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.

So are smoking- related, alcohol-related, drug-related and sport-related injuries/ conditions- a huge cost. What would you suggest? Where do you draw the line? If someone gets liver cancer who drinks more than the recommended weekly limit, what do you suggest? Or an overweight woman develops breast cancer?

What about people who have children vs those who don't? Should you pay more if you have children- you use the NHS for births/childhood illnesses and conditions and the education system and there will be parents who contribute nothing, never mind those who don't have children?

Your view seems simplistic.

My DC like me and eat healthily! It is possible! 😄

This is the difference to most schools. Now it is outside catering companies looking to make a profit. They make their profit at the expense of our teen's health.

Similar. I had a long journey to school, two buses and a walk, carrying a heavy school bag full of text books.

We had a sport lesson of some kind every day, hockey, netball, gym, swimming and one other (can’t remember what but I would have hated it!)

Diet was toast or porridge for breakfast, nothing again till morning break (drink only), cooked school lunch, nothing again till I got home, maybe bread and jam and then a light evening meal.

Never had sweets or crisps in the house. Takeaways didn’t exist.

Ours was a normal middle class home so money wasn’t an issue. However waste was, because parents had lived through rationing.

Same here. In our society we seem to equate healthy food with boring and crap food with being a treat.

Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle issue 9 times out of 10. Its because someone has a poor diet and/or is overweight

My OH is is type 2 and is on the same drugs that people slag off here constantly. He has pretty dire digestion problems because of them, but he also had that on metformin too.

He is seen twice a year for weigh ins and blood glucose checks etc, so thats how much monitoring there is. No one is looking at long term pancreas or liver issues for him, so he isnt any different to when I used to buy mine for a short period of time.

If the drugs are bad for just us fatties, then they're bad for all patients on them

Point taken though, that its difficult to know if someone is buying genuine products.

It's sad.

And while parental influence is going to be the main influence when they're really young, they will also pick up habits and go out for food with their friends more and more as they get older.

So if your child's friends are overweight then it's totally reasonable to be concerned.

Not much you can do unless you move maybe to a more affluent area but it's still sad to observe.

My oldest is 5, she’s never had a fizzy drink, never had a slushie, she’s never eaten a takeaway with us, never had pick’n’mix and I think she’s had a McDonald’s twice (once the night DS was born and the other after a long and stressful day in hospital with DS).

A treat is a Freddo (love these as they’re actually kids portions), a chocolate digestive, or a Jaffa cake. She has one of these 2 or 3 times a week. Otherwise ‘pudding’ is yoghurt or berries.

I’m sorry but I do judge people who allow their children to become overweight. There’s no excuse for it. We both work full time so don’t have all the time in the world to cook meals, but we always manage to feed them something nutritious, I’ve never reached for beige freezer food. I’m more than happy to share my meal ideas but the reality is so many children are used to a high sugar, high fat UPF diet they would turn their nose up at what we eat.

Society is too far gone now for any change. Walking down the high street in my lower middle class town is a shocker - so many fat people covered in tattoos sucking on vapes with sunburn, always coming out of Greggs or eating something. They’re usually pushing an overweight 3 year old in a buggy eating a bag of Skips or swigging a fruit shoot.

Even if you offered to cook healthy food and bring it round to them every day they wouldn’t want it. They would say it was disgusting or slop, and ‘my kids won’t eat that’. Frankly 30% of the British public are a lost cause.

Never mind the kids - I went into a local pub for the first time in about 2 years (I don't drink much or often and don't like pub environments - loud music, loud drunken voices, crowded, bad quality beer, etc) and everyone without exception was lardy, flabby and unhealthy looking. When I was at high school in the very late 70's there were only 2 identifiably overweight people out of about 1300 students - it's very different now.

She may go mad as a teen though,

I believed in letting them have bits of everything. Slushies sometimes, coke etc, sweetirs on the way home from school. There was always the odd treat at home.

All adult now. None of them interested in stuff like this or overweight.

Everything in moderation.

