To think most people don’t care about healthy eating, exercise, etc

[Notcontent]

We keep hearing about rising obesity levels, diabetes, and how sugary/processed good is responsible for a lot of it, etc.

But it seems to me that most people are completely ignoring those messages - either because they think it’s all nonsense or because they think “oh well, I want to enjoy my food and drink and I don’t really care what happens when I get to 50”.

I completely agree that we need to have treats and enjoy food because that’s what life is all about. But a lot of it is just simple stuff, like having water instead or sugary drinks. Why is that? Yes, I know some people can’t afford healthy food, but most of us do have some choice about what we feed ourselves and our families.

My DC like to eat lightly boiled or steamed carrots, peas, and broccoli what is wrong with that? I also use the little steamer veggie packs, (oh no, probably some issue there also.)

FFS

There isn’t a mixed message with exercise- we should do 30 minutes per day ever day and some of that should be resistance training

Didn't rtft. First few pages. To answer OP yanbu to discuss it.
I think people do care but caring and doing are different things, most obese people giving a free choice would prefer to be healthy and fit, it is not a free choice, it takes work, dedication to cook, make fitness changes. I often hear people saying awh I'll start tomorrow, it is a vicious cycle.

I think the mixed messages comes from the endless stream of 'Don't eat carbs/eat carbs/eat 2 meals a day/eat 1 meal a day/eat 3 meals a day/calorie count/macro count/ meat is bad/meat is good/vegetarian diet is good/ vegetarian diet is bad every day. Food is everywhere, doughnuts and chips taste delicious, planning meals and taking picnics out with you so you don't succumb to the burger van takes planning and its a bit boring. I do it, but It is boring and takes up a lot of brain space. The basis of every 'diet' is that if you eat less calorie dense foods and move more, you will lose weight. We don't want to hear it. We want every new thing to be the answer.

There is a lot of pressure to eat crap.
Far too many take away and fast food outlets.
There has also been a rapid change in expectations of allowing children freedom to play and have lots of exercise.
When I was a child I walked to and from school, every day.
School holidays were spent playing out. Walking to friends houses, getting about by foot, playing physical games such as hide and seek and tig. Climbing trees, doing gymnastics outside.
We would climb a tree, hang upside down backwards then use our core muscles to pull ourselves back up.
I don't see children doing that now, yes there might be some but children in general are less fit and active than they were say 30 years ago.
Lots of children moan about walking even short distances.
I had no choice.
We also did not have the means to go and buy cheap food. Only sweets. Dinner was home cooked, not always nice but it was take it or leave it.

Family habits do matter. My kids have picked up a 'sweet treat after dinner as default' mentality from my DH. I was from a 'pudding once a week or on special occasions only' family but now he has thoroughly corrupted me, too.

I don't understand the statement about "pressure to eat crap". I live in a very urban environment and have many "junk food" outlets within a 1 mile radius of my house and yet I have never felt the urge to order enter their premises. My children, particularly the teenager does not eat chicken and chips routinely after school, nor do his friends. They are, however, athletes and prefer burritos and noodle soups.

Places which sell junk exist, but the sheer number of them, and there are many, does not make me want to eat that food. Demand is not driven just by supply.

The messages are so mixed now that the easiest thing is just to not eat. Hence the fasting craze.
It’s the thing that works the best in my opinion. Just don’t eat for most of the day and then eat some decent food and maybe a treat and you’ll lose weight.
It just takes all the thinking out of it but does take willpower of course. But then so do most diets, I guess.

We would climb a tree, hang upside down backwards then use our core muscles to pull ourselves back up.
I don't see children doing that now, yes there might be some but children in general are less fit and active than they were say 30 years ago.

I don't think that's because children are lazier though. It's because a lot of them aren't allowed to play out with friends. My children have always been allowed to play out, so they have indeed spent their summer afternoons doing somersaults in the garden with their friends. Then they all run off down the street to someone else's house and do it there all over again. Unfortunately we live in a modern development with no trees, so that's a skill they've never gained.

But whilst it's very normal where I live (and there aren't actually any overweight children in my child's class) I've been told many times over the years on MN that it's neglectful, lazy parenting etc. Not that I care, because I'm fine with it. But it does prove that you just can't win. Keep your child chained to your side for their own safety and you risk them being inactive and you'll be judged. Let them out to run around and you'll be judged.

isabelle yes that was what I was getting at.
When did parents stop letting their children play out and walk places?
There appears to have been a sudden change in attitude. Perhaps it's not sudden but I could guarantee that the vast majority of my peers who went to primary school in the 70s walked to school there and back. A lot of kids also walked home for lunch too!
Now a lot of children, and I'm not blaming them, can barely walk.
My mum walked a mile to and from school from being 4 years old!
I'm not advocating that but she has always been thin and active. Early habits.
To get the same amount of exercise a child who is driven everywhere would have to be doing a serious amount of extra curriculum activities.
I remember at school doing cross country runs in pe and it literally was a cross country run of about 4 miles.
Not many kids are up to that unless they actively choose to attend running clubs etc.

