Childhood obesity strategy "lite"

People don't cook anymore. My neighbours bring in takeaways every day! They are in a Housing Trust Property and work. The recycling bin is full of fast food containers. They drive everywhere, they're not fat yet as they also smoke, which I understand keeps them slim. When I was young everything was cooked. Yes, my Mum worked, although part-time as most Mum's did in the 50's. Our Sunday Joint lasted a few days. We were quite hard up. Nourishing food can be made cheaply. I still use my Mum's basic recipes now.

have a look at this.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/shopping-and-consumer-news/11373080/The-10-most-sugary-breakfast-cereals.html

I wonder how many members of the government have financial links to the sugar industry which might go back to investment in slavery.

Apart from that as a bit of an aside) I am sure that many of the powerful in government have strongly vested interests in many industries whose marketing practices cover some decidedly dodgy business with dealings in producing products that do damage to the environment and public health.

I agree janeayressister. The governement should have done it's part, and not got lobbied and swayed by the food and drinks industry.
I hope this is not the start of Theresa May listening to lobbies, and not understanding the poor very well in society.

I was brought up on home made food and I brought my children up on homemade food. None My children are obese.
If this government doesn't lay down the law nothing will be done about this problem.
The government took drastic action regarding, seat belts, drink driving, safe sex, smoking etc and now we accept what they did, as sensible and right.

Obesity is a huge PROBLEM as my DCs who are Doctors tell me frequently.

I don't think that the government has any option but to step in, as those who need to listen, will not listen. I have relatives who are far from poor who eat far too much. If they thought they would be denied access to certain medical procedures, such as new knees, unless they lost weight, perhaps they would see sense.

I myself struggle with my weight and I am a size 12 , ( sometimes 14 ) if I indulge too much. So I know it is not easy. But then whoever said eating healthily and exercising frequently, was?
The question posed was , ' whose fault is it? It is the Governments fault for allowing most processed food ( supposidly savoury or sweet) to contain sugar, allowing unclear labelling on food and cutting PE in schools. Parents for allowing their DCs to snack on empty calories and not exercising enough.

I have always held the belief that being overweight is a complex problem, with not one 'easy fix'. An Aunt and Uncle were grossly overweight, but we're used to eating vast quantities of expensive quality food.

A niece has been overweight since childhood. She is the middle of three children, the other two are slim, as are the parents. Her parents are professionals who buy quality food.

In both cases I believe there is more to the problem than ignorance, poverty and cheap food.

has anyone noticed the size of many of the nurses who "tut tut" at your weight probably weigh more than you do!!!!

I was a skinny child, my Mum once took me to GP as she was concerned - nothing wrong. Now in my 60s I am overweight not an easy problem for me to overcome as I am on Anti-Epilepsy medication (slows metabolism down), have Arthritis which means I cannot walk far - I used to love walking so even gentle exercise is difficult & sometimes very painful.

I also developed Type 2 Diabetes about 4 years ago.I now follow a balanced diet & watch my portion control but weight won't budge.

I don't want Government to interfere but believe that education is better. I do agree to eat the best diet of good quality food is more expensive but despite now being on my own (widowed) I cook from scratch & avoid fads etc,

Comment from The Independent (and the Lib Dems) www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sugar-tax-obesity-junk-food-government-move-criticised-feeble-a7196261.html

"You can talk about sugar, quick foods, healthy foods, etc. all day and night. The simple fact, IN GENERAL, is that the calories consumed must be equal to or less than the calories we put out."

Exactly. The current fashion is for arguing round in circles about low fat vs low carb, but the difference that will make is trivial compared with shifting 1500cals more than you need each day. Recently they showed that spicy food increases your metabolic rate, but that was by about 50cals, so all it will do is give people room to argue that there's nothing wrong because they're eating chilli powder.

Better nutrition education and enjoyable cooking in school may well help in the long term, but it's not going to turn the supertanker of increasing obesity any time soon is it?
There are quite a lot of judgemental comments about parents on this thread and this from a generation that did not have to raise kids in todays world. Eleothan's post hits the nail on the head - it is no good saying that parents or consumers "should" educate themselves and "should" say NO to snacks when there are such vast commercial resources ranged against them. It is unrealistic to expect a busy mum, pushing the supermarket trolley, to stop and read the small print on all the cereal packets. Those cereals are advertised widely, branded and packaged in a way that will manipulate the behaviour of parents and the presences expressed by children. The high sugar content mans that they are basically a form of confectionary. They also, usually, have words on them that encourage the parents to think they are making a healthy choice. e.g. "multigrain" - which means it includes flour from more than one source. The information on the nutritional content may take the milk into account! If you spend a half an hour or so researching one of these cereals, with your calculator at your side (and the Tesco website to assist with the small print content), you might still fall foul of the fact that the nutritional information relates to adult needs and not children. It is clear that they provide a lot of sugar, a few carbs, a smidgeon of fibre and a few trace vitamins. Also that a "serving", even with the milk, is not an adequate healthy breakfast for a child. By break time they will be hungry and wanting a snack.
But supermarkets are allowed to not only sell this crap to parents under the guise of it being a good breakfast food but to have special offers!
Incidentally under EU legislation food producers have to avoid claims that their foods have a health benefit. So the food producers sail as close to the wind as they can get away with.

And/or Dad, of course...

No matter what the government do, Mums will still give in. Children don't buy the weekly shopping or earn their own money every day, so only Mums can halt the obesity epidemic by learning to say NO and taking away the tech and putting the children outside to play( Mums need to put their own tech down as well). So come on Mum, take control and save your children

You can talk about sugar, quick foods, healthy foods, etc. all day and night. The simple fact, IN GENERAL, is that the calories consumed must be equal to or less than the calories we put out. Some type of exercise is essential for staying less than obese.

