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).

American kids got fat first - why? I believe from the growth hormones fed to animals and which have since been added to our food chain. So yes, cheap food fattened with hormones and which also fatten us up.

I’m on holiday (UK) and am horrified at the number of obese kids here- properly morbidly, struggling to walk obese not just overweight. We’re on a caravan park, and these kids are, for example, wandering around eating a magnum and drinking a 500ml bottle of full fat coke. Or munching a huge pack of Haribo. I don’t believe you have to deprive kids of treats, but for gods sake why can’t the parents say how about some water/sugar free drink with that ice cream? Or a small packet of sweets (what happened to small bags of sweets eg 10p mix ups?)

I made chicken kebabs for the BBQ the other day dicing the chicken breast. Unfortunately it rained so I did them in a dish in the oven.

When I went to get them out, they were swimming in water.

Even what appears to be fresh food is interfered with. If providers are pumping the chicken breasts with water to increase weight, what else are they pumping our food with? Insulin-spiking god knows what!?

Similar with our veg. We can't afford organic, but there is little non-organic that hasn't been subjected to some processing/chemical injection of something. We cook from scratch-ish. In that the base is always basic, but adding gravy granules or shop-bought mayo or even apple sauce means we are putting things in our bodies that someone else has processed for maximising their profits.

There's such an industry around food being a 'treat' too. Oh, i deserve it, i've had hard week, etc. Costa and a caramel slice or whatever.
Eating out in the UK is huge too (haha) it's like a weekly right of passage.
Massive portions. French FIL will literally serve half what my mother does.
Takeaways.
Massive selection of processed, ready prepped meals in the supermarket. These simply do not exist in other countries.
Cultural too - pie, mash, peas when working down the pit 16 hours a day then walking home 3 miles is great, sat on your arse inputting numbers and mn-etting ain't gonna burn that pie off!! But we still eat it.

No brainer really.

But yes - also we eat more. You only have to pop into a charity shop and see a dinner set for sale to see how much smaller the dinner plates used to be.

OH and the drinking culture in Britain is HORRIFIC compared to mainland Europe. I return for friends' weddings etc and there's just no way I can keep up.

^

This too. You're looked upon like some sort of freak if you don't get pissed and lairy.

I don't drink..(though I'm still overweight). You wouldn't believe how shocked people are..and how I have to justify and explain myself.

Eat junk, look like junk. I offered free classes locally (free ingredients too) for really low-cost, tasty, nutritious meals. Very low take-up and I got a lot of grief because I said homemade is better and cheaper than ready-meals. They didn't want to know. I was asked, 'Why make it when I can buy it?' My own feeling is, why buy it when I can make it?

cupofreskh I think that entirely depends on the demographics of where you work. I also work in retail, I would say we're all in decent shape, due to the nature of the work, you probably couldn't do our particular role if you wasn't. And the people I work with have families (and most are married!) and chose the job as it fits around their children (or grandchildren). We're not uneducated, I have a degree, quite a few others used to work in professional jobs or still do and work retail as a second job. It just suits our particular circumstances at this time in our lives. Oh and lots of my younger colleagues are very slim and they don't seem to increase in size the longer they work there!

In France they have about 4 flavours of crisps, that's it.

Wow! Is that correct, @A4710Rider? Genuine question!

I live in NZ and in my local supermarket there is one side of a whole aisle that is pretty much only crisps. I have no idea how many brands we have but it's a lot! There are always more flavours and "gourmet" brands being brought out to tempt people. I look at all that crap and wonder who on earth buys it. My diet is pretty bad tbh but I rarely buy crisps because once I start eating them I don't stop; they're so unsatisfying. Tasty though

Well, I can't keep up with my fat friends. They undeniably eat and drink more than I do. Even when on a diet. It is not hard to spot why they are overweight.

What do the drinking culture, sports bras, etc have to do with childhood obesity?

Perhaps it's down to not knowing how to cook. Yesterday overheard two females say mid 20s complaining that the onions in the supermarket were hard. They thought they should be soft to be any good. Have schools stopped actual cooking rather than nutrition classes. There are fat children in Europe not just UK. Must be down to the introduction of all the easily accessible junk food. China only this week there was a problem with obesity grow8ng there. Guess what is thought to be the cause - golden arches, crisps, sweets, cakes, basically everythi g we know is bad for us.

