To be shocked at how many overweight kids there are here?

[glasgowsfinest]

Have got my fireproof hat in place, here goes...! I'm currently at a Butlin's-type holiday park on the south coast. As you can imagine, it's jammed full of kids of all ages. I'm genuinely shocked at how many of them, from pre-schoolers to older teens, are significantly overweight. I don't think puppy fat can be used as an excuse for all of them. Thinking back to my childhood, overweight kids were the exception, not the rule, but now it seems the opposite. I have two children who by no means have a perfect diet, and eat more chocolate and watch more TV than I thought I'd allow, but they're active too and don't seen to have any fat on them at all! Maybe they're just "lucky", I don't know. But the sheer numbers of chunky kids made me feel quite sad.

Obese toddlers begin showing signs of heart failure by age of one, study finds - The Telegraph
apple.news/ANy5QaWhiQZqKoR_JnyCErg

"She is 19 and I managed to keep her weight under control until she took control of her own food habits and eating"

This is the case with two of my dc's who are both overweight. Dd is obese. She eats so much junk food and drinks energy drinks, gallons of juice and fizzy drinks. I don't ever buy stuff like that. Won't have it in the house. But she's 18 and has had her own money for a while now and can eat what she likes..

For those who are looking to the past with nostalgia, I mean 1960s and 70s, quite a few children went hungry. There was no social security or benefits and quite a few children only got fed at relatives homes, nanna's, aunties, etc. They may have been slim and underweight but lots were hungry and malnourished. Some families cooked healthy home cooked meals but not all. Only fast food was fish and chips or pie and mash.

For those who are looking to the past with nostalgia, I mean 1960s and 70s, quite a few children went hungry. There was no social security or benefits and quite a few children only got fed at relatives homes, nanna's, aunties, etc. They may have been slim and underweight but lots were hungry and malnourished. Some families cooked healthy home cooked meals but not all. Only fast food was fish and chips or pie and mash.

I have 4 kids, all have same diet, all go to good schools, 2 independent, 2 state, we live in a very exclusive part of london.
My first and 3rd (one independent, one state) are overweight, other two are slim. Two follow me and have a tendency to gain weight easily, two follow Dad and are naturally long and lean. It's genetics, I'm not saying it can't be made better or worse but some folk will always struggle with their weight and nowadays with the sedentary lifestyle and fast food adopted by the west, those who have that tendency will put in weight do so and those who are naturally slim won't be so affected. I feed and excersize my children no differently and tbh I could see the body shape 'stamp' from the moment they were born. Genetically thin people often want to pat themselves on the back for being slim even when they do nothing to assist it ( like ops description of her skinny chocolate eating sedentary kids) and sneer at the fat kids. They may be really lovely people and your post makes me sad.

38cody I said exactly the same earlier completely agree with all uv said

*you've (text talk)

I used to work in a town that has a well known obesity problem. You would see babies (under 1) be given a foot long sausage roll from Greggs at 9am for breakfast. I am no great cook and I know I don't feed my kids as much healthy stuff as I should but by anyone's standards that has to be wrong?!

But isn't it the job of the parent to feed each child appropriately? Not feed them all the same and blame it on genetics.

This 'genetically thin' people is a load of shite. People like to use that to go on about how unfair it is. My friend is like a rake, eats like a horse when we are out and people are always going on about how it's unfair how she can eat what she wants - completely ignoring the fact that at home she eats properly and has an active lifestyle.

People can sit on their arses and eat chocolate, crisps etc. But if they're not going over their calorie intake they're not going to gain weight. They won't be healthy, but they wont be fat.

Pestilentialone it's true. As a family we choose to spend most of our (small) income on food but I'd know how to feed us on an absolute shoestring if we needed to.

There are so many delicious things you can do with legumes and they cost almost nothing. A big sack of potatoes, frozen spinach, brown rice, whatever veggies you ca grow in the allotment or garden. A boiling fowl. Homemade bread, eggs, porridge oats, milk, bananas. Raw nuts cost £1 from aldi and just a few keeps you full for hours. There's an outlay on a big bottle of olive oil and a spice cabinet but you can can cook endless things from cheap and simple ingredients.

Blaming poverty misses the point completely. It's education. All that sugar, fruit juice, seed oil and synthetic fat, Christ it's not rocket science.

No kid is going to binge on porridge or overeat lentil soup. If you're feeding them the right stuff they cannot physically get fat.

People need to take responsibility and stop looking for excuses.

What do people think about our over reliance on wheat? I know some people earlier mentioned wheat and bread and almost all the food people are consuming excessively contain wheat.
As anecdotes, I know a couple of people who are chocaholics but aren't overweight. The ones who are, tend to love breads, pastry and baked goods. (Not saying that the former are healthier, just looking at weight)

but your own properly regulated and slim families who don't need this conversation to be had about the

Why are you assuming? My family HAVE struggled with their weight.

