You know children are poor if they are fat says minister
CHILDREN from poor families are easily identifiable because they tend to be fat, the public health minister has suggested.
Anna Soubry, 56, said when she was at school pupils from deprived backgrounds tended to be "skinny runts". But cheap and easily available junk food meant that had reversed.
Her comments came after she threatened food manufacturers with legislation unless they cut the amount of fat, sugar and salt in products.
Miss Soubry said the culture of "TV dinners" had eroded structures of family life and led some homes to dispense with a dining table entirely.
The Tory MP for Broxtowe, Notts, said it was "heartbreaking" that the poorest were among the most at risk of obesity. "A third of our children leave primary school overweight or obese," she said.
"When I was at school you could tell the demography of children by how thin they were. You could see by looking at their eyes."
They would be described as "the skinny runts" because they were not getting the right food, she said.
"When I walk around my constituency, you can almost now tell somebody's background by their weight." She suggested some parents thought cheap junk food was the only way to feed their children.
She said on her way to work at Westminster, she saw parents buying their children unhealthy "breakfast buns" from fast food shops.
