Vocal Voices

... and it is making us ill.

There are nearly 1,700 diagnoses every day for obesity related primary and secondary conditions such as joint problems, diabetes, cancer and heart attacks. Another shocking figure is that women make up 66% of these cases, and women aged 35 to 64 made up 69% of admissions.

The problem is about to get much worse. Overall 21% of school children are overweight or obese. In primary schools this jumps to 34% and none of these children are part of the above figures. We are harming ourselves, but more disastrously we are harming our children.

I cannot see that we can do much about the adults. Reducing sugar, salt and fats in the sorts of food they eat is a pittance, as is a sugar tax. If people are going to get fat they are going to get fat; they will put the effort in. When it comes to the children I also fear that it is the adults who are to blame as they are in a vicious circle - fat begets fat.

There are only a few things I can come up with. 1. Bring back cooking to schools - real cooking. Get the children preparing meals using veg and meats and whilst doing so hammer into them nutrition, food hygiene and the importance of exercise and fitness. 2. If a pupil shows signs of putting on more weight than puppy fat bring the parents in and give them a verbal warning. If there are no signs of improvement make it a written warning stating that if things do not improve it goes to social services. If social cannot get an improvement then charge the parents with child abuse.

It is time to stop messing about.

I think it pretty much all boils down to lack of education. I did cooking, or Home Economics as it was then known, to O level back in the mid 80s but even before that we had lessons every year and we cooked from scratch. We brought in fresh ingredients, we made pies and quiches and made our own pastry when doing so, soups, bolognese, fruit salad to name a few things and everything we made had to be nutritionally balanced. That knowledge came from theory lessons, as did food hygiene.

Fast forward to 2012 and Joe's 'food tech' lessons. He made coleslaw and he made scones. The next year he made scones. And that was it. Thankfully he and Tom have learned more at home, they've always seen me cooking. Actually, I seem to remember that Tom's year group missed out on food tech altogether.

I suppose it will be argued that £1 for a ready meal is cheaper than buying the raw ingredients but it doesn't have to be that way does it. I can buy a large bag of frozen chicken breasts for just pennies over £3 from Aldi which does two or three meals. Pasta is pennies, a sauce can be easily and cheaply made; you don't have to buy a sugar loaded jar of sauce.

Cereal. Think how many servings you have in a box, add on milk. Breakfast costs next to nothing. Yet whenever I'm in town early in a morning there'll be a number of small children eating something from Greggs as they walk to school with their mothers.

I can't understand why some people - quite a lot in fact - have to keep stuffing excess amounts of food down so that
they become overweight and consequently have difficulty in living a normal life. We have just returned from holiday
in a 4-star hotel In Sidmouth, and I was amazed at how much food some people stuffed down - mostly always people
who were grossly overweight and were in obvious pain because of it. Why don't their doctors tell them the cause of
their suffering?

AliasAggers wrote:IWhy don't their doctors tell them the cause of their suffering?

PC, not allowed.

They have to be cuddled and told it's not their fault. Bless.

Oh my goodness, this is such a can of worms that it's hard to know where to start! If it was as simple as applying a bit of willpower, we'd all be as slim as rails

Kaz wrote:If it was as simple as applying a bit of willpower, we'd all be as slim as rails

Nail. Head. Even more so in the modern world where temptation is everywhere, now super-willpower is needed.

The report from Public Health England (PHE) was not pointing a finger or offering solutions. Its main aim was to lay out the numbers to let us see how our choices are affecting us all, and they are frightening.

Some years ago it was said that we had already created a generation many of whom will die prematurely. It is now being said that we are in the process of creating a generation of children that will die before their parents.

So many factors that *could* be contributing to this. It isn't just a matter of the calories we consume - I am sure I read something a few years back, that said that children actually don't consume more calories now than their 1930s counterparts! It is the lack of exercise and, arguably, the change from a protein and fat heavy diet (meat and two veg) to the carbohydrate and sugar heavy modern diet!

http://www.nutrition-matters.co.uk/free ... uences.htm

Add in fewer PE lessons, with many schools forced to sell off playing fields (now they are run as businesses ), parents being afraid to let their children "play out", and there is a toxic mix!

I don't believe that the current younger generation will live as long as us, for a start I am much fitter than my daughter, much as it pains me to say it My weight is normal, I try to eat healthily, I walk miles every day, I exercise I try to encourage her, but she's a grown woman, and makes her own choices

I often see this reflected in other families, out and about - little sparrow-like grannies, normal-ish sized mums, and obese youngsters

Cannot argue with that Kaz.

When I was at primary school, in the late 50s and early 60s, we had one half-hour exercise period every day. We were either in the playground or in the gym cum dining hall. At secondary school we had a single period twice a week and a whole morning or afternoon for 'games'.

We mostly ate home cooked food using fresh ingredients. There were lots of casseroles, stews and shepherd's / cottage pies, but they were bulked out with loads of veg. Sweets were a weekend treat, most weeks, and if we had cakes they were basic sponges with maybe a bit of jam in the centre and a dusting of icing sugar. The pop man came round once a week and we were allowed a bottle each, but once it was gone it was gone. We never saw people wandering the streets while eating food or carrying bottles of water or cups of coffee.

BTW that is a super interesting article in the link. All ministers and junior ministers in the DfE, DAERA and DHSS should be forced to read it. It was published in 2001 and all its warnings have come true, as the latest report from PHE states.

Similar here, school meals mostly meat and two veg, school milk every day, sweets on Friday nights in our house, when my dad got paid

Lots of PE and something called Music and Movement in Primary school, gym hockey tennis and lots of it at the grammar! Plus I rode my bike to school, and I was a far from athletic girl so was fit despite myself

It was an interesting link!

Monday - double PE in the morning.
Tuesday - Rugby training after school
Wednesday - double games in the afternoon
Thursday - Rugby training after school
Friday - PE
Saturday - Rugby match

Of course we were fit. In between this we would play soccer or cricket.
When my children went to school sports day endedwhen they were 14. No athletics, no nothing, just cramming for exams.