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.

Not necessarily - I'm very overweight, as is DH - but the kids are totally normal/lower end of normal weight (DD2 at the moment is probably slightly underweight if you're really looking).

We've made all the efforts we can to make sure the kids haven't grown up into our mistakes - and they're blessed with their father's height as well so they're all long legs and incredibly tall. We might run ourselves ragged to make sure that they've got a better background than we did in terms of diet and exercise - but so far it's working out for them.

Not necessarily... My DD (also 8) is, and I know Mumsnet hates this phrase, 'stocky', however she is on about the 75th centile for BMI (so still in the 'healthy' category). She's actually pretty much bang on 50th centile for weight for her age, but only on 25th centile for height. She's pretty fit and strong though.

I do (without her noticing) keep an eye on it because she totally takes after DH's side of the family (him and his mum are both short and currently overweight).

My DS (6) would totally be described as scrawny and underweight-looking, but is also within the healthy weight category (I think between 15-20 centile).

So there is a huge range.

I have a relative who no longer speaks to me because my kids eat olives and hers only eat beige freezer food! Sadly I'm not joking on this one (and my kids would quite enjoy a beige freezer food meal if her kids came around to ours so it's not us inflicting our tastes on them). The eldest's also been very fond of squid and the like since toddler age as well (younger one is pickier with some ASD food issues).

I remember a poster on here - not from the UK (though I forget where she was from) - saying that in her country, parents would be really ashamed not to be able to prepare good, nutritious meals from scratch for their children.

I remember thinking at the time that this doesn't feel true of a lot of the UK.

A A Gill (of all people) had some very interesting ideas on why UK food culture is so poor. Although some of it went a bit off piste, the one thing that stuck with me is that the UK had longer food rationing than a lot of countries after WWII and the food culture never really recovered. Particularly as more processed foods started to trickle through in the next few decades.

Not everywhere. Have you never heard of a food desert?

Oh, no, it's not is it?

Yes I have. I honestly do not believe this is a significant issue here, for all the reasons we've just talked about.

I've been in US supermarkets with very little fresh food, but never in the UK. There may not be massive choice, but the always the basics of a home cooked meal.

It didn't work for me, but I don't know about others.

You have to spend a minimum amount to get an online shop and most people wouldn't have anyone to share one with.

Not in my opinion - some corner shops sell no fresh food at all.

It didnt work for me

I agree our food culture is pretty dire. My kids are older (and happily eat raw carrot, but not raw tomatoes), and have a pretty varied diet (we're also keen on venison, mackerel (fresh and smoked) and loads of other fish, pulses, etc). They are amused by their lunches being different from their friends' lunches. One of my kids took some leftover venison stew in a food flask for lunch one day, which got a bit of a reaction which then spread with lots of kids coming up to them to see what a stew looked like. A stew, for goodness sake....

The other one was asked by friends to share their beans (pinto, not jelly), which they duly did. The friends were a bit surprised to find that the beans had a beany taste and texture, rather than being sugary and gummy.

I, however, am apparently a terrible mother for not giving my kids crisps and chocolate biscuits in their lunches every day.

But very few people would have only access to a corner shop and no transport options at all.

In these very rare cases, a supermarket delivery charge would be absolutely worth it as corner shop marks ups are much higher.

I agree and what they do sell is minimal and poor, however my view is that this affects a really small portion of the population who literally have no way of getting to a larger shop (ie no public transport at all), dont drive or cant afford to AND are not in walking distance to a larger supermarket

I do think coop have sold out since their inception, they were a working class concept and now you need a second mortgage to pop in for some milk. Dreadful prices.

It may be worth it but if you don't have enough money for it and the minimum spend then you're out of luck.

Well then you wouldn't be able to feed yourself from a corner shop either, the prices they're charging

You're chasing unicorns here @Riversideandrelax

This is not the issue for the vast majority of the population.

Hard agree.
"Food desert" is an American term I believe. Can't stand it when people take American stuff and apply it to the UK when it isn't relevant.

The UK is way more densely populated than the US with better transport links like trains and buses.
If you wanna see a real "food desert" go to the us where the distance to a grocery store can be the same distance as the length of the entire UK

Well, you'd have to if there was no other option. And of course there's lots of food in there that is very cheap...a whole pack of biscuits for 50p for example. You wouldn't be able to eat anything vaguely healthy. But you could get some cheap white bread and margarine. Some noodles. Biscuits.

See my post above. And everyone else's

It doesn't have to be for the vast majority. People are still important if they're not in the 'vast majority.' I've worked with people in these situations and I wouldn't have believed it before then either.

It has been used in the UK for a long time.

This is not a significant factor behind the obesity of British children

This is actually incredible to me

The mental gymnastics people go through in order to justify not buying fruit or eating healthily

I have lived as a student in one of the poorest parts of a major city. And a 15 min bus ride away was a Tesco superstore . A BUS RIDE

in poorer parts of the world they walk for miles to get food. We sit here and if it’s not perfect, on our doorstep, and cheaper than chips (literally!!) then we won’t do it

Forget all the lame, tired, “rich people eat healthier” crap I hear on here.

forget all the “if only I had a personal trainer and chef” bollocks

people make their choices - wish folk would just own them