Our Healthy kids

Parents are responsible. If they give up caring, then they in reality giving up being a parent.


Provided by Independent Digital News & Media Limited

Are some non-alcoholic drinks addictive? You’ll know if you have a friend who has tried to stop drinking Coke – each 330ml can contains the equivalent of seven teaspoons of sugar – that it’s certainly very difficult. Diet Coke is just as hard to dump. It can take months to get it out of your daily routine.
Energy drinks factor in another addictive component: caffeine. It’s hardly surprising they’ve become so popular – we live in a busy society where everyone wants to achieve, hit targets, get to school on time, and fit in with their friends, whatever it takes.
The stomach-churning combination of a high level of caffeine and a dumper-load of sugar in one handy can gives me (standing nearly six feet tall) the shakes, so what’s the effect on a 10-year-old?

Up and down the UK, small grocery stores sell gallons of this stuff to kids every weekday afternoon when they leave school. Some poor sods actually drink it for breakfast instead of consuming real fruit and then head off to the challenges of the playground.
Worse, a popular cocktail for many older teens is half a bottle of vodka mixed with Red Bull – which, for the easily led, could be a gateway to something stronger, maybe some drugs to reinforce the buzz a bit longer.
This is the same kind of buzz that “recovered” addicts get from codeine. They stock up on Nurofen Plus for “down” days and the strongest energy drinks to try and mimic the harder substances they turned their backs on. Their reasoning is: I’ve given up the killer demons of alcohol and drugs, so what I consume (legally) in my time is nobody else’s business.
I understand the logic: if someone has passed the age of consent, I don’t think we can stop them ruining their health with legal stimulants. Banning is not the answer. The young and impressionable, however, are another matter – their health is a precious commodity – and there’s plenty of evidence that drinking and smoking in your teens hardens arteries and harms lungs in later life.
We should be extremely concerned about the way energy drinks are marketed to young people by the drinks industry – they’re targeted as aggressively at teens as alcopops were a few years ago. The soft drinks business has come a long way from those innocent days of “healthy” Lucozade – this modern stuff has four times the level of caffeine and sugar and its manufacturers are keen to ally themselves with sporting events and champions. I can’t see the link between a can of sugar and physical achievement, but I never bought into the notion that drinking an orange fizzy drink in a funny bottle would cure the flu or my childhood chickenpox.
Energy drinks might be alcohol-free, but they’re still awful for people’s health when consumed in large quantities – especially children’s. Having said that, isn’t it a bit late for the government to announce a consultation on whether to ban their sale to anyone under 16 or 18?
Their aim of halving childhood obesity by 2030 resulted in a sugar tax on soft drinks (criticised for not being tough enough) and now they plan to restrict the sale of beverages with raunchy names like Red Bull, Relentless and Rockstar Xdurance, sold in crass cans designed to appeal to the young. Teachers and doctors say these drinks are responsible for bad behaviour at school, a huge rise in dental decay, and a 40 per cent rise in type 2 diabetes. Well over a quarter of UK children under 15 are overweight or obese – and our children are the biggest consumers of energy drinks in Europe. In 2016, the UK market was worth £2bn, so manufacturers are not going to cave in without a fight.
Banning their sale to people under 18 is a small step, but it will not change an awful lot and it would be hard to enforce. I would take a different approach: these drinks should be treated like alcoholic beverages and taxed accordingly, because their consumption is placing a huge burden on the NHS.
Why pick on teens? Adults should be targeted too. I would ban soft drinks dispensers in spas, sports clubs, schools, petrol stations, motorway service areas and hospitals. Energy drinks should be rationed (like codeine and certain painkillers) at supermarkets – no more than two per customer over 18, on production of ID. Once the price has increased, they will be less appealing to the young anyway.
At the same time, we should follow other countries, like Iceland for example, and use any taxes raised to create community funding for after-school youth activities. Maybe we should take the radical step of imposing a curfew in certain urban areas – because there’s no doubt in my mind that a spike in violence is partly linked to the popularity of these stimulating drinks. They rot teeth, encourage obesity and are responsible for very much more.

The problems started and have progressively increased since the family units broke down.

Mothers have to work to have a higher standard of living than previously accepted as standard.


Women wanted and have become involved in every aspect of life, many of which would have been unthinkable years ago.


You cannot have a full time job and at the same time give the attention to children's activities as a mother should do.


Too many children are left to their own devices and with parents from all walks of life setting a bad example to their children.



Nature and creation shows that males have their roles and females theirs, buck nature and you see the results.

MPs a good example.

