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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Why are British kids fat?

999 replies

VogueVVague · 29/05/2018 12:26

So time, two parents working, low budget/cost - all these things can result in ready meals being served up etc. but that still doesnt explain why, compared to the rest of Europe, our kids are the fattest.

So whats the reason?

Is it political?
Cultural?

Something must have changed for us and mot the rest of Europe in the past 50 years (doubt kids before 1960 were chunky).

OP posts:
IfNot · 29/05/2018 14:29

I agree with MrsJayy RE cake. Soo many people on MN who have serious issues about food. Fruit is full of sugar and children should lay off cards etc etc. My sibs and I grew up on chips and parkin and we were like whippets.

Mominatrix · 29/05/2018 14:29

RunMummyRun68 - I believe you are asking about Type II. There is not one clear answer as to why Type II is on the rise amongst children, but there are a number of possible factor - probably not just one, but a number of factors must co-contribute:

  • Children with lower birth rates or who are born to mothers with gestational diabetes (on the up) put them at risk
  • Inactivity
  • Being overweight
  • Family history
  • race (south Asians are particularly at risk)
IfNot · 29/05/2018 14:30

Carbs ffs

WhatATimeToBeAlive · 29/05/2018 14:32

We went to a National Trust place on Saturday. I actually remarked to my partner about the fact that all the kids there seemed to be constantly stuffing their faces - crisps, picnics, ice creams, drinks, sweets - and that wherever there are families on a day out that's all they seem to do this rather than playing or enjoying where they are. The "No" option doesn't seem to exist.

MimpiDreams · 29/05/2018 14:33

I find that children here in Sweden are encouraged to be way more active than kids in the UK. They are outside whatever the weather, staying in at playtime because it's raining is unheard of. At my DS's school the school day starts with PE for everyone. Also out of school stuff is free. DS currently goes to football school and ice-hockey school every week, both of which are free. In the summer holidays he will be going to daily swimming lessons, which are also free.

Teateaandmoretea · 29/05/2018 14:33

I’m in a diet now. I am 5’6” and 11 stone. People keep telling me that I am just right as I am and don’t need to lose weight.

Well you don't need to lose weight - you aren't overweight..... but ultimately it's up to you as it's your body.

MiggeldyHiggins · 29/05/2018 14:34

The "No" option doesn't seem to exist

Because you know what every single person is doing or saying? People having treats on days out is hardly new. Ice creams on a sunny day is not a modern phenomena

All this bs handwringing.

Openup41 · 29/05/2018 14:35

This reply has been deleted

Withdrawn at poster's request.

Rollawolla · 29/05/2018 14:36

Lived in France and Holland the eating culture and fresh food prices are so much better in Europe compared to UK to be healthy in UK is so much hardwork.

dailymailsucksbigtime · 29/05/2018 14:37

Well you don't need to lose weight - you aren't overweight..... but ultimately it's up to you as it's your body.

1 big meal and you are.

11 stone at 5 foot 6 is a couple of pound off being overweight.

RebeccaWrongDaily · 29/05/2018 14:37

accusing people of having serious food issues because they don't heap crap into their kids on a regular basis is perhaps why we have the childhood obesity problem? Grin

Mine have cake, not every day, I work from home- they walk to school every day and home again - it's about a mile? I don't feel particularly virtuous about that as walking a mile a day each way is no big deal. They are both very sporty - and five days a week do various sports that are get out of breath active (running, football, basket ball, netball)

Grasslands · 29/05/2018 14:38

Not RTFT but food companies have taken the fiber out of foods like bread to increase the shelf life, added in salt as a preservative and sugars (corn syrup) to mask the salt flavour and help it brown better.
Ever wonder why bread use to go moldy in days now it takes weeks?
So food manufactures are partially to blame.

findingmyfeet12 · 29/05/2018 14:38

I'm not sure the fresh food is cheaper here in France.

Fruit and veg is cheaper in the UK where my family lives if they shop at our local market or in Lidl etc.

