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.

This thread keeps reminding me of sd's partner - so proud of the tea he had made himself he posted a photo on Facebook titled
Salad
It was half a tomato, 2 boiled eggs and 4 Gregg's sausages rolls!

I've never had a cat like that. They always seem brilliant at self regulation. What does your OH give the cat?

Tbf fruit is often picked a bit too early and you don’t get the delicious flavours I remember - summer English strawberries are amazing but the imported ones in winter are quite tasteless. I only get really good cherries and peaches/nectarines in markets in France (other countries are available). We need to be better at eating seasonally and taking pleasure in that because that’s when you get the flavour hits

Her cat food!!

She knows where its kept too.

Ive had other overweight cats too. This is my fault and wont be happening again, lots of things have opened my eyes. I too used to think that if you saw or could feel ribs and spine on a cat or dog they were neglected but I know better now.

I'm like that at all these greengrocers that have sprung up! Because the fruit is so amazing compared to supermarkets I do get quite excited!! 😆

A friend of mine used to have a ginger cat (I think gingers are worst for this) who would try to steal food off your plate, quite aggressively. I had a tabby who was similar butnot quite as bad. You had to watch your back

Cats are just like any animal, some are ok at self regulation but others not.

That reminds me of Ken Bruce, on the radio, he used to joke that a plate of chips was a Scottish salad!

Oh!! How strange!

Mine always just eat what they need.

The greengrocers here are seasonal. And the flavour is so good. I'd forgotten it could be so good after so many years of supermarket fruit!

Yes agreed but you pay!!

Greengrocers are expensive in my area. Plus, I might be naive but arent the goods in greengrocers the same as in the supermarket?

Cherries imported from Morocco are the same in the supermarket or in the greengrocer surely? Same with watermelon, or chillis, or cucumbers?

In Spain and Italy the cucumbers have virtually no water in them, same with the tomatoes, really fleshy, you cant get that here.

Well I’ll give myself as an example.

I have two children.

One is bang on average for the WHO centiles and always has been. You can see her ribs. She dances, swims, plays rugby. If you saw her you’d doubtless think I was doing a grand job.

One was really small/a bit underweight as a baby and up to being about 18 months but has subsequently got very overweight. We were concerned back at start of Covid and we were very mindful of it though lockdowns. We got her back to being a fairly sensible size though still officially overweight. Since all the lockdowns ended in 2021 she’s just got bigger and bigger. It’s really tough to know what to do for best about it. We are super careful what we do meals wise but she’ll do things like finish her sisters food/swap her veg for sisters pasta or potatoes at home and do similar with friends at school. She will go and help herself to stuff if it’s not locked away/hidden. If you saw her you’d doubtless think I was a shit parent.

I can’t be both so either you are rights and I’m abusive but happen to have one child with magic skinny genes OR it’s a bit more complicated than that and you are being pretty obnoxious. We can agree to differ on which 🤷🏼‍♀️

I've obviously just had cats that were/are good at it. I grew up with dogs and they'd just wolf down anything you fed them. You had to carefully measure their food. I always just put a rough amount of food out for my cats and they might run in when they hear and then have a couple of mouthfuls of food and a lap of their water but then sit back and start leisurely cleaning themselves! They never seem particularly bothered about food. Funnily enough the only thing our cat seems to have a thing for is Quorn! Which is odd with cats needing meat! I bought some a while back and the cat was going crazy!! Wonder what he was responding to in it??

Greengrocers source from different places and will insist on better quality. The supermarkets value uniformity.

best way to get fruit is straight from the farm of course! I’m hoping it’s a good year for cherries!!

Sorry- my mistake

You can get drugs like Orlistat. Bariatric surgery. Referrals to healthy eating/healthy living programmes.

Fat kids with fat parents.

They are cheaper than supermarkets here. But no they're not the same (here anyway.) The fruit is ripe and delicious. In a way that never seems to happen to the supermarket fruit. I don't know what the difference is but it's like the supermarket fruit is made not to spoil so it never really ripens.

Noticed more obesity in children in the Midlands and northern cities.
Just an observation.

Im remembering some incidents now, the ginger stole a meatball and some spaghetti once and another time a whole sausage, you couldnt get it back off him.

My previous cat, who was the only one who was never overweight used to love crisps, loved them, any flavour.

My tabby who was overweight loved cake, had to watch yourself if you were sat on the sofa with a plate of cake (none of that fo rme now as I cant eat it).

Current cat you have to be careful if eating cheese, chicken or tuna, she'll be straight in there. She is not allowed on the table or worktops but she doesnt seem to understand this!

No, I think it was me, I got confused!

Orlistat works on the basis of a low fat diet, something I personally dont agree with. I think low fat is a contributory factor to our obesity levels

Surgery? Well you can be waiting about 4 years IF you are seen as meeting the threshold, meaning going through every programme (cant access them if they are in work time), taking orlistat etc. The NHS used to do around 12k bariatric surgeries a year, now they're down to 4k. Given more and more people are obese, that is quite a shocking reduction.

So yes, ok, there is some funding of anti obesity programmes but in my view they are not fit for purpose. Once someone is very very overweight I think the stats show that only medication and surgery can be successful, and even then its very very hard work for the rest of their lives.

You've just reminded me one of my cats who has passed away was partial to the odd crisp!!

Cake! Ha! Cheeky tabby!

Oh well - I think cheese, chicken and tuna seem more normal for a cat to like!

But what is this thread doing apart from some back-patting, posturing, reassuring or enjoying a touch of feeling a bit superior? It's inevitable that there will be some boasting and quite a lot of judgement on the thread but some of it is just unnecessary and about the poster themselves really. Not useful.

Is it changing anything? Is it tackling the rubbish served at schools, access to junk from machines? No.

I don't disagree with any of it, obesity is a serious societal problem but I won't pretend that chatting about it on a forum is actually achieving anything meaningful either.

Is there a plan to get a MN campaign running? Useful information, meal ideas, recipes, exercise ideas for children, that sort of thing? Jamie Oliver had the right idea but he got people's backs up. I agreed with him but wanted to switch off because of his manner. There needs to be a champion that people like and will get behind.

The aperitif is the danger zone in France 3000 calories consumed before you even start the meal 😂