I've been noticing....

very true and just as sad!! my biggest issue.......have you seen the school lunches that the kids get. NASTY!!!!! My kids will never buy school lunch.

^^^ So true! My daughter takes her lunch to school every day. I'm so happy she does because that food is all crap.

Luckily for me in school they had MTO sandwiches. I'd get turkey with lettuce tomato and green pepper on wheat every day with a bottle of water. Much better than greasy pizzas and popcorn chicken!

I work in a very low income school. Trust me, most of these kids are not eating better at home. We can make lunches healthier true, but many of my kids need the calories becuase they won't get dinner.

Yeah that sucks. A few of my friends in school were like that. But they would buy cookies and desserts and sodas as extras (more expensive than teas and fruit extras) despite those not filling you up at all. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but it always made me uneasy when they were spending their parents little bit of extra money of crap instead of something nice.

You're very right! A lot of parents do complain about not having enough for good food, but still manage to have a flat screen on 24/7. But then again, bad logic and lazyness is a good reason they're low income as well. The kids just need enough food to get through the time they spend at home, unfortunatly.

I just don't understand why people fill their cupboards up with expensive snack foods, you know? Especially when they say they don't have enough money. Food stamps buy fresh vegetables too. My friend's mother is on disability and spends her entire check going to fast food restaurants, then complains about having no money or food in the house! I'd never put down someone who struggles like that, but it's about making better choices /:

Every time I shop I see people judging whats in my cart. It irks me out! I do the same thing as someone above said, hiding my husbands snacks and cookies under my fresh fruit LOL. My husband can eat whatever he wants to without gaining and since I do all the grocery shopping I make sure he gets the items that he wants. Not going to lie, he can eat an entire pack of Oreos during an hour or two of Call of Duty, but I do make sure he eats healthier dinners. He does a 5k once per week so its not a big deal to him. I went to the grocery store the other day and got weird looks because I had so much lean ground turkey in my cart hahah!

I also pack my kids lunch everyday. The school lunch is scary!! For example, pink slime???? Ever see the Jamie Oliver project? Plus it costs me more to feed them the junk from school than to pack it myself. Don't get me wrong... in their lunch there may be cookies but I pack them fresh fruit, low fat pretzels, carrot sticks and yogurts for example. My kids are also very active..ballet, jazz and gymnastics...EVERYTHING I was not when I was a kid.!! I was the couch potato with the potato chips lol. So glad they are different

very true and just as sad!! my biggest issue.......have you seen the school lunches that the kids get. NASTY!!!!! My kids will never buy school lunch.

This is so very true. The district is so strict on nutrition. Kids aren't allowed soda and candy in their lunches. I agree with this. But also they are not allowed a lot of other things that I consider a healthier alternative like goldfish crackers. Yet they feed the children what they have approved. Pizza is BTW approved as a vegetable (I mean really?) And the teachers wonder why the kids are out of control. Chocolate milk is served with every meal. (not only high in sugar but contains caffeine) They serve sugar loaded cereal for breakfast but they can also have a piece of toast. Toast that is covered with sugar and cinnamon. It's so dumb.

As far as the shopping thing. I try not to judge. I agree you are what you eat. Those families that are buying junk and are overweight is sad. I don't think it's all because they are uneducated either. Lets face it. Eating healthy is expensive and time consuming.

So true. Some people just don't understand why they are fat. Cookies, chips, pastries are part of their regular diet. Just cut those things out and a person will lose weight.

I have also notice the same thing at an amusement park. The fat people are snacking on bags of chips, and more in their stroller. The not fat people are not snacking in line.

I agree, but sometimes that family might not have much money and have to go with some things that are not exactly healthy like ground beef its cheaper than other meats but full of fat. I was at walmart the other day a this guy(big guy) was pushing 2 carts full of frozen foods, chips sugary drinks, So I dont think he was shopping cheaply , frozen foods are expensive and taste like crap. I do buy icecream as a treat for my kids and my husband has to have his peanut butter panic icecream....I love the produce section and will take my sweet time there . I always look in peoples carts, on a hungry bad day I may have a lot (but not all) junk in mine , but my husband and kids are healthy and slim so people probably wouldnt judge me ( its sad that society will think someone is lazy or a pig because they are overweight) MY extra pounds came mostly from a health condition so I never assume anything about someone else.

very true and just as sad!! my biggest issue.......have you seen the school lunches that the kids get. NASTY!!!!! My kids will never buy school lunch.

This is so very true. The district is so strict on nutrition. Kids aren't allowed soda and candy in their lunches. I agree with this. But also they are not allowed a lot of other things that I consider a healthier alternative like goldfish crackers. Yet they feed the children what they have approved. Pizza is BTW approved as a vegetable (I mean really?) And the teachers wonder why the kids are out of control. Chocolate milk is served with every meal. (not only high in sugar but contains caffeine) They serve sugar loaded cereal for breakfast but they can also have a piece of toast. Toast that is covered with sugar and cinnamon. It's so dumb.

