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Are your children fat? Why are they fat?

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Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,395 ✭✭✭✭mikemac1


    Purdies - spuds, potatoes

    I should start a summer camp :)

    I spent many a day breaking my back as a young lad picking potatoes in the Midlands. I never ever heard anyone say purdies


  • Registered Users Posts: 739 ✭✭✭Cantstandsya


    conorh91 wrote: »
    No it isn't.

    Fatty foods, consumed to excess, hasten death and cause serious illness.


    The vilification of fat and the rise in "low fat" (i.e. high sugar) alternatives has a very direct link to the rise of obesity over the past 30 or so years.

    Your own ignorance on this suggests that the gap between you and the parents that you accuse of criminally damaging their kids' health is less than you seem to think.

    conorh91 wrote: »

    The "notion", as you put it, that parents can resist hastening their children's death, or resist causing child illness, is not "crazy".


    Reality would suggest otherwise. If all these ads have no impact and all humans are perfectly rational beings capable of deciding on the perfect course of action that is in both their and their children's' best interest, then why do so many people suffer from problems apparently caused by a lack of self control and why are the companies pumping millions into exploiting this lack of self control?

    Simply waving your hand and saying "they should know better" is crazy. The reality is clear to anyone that these ads work, that people are confused as to what actually is healthy owing to widely conflicting information spewed out by a media with little concern for scientific integrity and government departments that base their dietary recommendations on what is good for the agricultural and food economy.

    conorh91 wrote: »

    I don't care what kind of child psychology is employed. No European adult can credibly claim to have been be tricked into killing their child in such an obvious way.


    I'm afraid in any objective hearing they can quite credibly claim that. If not, why are no parents being charged with negligence for all this child abuse they're imposing on their kids?

    You yourself have been tricked as you parrot the industry line that eating fat causes obesity.

    conorh91 wrote: »
    I am in favour of taxing the Hell out of fatty foods and incentivising healthy eating.


    As noted, this is false. Fat taxes have been tried before and have failed. Eating fat doesn't make people fat.

    conorh91 wrote: »

    I merely wish it didn't have to come to that. I wish parents could behave responsibly in not hastening the death or illness of their children. I don't believe this is a lot to ask.

    I would bet that the vast majority of the parents with fat kits care very much for their kids and have no desire to hasten their deaths as you so crassly suggest. The reality is that there are fat kids around and we can all be as smug as we like about it. I'm sure you and all the posters on here celebrating their own parenting skills have zero personal issues or problems with self-control in any way. It just happens that being fat/ not being aware of how best to feed kids in a culture that purposely misinforms in this regard is a very visible example. You've demonstrated your own ignorance with your suggestion of imposing a fat tax so why so bemused by the idea that someone else might be a little bit more ignorant than you are?


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,170 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    I live in a working class area and there are very few fat children. Fat adults yes, but children no. The interesting thing is that I know a fair few obese parents, but crucially they have NOT passed on their habits to their children.
    Maybe, maybe not SFR. I've been to a few social gatherings where a large proportion of the adults(from the same families) were podgy all the way to obese, but the kids weren't. The kids were the skinniest humans in the room. Where they feeding the kids a better diet? Oh it's possible, but more likely that the kids being kids were burning off the calories in running around and fueling the business in growing up. I'd bet the farm if you fast forward ten years into the future the same kid's in their 20's would have a lot more large ones as a percentage, by 30 that would go up again.
    The vilification of fat and the rise in "low fat" (i.e. high sugar) alternatives has a very direct link to the rise of obesity over the past 30 or so years.

    Your own ignorance on this suggests that the gap between you and the parents that you accuse of criminally damaging their kids' health is less than you seem to think.
    +1000. fat is not the enemy. For all the anti carbs backlash to that, carbs(at least complex carbs) are not particularly the enemy either. Balanced meals and especially portion control is the thing. Like that English researcher bloke who lost a couple of stones by only eating at McDonalds for 6 months. He restricted his portions. It's less about what someone eats and more about how much someone eats.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,328 ✭✭✭conorh91


    The vilification of fat and the rise in "low fat" (i.e. high sugar) alternatives has a very direct link to the rise of obesity over the past 30 or so years.

