To think some people on here make too many excuses for parents feeding their kids unhealthy food to the point they become overweight or even obese?

[Giselle374]

I know a lot people are in really difficult situations financially, and the country overall has become harder and harder due to COL.

But I feel uneasy with the way some posts on this seem to imply that being in a hard financial position means unhealthy food almost can't be avoided.

People usually choose to have children, and food is a basic thing. If you didn't wash your child, or clothe them as best as you could, would that be similarly excusable? Arguably food is more important than many other potential areas since cancer and other illnesses are a very real danger if kids are overweight or obese young.

My mother had financial difficulties when I was young: she was a single parent and on minimum wage, and she hated cooking, ate very badly before I was born. But she ensured her meals (porridge, fish, eggs, veg based mostly) were healthy even if they were plain. I was barely ever allowed sugary or processed food. That's one of the things I'm most grateful for.

I do understand families in a depressing situation with few things for the kids to enjoy use food as something enjoyable sometimes
..areas need more resources, green space, libraries etc .

This isn't to deny the challenges of feeding kids healthily. But I think some posts on here lean too far to taking responsibility from the parents,,and I don't think that's helpful.

This.

And genetic predisposition doesn't explain the huge uptick.

Can we stop pretending science isn't real? There are more than thirty genes isolated by researchers that drive higher than normal weight gain. It's real.

In the times before UPF and driving to work these genes would put people at the higher end of healthy BMI but we live in an obesogenic environment so that genetic predisposition means these people have to work incredibly hard to stay a healthy weight. Many of them fail because modern life makes it really hard and modern food is crap.

If course this doesn't mean it's impossible not to be obese or that children should be obese. It is appalling what parents feed their children people need to stop pretending that there is no biological reason for a chunk of the population being fat beyond greed.

To fight genetic pressures to gain excessive weight children need the absolute healthiest start in food and not to be raised on UPFs, however that's not the case for the majority of children so they aren't given the tools to fight the genetic predisposition to being overweight which is very real. Once they reach adulthood addicted to UPFs and already obese they've got no chance of fighting their weight gain genes. Pretending these aren't real and fat people are just greedy does no one any favours.

'In the times before UPF and driving to work these genes would put people at the higher end of healthy BMI but we live in an obesogenic environment so that genetic predisposition means these people have to work incredibly hard to stay a healthy weight. Many of them fail because modern life makes it really hard and modern food is crap.'

Honestly. It's genes, it's UPF, its insulin resistance, it's this it's that.

People are eating too much crap.

Go to any other country <barring the US> and you do not see the massive portions consumed and the obese people everywhere.

30yrs ago we didn't have the obesity crisis so your hormones/insulin resistance/ it's science excuses are a new thing aren't they.

WLI slow stomach emptying so folk literally do not have the space to gorge. That is why they lose weight. Genes and science all irrelevant when one eats less, which we're thankfully seeing more of thus taking the pressure off NHS services in the long term. We hope.

Only a simpleton thinks the only reason people overeat is greed.

WLI don't just make it impossible to forge because there's no room for the food 🙄 they also dampen the reward centres in your brain activated by food and shock horror regulate insulin and prevent blood sugar spikes and crashes. They also inhibit the receptors that hunger hormones bind to to literally block hunger.

30 years ago people walked more and there was less junk food available. That is a simple fact, these genes were always there, people just had less of a fight against them because they lived in a different environment than we do now. It's really not difficult to understand. Unless you just want to bang your head against the greedy fatty wall obviously.

If hormones have nothing to I with weight gain or appetite can you explain why some people took a lot onfer to starve to death than others in times of famine? Or why weight control becomes harder after hormonal events like menopause or childbirth? Can you explain why the link between stress and inadequate sleep correlates directly with weight gain and appetite increase? Or is it all simply greed?

