Walk into any supermart and there will be aisles upon aisles of prepared packaged food.
It is cheaper and easier to toss a packet of something into a pot, add water and Presto! two minutes and dinner's ready.
For a change of your own two minute cooking, get some take away, no worries.
The price of meat is astonishing, I pay as much for two lamb chops as once I paid for a whole side of lamb.
Still a wholesome stew or pot of home made soup is good, better than better. And packaged or fast food is soulless, tasteless, junk.

GeorgeT: I dare say it has something to do with taking responsibility for one's actions/life (or for those of the people in your care). Whilst it's a generalisation, I would suggest there's perhaps a relationship between taking an active interest in the education of one's children (ie. not letting them be at the mercy of the state system) and taking an active interest in the health of one's children (ie. not letting them be at the mercy of mass marketing of food, electronic entertainment, etc.).

Yes, food manufacturers and outlets may be somewhat nefarious, but I think the problem is in large part due to the real deeper change in our culture -- a move towards a problem always being someone else's fault (that should be legislated against) and never our own.

A malignant hobgoblin that crouches on the top shelf of the refrigerator, sternly waggling its finger whenever you go back for a second helping of dripping?

Failing that, a man from the ministry of health to hand out nice gold stars to put in your workbook whenever you choose lettuce.

Perhaps the idea of letting people think about legislating over what and how we eat is symptomatic of an insipid society. One more idiotic step towards that great grey suburb of the soul where everything is made nice and safe for us. All according to current world best practice of course. Oprah Winfrey as law.

Since consideration is being given to ceding control over our bodily functions to expert bureaucrats, are spuds in the dieticians good books this week, or not?

Mind you, I haven't seen my nether regions without the aid of a wing mirror for 15 years now. Maybe there is something to it.

Tell your children they are not entitled to eat whenever they feel like it. Snacking between meals is not going to happen in your house. You are the leader, the boss, the King of the Castle. No one eats after six P.M. No junk, no crap.

Get off your ass, clean your room. Go outside and play. Eat an apple.

Is that so tough?

No, unless, you are the problem. No one wants to be the bad guy anymore.

Obese children are the result of irresponsible parents. Obese people are the result of lack of control and responsibility. As we live in an era that supports and encourages irresponsibility, nothing will change until society collapses under the weight of irresponsibility.

Blame multi nationals, blame work hours, blame the convenience of poison take away foods, blame bureaucrats, blame politicians, blame doctors. Have I left anyone out, if so blame them. But whatever you do, don't take responsibility for you or your children's obscene and destructive lifestyle.

After all you have the right to deny your own responsibility and feel good about it. Even when you are lined up to receive an organ transplant, or joint replacement, or heart bypass, you have the right to blame everyone and everything for your condition. Plus you have the right to expect the health system will cure your gross neglect of your body and restore you to pure health. Who cares if your old age is filled with pill taking, constant trips to the doctor or seeing your kids die before you, as their organs collapse under the weight of chemically saturated food and drinks. Not you, you have the right to not care.

Those that follow good dietary and lifestyle practises, spend their lives and retirement having a good time. Not constantly forking out for drugs, trying to cover the symptoms of a lifestyle thats slowly killing you.

The first place to start is in schools, with proper education in health, food preparation and combinations as well as how and why our bodies work as they do. Until you start at the bottom, you can throw as many quacks as you like into the system, all you do is make pharmaceutical companies richer.

I pretty much agree with that, Alchemist. It doesn’t apply to absolutely everyone, but it is a good generalisation.

How can we expect others to value our point of view, our input into discussions, our ideas or our intelligence, if we present ourselves as obese, overweight, pot-bellied or thunder-thighed adults, demonstrating to all the world that we are incapable, or don’t have the will-power, to look after ourselves??

Despite the advertising power of multinationals and the appeal of the unhealthy produce of many of them, there is still a lot of media presentation and advertising about good healthy alternatives and the basics of good diet and exercise. So we can’t too heavily blame the multinationals or the media (although a bit of criticism is warranted here and there).

I don’t think we need to call for more education on the matter (surely the basics are already covered in schools!?). We need to fairly and squarely place the onus on individuals, and parents where overweight kids are concerned