As far as the shopping thing. I try not to judge. I agree you are what you eat. Those families that are buying junk and are overweight is sad. I don't think it's all because they are uneducated either. Lets face it. Eating healthy is expensive and time consuming.

hahahahaha omg the pizza thing. I laughed so hard when I read about that, but it's so sad that it's true! I never ever ate school pizza, it was way too greasy and gross! I doubt pizza as a vegetable is any better.

I really hate to see a Mommy's shopping cart full of soft drinks....my pet peeve is to see a bunch of Mountain Dew in a cart that I know kids will consume. It's so bad for their teeth, makes them hyper and sets them up to be overweight.....I could go on and on about this topic.

I feel the same way about my mom and little brothers. /: She drinks diet soda, always has, but didn't bring us up on it! I would have been so much better off as a kid being given diet Pepsi. Definitely doing this with my kids.

Don't do that either! I drink diet pesi, so my kids do too. (its something i am weaning myself off of) Diet pop is just as bad, maybe even worse than regular soda. Emphasize water and natural juices! Moderation is key, so i don't restrict everything, just how often they get it.

My dad worked at KFC, so all I ate when I was a kid was fried chicken, macaroni and cheese and hot dogs, soda and pizza. I was small until I hit puberty, then i blimped up so bad. I hated my parents for really never showing me how to be healthy and me having to fight with it like I always have.

I work in a grocery store, in a small town. I know what people are eating and I can say with confidence that the families with overweight kids are eating a ton of processed, easy, quick foods.

Generally the families with smaller sizes are the ones buying fresh foods..

but I will say there is the odd teenager who eats only sugar and/or skinny adult who is constantly buying frozen pizzas, ice cream, etc... it's just not often.

Another trend I've noticed?

If the parents are overweight the kids are almost always the same. It's only very rarely you see a rotund parent with a skinny child or a rotund child with a skinny parent. Clearly the issue here IS the food being eaten, not physical activity levels or even health issues when it's so uniform across the family.

I only know one family where the parents are all overweight and their child is normal size... I'm sure there are more but I personally have only seen one. (Oh, and the family in question? The mother often calls her daughter fat. Her skinny, normal sized daughter!!! Whereas the mother is at least four times the size of her daughter and an inch shorter! That drives me crazy!!!!)

You are right though...you are what you eat.

That is odd............. I don't remember eating any sexy beast!

I get really bothered when I am in the checkout line at the grocery store. While I am waiting my turn, I can't help but to look at other carts. It really bothers me when I see a mom with young kids and nothing but frozen dinners. One time, and I am not exaggerating, the lady in front of me had thirty dinners. She told the cashier that she makes her kids fix their own meals and that the frozen dinner was the easiest thing for them to do. I am all for teaching your kids to learn to do things on their own, but I think she was doing more harm by letting them fix *just* frozen dinners for each meal.

In a similar vein, my mother has always had poor eating habits. After her sixth heart attack, we decided it was not safe for her to drive any longer. As a result, I now accompany her on her grocery shopping trips. We have argued about her food choices, to the point of her crying, right in the middle of the grocery store. One argument was over the health benefits of Spam (one of her favorites). You just can't help some folks.

I get this, but there are people who can't afford a stove and their apt. "units" only come with or can fit a microwave. Maybe their only choice to lose weight is low calorie food that does not need to be cooked (fruit, veggies raw) and flat out calorie restriction.

My husband and I can are living in a small trailer, so conventional cooking is not an option. It's not an excuse either, so people like us can really just focus on eating less, if not necissarily "better". All though, raw foods like nuts, apples, and carrots are better anyway!

Instead of a microave, I would opt for a toaster over... I live in an appartment where real ovens are forbidden, so that's what we use. It's just as good as a real oven and can cook pretty decent sized things.. it even takes less space than a microave!

Alot of children these days like cake, candy, and McDonald's. It's hard to break them of that, and not everyone wants to go through the trouble. My kids know that if they don't eat what I cook, they can wait to the next meal. Luckily they're not too bad at eating healthy, but they're kids and they all seem to have a sweet tooth (like me).

This is why building good diet habits are so important. Your kids might be skinny now, but if you teach them that cookies and cakes and potato chips are okay and keep them in the house, they won't be when they're in high school (what happened to me.)

My 9 yo brother is unhealthily over weight and mom's all but pushed every drop of snack food out of the house and replaced them with diet sodas, fruit, and other alternatives. He has tantrum after tantrum about it, but I'm so glad she's staying strong!

While agree with the comments of making wise choices at the grocery and wise choices in what we eat....lets be careful about how judgemental this all sounds. After all, a lot of you have made some super sized mistakes your self or you wouldn't have the weight/eating problems that you have. It sounds like now since you think you have conquered making poor food choices you are better than the people who you are judging. Maybe you don't really feel this way, but in written form, it sure sounds like it.

Everyone has weaknesses or ignorances that need to be corrected....lets be a bit more compassionate to our fellow human being.

THANK YOU.