To think that fucking cartoons on cereal boxes aren't what's making children overweight and parents just need to say no to their kids?

[GoblinGreen]

www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7848217/amp/Supermarket-Lidl-announces-remove-cartoon-characters-sugary-cereal-packaging.html

Ffs, what are they going to do next, get rid of all sweets and chocolate in case the kids pester their parents?

www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7848217/amp/Supermarket-Lidl-announces-remove-cartoon-characters-sugary-cereal-packaging.html

Clicky link

Yanbu OP

You're going to get 1000 posts telling you people are fat cos they're poor.

They won't get rid of sweets and choccies but I'm expecting cigarette style warnings any second now..

I ate Frosties everyday as a child, not healthy obvs but I wasn’t overweight. It was part of a balanced diet. Now it’s lack of exercise and shite food.

You're going to get 1000 posts telling you people are fat cos they're poor.

What do you think though of the evidence that links poverty, policies and obesity? Are you of the opinion that the data is tenuous or that the links established from the evidence between food poverty and poverty in general and other variables in diet etc - are not appropriate links?

It’s well known kids bag for sugary stuff with the bright pictures. Surely removing the pester peer is a good thing for parents? I always said no to chocolate cereal etc but if they take it off they wouldn’t ask

We had cartoons on cereal packets when I was a kid (in the 70s) and - I may be wrong - people were quite scrawny in genera back then, weren’t they?

Bigger portions

A culture of grazing and fast food on every corner

Coffee shops selling mega calorie drinks

The whole ‘fat shaming’ thing - people are more comfortable with being larger than before maybe? Mum was always in the heavier side and she was constantly on a diet (but she ate chocolate on the sly she lates confessed). She never said ‘sod it, I’m a size 16 - that’s thin!’

Yy not selling chocolate pillows at all is likely to be more effective than removing a cartoon character from kids porridge oats.

YANBU. I see more and more overweight children and parents just don't seem to care. It's the parents who do the food shopping not the children.

The obesity problem is far more complex than cartoons on cereal boxes and telling parents to "just say no".

You're going to get 1000 posts telling you people are fat cos they're poor.

Poor people are more likely to be overweight because of food poverty and limited dietary choices.

What do you think though of the evidence that links poverty, policies and obesity?

I acknowledge that data but not all fat people are poor and the sooner we acknowledge that, the better.

Larger packs too - crisps would have been just the 24/5g size when I was a kid and a treat (not everyday). The ‘grab bags’ are pretty large and full of fat and salt.

I acknowledge that data but not all fat people are poor and the sooner we acknowledge that, the better.

No, not all fat people are poor and - on the opposite side of it - not all poor people are fat which brings us back to the point that the obesity problem is far more complex than "just say no" and no cartoons on cereal boxes

Of course it's more complex. But this will help. So it's a good idea to do. Advertising like this to kids does have an effect, so removing the characters is a step in right direction

I went to the cinema the other night and sat along from a very overweight child who ate crap from the moment she sat down until the end - literally two hours of noisily opening and shovelling crisps, chocolate and sweets down her gob while guzzling from a 1 litre bottle of Fanta.

She couldn't keep still, fidgeted throughout and was clearly uncomfortable wedged in a seat, couldn't focus on the film, and every time she whinged her parents just gave her more food to shut her up.

Absolutely I blame them, completely.

@Thoughtlessinengland not all links are causal links. Being poor doesn’t make people fact. But many of the things that make people poor (lack of education, lack of intellect, weak sense of willpower, poor goal setting and self motivation, prioritising short term gains etc) will also make people fat. I would imagine that OP is tired of people who can’t distinguish correlative and causal links.

Pursuant to the above removing cartoons is pretty pointless as it doesn’t address the underlying issues.

Probably not a terrible idea? Doubt it'll make a huge amount of difference but the cartoons do make them look very child-like and fun, whereas porridge etc. is often plain and unexciting.

All these comments remarking how ‘thin’ people were in the 70s and 80s are missing a huge point — it’s the kids who grew up then who are the fat adults (and creating the fat kids) now. So all those Frosties a PP ate previously (absolutely shocking - my mum wouldn’t allow us any cereal except Weetabix or Oatmeal for breakfast) probably has contributed to the problem because it created an entire generation who doesn’t know how to eat healthily when faced with unrestricted food choices.

Nothing to do with cartoons but I do think some idiot grown ups like the PP above, due to how they grew up, are more likely to buy stuff advertised with cartoons for their own kids.

The old "x, y, and z never did me any harm..."

I grew up eating Turkwy Twizzlers and swigging blue Kia-Ora neat from the bottle because diluting it was a waste of my precious time. I loved Micro Chips, especially the flavoured ones (bacon in the purple box, cheese and onion in the green box), and a Curly Wurly was practically the length of my arm. Our Friday night tea was always pizza from Morrisons that was shaped like a teenage mutant ninja turtles foot and had flavours like ham and apple or chicken and marshmallow.

I'm shocked more of us weren't overweight in the 80s/90s with the amount of shite we ate.

When I was a child there were free toys in cereal boxes but my mum knew how to say no! I don't remember any overweight kids.
@Lordfrontpaw is absolutey spot on - add to that being driven everywhere and you have a recipe for obesity, nothing to do with cartoons.

Okay. To all the PPs saying that people are fat because they are poor...

Sorry to be that person, but I bought some food for a roast dinner from Aldi earlier. A whole free range chicken was £4 and will feed a family for a few days after today with the leftovers!

I actually bought some roasting potatoes, some OXO gravy, stuffing and lots of yummy veg all for under £7 (inc chicken). We had my parents over for dinner, so this fed four people.

To feed a family of four, considering there will be enough chicken left over to feed the family for at least another few days, that is fantastic value... with a free range chicken!

Protein and fibre is NOT expensive when you look for it properly, and this will fill your family up much more than sweets and other high sugar foods.

I know this won't be a popular opinion, but I do think this is a hard pill to swallow for some families who seem to think their kids are overweight because they are poor.

NB: I know this isn't the case for EVERY single family with overweight children... I am responding directly to those that think they can't feed their children properly because they "can't afford it".

Children of the 70s who grew up with lots of cereals and sweets etc were idiots?

Not their parents for feeding them that stuff?

Incidentally if you look at calories, people consumed more in the past. But there were more physical jobs, less cars, less escalators etc. When I started my career there was a lot of carrying heavy thick paper files to and from desks. Now it's all computerised.

I think the biggest culprit is the reduction in the amount of moving around people have to do in daily life. Yes you can go to the gym but willpower. If you have no choice but to walk to bus stop, climb stairs, lift and carry stuff then you just get on with it.

That's what I reckon.

As for cartoons on cereal boxes it obviously works or they'd be plainer. They wouldn't be paying for rights to use current characters and so on.

It’s well known kids bag for sugary stuff with the bright pictures. Surely removing the pester peer is a good thing for parents? I always said no to chocolate cereal etc but if they take it off they wouldn’t ask

Not every child. I always said they were yuk and horribly sweet. Daughter eventually was allowed a Variety pack when her cousins visited. She sampled all of them and declared them all yuk and very sweet.