British children shorter due to poor diet

[Catosaurus]

Experts have said a poor national diet and cuts to the NHS are to blame. But they have also pointed out that height is a strong indicator of general living conditions, including illness and infection, stress, poverty and sleep quality. Food experts point out that a diet of cheap junk food makes people simultaneously overweight and undernourished.

Has it really become this bad? I’m not from England, but this is on the news today.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/21/children-raised-under-uk-austerity-shorter-than-european-peers-study

Britain may have many enviable qualities but its diet sadly isn’t one of them. There is a culture of parents and children not only eating separately but also eating entirely different types of food. This happens at home and also in restaurants where they often have a separate menu for children with much less interesting food on it.

I agree with this. When you tell people here that some kids has crisps as a part of their lunch they do not believe it. We had friends over from England, and they gave their 2-year old crisps. She was sitting in her pushchair eating crisps.. 😂 People stared like crazy.

What's wrong with cereal or toast for breakfast?

I’m not seeing any data showing the UK is more ethnically diverse than the Netherlands, if anything it is slightly more white. Maybe I’m not googling properly.

Where do you live, @Catosaurus ?
So really your point isn't poverty, just bad food culture?

To be fair the Netherlands is also not known for its contributions to global cuisine!

That is a snapshot of the study, which I haven’t read in detail.

As well as diet and genetics of the child, there is huge evidence the nutrition of grandparents impacts future generations, so whilst I agree nutrition during the cost of living crisis is a big issue, this is far broader than that and is a headline designed to get clicks - and so it did.

https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-11-07/The-tallest-and-shortest-nations-in-the-world--VcGoBDG7rq/index.html
From the Lancet studies.
Netherlands - tallest

And @Catosaurus wants us to ‘follow the science’ based on their anecdata of 1 😂

So obviously, it's not done them any harm!

Yes, I've seen evidence for grandparents' diet as an impact as well.

The nature of food and what we eat has just changed so much.

My husband grew up in poverty in the UK. They had nothing. They ate basic good but stuff like stews. If he was born now I think that would be different. He is 6ft 4 so it definitely didn't stunt his growth. But now the cheapest food is ultra processed crap.

It was a comment to another poster. It’s all connected, including genetics obviously. Also crisps is really cheap in England compared to here, so probably easy to buy if you don’t have much money.

You're right, it's all connected - I believe that it's probably a combination of factors.
If you travel to most northern European cultures you will find bad diets and fast food. Giving children crisps is not a unique problem created by British parents.

Really? It was simply a comparison, a comment to another poster. Not a scientific study. Glad you find it so funny. 👍🏼

I think it has more to do with wider cultural factors. Dutch children have more freedom, more time with each parent and are more active on average than their British counterparts. I think family meals are probably key.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/06/06/dutch-parenting-secrets-to-raising-the-happiest-kids-in-the-world.html.html

Excuse my ignorance, but does taller = healthier then? If not, why does it matter?

this is what you wrote:

it shows almost nobody is interested in the science, and is overruling scientific findings with their own sample size of 1 or 2

and then you gave your own sample size of 1 of someone eating crisps, see the contradiction?

Me and several other posters are highlighting actual science involved in genetics as well as environmental factors (epigenetics) that might lead to this but here yet again we have someone from outside the UK claiming everyone eats crisps, cereal and toast for breakfast. Stereotyping much?

Good point

She was sitting in her pushchair eating crisps.. 😂 People stared like crazy.

Crikey you must live in a dull place!

my dc are older now so I’ve seen a lot of what children eat, when they want to eat when when they come to my house, when my dc ate at their houses, in their packed lunches etc. There is a bad food epidemic in the UK. If the stunted growth and obesity doesn’t get your dc, bowel cancer will. The unwillingness from UK parents to acknowledge this on here is unbelievable. Get your heads out of the sand

Nutritional stunting doesn’t only mean failing to reach your full height but can have lasting physical and cognitive consequences.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7975963/

I’ve tried having a discussion about it in my social circles and basically the answer I got was ‘I don’t care’. It horrifies me that people I thought who were intelligent see no issue with their children believing that crisps are a staple lunch item or that a chocolate bar a day is normal and part of a balanced diet. And this isn’t even touching the sides of those who eat cereal, crisps, white bread sandwich with ham, chocolate bar, weird fruit twizzler thing, chicken nuggets and chips, yoghurt and that’s their day!

That's really interesting. Not linked to height but I had a nasty bout of D&V with a high temp when pregnant with my ds. I normally have a cast iron immunity due to being a teacher but pregnancy seemed to break that for a while. When his first adult molars came through hypermineralised the dentist asked if I had been ill when pregnant as that was likely when the teeth were being formed so so caused the damage.

I'm not sure that the Dutch have way better diets but maybe at population level they do.

I have a Dutch niece who is only 5ft2 (she's in her 30s now) and her younger brother lived off cheese strings and is 6ft2!! Both brought up in same household and ate a broadly similar diet to their UK cousins. I have a strong memory of staying with them whilst pregnant with first DC and having never heard of a cheese string 😂.