    Your own ignorance on this suggests that the gap between you and the parents that you accuse of criminally damaging their kids' health is less than you seem to think.
    I am not ignorant of it, this is AH and people tend not to write with dogged scientific accuracy. By fatty foods I am referring to trans fats as one bad offender that I plucked out of the air as being a particularly serious offender. Of course, it is trite science that any food consumed to excess is going to have adverse health effects.
    Reality would suggest otherwise. If all these ads have no impact and all humans are perfectly rational beings capable of deciding on the perfect course of action that is in both their and their children's' best interest, then why do so many people suffer from problems apparently caused by a lack of self control and why are the companies pumping millions into exploiting this lack of self control?
    BECAUSE IT WORKS.

    Because people are too goddamn stupid to see the writing on the wall.

    Companies know this, and they market products that only the truly stupid would consume to excess. That's not the companies' fault. People buy all sorts of dumb stuff from lottery tickets to homeopathic shampoo. Regularly buying low quality foods high in trans fats (since we're being specific) fits on that spectrum.
    I'm afraid in any objective hearing they can quite credibly claim that. If not, why are no parents being charged with negligence for all this child abuse they're imposing on their kids?
    If kids are getting so fat that their health is being compromised, I believe that intervention is something that should be considered, and so do other people

    http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2012/10/should-you-be-prosecuted-for-feeding-junk-food-to-your-child/

    http://www.thewire.com/politics/2011/07/harvard-researchers-want-fat-kids-taken-their-homes/39894/

    I thought it was interesting that the Harvard paper suggested this doesn't happen, at least in the US, because the system would be swamped with kids taken from their parents.

    It's a crisis. People need to cop on.
    I would bet that the vast majority of the parents with fat kits care very much for their kids and have no desire to hasten their deaths as you so crassly suggest.
    I didn't say they have a desire to do it. I said they are doing it without properly reflecting on what they are doing.


  • Registered Users Posts: 242 ✭✭miss tickle


    krudler wrote: »
    They're not fat they're kidnap resistant.

    I remember a friend of mine making up a t-shirt logo 'Fat people are harder to kidnap', years later I spotted Clarkson on top gear was wearing it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 260 ✭✭bboybaboy19


    I remember a friend of mine making up a t-shirt logo 'Fat people are harder to kidnap', years later I spotted Clarkson on top gear was wearing it.

    Made it up years ago? Ah shtop.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,928 ✭✭✭Hotfail.com


    The thread title still makes me laugh... :pac:


  • Registered Users Posts: 596 ✭✭✭The other fella


    1 organic cucumber - €2.10

    Tesco frozen chips (1.5 kilo) - €1.15


  • Registered Users Posts: 242 ✭✭miss tickle


    I mentioned this in a previous thread. The "endemic" is simply overblown by interest groups. The likes of Operation Transformation will present an obese child and represent him as the norm rather than the exception.

    I live in a working class area and there are very few fat children. Fat adults yes, but children no. The interesting thing is that I know a fair few obese parents, but crucially they have NOT passed on their habits to their children. Whether it's down to them openly accepting that they won't let their child follow their path or down to the pressure they feel from other parents/the media I don't know.

    It just seems to me that when some tightly wound muppet sees one overweight child that it gives them licence to rant about an endemic in our society, conveniently ignoring the other 9 children at a normal weight they passed by on that day.

    As others mentioned, young adult/adult obesity is far more of a pressing issue.

    I notice the same myself, most kids at my child's school (which is where I would see them in large numbers) seem well proportioned. But it's hard to judge, I live semi-rural, so most kids would be outdoors a lot, not necessarily structured activity but generally playing outdoors.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,112 ✭✭✭Danonino.


    It's portion sizes I'm sure of it. Myself and a few friends were discussing it and its strange how parents don't see they are feeding small children portions that are adult sized or dish up the same portions as they themselves are having. There is also the fact that parents don't see their kids as overweight, they see them as their kids.

    But yeah, just to disagree with the above kids are most definitely getting bigger, the adults too. But its something that's not really talked about.


  • Registered Users Posts: 260 ✭✭SVJKarate


    Danonino. wrote: »
    But its something that's not really talked about.

