Childhood obesity strategy "lite"

Jalima yes, meat and fish can be expensive, but a little can be made to go a long way, and frozen 'wet' fish is especially good value. You don't always have to go for cod and haddock. Liver and onions is cheap and, cooked properly, very tasty for example.

And there are other cheaper sources of protein such as eggs, cheese, beans and soya to name a few.

I'm so glad to hear that it was "a healthy slice of Apple" you almost choked on Roses

I'm still not convinc ed that too much government interference is a good thing - how often do they get these things wrong based on the advice of so-called 'experts'?
People have been encouraged to eat 'low-fat' foods for years - packed full of sugar to make them taste better; hydrogenated fats were sold as 'healthy margarines' supposedly better for us than butter, and aspartame as a sweetener is suspected now of being a cause of obesity as are those hydrogenated fats.

Perhaps that programme 'The men who made us fat' should be repeated and required viewing Mamie!

There are more and more tv programmes about cooking, more and more recipes by celebrity chefs wherever we look, but fewer people are cooking from scratch at home.

Must check my tins of tomatoes dd I didn't think they contained sugar

Anya you say fresh vegetables are cheap, just add meat, fish etc - but perhaps it is the meat and fish that some people can't afford

PS just a quick reminder that diabetes costs the NHS £1,000,000 every hour - surely prevention is better than cure, not just because of the monetary outlay but the hospital beds and other resources being stretched to the limit.

I've just heard of a family whose diabetic mother has both legs amputated and a wheelchair lift installed in her house. What cost here both to the poor woman and to the tax payer?

Jess it was funded through the New Opportunitues Fund (NOF) - I wrote a bid on behalf of the LEA and drew down over £1,000,000 for various projects. We also had some funding from Healthy Schools.

I'm not sure what's available these days to fund such projects, but it seems these initiatives have to start within the communities themselves. There are too many Micky Mouse projects out there and not enough good solid 'give me the skills and I'll move the world' sort of ones.

I genuinely believe that if you invest in communities, at grass roots level, you will see returns.

Yes, we're all familiar with the Fat Family, stuffing themselves with crisps and fuzzy drinks, I was sat beside one such in the fracture clinic the other day, but there are just as many who, given the skills and a bit of a push, will turn things around, I mentioned the pride of these mothers in their ability to cook.....unless you've seen that then it's easy to think these parents don't care. Many, most, of them really do.

Waitrose not immune to special offers on junk food as spotted earlier.

I don't know about under-eating in France Maggiemaybe but I think it would mostly be women in larger cities - the same ones people describe as dressing elegantly whilst living on lettuce leaves (and cigarettes).
Round here most people are pretty sturdy but it is rare to see the wobbly obesity that you see in the UK and when you do it seems to be associated with poverty.
I think portions are much smaller here and definitely no eating between meals. I was out for coffee the other day with an English friend who had made scones, jam and cream. The French visitors looked really surprised to be offered food and hardly ate anything. I also notice that French friends toy with a glass of wine all evening, while English friend knock back several glasses.

Anya that is very interesting and maybe a model that could be used elsewhere? Did it get any publicity? How was it funded?
When I was a governor the local shops did not sell ANY fresh food at all. This in a shopping court of maybe 10 businesses. Several takeaways though. This within a couple of miles of one of Tesco's biggest distribution centres, ironically.
I agree with you as well (!) that it is not helpful to be judgemental of people who don't have cooking skills or the understanding to disregard the marketing and start cooking fresh food.
I remember one mum I met, while out door-knocking for a recent election. She was just moving into a council house and looking both relieved and stressed. I wondered whether she had perhaps had one or two large problems (homelessness perhaps) to overcome to get this far. She was overweight herself and had 3 kids. They were not overweight - rather the reverse, but their skin was pale and blotchy and they looked really unhealthy. Kids like that used to be a common sight back in the bad old days but not these days. And I'm thinking of Maslow's hierarchy of needs - if you don't feel safe with your own front door and a roof over your kids heads. And you're living on benefits, which is really difficult, how are you supposed to get your act together to plan healthy but economical meals? There are increasing numbers of people these days going without food in order to give the kids something to eat and increasing numbers relying on food banks.

