To be shocked at the level of obesity of British children?

[MEM00]

Having recently come back from holiday I found myself really shocked by the size of so many other British kids at the resort we were at. It was mostly a mix of British, French and German families and I found it impossible to not notice the difference in the British kids compared to others. DD is 8 and I would say average sized, by no means skinny. She made friends with another girl the same age by the pool, and i'm not joking when i say the other girl must have been twice the size when they were next to each other.

Am i overthinking this? Because it really makes me worry for the future.

This isn't intended by be 'fat shaming' in any way btw.

How long ago was this that they thought weaning them into vegetarian food was abusive?

You only have to look at supermarket trolleys - large multi packs of crisps and chocolate bars. These should be treats - once a week or fortnightly - not on a regular basis

No, I don’t think they will ( necessarily) be the same users, because they are using it under medical supervision and presumably the side effects are being monitored (although my GP friend says that some of of the people using these drugs are suffering type 2 diabetes because they are overweight, because they have eaten too much). I am thinking of the many people who are purchasing from on line pharmacies and altering the dosage as they and their online ‘community’ think fit.

And who knows how genuine and reliable the quality of those products is? There have been enough scandals about pharmaceutical induced adverse effects from drugs which have been tested and supplied by the NHS, without the added excitement of online suppliers interfering with human metabolism.

love to the cat !

You make a good point @Ihatelaundry why did you include glasses in your list?

It can be a little embarrassing when you can clearly pick out the British families on holiday based on their size, their clothes and the fact that they are walking along eating chips etc.
I try to be sympathetic as my BMI is 27, my DC eat a pretty poor diet IMO but are genetically thin (they also walk everywhere and do lots of running about).
I think we are more tolerant of obesity in this country than in other countries. Years ago I would have felt self conscious as a size 14, but now am often among the thinnest out and about so I don’t care and don’t bother with restrictive eating any more.
My DC, like most people, prefer the taste and texture of chocolate and crisps over fruit and veg. It is a constant battle, and they know all about healthy eating from home and school. Mine will usually fill up on bread and cereal and leave the veg. I was pretty much the same as a child and I was thin, but I guess I didn’t have so many parties to go to. We rarely ate takeaway except fish and chips. Perhaps that’s it, it is a lot more normal nowadays to have takeaways frequently and during the week too. But lots of things at play.

i think from memory his documentary looked at how although personal responsibility is the ideal and desired attitude towards ones own diet and the diet of family, there are myriad factors which make that very difficult to achieve. It’s an excellent watch and very enlightening.

Within the last 8? years we've seen a return to greengrocers around here. There are 3 or 4 on the high street. In my local area we have a baker and butcher but unfortunately, the greengrocer closed about 15 years years ago and has never been replaced.

I didn’t mean to offend, I also wear glasses and yes, it definitely can be hereditary. However, there are lots of things that can cause poor eyesight which are not linked to genetics, including (but not limited to) poor nutrition.

Sorry but now I'm thinking of my late Nan criticising DM for my poor eyesight when it was inherited from her side of the family.

She did cook a lot from scratch though.

What does that 'care' actually look like though? Pounding away on a keyboard, handing out judgements left and right is not it in my book. That is the only thing going on here; I'm not referring to your post in that, just querying 'care' because you raised it.

I don't disagree that it's a societal issue but what use is this in tackling the problem? Impotent but it serves a purpose for some who really do get their kicks from misery.

I agree with you, I just came back from France and actually it made me realised how much fatter all of us are as a nation. How has this happened?

In my town which has several primary schools it is very obvious that there are more obese children in the primary schools on the less well off side of town than in the more well to do side.
This bares out the links with obesity and low income - good quality food is expensive and some families are time poor, also sometimes there is a lack of cooking facilities.
And before someone tells me how cheap carrots and potatoes are, with some families it's not that they are eating beige frozen food it's that they are in hotel accommodation eating toast and biscuits

Talking about European supermarkets the ones I have been in, in Spain are full of junk, sadly.

and I care, about all of us - including my own family - I’d like to understand what has happened to us so we can change it

Lazy, neglectful parenting and nothing less than child abuse.

It is and I say that as a parent with four healthy weight DC. Nutrition is very important to me but it is very hard when you are busy to eat healthily. You can't run into any local convenience store/supermarket and buy something that is healthy and not processed very easily - it all needs to be created.

I've also realised recently that the quality of our cheap food (ie. Meat, fruit and veg etc) makes them utterly tasteless. Cheap red peppers and carrots for instance are bland and dull whereas if you buy local, organic produce it is so much more flavoursome and therefore more appetising to the DC. So while you can buy cheap fruit and veg, it's not particularly nice and when the ultra processed, highly flavoured food is so cheap and prevalent then that is certainly their go to when left to their own devices.

You can't tell how long they're to last, though! Having said that once they're in the house not as long as expected often!

I don't keep crisps/chocolate in the house. But sometimes get some for my DC at the weekend. But then you don't get the discount of buying in bulk!

There's no excuse for fat children in my eyes it's neglect

I don’t think (anecdotal evidence only) that the amount of ready meals was as great in France, and they certainly did have enormous areas dedicated to fresh fish, vegetables and fruit and meat.

My ASD girl is good at making healthy things...not always so good at eating them!

I'm not shocked at all. In our village most of thr children arrive and leave by car and any events on the recreation park the same.

It's no wonder.

This was in response to a poster saying a DC can only get 300kcals from a school lunch.

And regarding portion size how do you enforce portion size when they are at school? Why do they have to sell doughnuts?

That's very much my experience.

Yes, there is a problem, but I don't think comparing us to the nations is helpful. France for example is a poor example as obesity is on the rise there and around 20% of children under the age of 7 are overweight whereas it's around 10% in England. Germany also has similar obesity figures to the UK. In fact, if we look at statistics, it seems the largest proportion of our overweight children are in deprived demographics. Is this any surprise when the lowest incomes get free school meals and children are fed high-carb, low-nutrition, low-cost food? If we are going to compare ourselves with other countries, we need to look at actions.

And look in lunch boxes at schools. I work in a Primary school and do glance in lunch boxes when I'm on lunch duty. This week one child had cold chicken nuggets and ketchup in their lunch box (from KFC I guessed as kid said they were spicy nugs) and a full sized Wispa chocolate bar. That was lunch. For a 5 year old. Apparently this is pretty much every day! And yes, the 5yo is hugely obese!