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.

If you worried about that you'd be worrying about all sorts:

People who go skiing and break their legs
People who run and hurt their knees
People who fall over when tipsy
People who parachute and suffer an injury
People who don't sharpen their knives and then cut themselves

My mom raised me like you are raising your child. Never, ever gave me any junk food except for chocolate at Christmas and Easter, but she absolutely never allowed any fizzy pop in the house. I will say that whilst she was strict about what we had at home, there was no pressure or expectation to adhere to any restrictions when at parties or friends houses.

We always had very healthy packed lunches as she thought the school dinners were awful.

Anyway, as a PP has responded to you already, I did go mad as a teen. Around 15 or so. Suddenly I had free access to all this delicious junk food, and I'd often buy chocolates or sweets on my way back from school.

But by the time I was 18, the novelty had worn off. My teenage metabolism (god how I'd love that back) meant I was still very skinny, given that aside from my daily binge walking home from school, my meals were all still very healthy thanks to my mom. I went back to the healthy eating habits my mom had instilled in me, and I still eat very healthily to this day.

And whilst I'm partial to a bit of chocolate now and then, I don't see any appeal whatsoever in sweets or fizzy drinks. I really believe this is because the treats we had at home on special occasions were chocolate or homemade cake, never sweets like haribo or anything, so I've just never developed a taste for sweets or fizzy drinks.

My mom always said things like "at least chocolate's got a bit of substance to it, we don't eat sweets because there's nothing to them but sugar and chemicals" - I think she's right tbh!

Too many snacks- one mid morning and one mid afternoon or none at all. Make a differentiation between snacks and treats- hungry for a snack? Fruit, cheese, cracker, nuts. NOT crisps and chocolate that’s a treat! Far too many upf wiping out tastebuds with fat, salt and sugar, course they won’t like broccoli. And of course potion size- my parents would buy a pizza, we would have one slice with new potatoes and salad. Not a whole pizza with nothing else!

I was a fat child. I lost weight in my teens and kept if off until I had kids where I have yo-yoed back and forth. When I did lose weight I began to control my own portion size, prior to that my mum always served up meals. For her if you didn't eat the portion she served she would take it to mean you didn't like it. I actively parent differently.

My dh is slim as are all of my children. I cook from scratch. My mum reckons my kids are skinny and need fattening up, I spoke to my hv and she said that people's views of what is a healthy size is more skewed now as we are used to seeing fat or overweight as becoming the norm. Both my 9 and 6 year old are 99% percentile for height and 50th for weight. So not underweight but slim yes. They are more active as kids than I ever was as a child and we walk lots, they do football, dance and swimming weekly.

My DD is in a dance class and honestly its horrifying seeing the girls in leotards & leggings. The girls are age 5 - 9 and at least half the class is noticeably overweight.

I see so many parents giving chocolate & sweets as snacks before the class every single week.

Its a well off area with well educated parents who can comfortably afford to buy good quality food for their children.

And we fund anti-obesity treatments. But what if people who are obese/take drugs/are alcoholics, smokers etc don't respond to those and develop health issues related to them? Your point was you object to paying for someone's bad-life decisions.

I have to say I have a friend who I think was too strict. But much stricter than you are at a much older age. They did go crazy when they could. She had to give them no pocket money or they'd be buying junk or energy drinks. I think her eldest is moving away from that now, though. But aside from fizzy drinks my eldest at 17 is very healthy and I was stricter than you. My 12 yo I have more struggles with as she has food sensitivities due to ASD but still pretty healthy. She has more of the personality to go a bit mad. She was quite excited about all the junk at secondary school initially but is pretty fed up with it now and wishes there was something decent to eat!

No, sorry I wasn't in agreement with that poster.

Oh and the food!!

The number of children we've had for tea who eat basically no vegetables at all. I always put out a central dish with 3 or 4 choices to serve yourself from - things like carrot or swede, green beans, peas, broccoli, asparagus, kale etc. Most children barely touch it. The same at lunch - we will always have a plate with tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, carrot, celery, beetroot etc and many children take a single piece of cucumber and nothing else.

I really think it should be compulsory for all in schools.
Im tired of relatives who say
but I’ve got a sweet tooth!
i don’t like fruit and veg !
and wonder why in their 50s they are ill with obesity related problems. Just had a call from one recently who now has gallstones.