I'm a biochemist. I literally studied this for years and did my research dissertation on the effect of lack of sleep on insulin regulation (spoiler, it fucks it up and makes you hungrier) and the link between cortisol and appetite levels. Science doesn't care about your biases and assumptions of greed. Appetite can be enhanced or inhibited by many factors including very basic things like whether you front load or back load your calorie intake for the day. People who eat a massive breakfast then small dinner are less hungry than people who eat little and often or have a small breakfast and large dinner because it changes the way your body uses it's energy throughout the day.

Of course people are eating too much crap. That's why they're obese. But the reasons they are eating too much crap go far beyond greed and are a complex mix of biology and society. What bees to happen is for people to acknowledge these things and tackle them in specific ways. If you could simply shame the greedy fatties into putting the fork down we would have beaten the obesity crisis years ago. How is that working out for you?

'30 years ago people walked more and there was less junk food available'

30yrs ago there was plenty of pie, mash, biscuits and loads of other unhealthy food to gorge on. Thing is, people didn't. Cars and public transport were used 30yrs ago we didn't walk everywhere.

Obesity has become medicalised as your posts perfectly demonstrate. I'm not a simpleton hun, I just don't enable bad choices whether it is food, smoking or booze.

There ars always 'reasons' folk make extremely bad and unhealthy choices but the solution always lays with them, not their genes.

I'm not a simpleton hun, I just don't enable bad choices whether it is food, smoking or booze.

Sorry but this exact quote makes you sound like one. It's the combination of the use of "hun" and the inability to understand scientific information that does it.

You haven't explained why hormonal events cause weight gain or why certain groups of people take longer to starve to death in famine yet. Please do enlighten me.

'literally studied this for years and did my research dissertation on the effect of lack of sleep on insulin regulation (spoiler, it fucks it up and makes you hungrier) and the link between cortisol and appetite levels. Science doesn't care about your biases and assumptions of greed'

Oh please. For every sleep deprived obese person you'll find a sleep deprived healthy sized person.

We control what we consume. Once people accept that and stop blathering on about insulin and cortisol only then will they make headway.

Dissertations are just a collection of for and against arguments, not proof just 'he said this, but she said that' so not the conclusive ta dah you seem to think.

To fight genetic pressures to gain excessive weight children need the absolute healthiest start in food and not to be raised on UPFs,

• this, definitely.

We were raised on pie and mash. No upf in our day. Difference was portion size.

UPFs are newer and a lot more food is processed, work hours have increased and takeaway advertising has ramped up, among other things. I do partly agree but I think this is a bit harsh.

Children's diets are really poor at the moment.

I work in early years and we had a big push again on packed lunches last year, and the very next week we got one sent in with a wrap and a sachet of ketchup. "Cos it's a vegetable!"

one child last month asked me what broccoli was on his plate, he'd never seen it before.

and so many parents arrive with sweets for the walk ho
, drop off with a lollipop "they went mad for one"

it's very very concerning and getting worse

Can you explain why the link between stress and inadequate sleep correlates directly with weight gain and appetite increase? Or is it all simply greed?

@SerenaCat93 I agree, I put on lots of weight when my insomnia and stress kicked off at the start of the pandemic. I think some of it was sleep deprivation and stress led to an increase fat and sugar cravings and also being too tired to cook and ordering out instead.

But even when I started fighting the cravings and began my weight loss journey, I still noticed the weeks where I had good sleep, I’d lose more weight and my stomach looked flatter. Probably less cortisol.

I also feel that Deliveroo etc had made accessing fast food so easy and appealing. I went from getting maybe one takeaway a year pre-2018 to ordering multiple times a week via Deliveroo during the pandemic.

And now that I’ve moved out of London to a small town I feel there’s less choice which is good for me 😆 less temptation. I am back to rarely ordering out again.

These are probably the same parents whose kids try to swipe books because they think it’s an iPad and they’ve never been taken to a library or given a book.

