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

[The Clamp]

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

 

[Bold Seagull]

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

Sadly this is where you need a 'nanny state'. Supermarkets are a race to the bottom. They strategise the reduction in quality in food, reduce ingredients, add chemicals to increase life span in turn reducing price. Loyalty cards are the devils work in this regard.

I know someone high up in a supermarket chain. An example, take a Chicken Kiev, they'll make a good one, monitor its sales, then slowly reduce the more expensive ingredients, add the preservatives and continue to monitor until there is a slide. It's data driven and very manipulative.

Unless you're sharp, something you might have been buying regularly that didn't contain X, Y, Z, could start containing it.

Even though we're better at detecting and treating cancer rates are rising, mainly to do with our food consumption.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

What we need is E-scooters, so the kids can zip around to school and back getting absolutely no exercise, maybe some strawberry vapes into the bargain.

 

[TomandJerry]

Ah yes a Brexit dividend, rolling back the decades

 

[The Clamp]

Ah yes a Brexit dividend, rolling back the decades

I also think it may be a hangover from the lockdowns. As in “I was locked up for ages so I’m going to do and eat whatever the heck I like now”

Perhaps?

 

[BrickTamland]

I also think it may be a hangover from the lockdowns. As in “I was locked up for ages so I’m going to do and eat whatever the heck I like now”

Perhaps?

Been going on for too long to have anything g to do with Covid.

We need proper school meals and to introduce proper education over nutrition

 

[BBassic]

Sadly this is where you need a 'nanny state'. Supermarkets are a race to the bottom. They strategise the reduction in quality in food, reduce ingredients, add chemicals to increase life span in turn reducing price. Loyalty cards are the devils work in this regard.

I know someone high up in a supermarket chain. An example, take a Chicken Kiev, they'll make a good one, monitor its sales, then slowly reduce the more expensive ingredients, add the preservatives and continue to monitor until there is a slide. It's data driven and very manipulative.

Unless you're sharp, something you might have been buying regularly that didn't contain X, Y, Z, could start containing it.

Even though we're better at detecting and treating cancer rates are rising, mainly to do with our food consumption.

Yeah this shit is insidious.

I try and eat pretty well - do my best to avoid ingredients harmful to the environment, to avoid Ultra Processed Foods etc. but I still struggle with it.

For one, it's a ballache having to check the ingredients and also know what to look for in the first place. I've been eating a brand of peanut butter for a while now and only recently found out it's chock full of palm oil.

It's also a lot more expensive. I'm fortunate that my job is well paid; it means the expense is something I can budget in but I can fully appreciate people on lower incomes just simply being unable to afford food that isn't full of shit, especially when you're trying to feed, say, two adults and two kids.

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

We are a less active society, blaming BREXIT is crazy, this is down, in part, to parenting. Some adults are either to busy or too lazy, and see iPads, Xbox, TVs etc as suitable ways of amusing the kids. Taking them out is either too much of a task for them or unaffordable. Similarly, with food, the supermarkets, fast food joints, etc produce processed crap food which is quicker and easier to use to feed their offspring, some have lost the art of cooking from base which is healthier and normally much cheaper.

 

[Billy the Fish]

That article is, and most likely this thread, is a great example of "problem X is because of [insert what I'm currently obsessed with]"

You can't argue with the statistics, but the causes are most likely a complex web of variables. You can't just pin it all on poverty, as the guardian loves to do,when there are so many other social factors at play.

Agree with what @Bold Seagull said about supermarkets, and will add that if you make a load of nutritionally shite food cheap, abundant and convenient , then it's not surprising that people will gravitate towards it. Education is also a huge factor, it's possible to make good food for not much money (as the Asians and Africans) but it requires knowledge that we seem to have lost in the UK.

 

[Chicken Run]

I also think it may be a hangover from the lockdowns. As in “I was locked up for ages so I’m going to do and eat whatever the heck I like now”

Perhaps?

As always you’re on the money, regretfully that enforced lockdown will have lasting ramifications that go beyond the protection of the clinically vulnerable

 

[Brovion]

That article is, and most likely this thread, is a great example of "problem X is because of [insert what I'm currently obsessed with]"

You can't argue with the statistics, but the causes are most likely a complex web of variables. You can't just pin it all on poverty, as the guardian loves to do,when there are so many other social factors at play.

Agree with what @Bold Seagull said about supermarkets, and will add that if you make a load of nutritionally shite food cheap, abundant and convenient , then it's not surprising that people will gravitate towards it. Education is also a huge factor, it's possible to make good food for not much money (as the Asians and Africans) but it requires knowledge that we seem to have lost in the UK.

I agree with you, it IS a number of factors. Without wishing to get into a 'Four Yorkshiremen' type of reverse-boasting I was brought up in a single-parent family on a council estate. We survived on benefits and charity. A lot of others on the estate were also hard-up and obviously no one was rich. One thing we all had in common - we were all as thin as a row of fence posts. Not malnourished, I just think the food must have been different back in in the 1960s. And the portions were much smaller.

 

[Is it PotG?]

We are a less active society, blaming BREXIT is crazy, this is down, in part, to parenting. Some adults are either to busy or too lazy, and see iPads, Xbox, TVs etc as suitable ways of amusing the kids. Taking them out is either too much of a task for them or unaffordable. Similarly, with food, the supermarkets, fast food joints, etc produce processed crap food which is quicker and easier to use to feed their offspring, some have lost the art of cooking from base which is healthier and normally much cheaper.

Exactly.

Lazy parenting.

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

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Sadly this is where you need a 'nanny state'. Supermarkets are a race to the bottom. They strategise the reduction in quality in food, reduce ingredients, add chemicals to increase life span in turn reducing price. Loyalty cards are the devils work in this regard.

