Not to sure about this bit “figures also show that Shropshire Children’s Trust failed to reach its targets in the last financial year for reducing obesity among children” I was unaware that Shropshire Children’s Trust had any control over what children eat – yet another example of silly government targets that you are judged agianst but cannot influence.

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We take our children out every night for a walk rain or not, weekends are spent again walking they also swim 3 times a week and have a good balanced diet and the odd burger
.Many fat children have fat parents they need to be educated too. Far to many drive to the shop many do not like walking any where infact my wife is seen by some as odd as she walks every day with the children and the dog. Some people just want to drive around or sit around it is in my view their choice the only problem is they will then be a burden on the health service some before the age of 30.

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A well constructed observation Huw Peach.

Maybe laziness was to broad a brushstroke? I can appreciate your comments/facts about media led consumer world and the so-called “brain washing” of what the consumer think they want.

However, there is also freedom of choice, just because something is available doesn’t mean you have to have it. For example, when the fun run was completed you could have advised the children that maybe the Fun Meal was not a good idea. Yes, they may have complained for a while, but if parents stood their ground a little more often instead of giving in, then maybe things would improve?

This is the same approach which should be adopted for daily meal times. Yes, they may have been bombarded with KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut adverts on the TV. But do you really need to pander to their needs to stop potential arguments? It is about balance, offering treats in moderation and more importantly ensuring they are offered balanced diets of fruit and vegetables. Sure, they will complain about the veg, I did, but you do get to like it.

Parents can be between a rock and a hard place at times. They just need to be a little stricter and not give in to their children for the sake of a quiet life all the time. It is their responsibility to educate their children about food, not the media driven tv adverts or the government allowed to “push the buttons”.

People don’t want excuses, they want objective resolutions enforced with self-discipline.

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We took part in the Santa Fun Run because we wanted to do our bit for a local hospice. We didn’t realise that this fun event was going to be used by a fastfood company hoping to associate its heavily advertised, fatty, unhealthy products with sport.

In a fun run involving hundreds of kids dressed up as Santa, the peer pressure is enormous and I think you are being unrealistic to think that anything more than a small minority of parents would exercise ‘freedom of choice’.

Of course we let our kids have the ‘Fun Meal’ like all the other parents.

Do you think that we ‘gave in and pandered to our kids for the sake of a quiet life’ because we allowed them to go and see a cheerful, rosy-cheeked Santa and take a meal from him?

Should we have told our kids to say ‘No’ to a man who, we had told them, brings presents and happiness to kids all over the world?

Were we being lazy parents?

Or should we perhaps have not been forced into such an invidious situation in the first place?

In her article (which I recommend) Sharon Beder says, ‘in the US the amount corporations spent marketing to children under twelve increased by five times between 1980 and 1990 and ten times more during the 1990s.’

‘In 2004 around $15 billion was being spent marketing to children. Conferences on the best ways to market to children are held all over the world.’

‘There are also awards for the best advertisements and marketing campaigns with hundreds of entries.’

As the adult market has become saturated in the UK, one can only imagine that proportionally similar sums are being pumped into child-focused marketing in the UK, too.

I think you are right to say that kids need to play outside more, walk to school, cycle more, do more sport and eat more healthily, but I think it takes an enormous effort to ignore the millions spent by big companies like Coke and McDonalds advertising their unhealthy products, associating them with celebrities, placing their products in kids’ films, and generally undermining positive parenting.

You are right to say that parents are between a rock and a hard place, so I think it’s useful in discussions like this to help people to see just how enormous that rock is.

For many -inexplicably- that rock is invisible.

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Woody,

I’m sure the other 23% were indeed overwieght as a result of their own foolishness, greed etc., but that doesn’t excuse your generalisation that all overweight people are lazy.

Many overweight people eat healthily, exercise, and yet still struggle to keep their weight to the ‘norms’ of the BMI measurements.

I’m sure that like me, in your life you’ve met a number of people who appear to be able to eat any amount of any old rubbish without putting on weight.

The chances are that you’ve also met people who are overweight yet do all the right things when it comes to food and exercise – but your determination to dismiss them all as ‘lazy’ might have prevented you from recognising this.

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Actually the UCL research found that there was a genetic susceptibility that acted if people ate an unhealthy diet. It also was carried via a twin study which is open to interpretation. What the research most definately did not show is that children will become obese purely down to genetic factors. If anything it suggests that that 73% should be even more careful about what they eat. As with all genetic factors just because you have a genetic predisposition it doesn’t mean you are likely to inherit a condition.

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