Childhood obesity: Clearly parents' fault and not the garbage-peddling store giants
With childhood obesity more of a problem than ever before, we should all make sure to blame parents instead of widespread poverty and soaring prices for decent food
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The Barrie Hudson Column
Barrie Hudson is a known quantity when it comes to writing words. Sometimes he even spells them correctly. In fact he has been writing words in the Swindon area for more than two decades. First of all for the Swindon Advertiser and then for Swindon Link and now for The Ink. Here are some of his words…
When the only logical explanation is lazy modern parents force-feeding their children breezeblock-sized lumps of lard
According to recently-released data from a respected organisation called The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), more than four in 10 Year Six pupils - that’s children aged 10 and 11 - will be obese or overweight by 2035 if current trends continue.
As things stand, 36 percent of primary school leavers are obese.
This news was greeted by many a professional commentator, not to mention countless people on social media and newspapers’ online reader comment sections, with strident condemnation of modern parents and their lax, indulgent approach to childcare.
Quite right, too.
When distressing data such as this emerges, it is crucial for blame to be directed squarely onto the shoulders of those who are solely responsible. There can clearly be no question whatsoever of anybody else having a hand in this dreadful situation, which has lifelong health implications for millions of people, what with obesity being a factor in a grim array of debilitating and even potentially lethal conditions ranging from heart disease to bone problems.
It is clear to me why childhood obesity has soared in recent years. The reasons are as follows:
Unlike sensible parents in the past, parents these days are completely mad. Why they are completely mad is open to debate. Maybe it is something to do with video games or TikTok. Whatever the reason, their being completely mad is the reason why they have decided that having obese, unhealthy children whose life expectancy might ultimately be compromised is something they should aspire to rather than trying to avoid at all costs.
Unlike sensible parents in the past, these mad modern parents are also not very clever. They do not realise, for example, that feeding themselves and their children vast quantities of unhealthy food is bad for them and likely to result not only in obesity but also in a veritable cornucopia of other unpleasant health outcomes.
Unlike sensible parents in the past, these mad modern parents like nothing better than to feed their children constantly on the most unhealthy food imaginable, whether it’s a breezeblock-sized lump of lard studded with sugar lumps for breakfast, a catering-sized platter of cakes for lunch or a bucket of treacle with a stick of seaside rock in it for dinner.
If necessary, the mad modern parents will force their children to eat these enormous servings of unhealthy food by means of a big funnel and some sort of plunger, a bit like in classic Vincent Price horror film Theatre of Blood when a character played by Robert Morley is forced to eat his own poodles in a pie.