    Said poster #211 ;)

    Actually I think it is talked about far too much, and not acted upon nearly enough. Get them to exercise if they want pocket money! Get them to exercise for 10 minutes for every hour on Playstation / XBox / Laptop or they have it taken off them.

    And of course, don't feed them rubbish, no matter how much pressure you're under.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,062 ✭✭✭Tarzana


    1 organic cucumber - €2.10

    Tesco frozen chips (1.5 kilo) - €1.15

    What does a non-organic cucumber cost? Would be a better comparison.


  • Posts: 0 CMod ✭✭✭✭ Holland Thousands Llama


    leahyl wrote: »
    It's down to both diet and lack of exercise. I know a woman who bought a tablet for her 2 year old daughter recently...it's designed for kids but seriously - a 2 year old?! .

    What has that got to do with anything? Sounds like a great way of helping her learn to read, use computer stuff, etc


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,641 ✭✭✭RollieFingers


    Luke Shaw's folks have a lot of explaining to do!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,070 ✭✭✭✭pq0n1ct4ve8zf5


    bluewolf wrote: »
    What has that got to do with anything? Sounds like a great way of helping her learn to read, use computer stuff, etc

    Kids sitting on their arse inside is a big part of the problem. Keeping active and not getting fat in the first place is a lot easier that getting active and losing weight. I'd try and keep tablets/consoles/TV as small a part of kids' lives for as long as possible, because once they're in, they're in, and the arse-sitting increases exponentially.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,272 ✭✭✭lightspeed


    Piss Poor Planning permission has a lot to do with it. I live in balbriggan and nearly every second shop/business in the town is a fast food outlet. The rest are pubs and bookies.

    There is a McDonalds near the new tesco in balbriggan. I even seen a sign up on a window of the outlets of the shopping centre just to the left of McDonalds for planning permission for a take away. People would literally have to drive by McDonalds just to the right of them to get to this take away.

    Im quite amazed how willing people are in this town to open take away business next door to each other and no worry of competition.

    That is telling in itself. If their is such a supply of fast food outlets, why are more not going out of business due to competition? Clearly there is such an overwhelming demand to meet the supply.

    For the past few years in one of the local takeaways here, you can get a 12 inch margarita pizza and a can of coke/fanta for €5.00.

    I noticed some of the goodfellas range of pizzas in tesco were priced in excess of €5.00.

    I seen an advert in the town last week for the same place. €10.00 for two of the above 12 inch pizzas plus i think they were giving more ****e with it such has chips and dips.

    Inefficient gubberment policies at both a local and national level are to blame along with people eating cheaper sugar rich processed food more often than ever before.

    I cant understand how and why there are so many diet fads that exist. Its like exercise and proper diet is still to this day viewed as a theory and not a scientific solution to the problem.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,944 ✭✭✭✭4zn76tysfajdxp


    beks101 wrote: »
    Or food being used as a reward as a popular tool of parenting.

    Or people rewarding themselves with a takeaway and maybe some brownies or buns after work. Every day.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,530 ✭✭✭dub_skav


    Or people rewarding themselves with a takeaway and maybe some brownies or buns after work. Every day.

    Hey, I earned those brownies, sitting on my ass eating crisps isn't easy


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,110 ✭✭✭takamichinoku


    Tarzana wrote: »
    What does a non-organic cucumber cost? Would be a better comparison.
    Plus the electricity to cook 1.5kg of chips, gotta be about 50 cent at least!
    Everyone always leaves out the cost of electricity in these calculations and it really adds up
    ...unless I'm just somehow terrible at cooking chips*


    *I know it's the latter, they always take about twice the specified length :(


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 867 ✭✭✭Nanazolie


    Kids are fat for a simple reason: they eat all day, and so do the adults. Have you noticed that whatever time you go out to shop, people are eating? Cakes mid morning, cakes mid afternoon, a chocolate bar, a pack of crisps, etc. You go to any newsagents and there are more treats than magazines. You want to have lunch at 3pm in the afternoon? No problem, all cafés and restaurants are open non stop between lunch and dinner

    My kids went to creche and now they go to after school and it's the same pattern: breakfast - snack - lunch - snack - tea - snack -.... They don't need that many snacks. When I sent them to France last summer, they were staying in full board familly hostel, they had breakfast - lunch - snack - dinner. End of. They didn't starve. If anything, they adjusted pretty quickly and had a bigger breakfast. And they were pretty active all day


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,694 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    My kids aren't fat. They get sweet stuff basically every day, but small amounts of it.

