If you're poor and you have boys, read this.

[user1477282676]

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/11/obesity-soar-boys-girls-poorer-homes-deprived-backgrounds-overweight-2020

I am sorry if that sounds offensive. But I am so, so angry about the state of things right now in terms of inequality in the UK (and the world!) and I have started another thread along the same lines...but this one is slightly different.

According to this article in the Guardian, obesity among boys from the most financially strapped families is going to be rising whilst obesity in wealthy children will fall.

How is this even a thing? We know what schools do in their attempts to "educate". They weigh, they police lunch boxes...but that doesn't fix anything it would seem!

I am so cross that children...and it would seem boys especially, are going to be suffering.

In this part of the world (wigan) I believe that it's years of acceptance that being 'overweight' is ok and a belief that they are just overweight - not obese and killing themselves so the mentality prevails across the generations.
Many families here are not rich but they are by no means on the poverty line that are being mentioned in a number of posts. I know from overhearing bus stop and bus journey conversations - they are making their own free choices. They have the money to spend and choose to have big tvs, sky, new clothes and handbags because they are not spending on healthy food choices because the food they prefer is carb laden and cheap, easy to get hold of and percieved as tastier than a home made nutritious meal.
The answer is education but you can't force it. I am one of those stereotypical people using the local children's centre when really I don't need it - the majority of people that the healthy start sessions are aimed at have never set foot in it.

A large bag of chips cost £2.00. With some bread and ketchup that will fill up three small kids and send them to bed happy.

That is cheaper and more reliable than baked potatoes. Unless you mean you just serve up a plain baked potato?

No green I meant we had Jam and bread as a meal.
My kids aren't obese so that is not the point I am making.
I am as as I have said above I have food issues and over eat.
When I was in bad poverty I weighed 7 stone, because we did not have money for food, simple as.

I haven't RTFT but what immediately strikes me is the constant confusion of poverty with stupidity/ignorance. When my DC were young I was way below the poverty line because of circumstances, fleeing an abusive H etc. On the other hand, I had the benefit of being highly educated and intelligent. My DC were well fed, cooked for from scratch on a pittance. They are both slim, active, and high achieving. None of these things had anything to do with the poverty-level size of my weekly budget. This picture is not to do with poverty, it is to do with a failure to tackle the root causes of ignorance and lack of guidance.

It isn't going to change and I doubt any government initiatives will make it change.

I agree that schools should incorporate more exercise - but how many people would find reasons for their children not to do it? If you pushed it you'd be accused of bullying or fascism.

These arguments all explain the link between cheap---high-calorie/low nutrition food.

They do not explain over-consumption - basically too much food
They do not explain why some people manage.
They do not explain why immigrant communities feed their children better and are generally not fat - yet are just as poor.

They give some reasons why this is new phenomenon - the Victorian poor or the 1950's poor were not obese yet many of the same factors were in play - they ate less and exercised more however.

There are no incentives NOT to overeat and no consequences if we do. We can buy clothes that fit, there is no social stigma, your health complaints get treated, you don't have to work - it is a two way process.

American article but relevant.

everydayfeminism.com/2014/09/classism-of-eating-healthy/

"ginorwine Wed 01-Feb-17 18:33:52
A poster up thread said she buys chips from chippi as she cdnt do a baked potatoe as it takes two hrs in the oven and she doesn't have a microwave . ..
I'm struggling with the logic of this one ( unless of course chips are for the treat aspect rather than anything else - of course treats are good . But it didn't seem to be about treats but because can't do a heathy baked pot )
Well I'm not poor but I consider chips from a chip shop expensive !!!! A micro wave could be bought in a couple of weeks - a cheap one like I have for £ 20 - if the chip shop is avoided ?"

Yes but the point you are missing is if they need to use the chip shop because like ours the local shop is expensive to buy cold food meals and they have no oven or microwave then avoiding the chippy (a £1 here for a bag of chips, £1.40 for a large portion) would mean not eating in order to save the money for the microwave if you know what I mean.

That meal alone won't make children obese. A bag of chips between 3 and bread doesn't have enough calories.

BadKnee Its a migrant family who have opened the shop i referred to upthread selling American sweets.

I also think that perhaps crucially when you are living meal to meal and hungry all the time you probably do overeat because you are very hungry by the time you do eat and ram food in quickly without allowing your brain to catch up and tell you you are full.

I also think that when you have literally nothing to get up for in a morning, when you have no life, no money, no heating ability and you feel like utter shit about your life then food because the one thing that is your treat.

Be great if supermarkets in poorer areas stocked healthier foods that are competitively priced. An area i lived in some years ago was probably less affluent and the local supermarket stocked shit quite frankly.

