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.

I see people buying mega packs of crisps, large bottles of coke and chocolate. This must be expensive . Buying fruit instead is probably cheaper and nicer. But children are manipulated by advertisers to want this junk food. Also why do so many manufacturers add so much salt to food? This in intself should be outlawed. Why not offer nutrition education in schools too?

This thread reminds me of when Jamie Oliver tried to introduce healthy school meals and parents were outside the school gates stuffing chips through the railings.

I find supermarket fruit and veg very bland. But from the green grocer it is really nice and also cheaper!

The greengrocer fruit tends to be deliciously ripe when you buy it. Supermarket fruit is often not ripe and often never seems to get fully ripe even after several days.

Because it's yet another sign of over consumption, and bundle that with everything else humans do to excess, it is killing the planet.

@Itsprobablynotcominhome
people care not least because it affects everyone with obesity costs to the nhs rising.

Same here. I’m doing the same with my child, and she is like a rake.

It’s a discussion forum, opinions are allowed! Has it touched a nerve, perhaps?

Parents buy shit food, kids eat it and will continue to eat it and have kids of their own and the cycle begins again ( in a lot of cases). How any parent can watch their child become fat and do nothing about it is complete and utter child abuse. (medical cases apart).
These parents will also deny, deflect and make every excuse under the sun as to why their child is overweight other than the contents of their shopping trolley and the takeaways on speed dial.
Shameful parenting.

I think people are duped into buying these multi packs as they are much cheaper than buying individual items. It makes them seem like a bargain.

This -total fallacy about school PE -just another bandwagon to jump on.
Kids used to do more exercise, but while they were out on their bikes etc they weren’t mindlessly snacking. I came from a working class area where people just didn’t snack between meals /they were busy doing other things. My parents lived from paypacket to paypacket weekly and were what would now be considered poor, but no-one was overweight and even then people understood that cake/biscuits/fizzy drinks were fattening -but we hardly ever had them. No excuse at all for people now not to know that /but it is sheer laziness and delegating parenting to school.

On the subject of private schools/social class/weight. I've been invigilating GCSEs and A levels in a private school. One exam I had 92 pupils in the sports hall, only one pupil was overweight, literally just one. And she was really not very fat just a bit bigger than the other kids. The weight divide is very noticeable.

I used to take in my left over dinner for lunch the next day, to work, and had to endure comments from people about the food. I found it annoying in the end, and stopped taking in food to be warmed up, in the microwave. I doubt I would have had any comments if my lunch had consisted of sausage rolls, and chips. I almost felt embarrassed for having my own food at work, because of the attention it received. And yes, I was mindful of not bringing in "smelly" foods.

Why does it make you worry for the future. As long as you and yours arnt overweight why should it bother you ? You can't change other people so not worth even worrying about

We were the same. We didn’t actually have a car though…..couldn’t afford it.

My mum cooked everything from scratch and we rarely had biscuits, never crisps. I don’t either and my kids have never been overweight. My mums sister however had the house full of cakes, crisps biscuits. Her children grew up overweight just as she was and now her daughter fills the cupboards with the same crap, doesn’t cook from scratch it’s all ready meals and all her children are very overweight.

Both mums brought up the same made different choices and passed it down the generations. There was and is now no difference in family income, just attitude.

I often spend time in France and Belgium and have noticed more children with weight issues over there. All anecdotal but it does seem on the rise there. I generally find that Britain is 20 odd years ahead of the rest of Western Europe, so they may be heading our way with regards to obesity rates.

Yes, that whole thing went nowhere, didn't it?

I remember how unhealthy our school lunches at secondary were in the 90s. Chips, burgers, hotdogs, pizza, cakes, fizzy drinks. But there were some nice freshly made rolls and baguettes (much more expensive than the junk, though!) and some of the food was made freshly. Now there's an even bigger range of junk food.and none of the food is made fresh. You can't get something as simple as a cheese and salad sandwich. They do have some sandwiches but the very cheap packaged ones.

Look at the amount of obese adults, monkey see monkey do. Apart from if there is reasons such as illness and medication.

Yes and a Tory MP got hounded for suggesting budgeting and cookery should be taught to those using food banks (as he was doing the same at his food bank with positive results).
The obesity epidemic is one of the issues causing NHS problems but people want to bury their heads in the sand rather than take advice.

At 10 my child isn't overweight. The children in his class are have gone from zero obese in reception to about 50% in year 6.

We don't get much exercise.

I think the key things we do as a family is;

1. avoid processed food (but it creeps in 1-3 meals a week)

2.We don't snack between meals - if on rare occasions my child is hungry between meals he gets directed to the fruit bowl

That is sad. How long ago was this?

Jesus. Thats actually horrific.

Because our NHS is groaning under the weight of obesity related conditions as it is. Because being overweight is associated with a multitude of comorbidities which reduces productivity and further increases pressure on society.

I was waiting for this post.

Exactly @Noonelikesasloppytrifle

Although I disagree with your name -