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.

From the version of this story on Upworthy, a while ago (Daily Fail regurgitating old news)
"for this photo project, sweetgreen looked at various government initiatives, food programs, and nutrition policies and matched that info to amateur photos of school lunches worldwide found online, then re-created them."

Not too big a pinch, though, biscuit.

That would be unhealthy

That makes me so cross!

I don't get the angst re snacks. I eat every 2 hours or so during the day. Breakfast, second breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. I dislike exercise. Yet I have a BMI that ranges between 17 and 18. I do think that there is a big genetic element.

Because for a lot of people snacks are eaten alongside "full" meals meaning it is very easy to end up overeating.

that sounds like a problem of people training themselves to not listen to their bodies. The problem isn't snacking, it's not listening to your body. If you only eat when you're hungry and just enough to sate hunger nicely, then you snack but you don't have to eat a big meal at all in the evening, any evening meal can just be another snack or nothing at all.

Yes, you should listen to your body, but the problem for many (for me, anyway..) is one of appetite, not hunger. How do you know the difference, especially if you're not used to the self-denial associated with real hunger pangs? If food is there, and you fancy it, it"s easy to pass off the craving for it as genuine hunger. I wish someone would invent a device that tells you when you're actually full, and not in need of anything else.

That's just appetite. I'm always surprised by, on eating a savoury course, and feeling absolutely stuffed, how much room I can create for an appetising dessert.

Isn't it just eating through boredom? If someone came along with something interesting to say/do the extra food would be left forgotten

If you were properly hungry you'd stay and eat

ollyB I am not suggesting anything except that this isn't a level playing field, and that stigmatising obesity isn't helpful because of that.

It isn't helpful or fair to call an obese person greedy if they eat less calories than someone thin, do the same exercise and have to stop eating before they stop feeling hungry day in day out.

And there are plenty of low BMI people on this thread saying they snack, eat junk etc. but have never had a weight problem.

The solution to being overweight is always to eat less calories than you expend. But we need to accept the scientifically demonstrated facts that this is spectacularly harder for some people than others simply due to genetics.

worra the first step towards being able to produce a cure is knowing what the problem is. Hopefully we aren't far from being able to externally adjust the levels of this particular trouble causing hormone, and giving everyone the experience of eating that the naturally low BMI people have.

If we didn't feel hungry all the time we likely wouldn't eat to much, because contrary to popular belief we aren't stupid!

Icebeing - I am very slim and eat junk, but I am very fit. Larger people are constantly asking me how I eat English breakfasts, or sweets, or Mcdonalds, and it makes them fat.

I just say I don't know, but of course I do, it is because I am fast,and never, ever sit still. I suppose they either don't notice that, or choose not to.

I was called cruel by a family member when I was dishing up dessert and my DD portion was smaller the DS1. Although only 14 months between them he is over 6ft whereas she is 4ft10. Life is not a level playing field, I do not know about my hormones or genes but I am short so have to account for that in my diet.
Childhood obesity needs to be acted on now, as a society we can not wait for cures when we have 17 year olds needing weight loss surgery or if they lose the weight are left with sagging skin and scared for life or worse die at a young age.

I am not surprised at all - when adults say they are slim and fit but eat junk... why? what example does it set to the kids?

this poor diet can lay down fat round the organs - TOFI - thin outside, fat inside - and can be as bad for you as being fat.. people who are TOFI die from heart disease and diabetes because they do not think they would possibly have it since they are thin and fit... look up Michael Moseley

Somewhere - Surely it is balance? I think people buy in to the idea if you are very slim post children you must survive on lettuce leaves. Slim people eat what they want but just in moderation, and if you watch most of them they move a lot,as opposed to just doing it as set exercise a couple of times a week.

I have even had people say oh I am very fit and I don't know why I don't lose weight, then said the 10000 steps is a challenge to do! It is only 5 miles it is hardly hard to do.

I think fitting 10000 steps in to every day can be a challenge. I am pretty fit (run 3 times a week, do weights/power hoop every day) but I have to make a real effort some days to make sure I reach 10000 steps.

To do 5 miles in itself isn't difficult, but to fit that into daily life every day is harder than you would imagine when you actually start aiming to do it every day.

It is balance yes - but "eating junk" does not imply balance in your post

and it is naive to say It is only 5 miles it is hardly hard to do

for you. Quite hard for someone with joint problems which you tend to get from being obese. (Or sometimes it is the other way round - you get arthritis, can't move as much and drip on the weight)

Slim people "seem to buy into the idea that" fat people CHOOSE not to exercise.

I think we need to remember that obesity if often (mainly!) a symptom of overeating/eating the wrong things BUT it isn't the only symptom and just because you don't display the obesity doesn't mean that your diet isn't damaging.

It does depend on your lifestyle, even when spending whole day with children I do a few 1000 and that is living in a place with no stairs.

DD has joint problems which mean that 10000 steps is a challenge.
She's often a bit overweight despite our best efforts -- because she doesn't budge much unless we're making her, and y'know, life sometimes distracts us from it.

It is difficult if it isn't implemented from very young. It can be changed, but it is likely there will be more resistance to being active

There is indeed resistance, Yummy -- and given the diagnosis of actual, real joint problems, I find it hard to know when the excuses ('But it huuuurts') are genuine rather than idleness.

The other children are manic, active twigs, or at least they were till recently looks at comatose teenage DS and revises that slightly

RonaldMcDonald

I agree - where are these hugely fat children I keep reading about?

I can think of three overweight children - I have three daughters and know about 30 billion kids!

The irony of your nickname is not lost on me though !

Come to the West of Scotland and visit a soft play. You will see plenty of slim active children. But there will also be fair number of extremely fat children. I don't mean stocky ( I was a solid citizen at age 6) they are obese.

And it's not about genetics - I think that myth was debunked years ago- it's about lifestyle.