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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:
The80sweregreat · 29/05/2018 19:07

Freak - maybe they are burning off the calories? Lots of activity?
Some people just can eat the wrong foods and stay thin. I don’t know how they do it either!

TroysMammy · 29/05/2018 19:07

I've noticed supermarket marketed offers usually consist of crisps, pop, pizza, chocolate and biscuits.

HunterofStars · 29/05/2018 19:08

I think there is too much of a treat culture, certainly in most offices there is always cakes and biscuits around.

Lack of exercise, nobody walks much these days. As a child, my mum would make us walk everywhere, we only used the car for food shopping and trips. I can't drive and walk everywhere but had colleagues offer me a lift to a job which is less than a mile from my house because it's too far to walk.

The weather doesn't help as not many people like being outdoors in rain. When I was at school we were always kept in during wet weather to do singing instead and I think children are still indoors during rain 20+ years since I left primary school.

Things like gaming and staring at screens are also more widely available than they were when I was growing up. I think only rich families had a computer and Nintendo etc when I was a child.

Things like sugar being added to almost everything, especially in savoury foods.

I agree with the poster who said that people tend to cook more fancy stuff or if they're late home, will order a takeaway because they cba to cook.

I also agree with the poster who said we don't respect food and we just eat it.

Also constant grazing and street eating is more common than it was 50 years ago.

Eating out and takeaways more common. When I was a child, we rarely had takeaways apart from chippy very occasionally and McDonald's was a rare treat for birthdays etc.

Also people eat too much. I've seen adults at work with packed lunches in the same style as a child's, sandwiches, crisps, one piece of fruit, cereal bar or chocolate bar and squash or coke.

Portion sizes are too big. I have a plate from the 1960s which was my dgm's and it is half the size of my other dinner plates.

Change 4 Life being sponsored by junk food companies is also counterproductive.

Freaklikemeee · 29/05/2018 19:09

80s They do walk to school (about 10 minutes max) and take swimming and dance lessons. But I always thought "you can't outrun a bad diet".
The other factor may be that while they eat sweets every day they never seem to gorge on them. Perhaps it's because they know they can always have more later.

Vicky1990 · 29/05/2018 19:11

Because British mums feed them crap.

juneau · 29/05/2018 19:12

It is bat shit and allows people's delusions to continue. No wonder people won't hear that their DC are overweight, or accept that they themselves are obese rather than 'curvy' or 'cuddly' or whatever more positive word they like to use for themselves. Who is going to say 'Yep, I'm fat and I need to lose weight for my own health', when loud mouths on social media issue death threats to anyone who is prepared to stick their heads above the parapet and call extra weight what it is and point out that our health service is groaning under the strain placed on it by type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and the weight-related problems that Britain now has?

DameDoom · 29/05/2018 19:13

There are a lot of obese children at my school. The sugar, carbs and chemicals in shit food have given so many of them not just fat bodies but baggy, saggy ones. It's heartbreaking seeing an 11 year old with the physique of a very out of shape post-menopausal 50 year old.
They don't care though and will happily sport cropped tops and the like on non-uniform days

Metoodear · 29/05/2018 19:15

Because many British parents pander to their children’s food habits and 6 year old are rarely in a good position to make healthy food choice I come from a West Indian background

1- no expectation is make for spices children will be given exactly what adults are eating right from a early age spices and all

2-it would be unheard of for parents to be eating something different to their children and I didn’t actually learn this was a thing until I married my husband who is white

3- fussiness is tolerated in a way in the uk it’s not tolerated in many other countries it’s eat or have nothing

Thisnamechanger · 29/05/2018 19:15

The amount of takeaways on the street is crazy. I'm on a bit of a diet at the moment and trying to get used to feeling a bit hungry now and then. Walking 5 mins from the tube to where I was going there were at least ten takeaways. Granted I'm in central London but the temptation is endless - the smell wafts into the street. Buying a takeaway on the hoof has never been on my radar but I can see how commonplace it must seem if you grow up around it.

Metoodear · 29/05/2018 19:17

Also this habit of allowing children graze all day long I am shocked how many children simply help themselves all day long

aquashiv · 29/05/2018 19:17

Not enough exercise. Treat culture. Computer and screen obsessions.

DrivingMissMaisy · 29/05/2018 19:18

The obesity crisis has replaced smoking as the biggest preventable public health issue.

Just as with tobacco, it is likely to take long-term swingeing government intervention to change the behaviour of consumers and the very powerful junk "snack" food companies and their lobbyists.

Imagine if sweets and crisps were put in plain packaging with a health warning and hidden behind a screen- I for one would find them much easier to resist.

