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).

It was colder in the winter without central heating in homes - had to move more to keep warm.
It all adds up I suppose.

I thought Greek kids were the fattest in Europe. With their shitty Mediterranean diet

@lilliangish. Not sure it is a breast/bottle feeding thing! I fed one of breast and one bottle...both on demand and neither forced to finish if full.

Sprinklesinmyelbow - yup over 40% of greek, Spanish, cyrpus, Italian children are overweight or obese - so more that the children of these Lazy British mums getting a slating.

My mil used to over feed my eldest who ate everything! Luckily we didn’t see them everyday as he would have been huge.

She wasn’t happy unless you were eating something.

You are probably right Digestive - I was thinking of someone I knew who used to make sure her baby polished off the lot and asked me how I could possibly know if my babies had had enough. The answer was I had no idea how much they had had, but if they had stopped then they must be full. She was someone who later rewarded her child for plate clearing with the offer of pudding. In her house being a "good eater" was something to be encouraged and praised. I think I am wrongly conflating the two things.

When I grew up in the 80s we had three meals a day. The extent of the snacks was a rich tea biscuit. My Nan used to bring us a weekly treat of chocolate or crisps. We never went to restaurants because there weren't really any apart from a Berni Inn and that was a real treat.
Our lives are now food focused. Endless coffee shops, patisseries, sandwich shops etc etc. We have become a nation of feeders. My DC are now teens and I insisted on three meals a day with controlled healthy snacks. They are both a healthy weight and exercise regularly. I notice friends with younger children are constantly feeding them. I spent a day with a friend recently and the children grazed all day and then (obviously) refused lunch and dinner, presumably as they had no appetite as they'd eaten snacks all day long.

Article on why the Dutch have the thinnest kids in Europe. Hint: it's not what they eat or don't eat.

I think we have normalised it hence why it’s such a massive issue

I have started letting my kids play out . With two little boys (not english ) . I saw them out and thought for God’s sake - it’s a suburban speed bump road . So now instead of sofa time they run up and down the road . I gaze upon them happily burning calories !

But we have normalised (in this house)

Large portions of cereals
Carbs at every meal
And they will wolf snacks at any given opportunity

I am not proud but I work full time , partner does the shopping and my kids bloody expect a sweet treat every day now 😱

We need to take this so much more seriously

As much as they piss me off the French have got it right

"Sprinklesinmyelbow - yup over 40% of greek, Spanish, cyrpus, Italian children are overweight or obese - so more that the children of these Lazy British mums getting a slating."

OP why are you still peddling the shit that it is only British kids and Britain that has an obesity epidemic?

In every poorer region of Europe, kids are getting fatter, alongside the Adults.

Living in relative poverty is shit. People crave a bit of pleasure. So they do what they can afford, they eat foods that have the same effect on the Brain as having a good time, does. Coincidentally those foods are also cheap and taste good.

There are other things at play. But it's mainly self medicating with food.

There is also a correlation in Women and Children and obesity in terms of lower educational attainment (accept for Malta). It isn't as clear in regards to Men.

So what does the British Government do? Cut Benefits, public spending and ignores an increase in Child Poverty. But never mind, Jamie Oliver wants to put supermarket pizza up to £5 each.

I think cost is a huge factor. Especially round here. We have a large tesco in the middle of the town and 3 secondary schools in a close proximity. If I go into tesco first thing on a morning, it's full of kids buying share or multibag packs crisps for £1 (regular 30g bag about 70p), multi pack of chocolate is £1, or 70p for one bar. And a bottle of fizzy pop or cans of energy drink that can cost less than £3. It's cheaper to buy all that than it is for a £3.50 meal deal.

I saw a thread yesterday and someone posted what her child's lunch usually contained (choc spread sandwich, Jaffa cake and a bag of monster much I think), someone mentioned that for £1.10 a day she could buy healthier options as opposed to what the poster was currently buying. Poster pointed out that her weekly budget for her daughters lunch was £1.10 a week. (I'm not having a go at the lady, just pointing out that junk food is normally cheaper). A pack of biscuits can be 30p, bag of 5 oranges about £1, if your skint that's x3 packs of biscuits and they probably fill you better than X1 orange would.