There’s an element of personal responsibility sure and parents should in theory be able to raise kids without government intervention, but realistically I think the closure of Sure Start centres has done us all a disservice.

It hasn’t been great for society and now we are seeing an uptick in kids starting schools in nappies who barely know what a book or a vegetable is.

Dissertations are just a collection of for and against arguments, not proof just 'he said this, but she said that' so not the conclusive ta dah you seem to think.

That's a lot of words to say you don't understand how scientific research dissertations are conducted. It's a year long experiment with data produced in a lab which is then subjected to statistical analysis to determine whether the hypothesis has been proven or not. It's absolutely not a he said she said 😂

That's the thing about science. It's about proof of cause and effect. Not personal bias.

Oh, and this isn't true. Oh please. For every sleep deprived obese person you'll find a sleep deprived healthy sized person.

People who are using WLI injections are making huge headway. Why does that make you so angry?

FFS no the difference was not just portion size. The difference was no UPF you just said it yourself!

UPF fucks your metabolism, a kid raised on it has fucked metabolism to fight to maintain a healthy weight which is almost impossible without medical intervention and is why it's so important parents learn not to squeeze processes paste in their babies mouths from packets and transition to chicken nuggets shortly after!

The government are considering labelling UPFs the way they label cigarettes because they are that harmful to health.

Well said OP.
Feeding your child food now known to be harmful to them (UPF) is hard to defend.

WLIs make some people angry because they have previously felt superior to fat people. If fat people are no longer fat, they can no longer feel superior to them. They lose their competitive advantage.

Yep, you can feel the contempt and superiority dripping from that posters words and the more she shows she doesn't understand what she's taking about the angrier and more self righteous she gets. It would be funny if it wasn't so depressing.

'WLIs make some people angry because they have previously felt superior to fat people. If fat people are no longer fat, they can no longer feel superior to them. They lose their competitive advantage.'

WLI are great. People eat less, lose weight very quickly and improve their long term health thus reducing the burden on the NHS. I think they should be available free for every obese person.

Well free for 3 to 6months as an incentive and to prove that if they consume less than can indeed lose weight regardless of genes/science/hormones/dissertations.

When i was in hospital earlier this year, the ward had several people with pain- i think it was gallstones as a side effect from WLI. I think they are great but they clearly need supervision.

Of course they lose weight when they eat less. The WLI are giving them the tools to overcome the barriers to weight loss put up by their genes and hormones which we know are real because science proves it.

That's why understanding the causes of obesity, creating the tools to counteract those causes and giving them to people enables them to achieve weight loss and maintain a healthy weight. In contrast to looking at them with scorn, calling them greedy and crowing at the them to find some self control which achieves fuck all and actually fuels the obesity crisis. See the difference?

No one thinks that they got fat eating a normal amount of food, that would be stupid. People don't understand why they're so bloody hungry all the time and why they can't sustain a smaller food intake long term.

Exactly, they are designed to be addictive.

You know, sometimes I wonder what these companies' long term aim is? Do they really want to help create a nation of unhealthy people?

I don't think it's that deep, I honestly think they just want to make as much money as possible and don't care about the consequences.

They maximise profits by cutting natural ingredients, adding cheap chemicals to make it last five years on a shelf then pay scientists to formulate the most addictive recipes possible (high fat, salt, sugar) to make sure people keep buying it can't stop craving it or thinking about it long after the packet is empty. That's how they make their money, they don't care that they're killing people.

The abhorrent thing is the government knows this and does nothing about it. They need to put restrictions on the things they can put in food and it should be illegal to hire biologists to make your product as addictive as possible. It's reprehensible.

I have not seen an obese child where I live, not even overweight. Plump kids yes and these are genetics. Not sure at which class of society you are pointing the finger, is it the council estates people again?

Also thinking who do you think you are that people have here to engage with such made up post and here they are, keep filling the pages with random judgy comments ....Would be nice if authentic photo was legal to use on MN as an ID to see how really all these women look in real life