    In terms of actual meals, they eat very healthily. Today's dinner was grilled salmon, broccoli, tomato, carrots, avocado and rice (although my son won't eat tomato). They had some ice-cream after it. We don't really see meals as different, so they're just as likely to eat that dinner for breakfast on another day - no breakfast cereals, basically.

    Lots of exercise whenever possible. My daughter gets that in school anyway, and my son will be out for walks and stuff like that.

    Most of the above just came about naturally, without much focus on their weight. The one thing that really was a conscious decision was to seriously restrict the amount of soft drinks they get.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,944 ✭✭✭✭4zn76tysfajdxp


    Nanazolie wrote: »
    Have you noticed that whatever time you go out to shop, people are eating?

    I've seen it in restaurants too.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,110 ✭✭✭takamichinoku


    Nanazolie wrote: »
    Have you noticed that whatever time you go out to shop, people are eating?
    Well... what? I don't get this part. :confused:


    It's what you eat, how much and how frequently. As far as I'm aware there's nothing conclusive in any which way towards a few big meals verses more smaller ones, happy to be corrected here though. :)
    The only times I've gained weight in a baddish way were when I tried sticking to big meals because I was piling in way more than I needed, everyone's different, basically... I think... maybe.


    I'd undoubtedly be a diabetic at this point if I wasn't constantly having to do work around the home place and farm cos my sugar intake was off the charts when I was younger. Don't think it was actually expected of me to do half the work I did, but I just got swept up in the busyness of the environment, so leading by example is prolly a big factor.


    Anyways, I'm sure it's endlessly said but that's nowhere near enough, kids seem like a fierce ****ing consistently huge amount of work. No clue why so many people are mad keen on having them. Could wax lyrical about all the things I'd do with one but, if it came down to it, I'm as likely as anyone to wind up grooming (not that kind of grooming!) them into being a bunch of static diabetic tubs of lard perpetually in front of a television so I could have a bit of a break.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 867 ✭✭✭Nanazolie


    Well... what? I don't get this part. :confused:


    of course you do.... Look around you, how many people do you see snacking on celery and apples? Stopping at cafés while out shopping (most supermarkets are conveniently located within walking distance of a café), surely people are not grazing on lettuce and carrot sticks?

    Same at school, there is this 'no junk food policy' but it's quite a joke, kids are out at 2.30pm and the first thing they do is get a snack (carrot sticks, surely...) at the nearby newsagent.

    At the creche, the healty food policy involves fish fingers, pizza and chips. For toddlers???


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 656 ✭✭✭NipNip


    No, my child is not. Because I'm not thick enough to overfeed her. Also, she has a natural ability to recognise when she is full! Shock horror! She is involved in several weekly activities which involve EXCERCISE. She is not opposed to moving her ass (especially when she has myself with her moving my ass as company). She gets fruit when she's 'starving' between meals.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 39,022 ✭✭✭✭Permabear


    This post has been deleted.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,944 ✭✭✭✭4zn76tysfajdxp


    Permabear wrote: »
    This post had been deleted.

    Wait 'til she eats it.


  • Site Banned Posts: 2,922 ✭✭✭Egginacup


    It's hard to say. My mother was a good cook and from what I can remember my daily diet since I was 5 consisted of juice (sometimes fresh squeezed, sometime's Libby's battery acid out of that big tin that you had to punch two holes into), conflakes, or weetabix or porridge, always with a teaspoon of sugar, tea, toast and marmalade. Lunch was sambos and milk in school or beans/scrambled egg/spagetti hoops on toast and tea on days off. Evening meal was always boiled spuds, vegetables, meat and gravy, followed by some kind of pudding .....stewed apples and custard, jelly and ice cream, or pears from a can( haha), again followed by tea and biscuits. Sometimes tea (evening meal) was a fryup, sometime just chops, tomatoes, tea and bread.

