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 often read the "meat and 2 veg" thing on MN. In this part of the world it was always meat and 3 veg when I was growing up (60s/70s).

Really? I must have misunderstood. Seemed like they thought they experienced something pretty hard by living a 15 minute bus ride from Tesco.

"Look, I get it, it's hard to understand. But if you've got a tenner to get some food, £40 minimum and £1'delivery is still out of your price range. And I've made no justification for a worrying trend!!"

If I had a tenner, I would not buy crap and could make a decent healthy meal from a few ingredients. That's because my palate is used to healthy food and I have the know how.

That's because my palate is used to healthy food and I have the know how.

Everyone with an internet connection now has the know how.

No. I think they were being sarcastic.

Ah, sorry!

I never said £10 for the whole week.

@DiddyHeck you're right but for some reason, they don't want to or can't.

British people just like giving themselves little treats.

Several times a day.

Oh!! Oops! I'm autistic and don't always pick up on that!

Not really. But not everyone has a reliable internet connection.

So you get your money for the week and spend it on your weekly supermarket shopping, thus meeting the minimum spend?

Then thank goodness for libraries, friends, family etc.

Or are you going to say there are people out there who have absolutely no access to them either?

The excuses here for people being 'unable' to understand how to cook simple, healthy meals for their kids has gone from 'eye-roll' to 'laughable'.

It's a shame it's such a serious subject and so many children are born to parents who just will not accept responsibility for their health.

Some people don't know where to start looking. It's not as easy as wafting to your local library if you don't actually know to go there. And it's quite likely that if you don't know, you're from a family who doesn't know and your friends might not know either. Some people just don't know they're not being very healthy. They might not even have a clue what 'healthy' is if they've grown up with crap their whole lives.

Your post is dripping in privilege. What libraries? You obviously live in a wealthy area. Ours have all closed down. Not everyone has a support network of family and friends that they can pop round to to use their WiFi.

5 million foodbank parcels were distributed last year. These are to people who cannot buy food. They’re forced to eat the low nutritional value food that they’re given. The scorn from comfortable people on here who can’t countenance a family not having a freezer, so unable to batch cook is truly sickening. Similarly the incredulity that a family might only have £30 a week to spend on food. Or don’t have a supermarket within walking distance, or even a bus route to one within walking distance. Mumsnetters live in such a bubble, they refuse to believe that there are people in these situations.

Im not saying that the above is the main cause of childhood obesity. There are many causes, but it will definitely be a contributory factor in some cases. The first step to solving an issue is to better understand it.

Look, I don't want to go round and round in circles. But some people live completely hand to mouth. So all their money ran out. Maybe they got sanctioned or they had to pay debts off, whatever. They need to get something to eat. They manage to borrow a fiver. A few days later they've run out of money again. But someone owed them a tenner so they get that.

Then let me start by telling you I live in the second poorest borough in London.

We still have libraries (and yes I know not everywhere does), people without internet connection (of which there are VERY few, no matter what their income) still have friends, families and HCPs who would be able to show them one or two cooking tutorials/lend them a book.

You can NOT convince me that parents can get through a whole pregnancy, birth and then 6 months pre-weaning stage, without ONCE being able to access someone or something to help inform them of how to cook a few simple, basic, healthy meals.

The rest of your post is irrelevant as I was discussing access to learning with the PP.

By stating facts does not make it an 'excuse'. I've worked with people like this. I can't pretend they don't exist because they do.

I worked with one young man. His mum had commented suicide. He has no other family. He'd been pushed around foster homes and supported accommodation. He had a couple of friends. They didn't know how to cook from scratch either. He fed his DS how he'd been fed. He didn't have any concept of that not being particularly healthy. He didn't really know any different.

And that's not an excuse. That's just stating the reality.

And yes, the libraries have been closed down!

A minute ago they only had a tenner so couldn't meet the minimum delivery.

And you said you didn't mean a tenner for the whole week.

So which is it?

Either way, that's not going to make their kids fat. It takes far more than that.

So if people can’t afford to eat healthy food there’s nothing expensive about doing exercise.

Although I fail to see the expense in a lentil and veg curry, porridge and veg soup. Eating vegetarian alone can reduce food bills by 50% and being a flexitarian around 20% depending on how flexi people are. Lots of people are doing it we only have to look at the reduction in meat sales in recent years.

Nevetheless assuming people are fit enough to walk and this is a thread about children so let’s assume most are born able to walk then that’s free exercise which burns calories and makes people fitter and healthier.

Oh for goodness sake! Is it that hard to understand? If you have no more than £10 to your name in any given moment then no you can't get an online shop!!

You can't out run a bad diet.

@TheKeatingFive really interesting on rationing - can you expand a bit?

This from a Harvard study.
Obviously there are loads of studies how exercise reduces weight, life expectancy and ill health but this one is very to the point.

im not able to provide a link but I’ve included the title if anyone wants to Google for the full piece.