[News] UK children are shorter and unhealthier through poverty.

[Lenny Rider]

Fith wealthiest nation in the world…

UK children shorter, fatter and sicker amid poor diet and poverty, report finds

Food Foundation says height of five-year-olds falling, child obesity up by a third and type 2 diabetes by a fifth

www.theguardian.com

And they fact we are using the word 'poverty' almost a quarter of the way into the 21st century is scandalous in itself.

I do wonder if when the scribes write the history of the 20th/21st centuries in a hundred years or so 'our' generation ie born between 1950-1975 will be rightly criticised for the fact that we failed to eradicate poverty in this country when clearly we had all the tools to do so?

It's still hard to get your head round the fact that even in the supposed affluent county of Sussex, children are still going to school hungry

 

[beorhthelm]

Has the sugar tax worked? Genuine question

well they've reduced size of cans (lower tax, sell cheaper/better margin), many brands have switched to sugar free. however the kids have also switched, to energy drinks and screw the cost. there were some complaints it didn't raise as much revenue as expected, indicating is did work in reducing the amount of sugar in drinks.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Stranger danger, gone are the days you could just get a bag of sweets from the nice man in a blacked out van

The number of cases of actual child kidnap were trivial, and it was media frenzy in the late 70s over a case long forgotten that shifted the landscape..

This is an example of perverse risk assessment. We rate the risk of things in relation to a cost benefit analysis (fair enough), but many of us then back fill our decision with fake data influenced by personal prejudice. Anyone who values their kids above everything will not risk them walking to school if there is the faintest whiff of a possibility of an abduction. This is rational, even if statistically the kid is more likely to die from a drug or a knife at a party when they are a tad older. Ironically it is much more likely to die at the hand of their own parent.

Back on topic, and the issue of child health, my instinct is to blame the conservatives. I can easily weave a plausible narrative to justify this. But it would be 'over simplistic', aka, completely false.

This thread is interesting as we run up to the election. Knee jerk labourites will see it as 'yet more evidence' and knee-jerk tories will blame the unions and wokeness. I like to think I'm capable of a more balanced assessment. But then I would think that, being a lefty, wouldn't I?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

And they fact we are using the word 'poverty' almost a quarter of the way into the 21st century is scandalous in itself.

I do wonder if when the scribes write the history of the 20th/21st centuries in a hundred years or so 'our' generation ie born between 1950-1975 will be rightly criticised for the fact that we failed to eradicate poverty in this country when clearly we had all the tools to do so?

It's still hard to get your head round the fact that even in the supposed affluent county of Sussex, children are still going to school hungry

Wise and correct words.

 

[Lenny Rider]

Jury in Constance Marten and Mark Gordon trial dismissed

The jury in the trial of wealthy aristocrat Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been discharged.

www.theargus.co.uk

And on the back of the child neglect debate we have these two individuals.

Madness sheer madness, surely an open and shut case?

 

[Is it PotG?]

Jury in Constance Marten and Mark Gordon trial dismissed

The jury in the trial of wealthy aristocrat Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been discharged.

www.theargus.co.uk

And on the back of the child neglect debate we have these two individuals.

Madness sheer madness, surely an open and shut case?

Yes, yes, but what can society do to help these people and get to the root of what caused this?

 

[The Clamp]

Yes, yes, but what can society do to help these people and get to the root of what caused this?

Vote Labour

 

[Lenny Rider]

Yes, yes, but what can society do to help these people and get to the root of what caused this?

Unfortunately I think some people have evil so deep rooted in them, they are beyond help.

They probably won't tell us, but how much is this trial or trials costing the taxpayer?

And is all this expensive facade the work of a clever 'human rights' barrister/solicitor?

 

[highflyer]

We’re in a new age of obesity. How did it happen? You’d be surprised | Obesity | The Guardian

amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org

 

[Rdodge30]

Has there ever been a time when there was no child poverty? I ask because the leader of the SNP has today announced he will eradicate child poverty. You can file that under #theyreallthesame as well.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

well they've reduced size of cans (lower tax, sell cheaper/better margin), many brands have switched to sugar free. however the kids have also switched, to energy drinks and screw the cost. there were some complaints it didn't raise as much revenue as expected, indicating is did work in reducing the amount of sugar in drinks.

The missus was defending the nipper's can of drink as having 'only' 3g of sugar per can. When I pointed out this is more than 3.5 teaspoons, she still shrugged her shoulders. A case of unwillingness to reconsider a prior assumption (we all do it).

