren't particularly healthy but I was happier because she got a meal every day..for £1.80ish - apparently its £1.70 just for Pizza & chips (no veg, no salad, no drink).

Most high school children go out and buy junk
She goes to the local supermarket and buys sweets, crisps etc with the odd sandwich/plain bread roll (and the height of healthy eating - a can of squirty cream ...although she only did that once)
I prefer she goes to the supermarket -it is a 20 min brisk walk each way ..
The other alternatives are the chip van...more or less outside the gates - or Dominoes will deliver to the gates -so a few of them club together for that...or there is another chip shop -still closer than the supermarket ...

(Another thing she said when she started high school was she missed play time - at primary they ran around the school yard/field - secondary they just don't). And next year they move closer to the shops - so she won't get her 40 min walk a day

And upthread - cheaper cuts of meat - have no problem with these - except they do tend to be fattier. My mother (not well off as a child) remembers her mum making stew and calling the fat on the top 'stars' - telling her to eat them up they were good for her (she did grow up during rationing though)
And it can be actually quite hard to get 'cheap cuts' - they have become 'trendy' and so aren't that cheap anymore.
I occasionally make a stew like my mother used to make (my DCs love it - but I skim the fat off - my DP calls it recession food ). The best beef to make it with is 'skirt' (can use shin but it takes more trimming) - both need a lot of cooking but used to be dirt cheap and lots of flavour.
I used to use a big butchers who supplied restaurants and I stopped being able to get 'skirt' and when I did it was 3-4 times what I had been paying ...the restaurants were buying it up... (use a smaller butcher now - less of a problem - but he often doesn't have it - you don't get a lot from one cow...guess it only has two shins as well...so end up using shoulder but that is £8-9 for two meals for 4 - so not cheap cheap!..)

What do you mean "our"?
My kid's not fat.
if you mean your kids, then say that!

unlucky83, why doesn't she just take a packed lunch?

DS1 pays £2.20 for a cone of chips with 3 chicken nuggets on top!

She's never really had packed lunch - and as I said at the moment I think the brisk walk every day (I guess it is well over a mile each way) at least means she gets daily exercise...
(School is over 10 miles away - so they get bussed in -so only a 2 min walk either end - and at school apart from PE they don't do anything active - except climb the stairs between classes... )
And she isn't overweight...yet...I've told her if she carries on eating like she is she will be...and she is getting better...making healthier choices...

None of mine take packed lunch very often, I hated it when I had to have them! Soggy sandwiches by lunch time and the same thing everyday - no thanks!! Plus if there's crisp and biscuits in the house I will eat them!!

when I was a teen at school I ate a jacket potato or burger every day, 10 marlborough and a mint aero. I ate a decent breakfast and a decent dinner so I think rubbish school dinners can be mitigated with decent home food. I believe when you're a teen your dietary requirements are slightly different too. What I would like is some definitive advice on what is healthy eating for each age group, not what everyone has gleaned from Daily Mail nutrition pages.

Sarf that sounds like my diet at the end of school, went home for lunch and had coffee and Marlborough!