Regards.

all food and drink intake should be monitored by parents but seldom happens from what I can see,its ok as a treat but that's what it should be for not part of a diet ...Alfie loves lemonade but only gets it Friday night at the pigeon club he was on them horrible jelly sweets but soon got that sorted as theirs nowt worse clinging to yer nashers and rotting them away ,the best thing as a treat is chocolate rather than sweets but again not everyday,kids will whine on for these luxurys but it don't mean they have to have them everyday...hopefully by the time it comes to him making his own choices he will be educated enough to choose wisely we already have Alfie on grapes and apples and bannanas as sweet treats ...amazing how a apple on a stick dipped in honey goes down one of the champs favourite treats quite partial myself

when I was a kid, there was none of this fast food crap.......now theres one on every street corner, filthy, dirty places, cooking up god knows what to joe public.

then all we heard by the government and the do gooders, is we are all over weight and need to eat healthier and do more exercise.......

SIMPLE SOLUTION , SHUT THEM ALL DOWN !!!!

Too easy to just pop to the nearest fast food establishment, no washing up, no cooking etc;

Then have a bit of weed to end the day, or something stronger.


Life too easy to get by with doing very little.


Not all people neglect their responsibilities David, but too many from all walks of life indulge in that which is detrimental to society as a whole and to their children in particular.


Regards.

David wrote:

when I was a kid, there was none of this fast food crap.......now theres one on every street corner, filthy, dirty places, cooking up god knows what to joe public.

then all we heard by the government and the do gooders, is we are all over weight and need to eat healthier and do more exercise.......

SIMPLE SOLUTION , SHUT THEM ALL DOWN !!!!

Fish & chips was the big Friday night treat when I was wee lad here David. Then come Mc'Donalds, Hungry Jacks & old Colonel Sanders with his fried chicken as such     & then later the Kebab Pizza crowd for the final killer treat for the enjoyment factor . Now latest one down here sadly, is non alcoholic beer for the teenage crowd, to replace coke on their menu. Crazy world I suggest    .  

Well, mostly agreed to data of concerning 'Healthy eating ' and when and what may surprise some. 1955 the highly regarded the year.
Rations had just wholly finished, and people still had the trait of eating regularly. Eat leftovers the next day. What was given, had to make do in ration times dearly held to.  Food not waste, Bubble and Squeak a favourite on Mondays etc.
A little favourite, on the side of Potatoes, which was the filling food - like bread.
Bread as said that doorstep with cheese lasting well the 'Working Day' Breakfast, mid-meal dinner time and tea... supper! Well, not many afforded that luxury or Bad Habit. The body needed rest to replenish and not be still digesting food through the night.


The benefit of Labours of School meals HEARTY AND GREAT' with free milk was a boon against malnutrition suffered by 2/3s of the population. Family allowance used for what it was intended... to tie meals over to the next payday.

Kids made their' own fun. Games, Ratta tat Ginger, scrumping all ways on the move etc.


Mum or Granny, on hand day times also a boon to rearing kids … Especially after the dire straight imposed on the Evacuees. The 'Latch street Kids' when they had to be out - all weathers by 7 and not allowed in before seven... A little food, a wash and bed.

Fish and chips here too... well actually we had Pork Pie. Either a great one from the Coop, where I was Butcher Boy or Saxby's! What pies. Then when a manager at Tesco's a Saxby pie.

Neither now, as for a long time. Make me own. The bigger the pie you make the better it is in tastes and conformity. But when Only me eating Joyce will have a titbit some times.

It wasn't 1955 the best and healthiest year. It was 1945 through to 1955.

Also, though not letting parents off the hook, I do feel the dishonesty contrived, and condoned by the government's and their watchdog has a lot to answer for.
Sugar, salt-free etc. means it is hidden in other elements added. Can't blame parents for that.

Incredible and ridiculous amounts of sugar and salt in so-called Spring, mineral or fresh water. Plus the 'Unkind' flavours.

You know, Musella (Lol spelling, a Breakfast cereal) I actually 90% sugar!
Like these energy drinks. All of them are just Coffee and sugar with different favours!

Diet Coke etc. Is worse than full strength. Like alcohol free is more potent than normal alcohol and one can get ban on drinking less.

Our drug cupboard. Wife and I and daughter staying here until July 1.
I take 3 pills a day. Blood pressure and heart plus water pill.

halcanada wrote:

Our drug cupboard. Wife and I and daughter staying here until July 1.
I take 3 pills a day. Blood pressure and heart plus water pill.

Hope they are all on the free list there etc Hal . I'm a 2 pill a day man here, plus my daily dose of Seretide & Bricanyl for the enjoyment factor down here as such.