For parents of obese children

Zamboni

I got very angry today driving into work.

A school girl of about 12 (I'm guessing) was walking down the road.
The poor child was about 5' 7' and about 16st. She was huge.

The level of contempt I felt for her legal guardians, whoever they are, was overwhelming.
The guardians of this child have forced her into a life of poor health, disease, mockery and misery.
Any persons that treated a child with physical violence, sexual abuse or malunitrition would be addressed by the appropriate authorities, but in the case of feeding a child to death by the 'over loving' parent, it is simply ignored.
This child is not loved.
This is the problem with being PC about obesity, it's causes and effects.
The next time you hear about fat people complaining about paying for bigger seats on planes or some other nonsensical issue based on there own disgusting feeding habits, think about the thousands of poor children that are being forced into a life of physical disease and mental abuse through misery.

This post may not be as coherent as I would like but I am fuming.

Moonbeam

I understand your rant but you do not know if the child was ill or why she was morbidly obese.

Zamboni

Moonbeam wrote: »

I understand your rant but you do not know if the child was ill or why she was morbidly obese.

She was morbidly obese because she has consumed calories in excess of her actual requirements.
It is actually very rare for a person to have a medical condition that results in obesity.
And even, in those incredibly rare circumstances, excess calories still must be consumed for the human body to be able to store those calories as adipose tissue.
All parents are responsible for the nutritional requirements of their offspring.
If a child is overweight, the parents are directly responsible.

Prop Joe

Maybe it's time to goverment pipped in,And introduced a super tax on all "Unhealthy foods"

amacachi

Prop Joe wrote: »

Maybe it's time to goverment pipped in,And introduced a super tax on all "Unhealthy foods"

Or instead of subsidising at one end and taxing at the other just got out of the way altogether.

Elle Collins

I hear ya Zamboni, obese kids are a very sad sight to see.

Ayla

And exactly how would you define "unhealthy?" Even fresh spuds (naturally a very healthy veg) can be made unhealthy by the cooking method, gravies, sauces, toppings put on them. A tax would be impossible to define.

Pizza can be healthy, homemade burgers can include some of the "5 a day"...

Zamboni

Prop Joe wrote: »

Maybe it's time to goverment pipped in,And introduced a super tax on all "Unhealthy foods"

No.
The responsibilty lies with the legal guardian(s) of a child.
The government provide a free education system that deals with biology and nutrition and run various health promotion programmes through statutory agencies.

Ayla

so would you support the policing of parents who have obese children, so that they are imprisoned under child abuse/neglect?

Prop Joe

Ayla wrote: »

And exactly how would you define "unhealthy?" Even fresh spuds (naturally a very healthy veg) can be made unhealthy by the cooking method, gravies, sauces, toppings put on them. A tax would be impossible to define.

Pizza can be healthy, homemade burgers can include some of the "5 a day"...

Well obviously there are experts to define,Maybe based on calories or the such.
More education obviously or maybe put it on the school Curriculum Healthy eating,fitness etc..

Quandary

Ayla wrote: »

so would you support the policing of parents who have obese children, so that they are imprisoned under child abuse/neglect?

As far as I am aware, not feeding a child resulting in malnourishment (sp?) would be considered a form of child abuse.

Why should over feeding a child to the point of morbid obesity be different?

mikemac

Our local national school banned sweets and soft drinks for sos and lón years ago for Monday to Thursday. Works well, if you want your local school to do this maybe raise it in a meeting.

The school has subsidised milk from the local creamery if parents want to sign up, costs very little. Again, might be something can be arranged in your area, sure it's a captive market and sales for the local creamery, they'll get involved
Great craic in winter, when the milk gets frozen outside

You mightn't be able to do much at all but you can introduce some good policies in your local school

Ayla

Not as easy as that. Calories are heavily dependent on cooking methods (ie: steam vs fry, for instance). And as i said before, a burger out of a chipper is going to have vastly different nutritional value than one made at home w/ fresh ingredients.

And you can teach the kids all you want, but if parents don't cook well at home (out of laziness, fear of trying something new, supposed cost factors, etc) it won't make a difference.

Prop Joe

Ayla wrote: »

Not as easy as that. Calories are heavily dependent on cooking methods (ie: steam vs fry, for instance). And as i said before, a burger out of a chipper is going to have vastly different nutritional value than one made at home w/ fresh ingredients.