It occurs to me that we can't always control what manufacturers or growers put in our food, but we CAN control what, how much of and how often we eat. Do your best at home to eat right and your children develop the same good habits and tastes for healthier food. That's because children learn best by example. My twin grandchildren (girl and boy) just turned thirteen. They both refuse to buy lunch at school! "it's so 'gross'", said my granddaughter. So,recently both 'tweens' began packing their own (very healthy) lunches every day. Not that they don't enjoy pizza, french fries (chips) or ice cream with their peers, but they they don't seem to be addicted.

I really think the parent need to be more aware of what they are feeding their kids; there is so much processed meals out there and because they are quick to make become the norm.
It annoys me that these types of foods are cheaper than good honest food!

Ministers scrapped plans to ban TV adverts for unhealthy food
Won't get rid of cartoon characters on children’s food packaging

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3749791/Junk-food-firms-40-meetings-ministers-tougher-laws-scrapped.html#ixzz4Hsd5QmV9
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Nobody would object to the above would they?

I agree, pp. You can't outrun a bad diet!

There does seem to be a disconnect between weight, eating habits and exercise. Some people think you can eat a massive amount and work it off with a walk round the block.

I don't know if anyone remembers the programme Michael Mosely did a while back in which he ate a large muffin and thought that by jogging around a race track he would burn it off.

The muffin had about 400cals in; his jog would've worked off about 30 cals.

I think we need to revise the idea of self -indulgence too. Back in the day, self-indulgence had a negative connotation; now it's branded as a positive thing to be experienced at every opportunity.

@Mamie 'It feels like visits to America did twenty years ago'.

IMO this is the nub of the issue. Instead if becoming more European in our eating habits, we have followed the US style of overeating and the current obesity crisis is the result.

You only need to look across the channel and then across the Atlantic. Point made, I think.

Government role should be to protect the food supply not to tell people what to eat. Consumers' role is to be educated about what ingredients or foods to avoid and deciding how much exercise their child needs to be healthy. Government can regulate food labels. In addition to serving size and calorie counts, labels should disclose everything that surrounds or goes into a particular food product. Manufacturers and food packaging companies should be compelled to fully disclose things like GMO, irradiation, hormones, PBAs etc. via more comprehensive labeling. Educated Consumers will likely avoid products that don't measure up to their standards. (Nothing like a sale's slump or a bad quarterly report to get a manufacturer's attention). PS. Parents need to regulate a child's sedentary habits. May I suggest anything that will get them off the couch! If nothing else works, lock up the hi tech devices in the boot of your car and disable the TV.

Are some people saying that today's parents care less about their children's wellbeing than the parents of other generations?

Marketing and TV advertising in the 50's and 60's was fairly unsophisticated. Nowadays, marketing firms employ teams of psychologists to create far more effective targeting of adverts. This extends to supermarkets where food products are carefully placed with the aim of enticing - even to the point of wafting around food smells to make people feel hungry and buy more.

It wasn't until I was in my teens that burger bars gradually became a common sight with the introduction of Wimpy Bars. These were followed in later years by McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, etc., and then lots of independent spin-offs. Nowadays, most urban areas will have several fast food outlets, selling chicken and burgers at ridiculously low prices. One can only wonder at the quality of meat these small operations are purchasing to be able to sell food so cheaply.

I see secondary school children and college students going straight into these fast food joints at lunchtime and the end of the school/college day. Their taste buds have been attuned to this high salt, high fat type diet and it is difficult for parents and schools to wean them off this junk food. Of course, parents should try and provide healthier food but even if they do, it is very difficult when the children are older to control what they eat.

I agree with Mamie who referred to the extremely enlightening documentary The men who made us fat. From what I recall the maker of this film traced the "snacking" and "super-sizing" trend back to the US where food manufacturers realised that they could make much bigger profits by convincing people that they were getting a "bargain" if they spent a little more money for what seemed like a lot more food. And I expect everybody remembers the gradual introduction of snacking between meals, with the adverts eventually convincing people that it was perfectly natural and desirable for people to eat between meals "A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play" "Milky Bar - the snack that you can eat between meals without spoiling your appetitite", etc. etc.

It's my understanding that the majority of nutritionists, dieticians and doctors dealing with obesity-related illnesses say that, whilst exercise is important, obesity cannot be tackled without considerably reducing the amounts of unhealthy calorie-laden food that children and adults consume. People would have to run for miles to use up the calories contained in some products.

I didn't learn most of my cooking skills at school, but at home. So did my children.

In my young days either mother or grandmother was at home all day and prepared food from scratch, good healthy meals and lovely puds. Today's women are so pressured to work when they have a family that when they get home of an evening to kids demanding to be fed its easier to give them convenience food ( full of sugar) and then give them sweets and pop cos they feel guilty leaving the kids all day. Also the children aren't supervised full time so tend to spend too much time on computer games instead of being out and about. Being a working mum when you can't afford paid childcare is no joke. I've watched my DIL and DD try and keep all the balls in the air.

I have 3 children the eldest is obese and the other 2 normal weight, the younger 2 were skinny when they lived at home. Eldest would raid cupboards for food and when we started locking food away so he couldn't raid he took to stealing money to buy stuff so not always the parents fault. All 3were active

Isn't the problem that parents should say "no" - you know, like they used to?
Indulgence - self and otherwise - seems to be the status quo now. We could ask how did that happen. But then again it doesn't take Einstein to work out that the more we consume the more it serves capitalism... as in the Tory party.

"exposure to unhealthy food advertising significantly increased food consumption in children, but not adults"

Advertising of unhealthy foodstuffs to children is already banned on TV, I don't whether a ban is practical on the internet is it?