Childhood obesity

[Unopenedpackofmenssocks]

New report lists 9 areas of England where the majority of children will be overweight or obese by 2035.

It’s got me thinking about what causes childhood obesity. I have an 8 year-old who doesn’t like football, can’t ride a bike, never took to his scooter. spends a lot of time on a screen at home. Has does run about at school playtime and PE lessons and he likes climbing so goes to a class once a week for an hour.

He has an incredibly sweet tooth. I don’t allow unlimited desserts/sweets but I know for a fact we are much more liberal than many of his friends’ parents. The only things we are strict on are no fizzy drinks, Haribo type sweets maybe once a week, and no sugary cereal.

But he has something chocolate after every dinner and also when he gets in from school. Breakfast is a toasted fruit tea cake dripping in butter. He steals honey and Nutella from the cupboard when he thinks we aren’t looking.

We drive to school. We don’t go on family walks and our favourite joint family activity is watching Saturday night TV together. Our garden only has a small patch of lawn 2mx 4m and he has no siblings so doesn’t naturally run about playing at home.

He eats limited vegetables and his favourite foods are nuggets and pizza. He eats pasta with tomato sauce and cheese every single day at school lunch, won’t touch anything else. He has never eaten large portions though. We have no issue with McDonalds/fast food in general but he’s not a huge fan, maybe eat it once a month. Subway usually.

He is very slim and his teeth have no decay (was last at dentist 2 weeks ago).

My husband and I are both overweight BMI, on the brink of obese, but we were both naturally slim as kids too. I imagine it will catch up with our son when he is an adult, or maybe even sooner. (We all need to make changes and will work on that).

What we most definitely are is financially and socially privileged.

My question is this - these areas where obesity is running rampant are low-income and socially deprived. So what are the other factors caused by social/economic deprivation that mean these kids are obese but mine is not? Or are we literally just a very lucky exception?

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jun/23/majority-children-overweight-obese-nine-areas-england-by-2035-study?CMP=ShareiOSAppOther

That’s it though, isn’t it? They feed more junk, start younger and have seemingly no social pressure to stop.

I don’t drive him 10 minutes to go to school when he could walk. I drive him 20 minutes to a school which is too far away to walk to in less than an hour.

They do, why do you think they dont?

Also, I can only comment on one other country with confidence, in Spain the Spanish are generally slim and have less overweight or obesity, but the immigrant populations from Africa and Latin America have significant obesity issues.

Many PPs, including me, have explained why.

That’s what you took away from that whole post 🤣 like I said if you are getting it wrong despite your money and education then people from lower incoming families and single parent families are also going to get it wrong.

I lot of good explanations from posters that the op is choosing to purposefully ignore. Very weird thread about obese Childfree from poor backgrounds.

Interesting about the Latin American immigrants @soupyspoon . I visited Mexico in 1994 and again in 2016. One of my favourite places (and food) in the world. I was astounded at how much fatter the average Mexican in the street had become in the space of those 20 odd years.

But my child is not fat, so how am I getting it wrong?

It is interesting. I live in New Zealand and the difference in the frequency of obesity between European and Asian vs Polynesian children is staggering. The latter are far more likely to be obese. It is not movement- they're equally active, actually my son's Polynesian friends are always on their bikes, playing rugby, running around (New Zealand schools also provide a lot more opportunity to be active than schools in Europe). It is definitely food - but there's also some sort of genetic predisposition too.
My son eats however much he wants and pretty much whatever he wants (always homemade meals, sometimes eating out in restaurants, no fast food, but always some dessert such as some icecream) and is a very skinny child. Yes he moves a lot, is forever kicking the ball, walking everywhere but so do others and he is still among the skinniest. He loves food and different flavours, and loves trying new things, but naturally does not have a huge appetite and prefers say cheese or meat or fruit to carbs.

Are you just waiting for someone to tell you your kid isn't fat because they're wealthy? Because that's ridiculous.

You kid isn't fat yet. But you are putting them on the track for a lifetime of misery and struggles with their weight.

Also intrigued why you think working long hours is the preserve of low income people. It’s also quite a big thing in City jobs like mine.

I don’t agree. My story about my child’s diet and lifestyle was to illustrate that the communities with real endemic childhood obesity have issues that can’t be fixed by eating fewer chocolate biscuits and walking to school.

I feel like just reading about your son’s diet made me gain a stone! It’s great this has not yet affected his weight and his teeth but you are running a very high risk.

I saw a really interesting documentary a couple of years ago about obesity in American Samoa. It did show that people on lower incomes tended to eat very fatty meat, for both cost and cultural reasons.

He may not be fat now but it doesn’t mean is he healthy. You said yourself in a few years he probably won’t be slim anymore due to lack of exercise and the unhealthy diet

Yup not fat “yet”

Working long hours is common in many jobs not just low income families or middle class jobs. My point is it’s easier working long jobs, having a car and two parents on a decent income that someone who is a single parent, can’t afford a car or a lower income. You have your husband to help you, single parents don’t have another person to help them do they?

Who do you mean when you say “certain communities” Op @Unopenedpackofmenssocks

A child who spends a lot of time on screens - plus a sedentary day at school - is not moving their body enough. If he isn't into football - so what, organise play dates and he can run about the park with his friends.

And the very next line said “we all need to make changes and will work on that”. Don’t you see- it’s the people who don’t realise or care about this who are the statistic. And not only that, we are talking about obese children younger than my son, so people who have already ignored warning signs.

The communities in the article.

My older child has a pretty poor diet due to fussy eating. I'm probably also a bit too liberal on the treats.

But I'd have to feed him a huge amount of treats to make up for the fact his lunch is invariably half a cheese sandwich and a few carrot sticks (I pack a full lunchbox everyday, sticking to the school's healthy eating guidelines, but most of it comes back uneaten). And for dinner tonight, he had half a fishcake and a few pieces of broccoli. In between, he's had some banana, half a croissant, an ice lolly and a kiddie chocolate bar. He's also done PE at school, been to a sports club and been to the playground. The diet isn't great, I know, but it's not enough to make an active child overweight. My younger one is much more interested in food, and I think may be more difficult when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight.

But you and your husband are also a statistic, if you are both overweight and on the brink of obesity (your words) despite being educated, having good jobs and are middle class?

Hopefully though you'll be able to lose the weight, its fairly unlikely that you will. Statistically I mean. Most people who are overweight/obese stay that way unfortunately. Unless they have medical help of course.

But the study is about childhood obesity, as is this thread. Adult obesity has a completely different dataset and is a whole other topic. I mentioned my own weight and that of my husband in the context of the models to which my son is exposed.