Seems hard to believe that “common sense” is not enough… that it has to become Law…
How difficult do you/did you … find it … to eat healthily and to help kids stay healthy too…
You say no.
4 Likes
Supermarkets manipulate people to buy extra things they don’t need, and purposely put sweets by the checkout as they know this is the most likely place where adults will give in. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been behind someone at a checkout with a one or more kids pestering them & trying to grab sweets, and then getting frazzled as people in queue are tut-tutting for them to get a move on. Perhaps when you were teaching your kids how to eat healthily there was less temptation, less choice, much less advertising and it was easier to say no. And supermarkets in the 1980’s (when we were teaching our kids) were very different too!
If supermarkets and industry won’t voluntarily accept they they have a responsibility in the battle against obesity then I have no problem with government stepping in.
2 Likes
Sweets were always a treat for our four as was fizzy drinks which we rarely let the kids have at home.
It saddens me that even with mounting evidence of the effects of consuming too much sugar it is still seen as the governments responsibility to tackle obesity, personal/parental responsibility doesn’t seem to exist anymore. There have been countless tv programs and newspaper articles in recent times highlighting the cost (financial and personal) of diabetes yet the numbers of those affected continues to rise sharply.
3 Likes
We ate/drank what we liked as kids, as did our children, non of us are fat, so some self moderation must have been exercised, some people are just natural gluttons.
Often fat kids have fat parents, maybe genetics, or the ‘example’ set has a lot to do with it 
1 Like
Sounds easy to just say no. I am horrified by the amount of sugar that is added to food and drink these days. I am dieting and so spend a lot more time scrutinising the labels. The 'healthy" products that have huge amounts of sugar in them for example. Next time you pick up a yoghurt check out how much added sugar it contains!
I feel for todays parents who do not have the time I had when my kids were young and we managed to pay our mortgage with one salary. If both parents work, who has time to spend hours looking at nutrional values before buying staples.
The biggest reason for obese children nowadays is that scool playing fields have been sold off so children have no where to run and kick a ball during the school day. Cars own the steets so its no wonder kids dont burn off the calories as we used to.
Fair comment about the lack of exercise …or safe places to run and play…nowadays.
In the days of my childhood, the kids were sent off out to play on the streets, fields, beaches or wherever… no sitting glued to a TV or screen… out in the fresh (or not so fresh) air… definitely better health wise… IMO.
Recent years have seen competitive sport down-graded in many situations, when it became considered by some to be “politically incorrect”…
eg: Fancy having one person win a race, thus making all the others feel inferior 
1 Like
No one needs to eat “healthy” products, just eat healthily.
2 Likes
Spot on Chris 
A lot is to do with, as I said earlier, gluttony, fat parents, and bad examples, though some folk are cursed with unfortunate genes.
We were allowed two sweets after lunch.
We could buy more with our pocket money. One penny for each year of our age.
Our kids thought they would play a joke on me and asked for seven vegetables with their Sunday lunch and that is what they got and had to eat.
I think portion control plays a part. I am a grazer but I eat small amounts. I remember visiting a large friend for lunch and her husband had cooked chilli. My friend said that she knew I was a light eater and would give me a small portion. I was amazed to receive double what I would normally serve myself and my friends had half as much again. Out of politeness I ate more than normal but still left some. To be fair though my OH often says he thinks I was born with a gastric band.
1 Like
I remember reading the notes published after a meeting of a supermarket users group. The item that made it memorable was the one explaining that condoms were no longer going to be kept near the checkout queues but would in future be found with the sporting goods.
1 Like
Some folks are just gluttons Teresa, sat at a table with one yesterday, no idea where, or how, she packed it all away, B’ and I were amazed and a bit disgusted!
1 Like
Chicken and egg situation tho’? Outside formal sports lessons, kids stopped using the sports fields as preferred to sit around on their phones, and parents stopped organising out of hours sport…So a lot of the fields became redundant as you only need a small area for the lessons.
Personally I feel it is a deeper problem that is behind the trend of growing obesity. All about how people value themselves, and what other things are valued/disregarded. And how people inform themselves and are able to resist marketing pressures.
1 Like
In the not too distant past it was rare to see overweight kids and adults. Now it’s the norm. I think that tells you a lot about how people’s diets have changed over the years.
1 Like
Through school, 50/60s, I can only remember two ‘chubby’ kids, not obese, but I remember quite a few distinctly skinny ones.
I suppose school dinners had a lot to do with it, that was the main meal of the day, tea was a boiled egg or similar, and though there were things I detested for din’ at school, I suppose it was reasonably ‘healthy’ stuff.
2 in my school too…I was one of them. Pretty simple though as all I had to do was tell my mother to stop putting such huge amounts of food on the plate. I vowed never to be fat again. Very few have any self control today though.
1 Like
I was always a skinny child but a sedentary job piled on the pounds over the years. Last year I gave myself a bit of a kick up the backside and realised that a milestone birthday was approaching and I didn’t want to hit it carrying excess flab. A good friend had lost a significant amount of weight and I asked her how … she replied 5-2. Five days a week eat (fairly) normally and two days a week limit to 500 cals. So that was July last year and I’m now 2½ stone lighters, three dress sizes smaller, well into the healthy range for my age and height and feel a million times better with energy and confidence, etc. And I’ve kept the weight off. Ultimately, the secret is willpower, just having the intention to eat less and move more.
2 Likes
I like the sound of that… for various reasons I am forbidden to diet (as such) but 5-2 might make all the difference.
cheers 
Perhaps that’s the answer Bill. “The disgusting food diet”…guaranteed to make you lose weight😉