Terrible diet and they won’t do anything to help themselves.

They have got a 50% chance of obesity because that is the statistics!!!! Statistics apply to all of us if we are the demographic that the statistics are measuring.

the problem with this is that none of the above total £6.5 Bn per year in cost to the NHS (or whatever the immense cost is) and the impact on GDP. It is simply something we cannot afford as a society. No conversation about the NHS is complete without recognising that obesity is sucking it dry - not people cutting their fingers on blunt knives.

Most Private schools do so much more sport than state.
Not only 2 full afternoons a week ( if boarding ) but after school sports clubs as well. They are constantly on the go.
But also. Was it a boarding school you were invigilating because there meals are excellent.
If a kids boarding there’s not much in the way of crisps etc. ( except from their own tuck )

Yes I totally agree. Health and nutrition should be taught to all from primary school to age 13 imo. To include cooking on a budget etc.
It's a poor show when advocating the provision of budgeting and cooking skills is politicised instead of being encouraged.

Exactly.

Well its about the cost and resources implications of those things isnt it?

What is the proportion of NHS resources going into everyday accidents like cuts/falls/accidents vs drunkness vs obesity

There are huge efforts to cut drinking because of that exact thing, I think that police and NHS number one resource need is led by alcohol isnt it? Or has that been taken over by obesity (for the NHS)?

I live in North Italy and I when I go back to UK I'm shocked at the size of the nation, not only the kids. What I really notice too is the amount of cake, usually over decorated sugary cakes - they are literally everywhere you look. Wasn't like that when I lived there. I swear clothes sizes are all wrong there too, I bought a multi pack of undies from Next size 12-14, they are easily like a 16-18, they fall down and are double the size of my undies bought here in the same size! Do people think they are thinner than they are due to incorrect clothes sizing?

Every Italian child has to have a paediatrician from birth to 14 with regular checks on how they are growing and you will get a big telling off from them if your child is overweight. It's perfectly normal here to tell someone they need to lose weight, the Dr has told me several times I must lose slim down (my bmi is 24.5) it is not fat shaming. It is to improve health and save unnecessary drains on the state health system. Of course there are fat kids & adults here, more in the south though. You'll never see crips as part of a meal though, kids don't drink squash either, most drink water. They do not eat separate meals from parents and most work until 6:30pm, all food is cooked from scratch. Our supermarket ready meal 'section' which is a tiny part of a shelf about 50cm long and contains Lasagne, Classic or Spinach & Ricotta, a few ready made pasta sauces, Pesto and that's it. I have bought one on the odd occasion but the stares I got & Italian DH refused to go near it and muttered che schifo (disgusting) several times. Supermarket does do frozen pizzas but I don't think they are very popular.

@BrownTroutBluesAgain they all get takewaways! And the food generally isn’t what it was.

That's 100% on the parents if the kids are doing no exercise outside of school. Parents KNOW they need to be doing it, and actively choose not to prioritise it. When I grew up, yes we all played out on the street, rode our bikes, went off to the woods for a walk without a care etc etc but we also didn't have the same access to clubs that kids have nowadays. Maybe children from lower income families should get coupons to attend sporting activities of their choice. We live in a village but we still have 2 football teams covering all ages and both boys and girls teams, we have numerous types of dance and cheerleading, we have running clubs for children, the gym offers membership for children 8+. In sure the amenities are even better in cities and towns.

Such a simplistic statement to make.

Do we fund anti obesity treatments?

What can you get on the NHS that actually works and people are crying out for? Because you cant get the weight loss injections unless you're prescribed them for type 2 diabetes.

I agree 100% but the sad fact is that many adults do no exercise/activity and this is then passed on to their children

I think processed foods, pre made meals, high salt and all sugary products need to be heavily taxed to pay for the cost to the NHS and hopefully to stop people buying them.
Feels quite dictatorial though

It was part of my childhood going for a long walk at the weekend or mum and I trying to follow exercise videos. DT’s started coming on runs with DH and I from being little and did numerous sports clubs with school.
Why don’t adults exercise - it’s free and doesn’t have to take up a huge amount of time

Yes boarding, although lots are day pupils, but obviously everyone eats lunch there. The food is amazing!! I was eating like a queen 😂