How ironic would that have been!

gillybob I was eating lunch ( not a sausage roll) when I read your post ( the bloody enormous lunchbox police) and I almost choked to death on a healthy slice of apple.

Mamie tell me where these pubs with huge portions are (please!) as find the ones we go to have very modest size portions, fine for me, But DH would often like a little more.

It's hard not to be judgemental about parents, often obese themselves, who allow their chidren to be so unhealthy - and it's not always a matter of poverty.

Yesterday I was in a bus queue behind a family of mum, dad, two kids, who were obviously on holiday in London. They were all very fat and each drinking a huge ice cream/coffee concoction from Starbucks.

If children were skeletal and very underweight it would be a child protection issue, but it seems you can allow your kids to be hugely overweight with impunity.

Totally agree on portion size, Mamie. The first time we went to the US we were caught out by just how big a snack lunch of soup and a sandwich for one was - it would have kept us both going all day. Now I'm afraid we're the same. When we have fish and chips we get one small portion of chips and it's way too much even for two of us to share. Such a waste, and a temptation to overeat.

Off thread, I know, but is there much concern in France about under-eating? On my last visit to Paris the women seemed thinner than ever, and were still picking gingerly at a tiny salad as if it would bite them. We went to the Moulin Rouge this time, with a rather nice (and not cheap) meal included, and the two French women on our table ate no more than a small mouthful each. I felt like leaning over and asking if I could have their prawns!

Does this way of (not) eating have any effect on their children?

Sorry if I sounded judgemental Anya when I referred to the obese woman and her child on the tv programme. My point there was that she'd clearly had the range of support that the state provides, but found it all wanting. That was a personality issue imo - whoever was trying to help her would face resistance for reasons I can't begin to understand.
Yes, most areas had a butcher, green grocer and fish van which are now increasingly rare. As has already been said, many supermarkets (asda around here) provide a free bus but the issue is carrying a week's shop. Taxi fares, if shared between two or three are much cheaper than the bus and you're dropped at your door. Our local cab drivers always help load and unload the shopping.
The government is closing Sure Start and Family Centres at a rate of knots. Our local council has had so much funding removed, it plans to close 12 family centres. This is a tragedy on so many levels but on this thread, a tragedy because staff ran cookery groups, put recipe sheets together which focussed on feeding a family on a low budget. Lots of the staff were as hard up as service users, so became expert on what you can do with a pile of veg and some pasta or rice.
I agree with niggley that home econ/cookery should be on the curriculum for boy and girls.

Mmmmm. Greggs sausage rolls. Nothing else will do.

sorry, 'like most things'

I think life me most things, it's a case of moderation in all things, it's when it's a way of life that it becomes a problem. Perhaps Home Economics (or whatever it's called these days) should be part of the national curriculum, so that everyone on leaving school at least has a grasp of every aspect of domesticity, much more use in later life than some subjects. I agree too about the amount of food served up in eating places, sometimes quite obscene and greedy!

I think the other thing that shocks me when I am in the UK now are portion sizes. People having pub lunches with plates piled high, five or six veg including roast potatoes and mashed potatoes, Yorkshire pudding in huge quantities, lasagne with garlic bread and jacket potato, enormous plates of three different puddings, what is that about? Plus lots of grazing in the street, cakes and biscuits everywhere.
It feels like visits to America did twenty years ago.

To be honest, daphne, DGS2 lives in a lovely aspirational village full of hipsters who'd probably faint at the sight of a sausage roll, unless it involved wild boar and organic amaranth. But board that train into the city centre and it's a whole new world!

Maybe I do Daphnedill.

I don't know about anyone else but I suddenly have a craving for a sausage roll .

HomeStart does still exist here, DB. As far as I'm aware, it's a charity (and always has been) and is intended to be used by families in trouble. Did you mean SureStart? In which case, I agree. However, I'm not convinced that families do eat most of their meals at McDonalds. There is some awful advice out there regarding food. NHS England no longer recommends giving children dried fruit instead of sweets. Some advertising slogans, such as 'fresh', 'no added...', 'low fat, add to the confusion.

I agree DaphneBroon, but Dads too, I hope.

Remember the Jacques Perretti documentary, "The Men Who Made Us Fat"?
I don't think you have to look much further than that really.