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).

"so everyday living required more physical effort and burnt more calories - these are changes that happened all across Europe."

So how do you account for the fact that the lowest paid workers in the UK, who are also those whose jobs are the most physically exhausting, are also the fattest.

By your reckoning no care assistant or builder would be overweight. No hospital nurse, or chef working in a busy kitchen would be fat.

Now I come to think of it, we often visit family who like in a not do nice area and their local supermarket has lots of frozen convenience food for children.

Live in a not so nice

@stayhomeclub that's one way to land yourself in hospital

Because British people buy really ridiculous food like crisps, squash, soft drinks, flavoured milk, sweetened yoghurt, sweetened cereals, white bread etc. And eat it on a daily basis. It has nothing with being too poor or lack for sporting facilities and everything to do with people consuming four it five times the calories they should be.

As others have said, never ending snacking which for some reason many people don't count as calories. ALso the normalisation of being fat - with 2/3 of the population overweight or obese, we've lost sight of what's healthy.

I read an interesting article suggesting that school dinners should be extracted from play time and should take part in the school day itself - seemed a good idea to stop people going to the chippy or devouring something unhealthy in order to get out to play football.

kalinka, how can the shit weather excuse be more of an issue for Britain than e.g. Sweden or Norway? Bergen has the highest rainfall in Europe, but it doesn't mean everybody sits indoors. Gothenburg has very similar weather to Scottish coastal towns- rains and gales for part of the year, interspersed with sleet and very occasionally snow. Yet there can hardly be a day when nursery school children are not to be seen in the playground or going on walks.

I work lunchtime in a school and the children that eat all their veggies is rare / they eat the meat and the potatoes and sweet but the carrots and broccoli etc are thrown away usually. So much waste from all the years.
The amount of adults I meet who ‘ don’t like veg’ is amazing too.
We were out for a meal once and I was eating up the cabbage and veg whilst people were going ‘yuk ‘ yet some are thinner than me ! ( whole other thread I guess).

You will find fat children in europe I don't think obesity is just a Brittish problem, personally

The statistics don't agree with you. The OECD stats for last year put the UK as the most obese country in western Europe, and the sixth highest of all the OECD countries -- only Mexico, Australia, the US, Finland and NZ were higher.

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/10/uk-most-obese-country-in-western-europe-oecd-report-finds

Britain has more obesity than other European countries, but that doesn’t mean that European countries don’t have obesity.

I think it’s a mix of less exercise and more food, plus a totally different life style. Children don’t play out nearly as much these days. I played out all the time, in the street usually, which you can’t really do to the same exten these days. My kids played in the garden or went out on their bikes when they were older.

There were parks, but there weren’t soft play areas or other activities. There was definitely more outside playing- football, cricket, ball games, without the need for a specific place to do it.

I think that children are more sedentary too be ause there is so much technology that allows you to be. 38% of primary age children will leave school obese. They are not moving enough and they are eating too much of the sort of foods that will add weight.

There were always chocolate bars, always crisps, always bread, potatoes and pastry. Perhaps not so much as there is now and perhaps not so available. There’s a McDonalds drive through that I drove past yesterday at about 10.30am. There was a double queue at the drive through and the restaurant was full upstairs and down. I obviously have no idea what they were eating, but it’s a reasonable bet to think that a percentage we’re eating burgers and fries and drinking shakes.

@VogueVVague it depends where you are what the supermarket sells in the UK. Not all UK supermarkets have large crisp and sweet aisles compared to their size. I went into a Waitrose near medium size train station it sold no large individual packets of crisps yet another one less than 5 miles away does. My local large Sainsburys has made it sweet and biscuit aisle smaller.

As a population, the western world is getting fatter. America and the UK are getting fatter faster.

We (US and increasingly the UK as a generalisation, obviously not every individual family) don't value food quality. We don't teach our kids to eat properly from childhood, we have separate kids foods and adults foods and we don't let them outside enough.

The rest of Europe, on the whole, play out more, don't have 'kids' food and value quality over quantity.

I also think portion sizes can be an issue. People giving a 2 year old a whole bag of crisps or a whole bag of chocolate buttons and that will be every day. The the times my toddler has those things he has just a few crisps or buttons maybe once or twice a week.

Also - the acceptance of gaming and box-set 'culture'. After WWII people sat down to read, sew or chat, not to goggle at a screen for hours on end. Now what do people do for hours each day?

I'm pretty certain the lack of independence for children until a startlingly high age (primary children not allowed to walk to school/activities alone until year 6, year 5 at a push, and certainly no cycling) will have something to do with it.

I'm in Germany and, thinking about it, most primary and early secondary age kids are slim, even though this is not a particularly wealthy area. Obesity seems to kick in around mid-teens.

I think other countries expect their children to be way more active.

For example in Spain, most kids do sport after school. A lot.

In the Czech Rep, they do ballroom dancing AND get themselves to school from a very young age.

Here , the parents who keep their children indoors, and drive them everywhere are considered to be the "best".

The nation is getting fatter due to the sheer volume and availability of processed foods. Food that are cheap, full of manmade chemicals, addictive, and easily accessible.

I feel sorry for the kids of today. When I was young supermarkets predominantly sold real food but now they are huge and the temptation is overwhelming.

I’ve said on here before food is the new biggest threat to our nations health. When you sell out to Walmart - an American company- That speaks volumes

I feel that the USA is also in trouble over food.

I wish I could afford to eat organic only food! But I can’t because the cost of living has shot up whereas our income has not!

Damn govt!

It’s really hard to avoid supermarkets in the UK. It’s much easier to shop for healthy food at a farmers market.

I agree with you, The80sweregreat, and concur with your experience. I do think though that, on the while, British cooking doesn't celebrate vegetables, rather they are an afterthought.

I agree that gaming etc is partly to blame. My siblings and I would never be in the house on a nice day. We were out in the street playing with the local children or at the park with our grandparents.

Children in our extended family now either watch TV or are on their tablets etc pretty much all day when not at school. They don't even know the neighbourhood children.

The Tories sold off all the school playing fields and swimming pools.

So none have been sold off during the Labour years?

In fact, it was under Labour control that all our local school swimming pools have been closed down. Since Tories have taken control, two of them have been re-opened.

More homework doesn't help. It means that some kids spend most of the time when there parents at home sat at a desk working.

I wish that shops would sell smaller quantities of junk food. Occasionally I'd like to buy a doughnut from a supermarket, but they only sell them in packets of 6 (so I don't buy them).

I guess this might be reflected in the UK? Is it more of an issue in relatively deprived areas?

Yes, childhood obesity is closely linked, the lowest levels of obesity were in Richmond and Kingston boroughs so obviously likely very similar to the "posh" parts of paris. Overall rates were double in reception between least and most deprived areas and more than double in year 6.

latest data at:
digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/national-child-measurement-programme/2016-17-school-year

"Well there you go minifingerz your family are overwe7ght because you eat too much which isn't a great mystery really"

I'm just wondering, beyond doing what I already do, how would you suggest I police my teenage children's eating to stop them taking in that extra 1000 calories or so a week which is keeping them from being a healthy weight? Should I make different food rules for them than for my skinny child (who eats constantly).

I'm really interested in solutions. Other than making healthy meals at home and serving sensible portions - what can parents do to make sure their older children don't eat calories they don't need?

Lack of exercise. Too many kids go to school by car or by school bus, virtually door to door. At my son's school, there are no school buses, so he has to walk a mile up a steep hill from the main bus station to the school, along with most others. Funnily enough, there are VERY few porkers at his school!