Childhood Obesity

[speedymama]

Just read \link{http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4756370.stm\this} and I must be missing something. Surely what a child eats is the responsibility of its parents? Unless you live in a cave 1000 metres beneath the earth's surface, how can you not know that too much junk food is bad for your overall health? How can you not know that a diet containing fruit and vegetables along with protein and carbohydrate sources is much healthier than a diet laden with processed saturated fat, processed refine sugars and far too much salt?
Isn't time that people stopped blaming everything on the government and accept responsibility for their own actions? Most of the meals that a child will eat will be in the home so the responsibility for their diet is with the parents. Fortunately, it appears that schools are starting to address the nutrition in the meals that they provide thanks to Jaime Oliver. Time for parents to do the same. There is plenty of free information in the library, health clinics, doctor's surgery, internet, TV, even the supermarket's free magazines are getting in on the act. In my opinion, too many people can't be bothered to feed their children properly. Please note that this is my personal opinion and it is based on what I have witnessed in my own extended family plus with friends and acquaintances.

[uwila]

Interesting, Compo. But, who drives those promotions. It is the food companies or the stores that sell them. I'm generally for free market, but I do agree in this case that advertising should be regulate. A bit like we don't market scotch to ten year olds. We should stop marketing crapp food to them as well.

[MrsBigD]

[cowers away from Uwila] didn't say I was fat, just stated I'm a bit on the heavy side 1.60m/69kg is too heavy

dd will only have pizza with tomatoe and cheese anything else gets picked off :) so probably not all that unhealthy. But there are chicken nuggest etc, which I am currently phasing out in favour of plain chicken, fish etc. dd still eats it... douzed in tomatoe sauce LOL

[uwila]

Ah, pizza tip: puree carrots and spinach, ad on top of cheese (if pixxa ready made) then add more cheese to hide it. Che will not be able to pick it off. If you make the pizza from scratch just add pureed veg to tomatoe sauce.

[uwila]

Note to self: learn to bloody type.

[donnie]

it is definitely the responsibility of the parents - the problem is when the parents themselves are stupid and think skittle sweets are a serving of fruit etc.
People seem more and more inclined to absolve themselves from responsibility for anything and 'blame the government' whenever something goes wrong. Pathetic.
As for the poster who mentioned a 20 stone 12 year old on 'this morning' - my jaw dropped in horror at that.Who buys the shit being shovelled down his throat? who pays for it? who is in a position to monitor it?

HIS PARENTS

I sometimes feel people should basically be left to their own devices - let them eat cake! ( and indeed McDonalds!)

[MrsBigD]

I like cake :)

[WigWamBam]

It's not always the case that obese families have obese children. I'm obese, dh is large, but I am more than aware of what constitutes healthy eating - probably more so than some slimmer women I know. Because I am aware of the health issues around being overweight I am very careful with what I feed my dd (and no, I don't eat crisps while she eats carrot sticks) and she is a perfectly healthy weight for her height. It is probably more important to me that she has a healthy diet and stays within a normal weight range than it would be if I were within the normal range myself. I'm also very careful to make sure that exercise is seen as normal in this house - we walk to school, we go walking for pleasure as a family, dd has grown up walking everywhere rather than being chauffered around.

What I chose to eat is my responsibility, and it's my own fault that I'm the size I am - it goes back a long way though. Until dd is old enough to be buying and preparing food for herself, it's also my responsibility to make sure that she eats well and healthily - the blame for obese children lies firmly at the feet of their parents.

[Piffle]

Thats very frank and quite brave of you WigWam.
Do you feel now with all the media pressure to force yourself to lose the weight for your health now as well?
I wonder a lot because my mother is very very rude about obese people and while I do realise that people (almost always) choose what to eat and thus the blame for their size can be laid firmly at their door... BUT For people who have psychological issues around food (and as former bulimic I have plenty of issues too btw) I wonder how easy it is to access the help needed?
I mean knowing what to do is one thing, take smokers for instance...It's complex indeed, but well done for making changes to the cycle WWB :)

[WigWamBam]

A lot of people are very rude to obese people, ime - they think you're either thick or deaf so either way they can say what they like!

There is quite a lot of pressure to lose weight for health reasons, and an awful lot of people think that it's easy enough to do - eat less, move more. And it is - but it's not always the food that needs addressing. With me it's more emotional, it's my head that needs sorting out, not my diet. I know I'm eating the wrong things when I binge, I know it's hurting my body to eat them; common sense says that stopping should be easy but it isn't.

I do want to break the cycle with dd, and I have been careful not to make my issues with food obvious to her. I am trying to teach her that we eat to live, not the other way round - lessons taught early will hopefully be learned well.

[joelalie]

Hi,

new here so apologies for resurrecting an old post and then waffling on for ages...

I am not sure that my idea of eating well would square with everyone else's. I think that balance is what it's all about. I have a kitchen crammed with meat/fish/veg/fruit/pasta/rice and I usually cook from scratch for my kids. I also have oven chips and sausages in the freezer for use in emergencies - they would always have fresh veg with that. Usual snacks are fruit/cheese/ crackers /smoked sausage/ham/nuts.

However I also have chocolate biscuits and crisps in the house for school lunchboxes and other times as well. They got to MacD's on Friday's after school and they are also occasionnally allowed sweets or chocolate.

it seems to me that the think that gets lost in this debate is that moderation is the key. My children (especially DS#1) could eat for England....most of their diet is fresh home-cooked conventionally healthy food but on top of that they have a small amount of junky stuff. As far as I can see as long as the bulk of their diet is 'good' does it really matter if the extra bit is 'bad'? I don't agonise about what my children eat, I just feed them what seems to be a sensible balanced diet and similar to the one I had as a child. I teach them about nutrition and that there are no bad foods, just a bad diet. They also know that exercise is essential to stay healthy and happy.

So far all my children are very tall and slim and full of energy. Maybe I'll be proved wrong when they grow up to be fat, spotty, unhealthy adults but I don't think so.

I feel very strongly that it's the parent's responsibility to ensure their children eat well. But maybe everyone tends to follow their parent's habits and if they happen to be bad that's the example they will follow.

Kate