Can't afford to eat healthy food...

It is not what we eat that determines health but how much in proportion to how active we are.
Excess salt and sugar are not the only problem. Just as great a threat to health, if not greater, is food additives and preservatives, pesticide residue on most fresh fruit and veg and meat from animals that have growth hormones added to their food.
Wholly organic food really is beyond the reach of many.
The last Labour govt promised to do more to regulate the food industry but I think did very little.

I think I said it before but it's worth saying again - instead of all the cookery competitions (or perhaps as well as) could we have a repeat or a new series of Delia's 'How to Cook'.

Some people complained that it was patronising as she started with 'how to boil an egg' as far as I remember - but perhaps learning the basics is what is needed.

I would welcome it too, as cooking an egg (boiled or fried) is not my strongest area of expertise!

I can't answer for anyone else, but I am not being judgmental about overweight people - with my weight I can't afford to be. However, I do object to the excuses given for people not being able to cook. If they have learnt how to drive a car, work a computer, and read a newspaper, then learning how to cook a meal for themselves and their family is child's play, and learning how to put up with the boredom of doing it every day for years is no worse than overcoming the boredom of going to work every day. It is life.

I agree with you oldmeg. Overweight people are a burden the NHS just cannot cope with.

I get quite angry when people tell me I am "lucky" to be slim. Luck, has nothing to do with it. I have always eaten to fuel my body to the extent it needs. I ate more when running around after three under 5's, a bit less when I went back to work, and even less now that I am retired.

It is irresponsible to be overweight. Lots of people are going to remonstrate with me, but that is how I feel. Of course there are those who say they are overweight because of health issues - but often those issues are caused by the weight in the first place e.g. arthritis, diabetes, bad feet etc.

Finally, I do know, and have worked, with those who are overweight for a particular reason through no fault of their own, and my comments do not apply to them. But they are a very small minority. Will now duck to avoid all comments telling me I am prejudiced and uncaring.

It's a very complicated picture. And it is a class issue, unfortunately. People with more in their lives to give them pleasure are less likely to overeat. Whereas if you are limited to sitting watching tv it is easy to let the weight go on.
Also transport is an issue. If your only shop within walking distance is a convenience store that is where you have to buy your food.
As I had ulcers when I was young I developed a habit of eating little and often to keep the pain away. Even now I tend to snack.
Not good.
My DH has no idea what healthy food is. You might as well ask him to eat moon rocks. He is 74 and as fit as a flea.
Mind you he does work next door to an M&S food store.

123coco I totally agree. I always argue against ageism online when people say that we are all right wing reactionaries but then get embarrassed by the harsh judgmental attitudes that are becoming more common on here.

Why shouldn’t you be judgemental Nellie, I am. My take is if these people want to eat their way to an early death, fine! But when their gluttony is crippling the NHS then that’s a different matter.

There are enough people whose illnesses are not self inflicted who need the money they are commandeering. And before anyone says not al type 2 diabetes is poor eating habits and lifestyle, yes, but about 90% is.

0ur biggest health problem at present is Diabetes due to eating in a unhealthy manner.
It was always said that the diet people had when food was rationed in the war was healthier than what many people eat now.

I would like to see a good analysis of what sort of foods and meals people who find that food is very expensive actually eat.
(I am not trying to be judgemental about this I actually want to know what is eaten. )

I bought a tray of ready prepared veg reduced to 26p
Even if you can't get the last-minute bargains, there are always cheap deals on vegetables.
Buying what is on offer that particular week and varying the menu is a good idea.

I can make at least three main meals for DH and me for the cost of going 'to the chippie' once.

Where next to with your soapbox 123coco ?

Carrots, onions, cabbages various, frozen peas. Plenty cheap and perfectly adequate.

BUT,
Diversion:
I found a recipe for a sesame sauce to pour over Pak Choi recently and it made pak choi (which I'd previously found a bit limp in cabbage terms) for me.

MrBaggs put it like this: pak choi is quite subtle; cabbage can be a bit in your face.

It depends which vegetables. Ten minutes in the supermarket veg section will show a vast range of prices, from loose carrots to pre-packaged asparagus tips, from loose white potatoes to little packs of sweetcorn, from onions to unfamiliar imported veg. It also depends on whether it is ready to cook or whether you will have to peel and chop it yourself.

Vegetables are expensive! What a load of rubbish.

Cost is not the main thing. The gas or electricity used to make a big stew which would last a family for two days is probably less than the cost of buying the same amount of ready-made food.
Throwing it all into a slow cooker is an extremely economical use of fuel.

