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).

The cake is a cheap filler. Nutritionally worthless but fills the kids up when the protein and the veg in the meals is lacking severely.

Ideally more funds would go into proper nutritious healthy food like many (not all obviously) countries have.

But then no one's going to do that are they..

I think the way they measure obesity in children is flawed. I got a letter Home from school to say my 6 year old is obese and inviting me to parenting classes. He is heavy, weighs as much as his 9 year old brother. My 9 and 8 year olds are all skin and bones my 6 year old is stocky and built differently to the other two. However he is not fat in the slightest. He swims every week, plays football 3 times a week plus every day at school break and lunchtime, does karate aswell once a week. I showed the letter to our GP as I was concerned who told me to take it home, rip it up and never think about it again. My 3 all eat healthily with my youngest probably eating the least. He is just of a big build, never sits still and apart from the odd treat eats lots of fruit, veg and lean meats. I am not saying there is not a problem but am not sure how accurate the figures are. He was born on the 96th percentile and remained there ever since (I am not sure if this is taken into account or if it is just height and weight stays without even looking at the child!)

former babe Im teetotal. Im almost 45 ..............and ive NEVER been drunk. You should see the looks i get when it comes up in conversation.

Ditto the Italian thing My mum is Italian and her side of the family there is/was a lot of celebration with food ..........but i havent seen some of them since 1983.

Re. IBS Mine improved quite a bit when i gave up diet coke.

School meals are 200 per year (one a day, 200 days a year)
The other 900 meals a year are FAMILY (breakfast and supper in term time, all meals in holidays)

stop palming failures off onto schools
PARENTS SET THE WAY KIDS EAT

frumpety i was badly bullied in PE for not being good enough and it really put me off

Schools have a LOT to learn about sportsmanship.

I'm not blaming the school at all. Tbh many schools have nothing to do with the food they serve anyway.

I do think that things could be better though.

Mostly laziness

Also a lot of parents are in denial as to how overweight their kids are nowadays . The Augustus gloop pics sun it up perfectly

Talkinpeece I based my assessment of your family on what you said and see nothing to change that view in your replies.

You've also says nothing to make me think you're any less narrow minded than I originally thought.

Good school cookery classes would help a lot I think.

I agree that parents need to take more ownership of their children’s diets and eating patterns starting from the prenatal period onward.

Pregnancy should not be seen as a time to overindulge. Gaining too much weight is correlated with an three fold increase in risk of obesity by age 3.

I honestly think time is a huge factor. We have long working hours and early darkness from Oct till March. So no playing out in the street after primary school- many kids are in childcare after school because both parents work. When I was a child my mum was at home so we walked to and from school, ran home for a cooked lunch and played outside after school.

Making proper food takes time and effort. When your tastebuds have become used to lots of carbs / sugar it takes a real concerted effort to change that. We are too used to bulking out meals with bread / pasta / rice in huge portions and this can pile weight on quickly.

stop palming failures off onto schools
PARENTS SET THE WAY KIDS EAT

Whether it really is all due to the parents or not...

Do you just want to wash your hands off the issue? Let's forget what we could do to help children/the future generation. It's the parents fault. Why should anyone try to make a (positive) change...?

But idk. Doesn't it "take a village"?

I grew up in the 70's in a traditional working class family. Both my parents worked but there was always a parent at home as they worked opposite shifts.

All food was cooked from scratch - takeaways were virtually unheard of and rare 'treat' a couple of times a year was a 'Whimpey's', or sometimes a chippy dinner on a Saturday.

There was virtually no snacking and three meals a day - breakfast was toast, full fat milk with cereal or on a weekend bacon sandwiches - white bread. Also used to have 'dipping sandwiches' which was white breast put in the bacon 'fat' after cooking - basically lard on bread!

For dinner and tea however they were invariably meat and veg - dishes such as 'hot pot', corned beef stew, shepherd's pie, braising steak - it was very rare that we had chips and even rarer to have any processed food.

Plus as children we were out playing with friends, wandering for miles, climbing trees, making dens and only coming home to be fed. Nowadays our children seem to only have 'play dates' or are sat in front of a games console/TV.

I know which childhood I prefer.

@GardenGeek

See this actually fits with my low fibre diet theory - go look, its ridiculous, everything your not allowed to is in it - white bread/grain, white rice, milk based stuff - cheese butter cream icecream I assume etc. Smooth butters - like peanut butter - so I assume also nutella.

I'm intrigued. What exactly is your low fibre diet theory? Is it explained in one of your earlier posts on this thread? It's a long thread and I'm having trouble keeping up! All of those things sound good to me. Well, except rice. I bloody love Nutella! Daren't have it in the house!

I am going to start a new diet and be a millionaire

I think you should!!!

health.spectator.co.uk/anti-obesity-policies-are-based-on-the-whims-of-celebrity-chefs-and-arent-helping-people-lose-weight/

There isn’t just one answer to your question, and of course on an individual level it comes down to personal responsibility and education.

