Cultural Beliefs of “Healthy Plump”: Parental Perceptions and the Endurance of Obesogenic Practices in Medan, Indonesia Families

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.