And you can teach the kids all you want, but if parents don't cook well at home (out of laziness, fear of trying something new, supposed cost factors, etc) it won't make a difference.

It all comes down to cost..Maybe educate this generation but i feel the government maybe at education level need to jump aboard this ship.It is a dangerous situation

Edward Carson

Zamboni wrote: »

I got very angry today driving into work.

A school girl of about 12 (I'm guessing) was walking down the road.
The poor child was about 5' 7' and about 16st. She was huge.

The level of contempt I felt for her legal guardians, whoever they are, was overwhelming.
The guardians of this child have forced her into a life of poor health, disease, mockery and misery.
Any persons that treated a child with physical violence, sexual abuse or malunitrition would be addressed by the appropriate authorities, but in the case of feeding a child to death by the 'over loving' parent, it is simply ignored.
This child is not loved.
This is the problem with being PC about obesity, it's causes and effects.
The next time you hear about fat people complaining about paying for bigger seats on planes or some other nonsensical issue based on there own disgusting feeding habits, think about the thousands of poor children that are being forced into a life of physical disease and mental abuse through misery.

This post may not be as coherent as I would like but I am fuming.

I share your anger in relation to this issue. In my city such children are invariably the offspring of lazy and gluttonous parents, so as sad as the situation is, it's seemingly inevitable.

Up here the sight of children being driven laughably short distances to school is all too common. Is it the same south of the border?

CrazyRabbit

I usually cringe when I see these type of threads. Most people jump in with the 'tax unhealthy foods' or 'ban fast food places' or 'ban certain foods' etc. Not really tackling the root cause.

Unhealthy foods aren't the cause. I am the perfect weight for my height/build and yet do indulge in some very unhealthy foods. I just exercise which brings balance.
I usually eat healthy food at home/in work, but sometimes go to McDonalds when I'm out and get hungry.

And I don't think it's fair that I have to pay more for some foods just because some people over consume them.

No...the problem here is education, the lack of availability of tasty, convenient & cheap healthy foods. And it is indeed the blame of parents for not monitoring their kids food intake, and not encouraging exercise.
Saying that, some people are genetically disposed to gaining weight easily, so I wouldn't expect every child/person to be at 'normal' weight.

Zamboni

Edward Carson wrote: »

I share your anger in relation to this issue. In my city such children are invariably the offspring of lazy and gluttonous parents, so as sad as the situation is, it's seemingly inevitable.

Up here the sight of children being driven laughably short distances to school is all too common. Is it the same south of the border?

Strangely enough, accoring to various studies, the level of activity has not greatly changed in children over the last five decades.
Of course sedentary lifestyle is a significant contributing factor but the main issue is simply too much food. Too many calories.

Zamboni

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

No...the problem here is education, the lack of availability of tasty, convenient & cheap healthy foods. And it is indeed the blame of parents for not monitoring their kids food intake, and not encouraging exercise.

Healthy food is actually not expensive.
It only appears expensive when compared to junk food on a calorie to calorie ratio.

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Saying that, some people are genetically disposed to gaining weight easily, so I wouldn't expect every child/person to be at 'normal' weight.

Even in the case of a genetic predisposition to gain weight, excess calories must still be consumed to acheive obesity.

Moonbeam

Some people can also eat anyhting and remain a size 8.

Healthy food is cheaper but it takes more effort. A burger and chips is easier to cooke then a roast with veg.

Prop Joe

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

I usually cringe when I see these type of threads. Most people jump in with the 'tax unhealthy foods' or 'ban fast food places' or 'ban certain foods' etc. Not really tackling the root cause.

Unhealthy foods aren't the cause. I am the perfect weight for my height/build and yet do indulge in some very unhealthy foods. I just exercise which brings balance.
I usually eat healthy food at home/in work, but sometimes go to McDonalds when I'm out and get hungry.

And I don't think it's fair that I have to pay more for some foods just because some people over consume them.

No...the problem here is education, the lack of availability of tasty, convenient & cheap healthy foods. And it is indeed the blame of parents for not monitoring their kids food intake, and not encouraging exercise.
Saying that, some people are genetically disposed to gaining weight easily, so I wouldn't expect every child/person to be at 'normal' weight.

