Obesity linked to poverty

Mibs, try frozen vegetables, no waste, lentils, chick peas, eggs, potatoes, long life milk. No major expense just forward planning, I know as well as anyone how to manage on next to nothing, it became my major challenge but I always got the basics in, batch baked little cakes and pies then froze.

Cakes and pies?
That wouldn't be my idea of healthy eating.

I think lots of people have forgotten how to cook a meal from scratch. I do believe obesity is linked to junk food and access to high calorific food.
The link to poverty is tenuous at best. Supermarkets sell cheap ‘wonky’ vegetables and you can make mince or chicken go a long way. A portion of fish will make fish cakes, pasta with homemade sauces, cheese and potato pie with beans, soups - the options are endless. It takes a little imagination and a bit of home cooking.

I so wish the Govt hadn't vetoed bogof but simply restricted it to fruit and vegetables in all supermarkets/food outlets.

I think there’s a lot of judgement and a lack of knowledge on this thread. Poverty is not just a lack of money, it can be a lack of education, of opportunities, control from partners and many more. If you have been bought up in a dysfunctional family where it was the norm to go hungry, not to even attend school, then how are you going to learn to cook, shop and to budget? The cycle goes on.
In the past a lot of close knit communities picked up the slack, I remember my Mother inviting people who went to our church round for supper who she knew struggled with the intellectual challenge of budgeting and cooking. A sizeable parcel of ‘leftovers’ would go home with them. I doubt that happens these days but the same type of dysfunctional families are still with us but it becomes more visible when there isn’t the quiet, non-judgmental help from people such as my Mother and many others like her.
Obviously there are some who could, but don’t want to or can’t be bothered, to cook proper meals but in my experience working amongst the more unfortunate members of society, it is less common than it might appear.

growstuff oats do add calories but you have to balance what is good with what works for you.

Mibs I'm sorry you are in the situation I hope you have checked that there is nothing more you are entitled to. UC is a very poor system.

I think by now most people will realise the reasons are complex and its wrong to judge others.

The main problem is the availability of cheap junk food and the reluctance by the government to tackle it.

Good post seajaye.
The Scottish Government had a great public health announcement a few years ago which showed a runner, dressed in trainers and lycra and a voice-over telling "us" how 20 mins exercise a day could improve our health x amount. Next to this was Annette Crosbie (Victor Meldrew's wife in One foot in the grave) looking at the runner and, dressed in her everyday clothes, saying " a 20 minute walk is equally good and you don't have to dress up like her.
Now to get out there and do some.

I'm sure that choosing healthy food, when shopping, is far more important than 'cooking proper meals'. My brother eats raw food, never cooks, but makes various fruit/veg smoothies. His diet is very good.

The obesity problem in this country has no simplistic answers such as cooking properly and making healthy choices and if anyone bothered to read the link that growstuff posted previously they would grasp the complexity.

I wonder how many on here, like MibsXX are actually living the reality of struggle to make ends meet.

Some people are concerned about more than fresh veg and fruit. They may be consumed with worry about how to pay the rent, clothe the children, afford bus fares, live with disability or depression, struggle with benefit system, fuel poverty, restricted social opportunities, relationships under strain, poor housing, and on and on.

Of course obesity is not solely related to social inequality in our society, and I agree with some posts about fast food etc but there is no doubt that daily living has become more of a struggle for families over the last few years. We are definitely not all in it together and there is a multifaceted approach to the problem I suspect things won’t change.

growstuff

Callistemon I eat much the same as you - almost identical, in fact, apart from the potato. My lunchtime salad is enormous and fills up a whole plate. It's low in calories but gives an impression of being a lot. My weight remains stable but I'm just short of 6ft. If you want to lose weight, maybe you could cut down the portion sizes slightly rather than cutting anything out or changing too drastically.

Oats would add loads of extra calories and carbs. I don't eat refined grains (so no cereal, pasta, bread or anything with flour) and not much fruit, apart from apples and berries.

I think that is my problem growstuff
I need to be stretched, if I was 5'11" I'd be about the right weight for my height. As it is, I am shrinking.

Greeneyedgirl you paint such a desperate picture. We know it's true and the problems are enormous but the more they mount up, the bigger they get, and you have to look at solutions. Start with small things. Tackle the things you can tackle.

Or, as private Frazer says in Dad's Army, "we're all doomed"

The food which people can get from food banks is not the fresh vegetables fresh fruit, lean protein variety.

Whilst it is a lifeline for those who need to use them, it is usually food that has a shelf life therefore tinned, packets etc. If donating, it's a good idea to include tins of fruit, tinned veg etc. There are only so many baked beans, tinned rice pudding anyone can stomach.

Well said Greeneyedgirl

I agree jenpax.
We try to eat healthily but as I get older it's getting harder to find the energy to plan, shop, prepare and cook our one main meal a day. Catering for our individual likes and dislikes.
So how much harder for families with other financial worries and the usual fussiness of each child.

MissAdventure

Cakes and pies?
That wouldn't be my idea of healthy eating.

It wouldn't be mine either. Filling up on cakes and pies is contributing to the obesity problem.

annep1 I know that many people laud the advantages of oats, but the fact is that if somebody is trying lose weight, oats add to calories, so something else would need to be forfeited. I wouldn't add them to a diet which is already causing weight gain or no weight loss.

Maured The link between poverty and obesity is certainly not tenuous. It has been shown in black and white in many different studies in many different countries. I don't know why so many are in denial.

I watched a programme about hidden sugars in foods - quite shocking. I have a penchant for tinned peaches and did try them in 'juice' recently and didn't enjoy them. Sugar is one of my problems, or a 'sweet tooth' as it used to be referred to. I am getting bigger and bigger and need to re-educate my palate.

I don't know why so many are in denial.

Because some people find it easier to blame the poor and disadvantaged as lazy and feckless.

Chewbacca

^I don't know why so many are in denial.^

Because some people find it easier to blame the poor and disadvantaged as lazy and feckless.

I hope people will start as they mean to go on. If you decide to use the government's "eat out to help out" scheme, make sure you order salad and don't encourage your children to have pizza, ice cream and a fizzy drink.

If ever there were lack of joined up thinking ...

When I was feeding children last year, I did make pizzas but put a pile of chopped up salad veg on a plate in the middle. One mum said "Children don't eat vegetables!". Well, hers didn't but when I came back with the pizza my DGC had already eaten all the salad and wanted more.

Children don't eat vegetables if their mother suggests that they won't like them.

If that mother had tried giving a lightly cooked or even raw broccoli floret or carrot stick to a teething baby she might have been very surprised how much they liked them.

If ever there were lack of joined up thinking

So true Growstuff

And I get your point about oats.

annep1

And I get your point about oats.

I do know that oats are cheap and filling, but Callistemon is trying to lose weight. If she had oats for breakfast, she'd have to substitute them for something else. Looking at her diet sheet, the rest of it is more nutritious, so she'd be swapping almost empty calories for other nutrients.