At 5? These posts are always met with ‘she’ll go off the rails, you wait..’ because secretly you’re hoping she does 🤷🏼‍♀️

My sister who I mentioned up thread will not compromise. She inherited packet soups, gravy and such like at her schools. It went in the bin. She declined a directive to use halal meat only and won't serve pizza unless it is in house made and on special days only. We are not the best of friends but she's principled and has a special interest in ND children and encouraging them to have variety in their diets which they often don't. My DD is SEN and at various points she has eaten badly particularly when she was being bullied at school. I have worked overseas and everyone eats together. It's useful in schools where the teachers eat with the students. My daughters food issues were picked up by a dinner lady who told me she wasn't eating. Everyone else was competively under eating (girls school).
I do think we need to demand a balanced nutritional meal is served in our schools otherwise we are not offering a quality service. Maslow said food and shelter are the foundation of life. We've been shit at delivering that for years. Poor housing and poor quality food puts our children at a disadvantage.

It's a bit of an exaggeration to say kids don't walk anywhere. Lots walk to school everyday. My 2 walked into town today. We walk lots of places as well as going for walks.

Yes, a lot less walk. But it's just hyperbole to say 'kids don't walk anywhere.'

So you prefer to normalise being fat. Hopefully it's made mums think about feeding their child a proper nutritional diet and to take responsibility for their own weight and health rather than blaming it on Tesco, the Government, the school, society etc . . .

Any negative judgements about a child's size is more likely to create low-self esteem and eating disorders.

Or... it may spur them on to losing weight.

French kids can’t take pack lunches to school. They either have school lunch which is nutritionally balanced or go home. Generally they have a snack after school then dinner sitting at a table with family about 7 ( depends on families of course) They don’t tend to snack in between . Of course there are some overweight kids though and weight also depends on genetics. Also the weather is better which makes it objectively easier to do outside activities.

MaryMaryVeryContrary
Even if you offered to cook healthy food and bring it round to them every day they wouldn’t want it.They would say it was disgusting or slop, and ‘my kids won’t eat that’. Frankly 30% of the British public are a lost cause.

I'm sad to say that I've found this to be true. There's a section of the population which will devour the most appalling synthetic gunk with an ingredients list of hazardous chemicals quite happily, but when presented with real vegetables, home-made stews, soup or even a traditional fruity pudding, will find it 'disgusting' and claim their children won't eat it. I've seen it and I've heard it.

Several pps have said that there's a lack of knowledge about healthy eating. Maybe, maybe not - but if so, it's not for lack of government action and policy. It's because many people do not want to hear the message and they wilfully avoid it. You really cannot help some people and the damage has often been done in childhood by their own neglectful parents.

No l said as a teen.

Having had 4 teens and taught in a secondary school. They all hoover crap.

On this topic - do you remember when Jamie Oliver tried to create healthier meals for a school - about a decade or so ago? The (overweight) parents bought chips and burgers from the local takeaway and were photographed handing them to their children through the railings of the school grounds.

That's why I say you really can't help some people.

There's a huge difference between having a portion controlled dinner at school, which btw has veg and salad with it and eating 5 jam doughnuts a day and drinking 2 litres of coke every day. As is referenced on this thread, kids are often not the issue, they want to be guided. Our problem now is with parents who are convinced they know how to run a school and spend every night on Facebook telling everyone that

I won’t be able to stop her hoovering crap when she’s older but I can stop it now. So I will.

Tbf we avoid coke, mcDs etc for that age, actually older too and have an adult now who is cooks healthy stuff, and has for a few years. It doesn’t have to be a slide to the unhealthy even if you avoid it.

In my 70s childhood I remember only 3 children from both primary and secondary school who were what might now be termed fat or obese. I happen to know that all 3 had health issues which caused their weight problems. They ate very little and 2 were actually sporty - one in the first hockey team.

So, thinking back, I've realised that actually, no-one in my schools was overweight through bad diet.

I brought my kids up similar. I never gave them biscuits but they did have a Freddo very occasionally but when they were older. They didn't know about such things when under 8! They just had a bit of 'normal chocolate' - dark chocolate! They are 12 and 17 now so have had all sorts but that foundation has made a difference I think. Although my 12 yo struggles with food due to her ASD.

But it is gutting to find once at high school how much junk they are surrounded with. It's not like them seeking out a shop to buy something because it is there at school and they have to stay there at break and lunch! It's very tempting for my 12yo.