    Often when my mother couldn't be arsed (knackered) she'd send me to the chipper for
    all of us so we'd get fish and chips...always consumed with milk. There was no shortage of biscuits, buns, danish pastries, etc in the house as my mum has a sweet
    tooth, but there was NEVER fizzy drinks, ever except at Christmas. If you were thirsty your choices were tea, milk, juice or water. Maybe Ribena or Robinson's Barley Water.

    We did eat some processed crap too....crispy pancakes, tinned peas, packet soups, fish fingers, etc, but I was a child of the pre-microwave era so it was boil, bake, grill or fry.
    Exercise was walking a mile to school and back everyday and football up to age 12. Then it was 1 mile, 4 times a day till leaving cert. Most guys in my class were all pretty much the same build. Come to think of it most lads in the school were. Obviously first years were not as tall as 6th years but I can only remember 2 lads who were a bit beefy and got the odd slag. One was a bit fat but maybe only by 1 stone, the other guy was just big and healthy, strong as an ox, ate like a horse and was a good sportsman so he wasn't really fat, just "big".

    Do I have a point? Probably not, but back then nobody stayed indoors on the weekends. There was only one telly in every house and that was monopolised by your oul fella for sports on Saturday afternoon anyway. We did our fair share of staying indoors too back then too, it was just that we weren't playing with an XBox but rather listening to records or playing scalextric in your friend's house.
    We certainly ate lots of sweets and bought junk with our pocket money but one thing I notice is that every kid today is drinking fizzy drinks. I see mothers with litres of the stuff in their trolleys. Back in the day it was a luxury to be had on your birthday or Christmas, now it seems a gallon of the stuff is cheaper than a pint of milk and if you get the non-designer brand stuff then they almost pay you to take it.

    When I first went to the US at the age of 17 for the summer my aunt made me dinner the evening I arrived and a nice dinner it was too. It's just that I was expecting a glass of milk to go with it but a two litre of Coke and a two litre of Diet Coke were plonked on the table and my cousins just filled up their glasses. I went along with it but roast chicken and veg and gravy tasted weird with cola.

    ANYWAY, that's my meandering, droning response. I will say that in my youth everybody walked, cycled or took the bus some of the way to school. Nobody got a lift in a car. One lad in my class used to walk a mile to the bustop and THEN take the bus from Drumcondra to Swords.

    So we all walked to school and never really had fizzy drinks. But we ate sweets, chips, processed food just the same. And you were given enough to fill you. Sometimes a dinner was made for 2 days (shepherd's pie) and you weren't going to be given tomorrow's portion as well, haha.

    Oh, and there was always fruit in the house so if you were in grazing mode you might go through a couple of mandarins and a banana watching evening telly.

    End of ramble.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,322 ✭✭✭✭leahyl


    bluewolf wrote: »
    What has that got to do with anything? Sounds like a great way of helping her learn to read, use computer stuff, etc

    I just don't think a 2 year old needs to be introduced to technology....plenty of time for that when she's older, would it not be better for her to be active and play outside, get some exercise, rather than sitting inside on a tablet? You don't need a tablet to learn to read, she wouldn't be learning to read at 2 anyway. It just encourages lazy behaviour when they're older in my opinion.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,322 ✭✭✭✭leahyl


    Permabear wrote: »
    This post had been deleted.

    I didn't say if a child has an ipad that they are going to be fat...? Fair enough if she eats well and gets exercise etc but a lot of the time children who have these devices are not very active which leads to problems down the line. 2 years old is way too young though to have an ipad in my opinion


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,857 ✭✭✭Valmont


    I was just thinking the other day that there are a lot of fat kids around. I don't think people realise just how unhealthy sugar is -- even in small quantities.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,745 ✭✭✭Macavity.


    People overstate the importance of exercise when it comes to this issue, don't get me wrong, it's great and should be encouraged. But you get fat from eating too much, and a lot of parents are feeding their children more than is required.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,759 ✭✭✭DeadHand


    Would the whole paedophile paranoia thing be a factor?