This 'genetically thin' people is a load of shite

I disagree.

My niece can eat crap and lots of it for England. Doesn't exercise and isn't overweight.

No, your kids cannot eat normal food and still gain weight,

Oddly enough, I'm perfectly aware that kids can eat "normal" food and still gain weight. You can consume too many calories, compared with your TDEE, whatever type of food you eat.

LiveLifeWithPassion, you've almost nailed it. Sugar (specifically fructose) is the biggest culprit but too many refined carbohydrates (not wheat itself) are bad.
As a good rule of thumb, if it was 'invented' in the last 100 years. Don't eat it, it's not actual food.

I agree that as you get older it's rarer to find naturally thin people, but they do exist. My dad eats tons, good stuff & bad stuff but struggles to keep weight on. However he walks everywhere (never done any other exercise) & is naturally a very fidgety person. I think he just has lots of lean muscle?

piglet

Then her body is defying the laws of thermodynamics as are all these other so called genetically thin people who seem to be able to turn fat into thin air - funny how no studies can prove this is a thing though. Energy has to be used or stored. If she's eating loads and not exercising, where is it going?

The studies that have been done that claim to link genes to obesity or slimness are about appetite. So saying that some people have genes that could potentially lead them to have bigger or smaller appetites, thus being 'genetically thinner'. But that doesn't account for people who are eating shed load and still staying slim.

This thread is the most sneery, nasty thread I've read in a while and quite a few posters have said its made them feel judged and sad, but still the judgemental posters pile in. It must be great to be perfect

"Blaming poverty misses the point completely. It's education. All that sugar, fruit juice, seed oil and synthetic fat, Christ it's not rocket science"

You know, I agree. My 2 overweight dc's have got that way through drinking too many sweet drinks and eating sweets and snacks. At home we eat well - fish, veg, whole grains, salads. But my teenage/secondary age children socialise in a culture where eating shite snacks from the corner shop is normsl.

I was in Plymouth last week and the number of people under thirty (including, ironically, 2/3rd of the staff working in Sports Direct) with a lot of abdominal fat was shocking. That comes from a diet way too high in carbs. And yet everywhere - people drinking sodas. And everywhere selling that shit.

My hospital has a vending machine in the lobby of the antenatal clinic. It sells coke, crisps and sweets... :-( At least they no longer have a Burger King in the main reception area..

Dusty - I think this thread could be useful if it helps trigger some parents to take a closer look at their kids' diets - at least those below 11 where the parent has control.

DB has two daughters, both primary-aged, one obese and one normal. He calls the normal-sized one really skinny and talks about her being 'skin and bones'. She isn't- she's normal, nothing more.

He knows that the other one is a bit chubby, but probably doesn't think of her as obese. When she was 5 years old, he said she didn't like playgrounds as she was slower than the other kids and too heavy to pull herself up on the climbing frame. She's a delightful fun child, but that almost made me weep.

Three years later, he has done nothing about it. She has coco pops for breakfast, and there's always snacks around - frubes, cheese strings, biscuits, muffins, haribo. The kids are allowed to help themselves. Even if she's eaten lots of snacks, she's encouraged to eat her dinner. He thinks that's just the way she's built as her sister is slim.

When I am with them, I'm shocked by how much treat food is around and how they never say no to the kids when they ask for treats. The slim one doesn't have a particularly sweet tooth and sometimes her parents try and persuade her to have a dessert when she says she doesn't want one. WTF!!!

I can't say anything to DB IRL as he would find it so offensive (and in other ways he is a much better and more natural parent than me whose kids adore him and feel so loved just as they are) but there is no need for his DD to be the size she is. My kids would be similar if they had the same unfettered access to processed foods. There is no need to buy things like frubes, cheese strings, crisps, coco pops etc. There are much better ways of showing love.

Ive only seen a couple of off colour comments. people who will feel judged are maybe those feeding their kids and themselves too much and are feeling insecure and guilty about it, so much so they try to shut down discussion on what can be done to change it and actually help the kids who are being condemned to a life of obesity.

I think the love your body campaigns fronted by Ashley graham and somebody Halliday for example stop people pointing out their child could do with help controlling their weight. They are stunning ladies but they are sqewing what is healthy.

38cody OP here. At what point was I "sneering at the fat kids"? I think that yes, some people are genetically more disposed to being heavier than others, and of course some have medical conditions that will impact of their weight. But the amount of overweight kids around me at the moment can't all be explained by those factors. I'm seeing a whole load of young kids potentially set up for health problems and bullying. My relationship with food is not good, because the diet I was given when I was a child. So I have personal experience of how those early years are really important in laying a good foundation for a healthy relationship with food and eating. This thread was never intended to offend anyone, though of course i'm aware it's a sensitive subject for many.

I think obesity is vastly more complex than we assume.

The fact that there has been some success in treating obesity with fecal transplants suggests that for some, gut flora may pay a very significant part in weight management.