It can happen nowadays though, we walk a mile and back to school, hilly area, and DC plays out with friends in grass and trees near the school till I meet him...they climb trees etc...it is not a rule to not do that anymore.

Eustasiavye

Sorry, I misunderstood and thought you were saying children just didn't bother playing.

I agree with what you're saying.

Also as well as PE, breaks and other after school clubs like football, tennis and cricket, they all run a mile every day around the playground /fields. This is an initiative in the local area but think it is across the country called the Daily Mile.

8647 schools taking part thedailymile.co.uk

Most people who have the time and emotional energy to care do care.
The rest are fighting against more pressing concerns than what might kill them in a few decades time and are using all their emotional energy and resilience getting through life one day at a time.

Well yes, and stress is linked because people can comfort eat more when stressed. It can be like a vicious circle.

I do think a huge amount of it is time.

So many people are out of the house for 12+ hours a day when you include commutes. When you do it day in, day out it's absolutely exhausting and when I've been awake and on the go for 13 hours, the last thing I want to do is cook. Okay, you can make a stir fry or veggie pasta but eating those things day in, day out is repetitive. If I want a fresh food that means shopping every 2-3 days and quite frankly, after being on my feet for 9 hours, and driving for a further 90 minutes, I don't want to go to the supermarket on top of that. I'd much rather go home, stick something in the oven and flop on the sofa with the dog.

I eat much better on my days off, or when I'm on holiday for a chunk of time. When I have nothing to do all day, I don't mind a trip to the supermarket, and I'm not bothered about standing in a warm kitchen for a while to cook a healthy meal. But after a long day at work, plus a commute, I'm shattered and quite frankly, I can't be arsed.

I'm going to have to disagree about children being as fit and active as they were say 40 years ago. The average child really isnt.
I work with children. I've seen them allegedly do the "daily mile" trust me it is not equivalent to doing an old fashioned cross country run say at least once a week. A lot of the children do not run the entire mile, and if they do it is merely running around a field for a maximum of 15 minutes. That does not equate to having to get around several miles through tough terrain quickly and get back into school , changed and ready for the next lesson or face severe consequences.
There is far more health and safety now to worry about for teachers.
If you've ever watched the going back to school series and seen the pe lessons of previous generations you will know what I mean. The modern day children were horrified at the standard of the past. The gym equipment itself was terrifying to most of them.

I've also had parents moan about their poor little darling having to walk, yes walk! to school events rather than staff ferry them about in cars.

Unfortunately the daily mile is not in every school either. My dc’s school do not currently do it. Kids are definitely not that fit either. Having played wild games with scouts, it is depressing how many 13/14/15 years cannot catch a 40 year old woman. Yes I’m fit, but a teenage boy should have no problem outrunning me.

"Unfortunately the daily mile is not in every school either. "

I think it's terrible that schools have to do this. Children should be walking a mile a day in their time outside school. It shouldn't be cutting into the time of other subjects.

"When did parents stop letting their children play out and walk places?"

There was a thread on here not so long ago by a mother who didn't want to 'let' her 16 year old walk alone in the woods. Panic about children's safety's gone overboard.

With regards to exercise, PE at school puts a large number of people off.

Exactly this. If PE at school had been like a gym/aerobics/running type of lesson, brilliant. Sometimes it was but a lot of the time it was playing tennis and netball, hockey... I have no interest in team sports and I dreaded it.

Children should be doing a lot more exercise than simply walking a mile.
I know even 40 years ago there was research that kids then were less fit than the generation before them. It just seems to get worse every year.

'Healthy eating' is middle-class wank. In the current political/social climate, plenty of people don't have enough to eat - people whose benefits have been sanctioned or working hours cut, skipping meals to make sure their kids are fed. And if you're poor, you eat what's affordable and filling and quick. Which might well be dubious chicken peices and chips from the nearest takeaway for £1.99, because it's cheaper and easier than taking three buses to the nearest supermarket that does fresh veg, carting the fresh veg back home, having enough money on the fuel key to simmer something for a couple of hours...

Reanimated absolutely. But there are still people who could afford to eat well but don't.

Lack of education, lack of cooking skills, lack of perceived time.

It’s not ‘middle class wank’ we’re all responsible for what goes into our bodies.

Years ago (me included) we had weeks of home economics classes in schools teaching us the basic skills to cook (in case you didn’t learn them at home).

Kids now are lucky is they get a couple of classes and come out with the ability to make an apple crumble.

Kids aren’t being taught about nutrition in school.

We’ve become lazy and turn to processed foods - usually laden with sugar and salt and many claim not to have the time, or just don’t have the skills to cook from scratch.