    Seems like a lot of kids get driven too and picked up from everything now and aren't really allowed to explore their locality free of tight adult supervision as my peers and I were.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,605 ✭✭✭gctest50


    Valmont wrote: »
    I was just thinking the other day that there are a lot of fat kids around. I don't think people realise just how unhealthy sugar is -- even in small quantities.

    small quantities would be grand but its piled into lots of things


    http://www.techlivewire.com/4051/see-amount-of-sugar-you-consume-with-soft-drinks.html


    http://www.sugarstacks.com/beverages.htm


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,881 ✭✭✭John_Rambo


    Nanazolie wrote: »
    At the creche, the healty food policy involves fish fingers, pizza and chips. For toddlers???

    What crèche is frying chips and baking pizzas?

    Just so you know, fish is actually good for you. Most toddlers I know eat fish a few times a week, even if it's in breadcrumbs!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 95 ✭✭aqn29swlgbmiu4


    I cannot comprehend how someone could let their child get to the a state of obesity, just ridiculous!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,328 ✭✭✭conorh91


    It just seems to me that when some tightly wound muppet sees one overweight child that it gives them licence to rant about an endemic in our society, conveniently ignoring the other 9 children at a normal weight they passed by on that day.

    As others mentioned, young adult/adult obesity is far more of a pressing issue.
    I quoted and linked to statistical evidence for Ireland earlier.

    It's one in four nine-year olds who are overweight or obese, on aggregate.

    For nine-year old girls in poorer homes, this figure rises to about 40%.

    This isn't about anecdotes. It's data that most people want to ignore and tip-toe around.


  • Site Banned Posts: 2,922 ✭✭✭Egginacup


    Macavity. wrote: »
    People overstate the importance of exercise when it comes to this issue, don't get me wrong, it's great and should be encouraged. But you get fat from eating too much, and a lot of parents are feeding their children more than is required.

    Simple equation:

    What goes in - what is burnt = what's left.

    A doctor told me that and she's a nutrition expert.
    She also told me that if you are active rather than sedentary then your body is burning calories even when you are asleep.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 867 ✭✭✭Nanazolie


    John_Rambo wrote: »
    What crèche is frying chips and baking pizzas?

    Just so you know, fish is actually good for you. Most toddlers I know eat fish a few times a week, even if it's in breadcrumbs!

    A lot of them, unfortunately. My friend's son was given mashed fish fingers at 7 months. I know fish is healthy, but fish fingers contain about 50% of fish, so you can guess what the rest is made of.


    My 2 kids are actually underweight. They eat very differently. One has very grown up tastes, she eats anything from sushi to cornflakes to strong smelly cheese. She eats her weight's worth in fruits and can go through a punnet of cherry tomatoes in a single sitting. She also loves burgers, sweets and chocolate. We never have sodas at home, though, and desserts are usually yogurts or fruits. She has a tablet and watches a fair amount of TV, but she also spends a lot of time outdoors and walks to school every day
    The other one has sensory issues and will only eat white / beige foods, he might eat a fruit or 2 per day, never touches a vegetable, sticks to white bread and butter, sugary yogurt, cornflakes, etc. He eats a fair amount of sugar, not especially sweets but added sugar in cereals, etc. He is hyperactive (whether he eats sugar or not).

    Both of them seem to snack all the time (although I make sure that they snack on healthy foods, they also get ice cream, biscuits, etc) On their last visit to the GP, I was told they were underweight, but healthy. Maybe it's all the exercise they do, we even have a small trampoline indoors.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 387 ✭✭DaveDaRave


    Nanazolie wrote: »
    but fish fingers contain about 50% of fish, so you can guess what the rest is made of..

    Bread ?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 867 ✭✭✭Nanazolie


    DaveDaRave wrote: »
    Bread ?

    Breadcrumb ,Batter ,Vegetable Oil ,Breadcrumb: Wheat Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast, Paprika, Turmeric ,Batter: Wheat Flour, Water, Salt, Potato Starch


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,481 ✭✭✭Barely There


    Nanazolie wrote: »
    fish fingers contain about 50% of fish, so you can guess what the rest is made of.
    Nanazolie wrote: »
    Breadcrumb ,Batter ,Vegetable Oil ,Breadcrumb: Wheat Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast, Paprika, Turmeric ,Batter: Wheat Flour, Water, Salt, Potato Starch

    Nope, wouldn't have guessed all of those.


