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.

CancellyMcChequeface

I completely see what you mean. It would take a lot of thinking through - whether 11 or 38 years of age, I would HATE to be rounded up and made play football for an hour this afternoon, even though I know it would be good for my health. I would prefer to go for a brisk walk and then do 30 minutes of Tracy Anderson.

So you offer choice - field games, cardio/pump classes with Rhianna blaring out, running etc. Think of the way low cost commercial gyms like PureGym handle it. No bells and whistles.

Definitely a pain in the arse for schools to organise, I get that, but we teach children science, using costly laboratories (for example) - I think that if we took it as a given that every school day has to offer physical fitness, and start making the decision to be about the range we can offer, not whether or not we offer anything at all, then we could make a start.

My son hates PE but he walks to and from school almost every day. On the rare occasion I bring him to school, secondary, the amount of cars dropping off their sons is unbelievable. Also most of the car park is taken up by sixth former's with cars themselves.

Very big difference between offering and mandating.

Sorry - just saw this now, Cancelly. I know I'm kind of being devil's advocate here, but we mandate maths, and lots of people hate maths too. Yes - it's necessary, but you could argue that physical health is equally important.

(I know I'm jumping up and down about the physical fitness bit here instead of food - that's because many excellent points have already been made about food on this thread already.)

Can I also add that people who eat fish, please do not eat farmed fish. I see wealthy families boasting about smoked salmon this and other fish, the fish are fed nasty stuff which stays in the human body when eaten.

Sweets are a problem because the sweetening agent is no longer sugar (a possible health risk) but corn syrup. Corn syrup piles on the weight.

I see what you mean Ican but please remember PE kits are expensive and get lost easily. Plus you need to factor in changing times. I'd rather mandate maths than PE.

It doesn't help that articles like this dichotomise into 'the poor' and 'the well off'. It's quite a gradual slope for adult obesity, going up slowly but inexorably with every decile on the gradient from most to least deprived. There's more going on than food and fuel poverty.

Wrong way round: leat to most deprived.

Much as I loathed PE at school, I agree that "mandating" it is a good idea. And make it physical too, not just standing around which is what dd does. Perhaps physical exercises a la Ladies League of Health & Beauty (Youtube clips available!). I was surprised to learn that strict Muslim girls are excused from PE. Why exactly? Not acceptable imo.

I remember reading about a school in Scotland which takes the pupils on a mile long walk or run everyday. That would make a huge difference to the amount of exercise kids got daily. I wish they'd do daily PE but there isn't enough room in the school at my son's school.

I grew up poor on a council estate, but my DM knew how to cook. She'd buy big bags of potatoes and rice, cheap cuts of meat and we always had something filling served with loads of vegetables. A lot of our friends weren't so lucky, their parents didn't know how to cook or might not have had enough electric on the meter to spend ages simmering or roasting food so they lived on cheap freezer food. I remember my brother's best friend telling my DM how much he loved having dinner at ours because he got to have carrots.

If you've grown up eating junk, some normal foods seem a bit 'posh' and weird and you might have no idea what to do with them anyway. If you don't have a lot of money you want to make something your children will definitely eat too, you can't afford to take a gamble on whether they'll eat the lentils.

I think the cooking classes and tasting sessions at Children's Centres were a great idea, but there is barely anything going on at the local ones that are still open now. Awful that their funding has been cut so much.

My brother went to a private school and was there 8am-6pm every day with all meals home cooked and included in the fees. They had a proper pudding like sticky toffee pudding every day but also did PE every single day and then had time after school to do extra sports. I think this made a huge difference. Wish I could afford to send my son there.

I was surprised to learn that strict Muslim girls are excused from PE. Why exactly? Not acceptable imo

Really? That is really shit. I work wit ha v strict Muslim woman and she is a member of our staff gym. She wears stuff like this for spin class.

Girls play games to and be obsessed to its not just a boy thing. The amount of boys dancing on Britain's got talent and some of you say boys don't dance or do ballet. Both boys and girls like and enjoy football. It is up to them parents to make an effort to take them. I used to find it hard work and now I see it as a necessity for them to have fun and engage with other children.

icanteven

I loved maths! But I'd have hated to have to go to school an hour early every day for an extra maths lesson. It might even have put me off maths a little.

I do take your point and I think you're coming from a very positive perspective, especially since you agree with having a range of activities to choose from, not just competitive team sports. Even as an overweight, self-conscious teenager (of the demographic this would be targeting) I'd have been happy with a keep fit class or long brisk walk. I suppose I'm afraid that if this kind of thing were actually legislated for, schools would complain about the logistics and your idealistic proposal that even I can sort of agree with would just become compulsory extra PE.