LillianGish · 29/05/2018 14:39

Not sure if that has already been said, but I think one reason there is less obesity in France is that people don't hesitate to use the F word. I was weighed constantly when pregnant, sent to see a dietician because I was gaining too much weight, children are weighed and monitored every time you visit a doctor. Doctors won't hesitate to tell you if you are getting fat - there's much less pussyfooting around, the French are not afraid to call a spade a spade and so as consequence there is more stigma attached to being fat (rather as there was when I was at school in the 1970s). There are no fat children at my dcs' school and even the odd ones carrying a few extra pounds get called fat (thinking of my son's football team here). I thinks we've lost that in Britain where it is now more acceptable to be fat and difficult to point out that someone has piled on the pounds even when it is glaringly obvious. At a size 14, I am considered on the large side over here - it definitely focuses the mind.

HushabyeMountainGoat · 29/05/2018 14:39

I think a lot of it has to do with time. I work full time 8-4 with a commute on top. I can buy things for healthy and quick meals, but i am aware that i just don't have the time to walk everywhere i need to be during weekends.

Between a mix of shopping (not groceries), visiting friends and family, park etc, housework, laundry, DIY and batch cooking aforementioned healthy meals, there isn't much time left. Plus the fact that i'm trying not to jam too much in to any one weekend so that we all feel that we have spent some restful time together.

50 years ago i probably wouldn't have been working full time so a lot of the above could have been done during the week and so the weekends could be more relaxed.

RebeccaWrongDaily · 29/05/2018 14:42

sorry, to finish my point up there ^^ if they reduce their sporting activity it's likely that we'll reduce the snacks we give them, so for example, if they have training they might have a really early dinner (4.30?) - then after 90 mins training they could be hungry at bed time- so we'll toast them a crumpet or they can have a banana pancake for supper.
If they don't do the training they probably don't need that 'snack'. Many kids on Mumsnet eat like they are about to take part in the decathlon at the Olympics!

IfeelFloopy · 29/05/2018 14:43

Well you don't need to lose weight - you aren't overweight..... but ultimately it's up to you as it's your body.

Sorry, should have mentioned that I’ve already lost 10lbs so was overweight before I started. Though even then people would act as though I was being daft for wanting to lose weight.

doughnutbits · 29/05/2018 14:44

A newspaper headline over the weekend highlighted that the Mediterranean Diet wasn’t working in Southern Europe because children there were getting obese, ‘recent research said’. What the research actually said was, it wasn’t working because kids favourite meals came from Macdonald’s and most exercise was undertaken on a keyboard! The M Diet would work, has for centuries, if they followed it! Doh!

In UK ready meals contain artificial sweetners which doesn't help as do many processed foods.

Sugar, fast food, snacks, ready meals and the tendency to use vehicles instead of walking all add to the possibility of obesity. The same thing is happening in the Far and Middle East.

StaplesCorner · 29/05/2018 14:47

When I was young (60s and 70s), we had no car. There wasn't much to do, not a massive range of opportunities like there is now.

We NEVER went to a restaurant - I remember going to a Wimpy when I was 17 and being upset as I didn't now what to order or how to cope. I lived in the area where the first ever MacDonalds was opened, never went in there as it was too fancy for us Wink

I worked two jobs, nights off were for dancing, we walked or got the bus everywhere. My mum and dad both worked, we never had a car, my mum cooked a meal every night with meat, potatoes and vegetables. Sometimes we had tinned fruit and evaporated milk on a Sunday.

There was, literally, no food. Nothing in the house except bread. There were no snacks, treats were at Christmas, I was given only dinner money so nothing for crisps etc.

Our kids' lives are nothing like that now - are they?

And yet I was considered fat. I was one of the few people, apparently, in the whole world who were fat. Eventually I was a (then) size 14-16. Weighed 11 stone at age 16 and I was 5' 4". I was bullied at school, people would talk about me, shout at me in the street, family would confront my Mum (my adoptive parents). But apparently, the only way to be fat is to eat too much and be lazy and have fat and lazy parents.

