I hate cooking but still cook from scratch everyday. He fixes his own lunch when on holiday, I have taught him to cook pasta, jacket potatoes and a few easy meals. As most teens he eats his body weight in bread everyday but as he swims competitively and trains 12 hour a week, he is pretty lean. I am a believer in proper square meals and I encourage him to eat a proper meal that will tide him over to the next meal without the need to graze.The causes of obesity in young people, and older too, are more complex than simply the number of fast food joints on the high street. Lack of physical activity; sport has become commodified and expensive so the only place where physical activity is free is the local park, which is why parents support any attempt to make these more attractive to our children with new amenities. Too much screen time, and yes, poor quality cheap food play a part. A Mc Donalds meal is priced to be affordable to young people. It is much cheaper than a home cooked meal. The physical environment does not help with the onslaught of messages and brightly coloured snacks telling us to eat at every turn, that we must never feel hungry but eat that snack as soon as we feel a twinge. My son walks in to a WH smith to buy a birthday card and is offered a king size bar of family size chocolate for £1. I am able to refuse this and in fact, I walk out without buying anything when I am upsold to as a protest against the practice, but a young person will see it as a great tasty bargain.It is easy to resist high calorie food when it is not an intrinsic part of your environment as was the case when I was a child and probably the case for many of the contributors to this forum. Who has not picked up a 'treat' when paying for petrol or had a bargain muffin with that coffee on the way to work?
Kim Rugg ● 2730d