Peer-reviewed article
Cultural Beliefs of “Healthy Plump”: Parental Perceptions and the Endurance of Obesogenic Practices in Medan, Indonesia Families
Wellina Sebayang, Evawany Yunita Aritonang, Zulhaida Lubis, Henri Sitorus, Ida Yustina et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This qualitative study looks at why parents in Medan, Indonesia, continue to see plump children as healthy. It draws on in-depth interviews with parents of school-age children. Parents linked generous feeding to care, love and good parenting, and this belief persisted even when they knew about childhood obesity risks. Everyday practices such as unlimited snacking, unsupervised school purchases and food gifts supported permissive eating at home. The authors suggest prevention needs to address cultural meanings of parenting, not only provide nutrition information.
Key points
- Parents' ideas of health are rooted in historical socio-cultural beliefs in which abundant feeding symbolises care, compassion and parental duty.
- Parents made statements such as "obese children are healthier than thin children" and "children should eat according to their appetites".
- Daily practices including unlimited snacking, unsupervised school purchases and celebratory food gifts reinforce permissive eating environments.
- These beliefs persist despite growing biomedical awareness of childhood obesity.
- The authors argue for culturally located digital health education tailored to parental belief systems rather than purely information-based interventions.
Limitations
The abstract does not state the number of parents interviewed or how they were selected, and findings from one city may not apply to other parts of Indonesia. It does not test any intervention or measure children's weight or health outcomes.
Abstract
For generations throughout Indonesian families, the normalization of the culture of "fat children" has been strongly linked to the idea of vitality, prosperity, and parental achievement. This qualitative study examines how these enduring cultural beliefs continue to shape contemporary obesogenic practices in households in Medan, Indonesia. Drawing from in-depth interviews with parents of school-age children, these findings reveal that parents' interpretations of health remain embedded in historical socio-cultural frameworks, where abundant feeding symbolizes the care, compassion, and moral of parental duties. Statements such as "obese children are healthier than thin children" and "children should eat according to their appetites" describe the normalization of eating autonomy, while daily practices including unlimited snacking, unsupervised school purchases, and celebratory food gifts reinforce permissive eating environments. This deep-rooted belief persists even in the face of growing biomedical awareness of childhood obesity. The study highlights the enduring tension between traditional feeding cultures and modern health risks, suggesting that childhood obesity prevention requires more than just nutrition education; This entails critical engagement with historical parental identities, the creation of cultural meanings of love and nurturing, and intergenerational expectations around "good parenting." These findings argue for culturally located digital health education tailored to parental belief systems rather than purely information-based interventions.