You also have the problem that parents seem to pander to kids needs. Dropping them at school, driving them to friends 'because it's not safe'. You also have constant kids tv. when i was little you had kids tv in the morning and then 2 hours after school. Now you can tune in at 2 in the morning and watch hours of children's tv, no wonder kids don't play outside. Why would they when they can sit and watch tv.

Why aren't children overweight in Europe? I guess the approach to food and exercise is a lot different. If you go into a restaurant here kids food is typically pizza, chips, fish fingers from what I remember of menus from France/Spain the food children eat is the same as adults, so met vegetables etc. As a country we eat a very carb heavy diet.

Been looking around. A lot of teens/adults are overweight. Never few children, in reality, seem to be.

Just talking about this with DH. He sent me this link.

health.spectator.co.uk/no-one-in-three-children-arent-obese-this-headline-grabbing-figure-is-a-statistical-invention/

“Why aren't children overweight in Europe?”

They are. That’s what grasspigeons, birdsgottafly and myself are saying

I am French but had my DC in the UK and still live here. I completely agree it is cultural.
Children have snacks, mid afternoon and sometimes mid morning especially when they are little. But a snack is usually some fruit or veg (carrot sticks, pieces of pepper etc not always with a dip), crisps, biscuits, chocolate or sweet drinks - including squash - are considered treats/party food, not a regular snack.

We also don't really distinguish children's food and adult's food, meaning we don't hesitate to offer food like sprouts, asparagus, strong cheese (cliché I know!), plain non-breaded fish etc even for toddlers. I never cooked anything with "hidden veg", veg are culturally considered like a nice part of the dish, not the boring part that you have to add for health reason (not saying it is the case for everybody in the UK! But sometimes, often for children it is)

The supermarkets in France do offer and try to push unhealthy food of course! Candy by the checkout etc. And we buy it, but as a treat, not to be consumed daily.

It is true though that processed / fatty food is also cheaper than healthy food there, and yes poor French families are statistically more subject to obesity than richer ones - so definitely also a money aspect to it.

Alcohol consumption amongst adults is bigger too - I know they are trying to tackle this, but drinking wine in the week isn’t seen as abnormal and that’s all extra calories as well. You can still buy a bottle of wine for just over a fiver.
‘All you can eat ‘places were unheard of in the 80s. As were all inclusive holidays.
It’s all crept up on us over the years.
Not to mention retail parks and malls stuffed full of restaurants and the ‘upselling’ Of the food the waiters have to do to keep their jobs.

All inclusive holidays have been popular since the 70s!! They used to do all inclusive fags!

OP why are you still peddling the shit that it is only British kids and Britain that has an obesity epidemic?

In every poorer region of Europe, kids are getting fatter, alongside the Adults.

YES.
It's interesting that the OP has carried this idea from a differen thread, despite being given evidence that it's not a UK phenomenon.

I've never seen bars of chocolate or crisps displayed at the till in a supermarket here in France. They only have throat sweets, mints, magazines etc.

People don't really seem to eat bars of chocolate or packets of crisps as a snack at least not in Paris.

Anyway - the AI type holidays probably don’t help the healthy eating cause. I ve been on two and ate too much as it’s there ready to eat and usually really nice -
It’s another factor.

I know a family with two daughters. One was always very chubby and the other was always whippet thin. Ow they are adults it’s th3 other way around. The one who was whippet thin as w child is now obese and the chubby one is now slim. Don’t know what happened there.

The French sound as if they have it all sussed.
Maybe they should tell the UK governments how to deal with obesity here. Any other measures do not seem to be working.

This thread really highlights how people take weight personally and get offended by the mention of it. Instead of accepting that as a population we ARE getting fatter and fatter and doing something about it!

We have low breast feeding rates and breast feeding protects against obesity in later life.

Yes, so many posters quick to say their dc is overweight but not because of diet or lifestyle and others trying to find statistics to prove that everyone else is obese too not just us.

I think exercise plays a large part . I was really surprised when my son went from prep to state secondary and sport went from 5-8 hours a week to 2 hours a week . Playground was smaller so no lunch time games of football or tag , ball games were punishable by detention. He isn't a naturally sporty child so trying to get him to do any sport out of school was like pulling teeth . I couldn't believe this is what the government think is acceptable . Unsurprisingly he gained weight , the school tuck shop certainly didn't help.
Luckily I've now managed to engage him in an outside sport and after a year the weight has finally returned to normal.
I work in healthcare and teach healthy eating / living etc daily , but it still happened to us