What we need is a programmes showing real families in different circumstances showing how they juggle children, work and everything else and provide good nutricious food for their families, without a professional tv chef commenting on their cooking methods and recipes.
A very good point M0nica

Whenever I visit always think of W.I
The WI is open to all and there are many groups with younger members. I am not a member but, funnily enough, I was chatting to someone I just met today who is a member and we were talking about this. She said that members of her WI were asked to go to a centre not far away to try to teach young mums (and dads too) how to cook simple, cheap and nutritious meals for their families - but gave up in the end because the general consensus was that 'it's easier to go to the chippie'.

And I don't know what 'Tory' has to do with it .
She was a down-to-earth Northern woman, a retired nurse.

Agree Baggs.

Better or worse quality meat has very little to do with either price or animal welfare and a lot to do with which cut you buy. The ones that cook quickly - the steaks and braising cuts and the chops and cutlets - are popular, so they are the most expensive. The ones that take long slow cooking are not so popular, so they are cheaper, and hardly anyone wants offal. However the nutritional value of all of them is the same.

Our mothers and grandmothers bought liver and kidneys and other offal and made tasty meals out of them They bought cheap cuts like chuck and spalebone and cooked them slowly in stews and casseroles, with plenty of potatoes and carrots and onions (these are not expensive vegetables) We did the same. We and our mothers and grandmothers were no less busy as housewives, mothers and wage-earners,our familes were just as hungry, and we had fewer household machines and short-cuts to help us.

The less posh cuts of meat and the UK-grown vegetables are still the best value. What has changed in a generation that has made cooking simple nourishing meals an oldfashioned skill ,and cookery as a whole a dying art to be practiced only by TV personalities and trendy restaurateurs?

Is it the shelves full of convenience foods, seducing shoppers into spending money on meals instead of spending their time and skill? Is it foreign holidays, giving people a taste for food they don't have recipes for? Is it the death of genuine cookery classes in schools, replaced by "food technology" and choosing the topping for your pizza?

Cost is not the main thing. The gas or electricity used to make a big stew which would last a family for two days is probably less than the cost of buying the same amount of ready-made food.

ELEGRAN. You mean like saying we enable them if we show understanding ! A policy writer for the nasty party I think!

Thank you, coco, but don't lam into Monica. She talks sense too.

Elegra. Well said. At keast yiu are showing some thoughtfulness not lik MOnica

Snobbery again on gransnet. Whenever I visit always think of W.I and the Tory party! Vegetables and fruit are expensive For a family especially if you’re supposed to have your five a day if you are in your 60’s you probably saw your mum cook all the time, and whoever said lasagne was cheap bust be buying the worst quality meat without any thought to animal welfare! Cheese ( decent) isnt cheap and if you are poor,with children and working long hours where do you find the time to make meals from scratch. AND OP said she was only now on tightest budget!well imagine what it would be like if you were a single mum who has lived her WHOLE life like this without what you migt call regular treats. Social care is ignored by this government because they hate the idea of the ‘ big society ‘ they favour the small society where its all about the individual. Moans about dil here and moans about mil on mumsnet and having a moan about those who have not and jealousy about those who have on MN, And always checkimg with your peers AIBU. Whatever happened to the free thinking empowered woman we were fighting for the right to become in the past. Not impressed. !Show some compassion instead of superior sneering ‘I can do it so why cant those”. mentality is mean spirited. Well perhaps all they have ever known is lack. If gransnet and mumsnet are real portayal we want to put out there of women , then God help us!

Monica Cooking has been turned into something trtendy and complicated, which has its own rules and needs a kitchen full od gadgets and years of training.

It is as though the suggestion of walking to the corner shop for a newspaper instead of always taking the car were greeted with horror and "But I'd have to buy spiked shoes and lycra shorts and one of those water bottles with a tube to drink without stopping, and who would I get to follow me with the support car and the oxygen mask?"

There is almost too much information out there. Can’t remember what food I was talking about the other day but I heard myself telling my husband that whatever it was is now good for us.
No wonder some people give up.

Elegran I completely agree with you. I have long thought that modern cookery programmes with their constant competitions and food as art approach would terrify any non-cook. I never watch them. Even the new programme looking at family cooks is a competition to find who is the best family cook. What we need is a programmes showing real families in different circumstances showing how they juggle children, work and everything else and provide good nutricious food for their families, without a professional tv chef commenting on their cooking methods and recipes.