It is obese children I feel so sorry for. I see a significant number of children of all ages who are very overweight or obese where I live (not a very mumsnetty area!) and I do feel that their parents and we as the wider society are all collectively failing them. How many obese children manage to grow up into adults of a healthy weight?

Metoodear · 29/05/2018 19:18

Also jar food is a massive thing here so we start our children off on shit food from babies why do you feed jar crap when your having chicken for dinner just give the baby sodding chicken

Thesearepearls · 29/05/2018 19:18

The more obesity there is, the more normalised it becomes. It's almost a vicious circle.

Yes state schools have sold off their playing fields but also the way kids get to school has changed. I used to cycle miles to school every day and back. I would never have allowed either of my DCs to cycle to school - the roads are just too dangerous and busy.

The80sweregreat · 29/05/2018 19:19

Some meds and thyroid issues also cause weight gain/ it’s not always food.
That seems to be forgotten sometimes.

LillianGish · 29/05/2018 19:20

A GP will tell you straight how bad Smoking is . We need the same bluntness for obesity Move to France. I do tend to agree. I have an obese niece who has been obese since she was a baby - stuffed to the gills from an early age. No one ever used the F word - she was always big-boned, solid, big for her age. She never lost the "puppy fat", she never "grew into it" should have been tackled before she could talk and would have certainly have been addressed by my stern French paediatrician instead she will battle with her weight for the rest of her life.

findingmyfeet12 · 29/05/2018 19:20

When I go back to the UK I'm always shocked at the number of new takeaways in my old neighbourhood. The prices are ridiculously cheap too. Meal deals with fries and a soft drink for £2.50.

Thisnamechanger · 29/05/2018 19:20

My DM constantly gave us separate food to the adults and would tell me I wouldn't like certain foods if I asked to try them, like olives, mussels, anchovies, anything with any spices or heat etc.

I was so bored by bland beige "children's food" that I wolfed everything strong flavoured and colourful down!

SerenDippitty · 29/05/2018 19:20

It's heartbreaking seeing an 11 year old with the physique of a very out of shape post-menopausal 50 year old.

How charmingly ageist.

rainbowfudgee · 29/05/2018 19:21

Haven't read the thread but:
Snacking culture
Fear of children being hungry
Availability and normalcy of sugary drinks
Gaming/ ipads culture
Parental panic about letting kids play out
Parents not teaching children to cook
Peer pressure
Real food is now not the norm. Giving children carrot sticks or apple with peanut butter is less common than a bag ofor sweets
Portion sizes eg pub grub, chain restaurants - a child portion is more than I can eat
Supersize fast food
Boredom leads to snacking
Bad example set by obese parents
Cost of after school activities which are supervised

DameDoom · 29/05/2018 19:21

Metoodear I completely agree. We were meat and potato northerners in the 70's. No choice was given. If you didn't eat your dinner, you'd go without.
No-one starved.

HunterofStars · 29/05/2018 19:22

Also lack of proper cooking lessons in school. I remember doing homework for food technology in Y11 where we had to plan a meal for two health conscious teenage girls whereas Dbro who was in Y7 was having to make trifle out of a packet. How is that proper cooking?

DameDoom · 29/05/2018 19:22

Not ageist at all - am close to 50 myself, menopausal but slim. No child should look my age due to bad diet.

Miloarmadillo2 · 29/05/2018 19:23

I think lots of it is down to time/effort. It does tend to be more expensive to eat a healthy diet with lots of fruit and veg, and it also requires mental energy to plan and time to shop for fresh ingredients then prep and cook the food. If you are working several low paid jobs and juggling everything on a small budget it is just easier to shove beige crap in the oven. The other problem is that the government/council funded initiatives designed to help don't reach the right people. We live on the 'naice' edge of quite a deprived area with lots of childhood (and adult) obesity. There is a free sports camp in the park every summer - undersubscribed and exclusively attended by middle class families who are pretty sporty anyway. The same goes for free after school fitness/healthy eating club. They are currently advertising a free class for adults to learn to budget, food shop & cook healthy meals and it is likely to be pulled for lack of interest. We have a free Junior Parkrun every week - well attended by families from surrounding better-off suburbs, very few of the local schoolchildren. I'm not sure if it is being time-poor, feeling patronised, denial or lack of motivation that means the initiatives don't reach the right people.

Metoodear · 29/05/2018 19:24

Thesearepearls If you really think children are fat because they are doing PE in the playground and not on a delis then your misguided

Most parents wonder around with a bag of snack to rival whole foods in the holidays

Jar foods

People not being able to cook who the fexk are buying frozen jacket potatoes 🥔

Many people can’t even make a simple pasta sauce

I seen people buy banana jar food for their children for the love of god buy a banana and mash it with baby milk