But I recently met a food writer who explained some interesting factors as to why British food suffered such a drop in quality. Not sure if it’s true! Apparently the country relied so heavily on imported food prior to the First World War that when supply lines were cut, we came closer than we ever had to starvation. To avoid this, before the Second World War the government was prepared with food programmes that focused more on feeding the masses than on quality and freshness. Various food processes were industrialised like never before; specific long lasting foods were invented and promoted (have a look at this link www.cooksinfo.com/british-wartime-food if you are interested to know about the “national bread”, “national cheese” and so on. The link states that the British cheese industry took decades to recover. Attitudes to food changed, and an entire generation grew up viewing food as fuel. Some of our parents had a very restrictive diet where fruit was largely non-existent and vegetables uncommon (and nowhere near the variety we have today). NB: not comparing this to other countries, which also struggled with food supplies during the war. However as an island nation, dependent to a large extent on her overseas territories, with supply lines affected Britain truly was on its own. People weren’t obese then, but perhaps a liking for these cheap filler foods, coupled with a new abundance, AND a lack of activity.... it’s been demonstrated that on a population level, scarcity or even famine affects the collective memory. Once-scarce items become sacred (sugar!). Add in the current situation where the food industry is making a fortune from selling unhealthy foods, the limited physical activity our kids get at school, and the fact that most British kids I encounter don’t seem to “like” water (as kids, we said we didn’t either which now blows my mind)... So yes, obesity is about too many calories in vs calories out, but it is taking time to undo the damage caused to our national culinary heritage by the industrialisation of our foods, the promotion of nutritionally empty but easily stored foods, and the many broken links in the chain from farm to table. And yes, obesity and poverty go hand to hand in times of plenty, just as starvation comes with poverty in times of scarcity.

Also
www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/29/how-will-leaving-the-european-union-affect-our-food

I’m overweight have been since primary school. I grew up on a diet of chips, processed food, canned food. Never had bolognese that didn’t come out of a jar. Every meal had a desert, as much cola as I wanted. Crisps, penguins, biscuits. Chocolate cereal. I eat well all day then I binge in the evening. I am probably a lost cause.

My kids are not overweight. They know I’m fat, they know why I’m fat. They don’t want to be fat because they know from school and me it can make you ill.

I make them home cooked meals from scratch. I don’t give them juice. Fruit for snack. There are no desserts. Sometimes In the holidays they get some treats. I gave them penguins for the first time and they are school age. They never had nesquick until they went to after school club. I complained!
After school club has a bloody play station. I’ve got a new job now so I can finish and pick them up from school.

But if you both work you are relying on these places/people to care for your kids.

Be an unpopular parent:

Limit TV
No PlayStations/computers/tablets it’s impossible to ration. Kids best not having them in first place. (I know I was a kid glued to computer games)
Play outside,
Go for walks
No snacks
No juice
No sweets
No desserts

I admit if both parents are working full time this is impossible!

You Speak sense captain

I work FT and parenting is such a struggle . When you are tired it’s so hard to say NO

But you are right .

I live by a school that has a tiny last-distance-admission - something like 0.2 miles. The narrow road is full of cars at school run time. It is beyond me how! There's one family that live just round the corner, literally, and drive. It takes 1 minute tops for them to drive, probably not even that. Parents don't have the long term perspective on raising children anymore. It's all about making children's lives easier rather than sticking to what you know is good for them.

Chingchok I don't think that analysis of wartime food is correct. The British were at their healthiest after the war because the diet involved so many vegetables. The "national loaf" wasn't popular with everyone because it had far more wholewheat flour in it. People grew vegetables and preserved fruit (my mother used to bottle apples and pears by long slow cooking without sugar). I am not sure about the "limited range of vegetables" either. My mother and grandmother grew, went foraging for and ate all sorts of things that people today might refuse.
Meat, butter, fat and sugar were rationed and used carefully and generally effectively with huge public information campaigns.
I was born not long after the war and our diet was simple but extremely nutritious. My mother's big postwar treats were cream and butter.
I also think it unlikely that wartime eating would still be influencing attitudes two or three generations later.

British kids are fat because their parents are failing them.

• Family life is deteriorating and many parents are simply not cooking for and eating with the children. I know this is difficult with two working parents etc. But not usually impossible, just takes more planning.
• Low quality, high fat food is cheaper, easier and faster.
• When parents are advised the child is overweight they find a multitude of reasons why their kid is an exception to the rule, instead of taking responsibility and making changes. *Terms like "fat-shaming". We all know being fat is unhealthy. It's not shaming it's advising. Never heard someone complain of being "smoker-shamed" or "alcoholic-shamed", yet these are also self-inflicted things which cause major health problems. *screen time has hugely overtaken playing outside. *Food is used as a reward and a comfort. Done well at School? Have an ice cream. Had a bad day? Eat a cupcake.

It's definitely not rocket science. Children need to move more and eat less fatty, sugary food. The parents should be leading them by example and encouraging healthy attitudes to food and exercise.

My daughter, who is not obese, went to breakfast club and after school club for a while. At breakfast club she would choose lemon curd on toast and sometimes a hot chocolate. Then have school dinners with a pudding. Then after school club would have chocolate waffles etc. I don’t really understand why all these agencies insist on giving crap. Why do schools dinner include a bit of cake and custard as the norm? What’s wrong with a plain yogurt and some fruit?

Why do schools dinner include a bit of cake and custard as the norm? What’s wrong with a plain yogurt and some fruit?

Well fruit is expensive on a school budget, needs loads of time preparing it all, goes off relatively quickly and needs fridge space to store it, whereas cake is almost none of this. Also many kids probably won't eat it.

nelly I'm not saying that your ds is fat but really, at least half the people who's kids are say the same as you have. He's not fat, he's just big built/stocky. Some kids are built bigger but surely they'd just be on the higher end of the healthy bmi range. Both my dds were born on the 98th centile, my ds on the 99.6th. They're all very tall for their ages but this is taken into account when doing bmi and they're all within healthy.

I think bmi is only not good as a measure when people are doing weight training etc as of course body builders etc will weigh more. Even if a child is 'stocky' though its not going to be to that extremel. Tbh I think societies view on what a child should look like is completely wrong. Young kids SHOULD look 'skinny' that's healthy. Those who are around the age of 4-10 and still look chubby will more than likely be overweight.

People don't like hearing their child is fat though as it makes them feel guilty. The person responsible is the parent.