For some people this is very personal and very real - and no-one wants to get at people who are already struggling. But a lot of people I see do have a microwave and fuel and money for other things. Not everybody who is fat is on the breadline.

"No social stigma. "

What utter bullshit I got a hell of a lot of abuse in the street when i was 10 stone heavier.

On this very thread there are enough anecdotes of girls and women feeling the pressure to look a certain way and you say there is no social stigma? Go back and read the thread again.

It has to be educational. I know a single parent with two boys, different dads, one child's grandma is a nurse, takes the boy out, has him most weekends and feeds him properly I'd imagine. Other kids dad is nowhere to be seen spends most weekends on the Xbox. I don't need say which one is obese at 7 I'm sure.

Doobydoo - supermarkets will sell what the customers will buy. If they are throwing out unsold apples every week they won't order them in

Affluent people can stick two fingers up at the Food Police and stuff their faces on cheese and steak and drink a nice bottle of red every night.
But God forbid someone poor eats something unhealthy

Yes obesity being more prevalent in disadvantage poorer homes because it's the affluent causing it with their judgement.

Anyone 'stuffing' their face with cheese, steak and wine on nighly isn't going to escape being overweight or obese. Possibly with gout to.

It's just as naive to think that all obese households are obese because they can't afford to cook pasta as it is to think they are obese because they are lazy and thick.

Just like eating 99p portion of chicken and chips each day won't make you fat. But seeing that so many people are fat it does seem to suggest that there's more that 99p being spent doesn't it.

Possibly the only way to start working out what to do is to look at those from disadvantaged background who are a healthy weight and discover what's different about their lifestyles.

I'm pretty sure that everyone on this thread who is suggesting that it's not all down to the poverty, and might actually be cultural isn't in fact a food policing affluent cheese and wine scoffer.

Carbs are usually the problem with obesity. I think it is the availability of cheap, processed carbs and sugar which is addictive...

Not having this stuff in the shops would help.

I don't know what you want me to say Green. My only point to you I was trying to make is that as I have been in extreme poverty and worked with families in poverty I can say that none of the ones I know are spending £100 a week in take aways. For a lot of them they don't get that a week in benefits for a start.

For the ones with kids they don't have £100 left after the bills are paid.
Most families I know are spending very low amounts on food but it is cheap processed crap, cheap bread, cheap processed burgers, sausages, cheap processed micro meals, cheap biscuits to fill up, cheap crisps.

I find it odd that there is a very strong link between being poor and obese so some people decide that basically poor people are doing poverty all wrong and if they just did poverty right it would be ok.

This.

Some of the posts on here are unbelievably patronising.

Quite frankly, all of the following can be firmly shoved up the hoops of the various posters:

• 'just £95' freezer
• the microwave & slow cooker that can 'go anywhere'
• the 'flour & eggs that surely everyone has in their 'stock' cupboard'

And

• I just can't understand why the poor don't batch cook more'

The worst post being:
'if you're so poor, how can you afford to post on here'.

It's not all about being ignorant or uneducated. If you're poor, food is often the only "treat" parents can afford to give their children. Days out, new toys, a theme park etc are all off the cards for parents on the poverty line. A chocolate bar or chips as a treat? Affordable.
This then creates a mindset that food is in fact a luxury or treat.

And that kind of attitude Semi causes the problem.

Newbrummie* I agree to a certain extent but I also think it is cynical.Lots if people cannot travel to bigger supermarkets and I do think that where I lived palmed off the crap to people.If healthier food was more affordable I think that would have helped.

HelenaDove then we disagree. I see women celebrated for curves, I see streets full of overweight men and women in shorts. Mothers with overweight kids - lots of them - who continue to feed their children, young children, too much food. And no-one says anything.

Plus size models actresses launch clothing ranges to glory in our curves and we can buy up to size 24 with no problem at all in M&S.

(I am not thin by the way, at all!)

No-one should be ashamed of their size - that is not what I am saying - but social pressure or lack of it is a factor.

Some (multiple) kids really do not know what a pear is - a funny shaped apple?

Some people do not have a washing machine. Others do but have nowhere to dry washing (as in minimal radiators/ no tumble dryer/ no outside washing line).

Some people are on a key meter for the electricity/ gas so economise by not cooking lengthy meals - a jacket potato takes an hour+, spaghetti hoops take 5 mins

The real problem with all this is the fact that there are so many people on this thread who just do not get how the other half live - and it is highlighted by the fact there are so people who find it hard to believe a child could not know what a pear is (sorry to pick out that it is just that I have witnessed the pear situation on multiple occasions)

And to go back to the OP there are multiple reasons that boys may be obese over girls, I would be looking at factors such as boys are more likely to be offered the larger portion, seconds, extra biscuits and first dibs on the computer/ screen.

And that kind of attitude Semi causes the problem

Actual lol.
Whatevs.