Why are British kids fat?

[VogueVVague]

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).

I thought It's obvious? Look at the queues in the food mall or service station. We are less health conscious than the greek for sure.

The culture of constant snacking. And sweets and junk food come in huge portions (Mars Bars in the 80s seemed a lot smaller).

In comparison to when I grew up in the 70s/80s society no longer seems to judge anyone about anything, which in very many ways is a good thing but perhaps not around food. Greed was seen as a weakness of character and self-discipline, and was frowned upon.

I remember being told it was "common (!)" to eat in the streets by my parents and my school. This was in the early 1980s.

Obesity only seems to have become a real problem since the late nineties. I remember visiting the US around then and being shocked by the number of fat people around.

I didn't think that the UK would follow suit.
But for me it's the speed of the change which is staggering.

We still had sweet shops/ supermarkets/ not much exercise/ TV in the 80s and 90s. What happened around 1995-2000? That is when it all seemed to go pear-shaped.

Me neither! I was obsessed with horses and couldn't care less about make up or clothes (still the same really decades later!). I think we had great childhoods and don't ever wish it had been different. Anyway the sun always shone then didn't it

Because kids now have More money than they did 30 yrs ago?
Reading thread reminded me of the epic story of Ellen MacArthur (b. 1976) saving her dinner money for 6 yrs to buy a boat. She always mentions that neither she nor any kids she knew got money from any other source, no pocket money, precious little from paid jobs. That was true until she was 14, at least.

If you see kids at 3:30 in the chippy... who paid for that? Where did the money come from? Think about it. DH, b. 1974, also would have had no pocket money to be buying junk food after school.

Maybe 3 yrs ago, we chatted to a lonely nice kid in park. ? 9yo. Had been chucked out with £5 to buy his lunch & play feral for the day. He bought high sugar all junk food, of course. This was obviously his normal.

One thought- you couldn't buy sweets and crisps in many petrol stations or clothes shops in the 90s. I feel as though you have to say "No" so many times each day when junk is presented in front of you so that must wear down our willpower, which of course is exactly what the junk food companies are banking on.

Its all food on the go these days - its everywhere and hard to ignore.
which is the point, very good marketing has got us here. what you dont see you dont miss is a good saying - too late now though.

i saw an experiment with food once on one of those tv shows about diet and exercise , one crowd had to go up a flight to stairs to the buffet cart, so ate less of it, one crowd had the food laid out under their nose, so they all ate more of it. simple experiment but goes to show how powerful seeing food everywhere can be.

Sorry @upstartcrow who did you say sold off the school fields? www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/5933728/More-than-200-playing-fields-sold-off-under-Labour-Government-figures-show.html

We had it drummed into us that it was common to eat anything other than an ice cream in public.

In fact on my first day in the sixth form, when we had the privilege to leave the premises at lunch time, some girls went and got chips from the fish and chip shop and were spotted eating them on the village green . In assembly the next day it was announced that due to this “repugnant” behaviour (I still remember that word!) the leaving of school at lunchtime was now banned forthwith.

Irma - would be ‘against their human rights ‘ these days and the parents would be writing to the daily mail with ‘sad face ‘ emojis!
Repugnant - a great word !

“Schools weigh and measure the children - this information must work its way back to the parents?”

It does, and so then if their dc is overweight they will start an outraged thread on here full of stuff about how ‘you can see his ribs’ or ‘she never sits still’ and people will headpat and validate and say things about bmi is rubbish, muscle weighs more than fat etc, olympic athletes etc, marilyn monroe etc

I have seen it, on here and on fb. One woman i know was very upset and got there there’d at and the thing is, i know her and her little girl and you can tell the little girl is obese just from looking at her with your eyes, you don’t need scales or a medical degree, the kid is 9 and has bigger tits than i do. What can you say though when people obviously do not want to see what’s right in front of them?

It does shock me the amount kids eat these days. What with the constant snacking and meals. Even on here the amount of food in a typical lunch box shocks me. I suspect many of us have lost sight of what is a normal amount of food for kids to eat.
I also wonder how much poor mental health has an impact on this. Kids mental health is supposed to be poorer these days, and I suspect many adults mental health is poorer. I wonder if this has led to more over eating in general.

Not RTFT I think the parents of obese dcs usually cannot see the problem early on or are in denial of the problem. You can see some examples on this thread. I’ve also seen children offered help at school to tackle their weight and the parents unconsciously sabotage it at home. I think the first step is to offer parents of the overweight/obese dcs psychological counselling. Usually the parents have weight or food issues themselves and unless these are resolved they will be unable to help their dcs

Personally I think it is a combination of factors: snacking and treats now seems to be the norm; portion sizes are massive and there is way too much time spent on iPads.
I have also noticed an increase in beige food fussy eaters. Whereas as a child if I didn’t eat my vegetables I didn’t eat, or get pudding.
It isn’t any one thing particularly.

Denial... I've heard that a lot. Also resignation.

"He's just big like his dad." I've seen dad, he's not that big, and so what if he was?

"We are very worried she'll end up big like her mom" So we decided since her mom got new car that we'll drive to primary school every day, instead of the 1 mile each way walk we used to do.

Massive portion sizes too - I see some dinners served to children that I would struggle to finish myself. My kids stop when they are full, but I think some don’t have the ‘off’ switch and just keep eating and eating. It’s interesting to see at a children’s party for example, the range of behaviour - some clearing their plates and asking for more, some nibbling, some eating barely anything. I would be in the cleaning plate category

And there is always an excuse

“Puppy fat”

“Built like a rugby player”

“Does lots of exercise so it’s muscle” (very few kids do close on enough to make a difference in that sense)

I can only assume it comes from a place of being ashamed and wanting some reassurance?

Biolog I agree that more kids are fussy eaters. I suspect this is because more families can afford to tolerate fussiness. I am not talking about extreme food issues by the way. But just general food fussiness.

If the pro sugar and sweet drink threads on mumsnet recently are anything to go by I would say we probably consume more sugar and sweet drinks than the rest of Europe

Oddly enough, most fussy eater adults I know are slim! They tend to pick.

I do t know the answer. However it's quite affected by demographic.
I'm at a caravan park. They do the £10 holidays. No shame in that I've been on a few but I'm always shocked by the fat here. Fat kids fat adults fat dogs. And I mean morbidly obese. Don't get me wrong lovely families with parents being really involved with their kids in the pool or whatever. But really worryingly fat.

Im refusing a kitchen refurb from our HA.

They are expecting us to live on takeaways for the duration. NO NO NO!

I was at an adventure playground the other day - the guy running it said he has been there 40 years. In that time children have stopped bringing fresh made food for their packed lunch - they now ALL without exception turn up with a couple of quid for fried chicken. He said it breaks his heart as they don't have the nutrition they need to play/ jump about/ learn.

He also is losing all the funding for the playground - used constantly by about 300 kids - so if you want to know why children don't get as much exercise look at austerity and complete destruction (vandalism) of our public spaces.

Screen time + no longer playing out after school - + incredibly sedentary school day is such a killer.

I would love my chidren to be physically active for the majority of their day - reading/ writing should come second - it is important but increasingly we are learning through science that without good physical health our brains don't actually work properly.

I think the main reasons include hidden sugar in processed food - I dropped half a stone without trying or changing the types of food I ate after moving back to the UK from the USA, where food is stuffed with sugar
Sugary snacks available all the time, not just as treats
Breakfast cereal
The 'need' for pudding after meals
Lack of exercise in and out of school
Fewer kids walk to and from school as they don't attend their closest one which may be within walking distance