Midweek Rant: Overfeeding kids is child abuse. Period

[webfact]

Midweek Rant: Overfeeding kids is child abuse. Period

 

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Today Thailand is faced with an almost out of control obesity epidemic.

 

Thai women were named the second fattest in Asia yesterday and evidence of a population eating themselves to death is everywhere.

 

On any given day hospitals are overflowing with people suffering from the inevitable result of bad eating habits – diabetes.

 

In the last 20 years in particular many have abandoned good diets of rice and vegetable for fast food and 7/11 ready meals laced with fat and gunk.

 

More disposable income means increasingly people are piling on the calories.

Calories that don’t get burnt up because people are on Facebook all day long and not in the gym.

 

If they do go to exercise, then they do a few steps then claim they are tired and hot going home for more food, TV and social media.

 

But as bad as this is, it pales into insignificance by the threat to the most vulnerable group – the nation’s school children.

 

About a dozen years ago there was a boy at my international school who was clearly obese. At the time he stood out because most of the children exercised and were relatively well proportioned.

 

Ironically named “Big” I would see him over eating in the canteen. After school he would be across the road with his parents plying him with sweets and ice cream.

When alone he always had money for a large bag of potato chips.

 

Concerned, I went to the school authorities. I demanded action – I said this was nothing short of child abuse.

 

The British teachers sympathized but clearly indicated there was mot much they could do. Actually they didn’t want to upset the parents who paid their wages.

 

Thais of my acquaintance smiled but you could see they thought I had a screw loose. Wasn’t child abuse hitting them in class or at home?, you could see them thinking.

 

You see they were still mired in the absurd notion that fat equals rich.

 

Chubby and overweight equals cute. A popular and affectionate Thai nickname is "Uan" (fat).

 

Buying food and stuffing it into your kid’s mouth equals nurturing and taking care.

 

Rubbish – overfeeding your child, feeding them fast food, sweets, sugary drinks is not being a good parent.

 

It is killing your child and you are responsible.

 

In my house, with my kids, we had a battle. But I stuck to my guns against a wife who thought I was cruel and not being the best father I could be.

 

Why? Because I threw out the Coke – tossed away the chocolate and crisps – tipped the Sprite down the drain.

 

No more – we had water with meals. Freshly cooked meals made from good fresh ingredients.

 

Sweets and sugary drinks were kept for the occasional meal out or special occasions.

 

Years later my son thanked me for that stand in clearing the house of rubbish food.

 

But is that kind of thing happening in the average Thai household?

 

Dream on.

 

Adults are killing themselves with what they eat.

 

And parents are killing their children in the name of being kind – or just keeping them quiet with food that is basically poisoning them.

 

Why haven’t countries like Thailand – and others across Asia – learnt any lessons from the West?

 

Because the culture that says rich equals fat and poor equals thin is even more deeply ingrained than it was in, say, Victorian Britain.

 

Obesity in adults and especially children is spiraling out of control in Thailand as today's news attests.

 

Yes, the government and health authorities need to do their bit in regulatory measures and advice respectively.

 

But it is time the people woke up and realized that they need to take responsibility for themselves and their young people.

 

And stop killing themselves and their kids by overfeeding with bad food and drink.

 

Rooster

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-11-16

[AlexRich]

Improved income levels around the world is leading to a next generation that will live shorter lives than the generation before ... sad that Thailand is succumbing to the western disease.

[Samui Bodoh]

Good rant on a serious and manageable problem.

 

13 minutes ago, webfact said:

and 7/11 ready meals laced with fat and gunk.

 

I would argue that it is 7/11 (and the like) that is a large part of the problem. I have nothing against 7/11 and find them very convenient, but their presence everywhere, combined with their move into prepared food and the sweetened drinks, is the root cause of many health problems. I have friends who actually get the bulk of their meals from them now!

 

A few years back you could and would get healthy street food at a low cost, but the trend has been to move away from that. And as the trend has hit the parents, it follows on to the kids.