I know it's not fair like i smoke and just because i don't have cancer i have to pay more..booo you.

C'mon it's for the greater good,Ireland could be the first country to lead the way with this,Much like the smoking ban

Ayla

Moonbeam wrote: »

Healthy food is cheaper but it takes more effort. A burger and chips is easier to cooke then a roast with veg.

Actually, I completely disagree...you can pop a roast & veg in a slow cooker in the morning & wind up with a gorgeous (and healthy) stew by the time you come home from work in the evening. It takes more forethought but it's definitely no harder.

Homemade burgers & chips take minutes to make from scratch and are much healthier & tastier than premade processed stuff.

mikemac

Prop Joe wrote: »

C'mon it's for the greater good,Ireland could be the first country to lead the way with this,Much like the smoking ban

Ireland was one of the first countries to have restrictions on advertising aimed at children.

Came about in the wake of the McLibel trial if you've heard of it.
Ireland can lead the way in some issues

mikemac

If it has an ingredient you cannot pronounce or your Granny never heard of it, put it back on the shelf

CK2010

I think healthy eating is much more expensive when you're starting out, things like herbs and spices that most dishes call for cost alot if you're buying them all for just one dish, but as you stock up and continue to make the dishes with the same ingredients it levels out a bit.

same goes for if you're buying just one banana every day it will be more expensive than buying a bunch at the beginning of the week. that goes for all veg and fruit actually thinking about it. one nice soup mix that you can pick and choose from over two days would work out alot better than buying each single veg every time you make a soup/meal. and it can be really expensive if you dont realise that.

so if people are really going to give it a go they should expect it to seem really expensive at first til they learn to plan and buy in bulk. and i think alotofpeople dont realise this and they give up because at first it is actually really expensive.

Morag

It is more expensive when you compare the cost of a roast chicken dinner with the cost of two frozen pizza's and a kilogram of frozen chips.

SteelyDanJalapeno

Processed food has only been around for the past 100 - 150 years ago, its no coincidence that heart diseaze, diabetes and other nutrional diseazes have dramatically increased in this period,

everyday you buy something from the supermarket we're voting as the item passes the till, if its cheap processed food, we're supporting usually massive food production companies over processing corn, yup most of the processed food you buy is a derivative of corn, which may aswel just be sugar, if its in a sealed wrapper its usually no good,

if we could just start buying some fresh veg and meat, demand will increase, prices will come down, your local farmer will stay in the job, processed food will become less popular, diseaze will decrease, people will become healthier!

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!

Zamboni

Sharrow wrote: »

It is more expensive when you compare the cost of a roast chicken dinner with the cost of two frozen pizza's and a kilogram of frozen chips.

I acknowledge that junk food, calorie to calorie, is cheaper than healthy food for the most part but...
Does this absolve a parent from its responsibilty to ensure the child gets appropriate nutrition?
Does it justify obesity levels in children?

I don't think it does.

The cost of junk food actually becomes irrelevant because it is not food that a child needs.
The simple question is can one afford to feed a child a healthy diet adequate to its needs. Yes they can but they choose not to.

planetX

Healthy food is more expensive. I'm veggie and buy a lot of fresh veg and fruit - unless you stick to the 3 or so most common types, it costs a lot. I'm on a low income and my biggest extravagance is a fresh fruit salad for dessert... much much cheaper to buy a cake or icecream which is what I usually end up doing. I can't afford the food I'd actually prefer. There's no doubt it's cheaper to give your kids nuggets and chips.

melekalikimaka

if people are 'genetical disposed' to being over weight, they should watch what they eat, and parents should watch their childrens diets who suffer from it, blaming it on genetics is a cop out, look after your children or live with the knowledge your reducing your childs life expectency and ruining his or her standard of living

Morag

It's not just the cost of processed food, it is also the convenience of it.
Cooking and getting the most out of the house hold food budget is to many a lot skill set.
Yes there are programs in school about healthy eating and there are classes for parents who wish to attend but, for a lot of people they were not taught to cook at home and consider processed convenience food as normal to eat every day and at most meals.

melekalikimaka

also i read something recently in an article, if you cant see your childs rib cage her or she is over weight... no joke