I disagree with extending the school day in either direction for ideological reasons not quite relevant to this thread, but I'd be in complete agreement with your idea if it could be fitted into the existing timetable (which would probably mean 3 sessions a week rather than 5).

Loads of good points on here.

Re: the boy/ girl divide - I did wonder about gaming, as others have pointed out.

I have witnessed boys being fed more 'manly portions' of food than girls too. It happened in my own family - my dad and brother would get about a third more on their plates than me and my mum. 'Growing boy' etc.

I wonder if the suseptability of poor boys in particular to be obese is in part due to comfort eating?

I very much agree with lots of theories and facts already posted, but can't help but muse over the fact that as a society we still machoise boys and it isn't acceptable for them to show weakness emotionally. Girls are much more likely to talk to and confide in friends.

Mix in the social problems prevalent amongst those with financial constraints, a healthy dose of teenage angst and hormones plus the lack of physical downtime opportunities I can see how an evening spent on x-box with a couple of bags of doritos and Pepsi max seems like a happy prospect in a fairly bleak landscape.

DS's primary has someone in tesching athletics this term. Yesterday they were seeing how far they could run in a minute, in five minutes, ten minutes etc. DS said just a handful of the boys and none of the girls could run for 10 minutes (which I suppose is about a mile). I imagine the boys were his out of school football team who are all quite fit.

DS's school tried the run a mile a day thing. Lasted about three days before parents complained and put a stop to it. DS's teacher actually gave him her fitbit to run with to get her steps up

So many assumptions here. One of the poorest wards around here (one of the poorest in the country actually) has no parks. No parks, no playgrounds. Nearest leisur centre in the middle of nowhere, needs expensive bus or a car. The only playing grounds are of those of the nearby fee-paying school.

Says it all, really.

The only overweight children I've seen in the 15 years my children went to primary were those who had secure home backgrounds and it was most puppy fat (yes) and they are now teenagers who are slimmer.

Ireland, 1970s. We were poor, father was deceased. Dinnertime: One pot of stew, 4 kids. Half the pot to my brother, the rest divided between my two sisters and me.

"He needs it more than you..."

IMO a lot of this is because housing is getting smaller and smaller and worse and worse and poor children are much less likely to have a back garden or even space inside to be active.

Ah, yes, choli, the 'penis portion'.

am pretty poor, as in no money in the bank at the end of each month. We eat baked potatoes and tuna. Roasted vegetables with hot sauce dips as snacks. Slow cooked cheap cuts of meat with veggies. I batch cook big quantities of veggie bolognese and put them in the freezer. You can cook a huge casserole for 1/4 of the cost of a shitty takeaway

That's all well and good. But what if you don't have a freezer? I don't, so making huge batches of stuff doesn't work.

And as i said up thread, baked potatoes and roasted veg sound lovely. But when you have a shit rental gas oven that will take 2 hours to do potatoes, an hour for roasted veg, it's all but impossible.

I only have 2 kitchen cupboards, and only one bit of workspace, which has the kettle and toaster. No space for a microwave or a slow cooker.

Choli Ireland, north, in 70s too. Totally understand what you mean. Now we are all middle aged, brothers are extremely health conscious and it's the sisters who have the spread!

All the shops have bags of veggies for 50p and cheap pasta and rice. unfortunately not the two shops in walking distance. To access cheap fruit and veg I need to get a bus costing £5

Given the obesity continues to trend with income once you get out of the fuel poverty zone, I agree it isn't JUST that, but I do wish people wouldn't claim that anyone can substitute a baked potato for chips from the chippy. It costs a lot to bake a potato, and you can't do it without a functioning oven/mwave.

From sainsburys:
lentils cost 0.3p per Kcal.
lemon curd costs 0.04p per Kcal

and one of these you have to spend time and fuel cooking....

Anyway, I suspect the wealth trend is too do with worry level. I am worried about my DD's diet, but I am also worried about whether we can afford a car now ours is packing up. If I were poorer I might be worried about her getting clothed and keeping warm. If I had loadza cash I could devote all my time and energy to worrying about her diet.

The male/female divide is almost certainly about body pressure on girls exceeding that on boys, boys being allowed to spend more time gaming, and male portion size being bigger.
I would love to know if school dinners come out equal sizes for boys and girls...I bet they don't.