 

Encourage good, healthy street food at a low cost and avoid prepared, microwaved food like the plague.

 

And the children will follow.

[canuckamuck]

Can't blame every problem in the world on the west. Thais don't eat enough western food to make the epidemic. It is their own fast food that is laden with fat and sugar. And they have everything with white rice, usually three times a day. Westerners I know eat much healthier than the Thais I know.

[George Bowman]

I have no idea why kids are getting fatter...

[onlycw]

The availability of food outside meals at all times is the key issue, IMHO. People do like to eat because i. they may be thirsty and ii. despite not really being hungry.

 

One day, I was schlepping about 15 kg in 2 groceries bag. This made me think: "what if I lost that much weight, how would I feel? Not to carry that lard ass around would mean higher energy, more attractiveness and a feeling of self-worth. 

 

Does ketchup require >20% sugar? Try dropping those sugary drinks all together was a  good move. OP, thanks for your rant. We need to put children's needs first! (In Vietnam, I was written up for taking breaks. Kindergarten class. There are truly insane managers out there who want to punish kids. I've got news for you:

 

they cannot learn when they are tired!!! 

 

 

[Thian]

Well try buying a healthy meal in BKK...You'll be hours in traffic first, hours in a mall and hungry again before you're home.

 

For sporting it's too hot and dangerous on the streets, pools are expensive and small and loaded with bad mannered kids.

 

On cool nights loads of people here go out running/biking. But only in the compound since it's far to dangerous outside of it.

[OldSiamHand]

mcdonalds = mcyummy!

[marko kok prong]

The other problem is the frequency of eating,sure back in the old days five meals a day of rice and veggies maybe some fish or a bit of of pork if they were lucky was okay,trouble is they are now eatin 5 meals a day and half of it is crap from 7/11, or from street stalls were they add mounds of salt and sugar,for instance my Mrs 2 friends just showed up there is 3 in total,they must have 8 different dishes on the table,mounded up,this includes those awful Thai sausages,red pork,chicken,noodles rice som tam,and other stuff,yet in another 3 hours they will be at it again. 

[pumpjack]

100%  i totally agree with the OP

 

it is very very bad parenting levelling on abuse !!  

[Black arab]

Also those chicken,pork,beef,fish, balls luk shin?Deep fried and dipped in sweet sticky sauce.Yuk

[Andyfez]

I recently swapped my normal Birdy 3 in 1 coffee (45 calories) for another 'diet' 3 in  1 in 7/11.

Only to find it was 65 calories.!!!!!

 

Marketing is king in Thailand, and lies go unchallenged and unpunished.

Edited November 16, 2017 by Andyfez

[transam]

In LOS I reckon it is the addiction to sugar in everything.... That's why the fizzy drinks, dough nuts etc are making bundles....PLUS, must spoil the kids if we can afford it syndrome...

 

[Sir Dude]

Often overlooked here in Thailand is the quality of the street food now. Convenient, tasty and varied but healthy...a definite no. Sausages with 15% meat, processed luk-chin on a stick, mystery meat balls and all the other usual suspects made from the cheapest scraps of meat that can be found (and goodness knows what else) plus cooked in the sorriest excuse of an oil the vendor can find (probably often the old used oil that is cleaned for refuse), not to mention pouring sugar and chili onto soup dishes until they are happy with the taste. No wonder the heart hospitals are brimming full of people everyday. Although, if you cook and eat at home then you are considered as rich here now.

 

Yes, 7/11 and their ilk plus western fast food is a problem but it also extends to the local street fast food too which a far greater % of the population partake in and it's lack of healthiness probably plays a larger role. With both combined together...no chance.

[hawker9000]

'So many glaring deficiencies and so much neglect in parenting here and in so many places in recent generations, this is just one more symptom.  Kids arrive at adulthood with an understanding of very little outside of a pathologically bloated sense of entitlement, mostly to their own immediate gratification.  And they're indoctrinated to think of this is "progressivism".  As the planet continues to overpopulate, the problems we see today are only a whisper of what's to come.