  • Registered Users Posts: 453 ✭✭diarmuid05


    Apologies if this was posted already - haven't read the whole thread



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 393 ✭✭Young Blood


    There needs to be a sugar tax of some sort brought in to deal with all the crap children are eating!

    Exercise is a habit created early in life and it's the parents duty to introduce it early in life.

    When I was a kid I had to cycle everywhere and rarely got 'lifts'. Luckily enough the habit has stayed with me and I run and cycle 5-6 times a week. If I didn't I would be pretty fat since I have a large appetite.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,673 ✭✭✭AudreyHepburn


    IMO if your children are overweight, you, the parents, are to blame.

    I'm sick of hearing the same old tired excuses people give that they don't have the time or money to feed their children healthy foods or that they just can't get their children to eat anything but sugary fatty foods.

    If you have the money to by all those processed meals that aren't actually food, and have the time to cook them then of course you have the time and money to buy proper ingredients and prepare decent healthy meals.

    Healthy food doesn't have to cost a fortune. If you really genuinely can't afford the few euros it might cost to say buy a nice piece of fish/meat/poultry and some fresh veg then you could grow your own veg like my Father does and just by the fish or the meat or the poultry. And it really doesn't take all to grill a nice fillet of fish and boil some veg to go with it.

    And as for the excuse that your children just won't eat anything but junk, that's rubbish. It's up to parents to teach their children how to eat properly and if all they eat is crap then it's because you taught them that's ok.

    Your children's health shouldn't have to suffer just because you are too lazy to put any effort into meals.

    Of course the fact that children are allowed to spend hours on end in front to television/games etc because parents couldn't be bother to or are to lazy to help them find other more active ways to amuse themselves doesn't help.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 867 ✭✭✭Nanazolie


    AudreyHepburn, you might want to read this: http://institutefornaturalhealing.com/2011/04/the-economics-of-obesity-why-are-poor-people-fat/

    As for growing your own vegetables, I'm lucky enough to have an allotment, but it's a misconception that growing your own fruits and vegs will be cheaper. It's not, unless someone gives you the tools, the seeds and pays for the compost, the allotment's rent, etc. The benefits are that it is quite satisfying, it's good exercise, the food is fresher and tastier, and it might entice the kids to eat what they grow.


  • Site Banned Posts: 2,922 ✭✭✭Egginacup


    John_Rambo wrote: »
    What crèche is frying chips and baking pizzas?

    Just so you know, fish is actually good for you. Most toddlers I know eat fish a few times a week, even if it's in breadcrumbs!

    Agreed, fish fingers and beans are a dream snack for kids along with milk and the fun bit is that they make you burp and fart. All round perfect for nutrition and entertainment.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,881 ✭✭✭John_Rambo


    Nanazolie wrote: »
    Breadcrumb ,Batter ,Vegetable Oil ,Breadcrumb: Wheat Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast, Paprika, Turmeric ,Batter: Wheat Flour, Water, Salt, Potato Starch

    Fish fingers are grand. You can flesh out the ingredients by repeating them twice in the one sentence, but they are good. A great fish introduction for kids that haven't grown up on fish.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 473 ✭✭DildoFaggins


    Learn to count your calories and have some form of exercise a few days a week likewalking dog,walking to the shops even if it amounts to 10 mins it still helps,doing pushups etc that you can do at home for free and you won't be fat.

    People always look for excuses these days.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,272 ✭✭✭lightspeed


    There needs to be a sugar tax of some sort brought in to deal with all the crap children are eating!

    Exercise is a habit created early in life and it's the parents duty to introduce it early in life.

    When I was a kid I had to cycle everywhere and rarely got 'lifts'. Luckily enough the habit has stayed with me and I run and cycle 5-6 times a week. If I didn't I would be pretty fat since I have a large appetite.

    A sugar tax does not work. They tried a soda tax in Denmark and reversed it after Danish business's suffered as people went to bordering countries such as Germany. Do it here and people will shop more in northern Ireland.

    http://news.msn.com/world/sweet-denmark-to-repeal-soda-tax

    Better planning permission where if it the council have a choice of having an empty shop or take away, they should opted for the empty shop for the benefit of the public in the long term. However of course that would mean the collection of less of council rates paid by business's.


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