Too many kids spend hours on end playing on Xbox or similar. Not enough take part in swimming and sporting activities after school. Too much processed food and not enough fresh fruit and vegetables. My dfc has a swim or sports club or activity every night except Tuesdays. He eats like a horse but only snacks on fruit or carrot sticks in between meals. He is tall and slim. Not all UK kids are fat.

Well hypermarches certainly carry more than 4 flavours of crisps. Their stock is very similar to U.K. supermarkets generally

I’ve stopped buying crisps this year.
It’s the only way to stop me thinking ‘I’ll have a few’ - then find them gone / a few with a sarnie a few in front of the tv etc - easy done.
When I lived in Spain they had a crisp / goodie aisle - ‘lays’ were really nice and acres of soft drinks. Someone buys them!

This is not just down to lazy or useless parents as some claim. There have always been lazy or useless parents, that hasn't changed. But the significant increase we have seen in fat children shows that something more is going on.

In European countries the kids eat what the adults eat; sushi, tapas, stuffed vine leaves, etc. Here, they have their own beige, shit menus and most have never eaten anything aside from sausage chips and nuggets.

And if your kid does eat salads, fruits, fish, pulses etc you will be called ‘smug’ and told that they will ‘gorge on shit as soon as they can’ if you don’t let them eat junk. Always followed by a tale of ‘my mum never let me eat junk and now I have serious food issues’ (the common guilt trip offered up just in case anyone was thinking of restricting junk for their kids) Followed by ‘don’t call it bad’ etc etc

Meanwhile, our European counterparts don’t have all these conversations and separate menus. They just cook a bloody dinner, serve it and everyone gets on with it.

The veg in Spain is much cheaper and easily accessible though. You buy it still covered in mud, no posh packaging or scrubbing. It’s more normalised to eat fruit and veg.

When my DD was preschool age she used to ask for food endlessly and grizzle that she was hungry she didn't want fruit though. It would have been really easy to just give her sweets or biscuits to keep her happy when she was actually bored rather hungry. I didn't and she is normal weight.

@Teasandtoast

Completely agree! There was a thread a while back where a poster who wasn’t British made an observation that her friends she was out for lunch with didn’t think her child should be eating squid as it wasn’t “children’s” food.
She asked mumsnet what was supposed to be children’s food and she got shouted down as being smug and even racist! Despite many other posters from other countries agreeing that yes, this seemed to be a British thing that they had observed.

Have schools stopped actual cooking rather than nutrition classes.

the fault is PARENTS not SCHOOLS

Lack of exercise. My two eat like pigs but still manage to have a healthy weight. Mainly healthy staff but still have chocolate and sweets. But they don't stop. Play time at school, football, table tennis at home. I try to limit screen time and find that if you switch it off can they will find something to do that doesn't involve sitting down. Me and DH in the other hand are getting fatter. Age and long hours at desk or behind the wheel driving kids to activities.

Cant say I've noticed an increase in childhood obesity in my area, just the same as when I was a kid but thinking. Of primary school ages. However I wouldn't say processed junk food/ ready meals should have anything to do with it. Its not cheap, certainly not something I could afford to buy for my family. I think its more not knowing how to make meals from scratch cheaply. If low income families know how to meal plan, cook simple meals from scratch and cheaply and even batch cook they'd save money and help their health at the same time.

Haven’t read all the posts admittedly (836 now) but there is a rough divide between those who offer a reasonable, logical explanation, some who identify that there may by some difficult ‘medical’, social or other very real mitigating issues and those who lay the —blame— responsibility firmly at the door of the parents (or perhaps the parents’ parents). If you can look in the mirror and say that you don’t take the lazy option and pour junk food into your children but have made every effort to educate yourself and your children about healthy eating and ensure your children are fed properly, if you make every effort to ensure your children are active by initiating or involving yourself in their activities, supporting school efforts and not putting your social life before the needs of your children then you don’t belong to the last group.

'What do the drinking culture, sports bras, etc have to do with childhood obesity?'

Oh, someone always has to insert this into EVERY food thread on MN. All of them! They all go the same way: Brits are lazy, Brits are fat, Brits drink too much, Brits never cook, Brits don't exercise, Brits don't understand portion sizes and it degenerates into a Britain sucks thread.

You'd think it was a benefits bashing thread.