I know someone high up in a supermarket chain. An example, take a Chicken Kiev, they'll make a good one, monitor its sales, then slowly reduce the more expensive ingredients, add the preservatives and continue to monitor until there is a slide. It's data driven and very manipulative.

Unless you're sharp, something you might have been buying regularly that didn't contain X, Y, Z, could start containing it.

Even though we're better at detecting and treating cancer rates are rising, mainly to do with our food consumption.

Wow. I hadn't realized it was that manipulative.

I would add it isn't all unavoidable. I would add, never underestimate the British capacity for self harm. I don't mean everyone, but a significant number. We can recognize them as people who won't be told. Remember mothers handing junk food through the railings of a school where Jamie Oliver was helping make the school meal diet healthy? Belligerent, strident, gobshite parents. There's one source of the problem.

In fact that episode was so grotesque I'll leave it there.

These people (and, by dint of, their kids) won't eat better and live better if they don't want to, and won't be told by the nanny state.

 

[BrickTamland]

I worked in a school and pre-school in Sweden and the focus on real food (everyone gets free school meals) and being outdoors/active is huge.

Sweets are reserved for Friday evening and is pretty strictly observed without leading to a binge.

Fast food is pretty expensive and less of a convenience culture which forces people to eat in more and home cook.

It’s a fine mix of economy and culture and will take a long time to fix but I’m not sure the political appetite is there..

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I agree with you, it IS a number of factors. Without wishing to get into a 'Four Yorkshiremen' type of reverse-boasting I was brought up in a single-parent family on a council estate. We survived on benefits and charity. A lot of others on the estate were also hard-up and obviously no one was rich. One thing we all had in common - we were all as thin as a row of fence posts. Not malnourished, I just think the food must have been different back in in the 1960s. And the portions were much smaller.

You remind me of my first trip to Chicago. I could not believe the size of many of the locals. I was in my late 20s by then and had travelled a bit. These were thighs and arses in dimensions I though were physically unachievable. Orca fat.

I asked around, and the general consensus was this is what can happen when very poor people become relatively wealthy. We were skinny as kids because we had very little money. My family was working class and lived from week to week. There were no luxuries. But most food was fresh. We were all skinny.

Then I remember a slow 'improvement' in finances in the early 1970s, and mum exploring convenience foods. Vesta curries. Fray Bento steak and kidney pies. Smiths Crisps in the house... and so on. The changes were beginning.

And even in my house as an adult I am guilty of carelessness. My son is probably 4 stone heavier than me. Having money meant the fridge and cupboards were always full. I regret now not imposing some sort of discipline. But our lifestyles were not compatible with it. For many years I was a single parent so even though relatively well off, I was time-poor, and the fridge door was never locked.

The British problem is a mix of ignorance, recent generations being more cash rich than previous generations, and this particular British belligerence. I admit to the latter myself. I don't like being told to live differently.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I worked in a school and pre-school in Sweden and the focus on real food (everyone gets free school meals) and being outdoors/active is huge.

Sweets are reserved for Friday evening and is pretty strictly observed without leading to a binge.

Fast food is pretty expensive and less of a convenience culture which forces people to eat in more and home cook.

It’s a fine mix of economy and culture and will take a long time to fix but I’m not sure the political appetite is there..

Yep. Nailed it.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

That article is, and most likely this thread, is a great example of "problem X is because of [insert what I'm currently obsessed with]"

You can't argue with the statistics, but the causes are most likely a complex web of variables. You can't just pin it all on poverty, as the guardian loves to do,when there are so many other social factors at play.

Agree with what @Bold Seagull said about supermarkets, and will add that if you make a load of nutritionally shite food cheap, abundant and convenient , then it's not surprising that people will gravitate towards it. Education is also a huge factor, it's possible to make good food for not much money (as the Asians and Africans) but it requires knowledge that we seem to have lost in the UK.

Yep.

The irony is a lot of it has to do with the appearance of relative wealth in the the working classes. The Grauniad would never admit that. Partly why I never read it. f***ing liberals.

 

[chickens]

Yeah this shit is insidious.

I try and eat pretty well - do my best to avoid ingredients harmful to the environment, to avoid Ultra Processed Foods etc. but I still struggle with it.

For one, it's a ballache having to check the ingredients and also know what to look for in the first place. I've been eating a brand of peanut butter for a while now and only recently found out it's chock full of palm oil.

It's also a lot more expensive. I'm fortunate that my job is well paid; it means the expense is something I can budget in but I can fully appreciate people on lower incomes just simply being unable to afford food that isn't full of shit, especially when you're trying to feed, say, two adults and two kids.

100% - the problem being that without all of this crap, we’re probably already well past the ability to sustain current population levels.

I read a pretty decent book on farming in the UK, called English Pastoral by James Rebanks. I’d recommend it, it gives what I’d describe as a decent balanced outlook on farming’s evolution from the 1960s to now.

 

[Hovegull]

Is this a new problem?
Sugar was everywhere in the 80s/90s and ultra processsed food and fast food became really popular

 

[BN41Albion]

Is this a new problem?
Sugar was everywhere in the 80s/90s and ultra processsed food and fast food became really popular

Obesity levels are through the roof now though because kids are also exercising much less on the whole in the western world. And the nature of what kids are consuming has got even worse imo with the likes of fecking huge Monster and other energy drinks, etc. It's disgusting that the food/drink industry is getting away with it- so deliberately targeted at kids, too.

Sadly most other western nations are following in the same way. Mediterranean diet being eroded slowly in the likes of Italy and Spain, even the likes of France, famed for their love of good food, seeing much higher obesity levels in kids.