I reckon we are on the verge of discovering some unpopular truths about obesity - maybe in my lifetime. But when I say we, I don't mean on Mumsnet. It seems very important to many Mumsnetters that they get the opportunity to have fat people as something safe to look down on - a reliable punch bag, a deep seated need to look at the fatty and say you are less than me. We need to view obesity as an illness, not a moral failing.

SoftBlocks · 29/05/2018 14:48

Because parents are scared to let their children feel even a bit “hungry”

Exactly this. And if you don’t give them snacks every two hours they actually eat their real food.

Mominatrix · 29/05/2018 14:49

Lived in France and Holland the eating culture and fresh food prices are so much better in Europe compared to UK to be healthy in UK is so much hardwork.

I agree that it is easier to eat healthily in France and Holland, but it definitely not due to cheaper food (food is more expensive), but I think it has to do with stronger food cultures in those countries.

ThanksForAllTheFish · 29/05/2018 14:49

For the parents of secondary age children the answer is to stop giving them cash and make them take in sandwiches/ packed lunch. They obviously can’t be trusted to make sensible choices so as a parent you have to step in. They might moan but will adapt and survive. I think part of the problem is parents don’t want to upset their children so just give them whatever they want.

I took my own food into secondary pretty much every day (had cash for School lunch very occasionally). I did also buy soup in addition to my sandwich in later years - it cost 28p from the canteen - I imagine it wouldn’t cost any more that 50p by today’s prices. Some friends did go to the chip shop van ever day - it conveniently parked just far enough from the school to not break any rules but close enough it was easy to walk to. More of us stayed in the canteen for lunch than went out because it was a mix of FSM and packed lunch or buying school lunches because it was better value.

I also think coffee culture has contributed to our current overweight status in the U.K. Its far to easy to drink a ton of excess calories buy having 2/3 milky coffees. Add in flavour syrups/whipped cream or the Frappuccino type drinks (often made from pre mix with very high sugar content). Then the snack / cake portions are huge in coffee shops. 2 coffees and 1 slice of cake can take you well over 1000 calories but is easy consumed in say a 2 hour visit to a soft play or an catch up with friends over coffee session.

SakuraBlossom · 29/05/2018 14:51

IFeelFloopy

I know what you mean. I have been on a diet (lost 1 stone) and I got told all the time that I didn't;t need to lose weight. I was originally a size 14-16 and I felt really unhealthy. I am now 5ft 3" and weigh 10 stone. I want to lose another 7 lbs. My doctor told me that as a woman my BMI should be 25 and under. Its just over. I think this is a good goal. I feel much better and healthier lighter. I just wish I had the motivation to lose the other half stone.

Feckitall · 29/05/2018 14:51

As a pp said its not just kids, walk around any shopping centre and you will see adults wobbling along...Not all have circumstances that prevent them cooking basic but healthy meals.

Unfortunately this is an highly emotive problem and immediately people do become defensive.

Do we have an epidemic of psychological/psychiatric issues in this country that need addressing or is it just that actually people are hiding behind this rather than accepting responsibility?

Controversially do we actually need to be more judgmental and make overeating like smoking has become?

carbuncleonapigsposterior · 29/05/2018 14:52

Their lifestyle, too much sedentary screen stuff coupled with fatty foods and sugary drinks. I was brought up on three meals a day, mostly cooked from scratch. We didn't have sugary cereals in the morning, boring old Shredded Wheat, Puffed Wheat, Cornflakes, (some sugar) Weetabix, porridge or grapefruit and boiled eggs and toast, nothing in the way of snacks, other than a piece of fruit occasionally. No fizzy drinks, occasional diluted cordial, but mostly water. Hardly any tv, a lot more moving around outside. I got pocket money which I did mainly spend on sweets and comics, but clearly that didn't affect our weight, we were skinny kids then always on the go. Out most of the day at week-ends and school holidays, no helicopter parenting, benign neglect from one's parents was considered quite normal.

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