Obesity and fast food - is there no hope?

Yes, it's a sort of irony, isn't it? Quite funny really...

I can see your point Teetime! [Hides behind the sofa - come and join me T?]

This is the last time I am going to make this point! It was the incongruity of chips etc being brought into a Slimming World meeting that took me by surprise - that's all!!!!!

I will say no more!!!

I don't think I have missed the point though Teetime. As someone who has been overweight and done all the slimming club stuff I can't see what good it would be for anyone around me to have to avoid eating things that might have tempted me. My DH could eat for England and never gain an ounce in weight. He eats chocolate sitting right beside me with my mouth watering so much I can taste it. I am pretty disciplined (for now) but making him eat it in the other room would be silly and not doing me any good at all. After all it is the overweight person (or the person trying to lose/maintain weight) that has the problem.

No gilly you have missed the point that I just found it incongruous and perhaps a little insensitive to bring chips etc into a room full of people who are struggling to avoid such foods.

I was thinking also that presumably it is the mum that is overweight and at the slimming club so cannot see the problem with the child eating a Happy Meal or whatever. If someone has a problem with being overweight does it mean that the whole world should eat lettuce just incase they are tempted?

Get over it absent?? rude!!

If a member of the group had turned up with a Happy Meal – or a double whammy burger with extra cheese (or whatever they are called) – it might have been an issue. A child, who is probably more interested in the toy than the chicken nuggets, is not a threat to serious dieters. Get over it.

I have no idea what a happy meal is, it is well over 20 years since I bought from MacDonalds, the first and last time.
I had taken the children out shopping for clothes and it took forever. The children were hungry so I bought chips and burgers.
The chips were like tooth picks and the bun on the burger tasted like nothing I had ever tasted, it certainly wasn't bread. Even my children complained of the taste.
I have no idea what the food is like now it may be delicious, certainly thousands of people think it is.
It is the responsibility of parents to feed their children and even if we think their judgement is wrong we cannot do anything about it.
No one could possibly say they do not know the better choices in foods to eat there is so much information out there, if you don't know you must live on a desert island somewhere remote.
I truly believe everything in moderation, it's not a catastrophe if you eat some things that are not so good for you as long as it's not every day.

Just to clarify my point was that I did not think it was odd that a three year old should have a Happy Meal or indeed should run about the room with it - we see this everyday its not unusual, its isn't how I fed my children or my grandchildren but I'm not responsible for everyone. The point I was trying to make was it seemed incongruous to bring this type of food into a slimming group whose members are struggling to manage their weight and many of them are trying to reduce or remove fast food from their diets entirely. Its a bit like going into an AA meeting with a pint of beer in your hand. If it were me I would have probably brought a colouring book and a little sandwich for her but I'm not much fun anyway.

I think the big issue behind all these concerns about diet is the huge increase in serious obesity and all the health issues that produces.

The costs of these diabetes and obesity related illness is enormous and a terrible drain on the NHS.
When it comes down to it there has to be a measure of personal responsibilty about the effects of people dietry lifestyle choices. for themselves and their children.

It was never like this in the 1960s. I cannot help but think that increased portion size, supermarket ready meals and the take away industry sell almost nothing but high calorie fried products.

Macdonald's, KFC, and all other such heavily branded and advertised industries have a lot to answer for.
We used to have just the odd fish and chip shop on our high streets.

This link makes scary reading.

www.nhs.uk/news/2013/02February/Pages/Latest-obesity-stats-for-England-are-alarming-reading.aspx

I read it like that too anya hence my flippant remark up thread. I too thought it was more ironic!

I don't think the OP was saying that having the occasional Happy Meal is 'wrong' per se. In her short 2-line post I detected the irony of the situation that this was given at a Slimming Club.

I can't see the problem with the occasional Happy Meal. Likewise I can't see the problem with the occasional pizza,fish and chips,Indian takeaway etc. none are exactly health foods are they ? but as a treat now and again are perfectly fine. Also do we all not eat most of our daily calorific intake in our "main meal" of the day, whenever that might be? My DGC like (and are used to) home cooked dinners, however they also like the occasional McDonalds too (sometimes after swimming on a Wednesday actually). They are all perfectly fit and healthy and if anything a bit on the skinny side as they are very active children.

I occasionally go to Macdonalds with my grandchildren. I have whatever veggie meal they do and my grandchildren have the fillet of fish or a cheeseburger. I realise it's not an ideal food but I don't think that the occasional "lapse" is going to cause too much harm. Both of them take plenty of exercise and are not overweight.

Having watched what amounts to a PR exercise in the linked video I was pleasantly surprised to see that the fries are actually made from potatoes - I thought they were made from some other starch product. So, from the video it didn't seem too bad.

But then I saw a video entitled something like "If you watch this you'll never eat a Macdonalds again". It was quite enlightening. Apparently Macdonalds only use long thin potatoes - generally Russell Burbank - and they must be absolutely perfect with no little spots caused by aphids. In order to ensure this, they apparently have to use a particularly nasty pesticide. "Corporate" cooking also apparently differs greatly from home cooking in that much higher amounts of salt, fat and sugar are added - which creates what the industry calls "snackability" or "craveability", more acceptable terms than "addictability".

I'm now wondering whether we should eat even the occasional Macdonalds given the environmental and ethical implications. However, I expect these issues are also present with other forms of fast food, such as pizza, fried chicken, etc. I do my best to do the right thing but sometimes "stray".

I agree with absent that children should not run around while eating - for the reasons that she and others have mentioned - and also it's bad manners.

I had to laugh at Anya's reference to Vesta meals. My mum did cook proper food, although her repertoire was somewhat limited. When the Vesta meals came out we thought they were the height of sophistication and tried all the different "exotic" offerings. I suppose it made a change from mince, Sunday roasts, omelette, etc., but I'm sure they were full of all sorts of junk.

Absent - I don't know why you keep trying to behave like a grown up in a playground of badly behaved children

Quite!

Or not, of course...

Unbelievable!

- it's just the way you put it...

Oh dear. Sorry.

jingl The entire thread, including the title and the OP, is about disapproving of the child's eating a Happy Meal. Why should I not comment? Your interpretation of posts is often extraordinarily idiosyncratic – and quite discourteous from time to time.

Crun Thank you for the link by the way

The other reason that children (and adults) should sit down to eat, rather than running around, is that they are less likely to choke on whatever it is they are eating.