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.

Much of the issue is portion size…my 3 GD don’t eat an amazing diet ( picky eaters) ….they do however only eat small portions and very few snacks….they all all dainty ….some would say skinny

So the GP didn't even weigh him??

I had a bad diet as a kid (lots of chicken nuggets and chips and white bread) but I was really skinny. I think the difference was the quantity was limited.

We might have had some biscuits in the cupboard but once we'd eaten them they'd be gone and that would be it until the next big shop. I remember my dad shouting at me many times for drinking too much orange juice, not for health reasons but because it was expensive.

Nowadays kids seem to have limitless snack options and my parent friends are constantly complaining about how expensive it is.

I think there is another factor rarely mentioned , and that is that we are all living in warmer houses. As a child I remember shivering and feeling cold often in winter.Car journeys were infrequent and we walked everywhere in all weathers, often getting chilled. If you want to burn calories , go out in the cold.

The thing with the frozen pizza is you can stick it in the oven and then get the uniform ready for tomorrow, respond to that message from school, stick the washing in the dryer, unload the dishwasher. You can't do those other things whilst chopping veg and stirring something on the hob.

If you're a time poor person who doesn't get home until after 6 and you have to get everything done you might decide healthy food isn't worth it.

In the 'Ultra processed people'book it is quoted that for our poorest families they would have to spend 75% of their income on food in order to eat a diet that follows UK nutrition advice.

It's really not about education/intelligence either. I work in a very academic, intellectual environment. Plenty of people are in their 20s/30s working there are shockingly overweight. Less so the older ones. Obviously there are many causes working in tandem, but one factor is that it's normalised, partly by the culture of people screaming "don't judge me" the second the subject is raised, effectively silencing any well informed debate and allowing people to continue with the self-deception that they are a healthy weight when they clearly are not.

You'd have to be blind if you and your children were fat and you thought you were doing ok?

I wonder if the COL crisis and not being able to afford to put the heating on has had any effect on obesity?

I've been a single mother to two pre-teen boys for seven years, working full time, no help from father. They have both always been slim. The "I'm time poor" argument doesn't work for me either. You have to prioritise it above everything except work and the time it takes to emotionally invest in your kids.

We had a parent complain because the largest size of children’s trousers in this particular make wasn’t big enough for her 12 year old child and the adult trousers were twice the price. The largest size of child’s trousers had a 32” waist and a 32” inside leg. We ended up ordering adult trousers with a 54” waist for him as he needed them apparently. It never appeared to occur to mum that a 32” waist and 32” inside leg was large to be classed as a child’s size to begin with.

We asked our Rainbows (girls 5-7 then now 4-7) to walk less than half a mile down hill into the woods for den building. A few of the girls were complaining it was too far as they are used to being driven everywhere rather than walking even a short distance. Too much sitting in front of a tv now rather then playing outside.

One of the brownie ( girls 7-10) badges required the girls to make a healthy snack so we provided the girls with a large selection of salad items, Turkey and wraps. Most of the girls loved chopping the salad items (with adult supervision) and making the wrap they wanted but one girl refused to make it until we explained the badge only said they had to make it and not eat it. The girl didn’t like any of it as she was never given it at home. If the parents don’t show what healthy eating is then children never learn.

Only if we choose it.

Not really. You may just be a little overweight which is normal these days. You may have a lot of issues you are dealing with and that is just not a priority. Then your DC just gradually put on a bit too much weight. But look like most of the other DC so you think it's ok.

Healthy food is ALWAYS worth it when you've chosen to have children.

Even if they have to wear the uniform tomorrow that they've just taken off.

Even if you have to quickly sort the dryer when they've gone to bed.

Or if God forbid you should just quickly do the washing up by hand.

Far too many excuses, considering the awful effect obesity can have on those kids for the rest of their lives.

3 donuts goes back to portion size.

Also, it’s not as simple as just calories. It’s also about what the food is - there are an awful lot of beige, refined carbs etc in school dinners.

But the reality is sadly other things have to be prioritised. For example someone trying to stop taking drugs or someone with a serious mental illness. Sometimes we are juggling so many balls we are bound to drop one.

Until the problems with users’ bowels, pancreas and possibly livers start to become endemic. I was tempted to say the shit will really hit the fan, until I realised that it was not a metaphor.

It really is.

Weight and health are entirely different. You could be eating the healthiest food in the world but if you are eating too much of it, still be overweight.

a fish finger is a weighed and measurable amount of food. No one weighs a plate of home made fish pie. So it’s healthier but considerably harder to judge portions.

Plus only wealthy people can afford it.

There's very little processed foods and ready meal type things in comparison to the UK which has aisle upon aisle dedicated to it.

But the people are by and large more active too.

I remember how as an Asian child, in a school with not many Asian children. the other kids used to laugh at the lunchboxes my mum sent in with me, full of "smelly" Asian food rather than white bread or chips.
My health vistitor thought I was borderline abusive for bringing my kids up veggie and weaning them on vegetables and lentils.
The doctor thought my kids were underweight; they weren't, just Asian build so small built.

I am having the last laugh now they are adults, and very slim. Not that they don't eat junk- they do- but not often.

Timely - perhaps so, but not costly.

Same in my DCs class. One of the mums rang me in tears because she’d received a call from the nurse about her child’s weight. He isn’t even nearly one of the biggest.

I disagree. The amount of calories listed on packets and food isn’t always actually the amount of calories our bodies absorb from that food. Some foods our bodies absorb more of the calories and other foods our bodies absorb less of them. Also the same person can absorb different amounts of calories from the same food as someone else depending on what else is going on in their body.