But I would rather that than sweeteners. I know that aspartame has apparently been given a clean bill of health but we really do not know the long term effects of its intake in kids, and what may manifest in adulthood, so why take the risk? Just to get a drink as sweet as one with 3g of sugar?

I would add that tooth decay is mainly due to poor dental hygiene. Brushing teeth twice a day (and between meals if the kid is a sloppy eater) is the prevention. It isn't due to a can of cola. I remember kids at school who clearly never brushed their teeth. 'Dogshit breath' being one of them. There is no excuse for it today, and it is lazy and feckless parenting at fault here. In my opinion. My grandmother had ten bothers and sisters so I'm not claiming any sort of superiority here. But we brushed our teeth twice a day and I still have all my own gnashers at 66, and only one filling.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Stranger danger, gone are the days you could just get a bag of sweets from the nice man in a blacked out van

Cant say black anymore.

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

The classic "it's all the parent's fault". Over FOUR MILLION kids in the UK live in poverty. Those parents normally go without to try and feed their kids, even then all they can afford is the cheapest crap which is processed to f***. It's our government, big business, and ultimately the capitalist bullshit society we live in's fault not parents of kids who can afford x-boxs and ipads.

This is what the people in power with money want us to do, turn on each other rather than look up and blame those with the power and money to stop kids in Britain in 2024 from being malnourished and in poverty.

As I said "some".

Like a lot of people in the 60s and 70s, when I was a kid, despite both Mum & Dad working, we were very poor, outside loo, Mum was never hungry on Thursday's etc, hand me down school uniforms etc, these weren't golden times either. Any child being hungry is tragically sad and shouldn't happen in a country with the wealth of Britain, you're right big business could do more, the Government must do more, but as I say "some" parents have priorities that don't always help their children.

 

[Machiavelli]

Has the sugar tax worked? Genuine question

Depends what you're talking about. It could be: raising revenue; shifting behaviour; effect on obesity; changing ingredients in products; and several other things that I can't think of currently. On obesity, there's this from a reputable source and last year:

Sugary drinks tax may have prevented over 5,000 cases of obesity

The soft drinks industry levy, the ‘sugary drinks tax’, in England was followed by a drop in the number of cases of obesity among older primary school children.

www.ukri.org

 

[RandyWanger]

I'll add, you can eat healthy for cheap. Poverty is part of the problem, laziness is another.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Exactly.

Lazy parenting.

Cooking a healthy meal for all, sitting down together, not difficult.

Women used to work part-time or stayed at home so had the time to go to the butchers, greengrocers and bakers. As money got very tight in the late 70s with rampant inflation, women had to work full time. More divorces from the 80s onwards, and shacking up together without getting married meant families became one parent families more easily but needed to work longer.
Nobody had the time to go to different shops, supermarkets took over with inferior fresh food, and put the trade shops out of business.
Women came in, exhausted wanting to cook a quick easy meal to get the kids to bed.

 

[Eeyore]

Stranger danger, gone are the days you could just get a bag of sweets from the nice man in a blacked out van

I always used to talk to strangers about anything and everything.

'Are you getting on the bus with me ?' they'd ask.

'No' I'd reply

The look of relief on their face...

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Cant say black anymore.

Van of colour better?

 

[seagurl]

I obviously disagree with your post, but I'd have thought peanuts would be in peanut butter, and that they constitute either all the ingredients or a tiny (less than a %?) amount of others.

Lidls sell a 100% pure peanut butter. Slightly smaller jar and a tiny bit pricier but cheaper than. Whole Earth

 

[ozzygull]

I think the issue is more to do with exercise and portion size. As a child growing up in the 80s I ate loads of sweets and drank lots of coke and sugary drinks, my mum would cook meals from scratch and I loved sport and exercise. I have never been able to eat large portions of food, in fact the more there is on a plate the less I would eat. The thing for women is that all portion sizes in restaurants and ready meals are based on male calories, women do not need as much food or calories but you are never given the option for a smaller size in the restaurant, so I end up leaving some of it. I would be really happy to pay the same and have an option for smaller portion.

I am actually staggered when I go out and see the amount of food people can put away. normally obese children have obese parents. They may not even see the damage they are doing to their child’s health. I don’t believe unless they are a monster they would do anything to deliberately harm their child.

The best thing that came out of my husband driving our daughter around the country every weekend for cycling races was that we sent her in to adulthood fit and physically healthy with a love of sport and exercise and for me that she never required a filling for tooth decay.