Another depressing thread

Twaddle said Why is it that people in areas such as the one you are describing still manage to live healthier lives than this in more deprived areas? I doubt if living in a half a million pound semis makes them immune, but the fact is that they live longer healthy lives than those in poorer areas. I would imagine parents are the same in all areas, so why is it that only the ones in poorer areas are affected. We have the data. It's unequivocal. People in more affluent areas have healthier lives. Nobody seems to be addressing that.

Perhaps because these parents don’t smoke and they exercise by going to gyms or running etc? Maybe that cancels out the obesity issue.

Gran22boys

Plevey08

All I ever see in my local town is young mums glued to their phones, kids as young as 2 toddling along with Gregg's sausage rolls. Teenagers coming out of school eating McDonald's on the way home. These foods are cheap, easy to access, filling (temporarily) And they fit in with parents busy lives and budgets. It's got to be education for expectant parents about the needs of nutritious food from weaning. Society is breaking down and younger people are getting early heart disease and cancers like never before.

Yes this is absolutely how it is.

It absolutely isn't how it is where I live.

People seem to be reluctant to face up to it, but healthy life expectancy is affected by factors in middle and old age.

People can do something for themselves. They could also put pressure on authorities to improve facilities and the environment, which would improve health and wellbeing for all.

Plevey08

All I ever see in my local town is young mums glued to their phones, kids as young as 2 toddling along with Gregg's sausage rolls. Teenagers coming out of school eating McDonald's on the way home. These foods are cheap, easy to access, filling (temporarily) And they fit in with parents busy lives and budgets. It's got to be education for expectant parents about the needs of nutritious food from weaning. Society is breaking down and younger people are getting early heart disease and cancers like never before.

Yes this is absolutely how it is.

Not all ready meals are bad but it's much healthier and cheaper to batch cook and make your own for the freezer. Both my parents worked and I always worked when I had children but I always cooked from scratch. Still do and I very rarely have to throw food out even though I do a big shop once a week.

Another interesting fact.

From 2026 it is expected that deaths in the U.K. will exceed births.

Immigrants will be needed.

Tiggy, Smoking has become a minority activity now, but it wasn't for the people who are now turning 60+, which is what this report is about. Despite the "young people bashing", which always seems to appear on threads such as this, there is some evidence that younger people lead healthier lives than their elders. The incidence of smoking is decreasing.

This really is not just about take-aways. It's affecting people once they reach middle age and the consequences of their lifestyles then. Moreover, it's affecting various groups differently.

I don’t agree with the argument about smoking and drinking - they’re nothing new! In any case, smoking has actually become a minority activity.
It would help the nation’s health if many of the unhealthy takeaways closed down. Apart from the fact that the ingredients are unhealthy, the portion sizes are ridiculous!

Jaxjacky Most of our generation actually cook, our children learnt by osmosis or direct tuition, this doesn’t happen in all families.

Apprently not.

When our AC were young we were not vegan -- cauliflower cheese, pasta cheese, scrambled eggs toast, spag bol. I still cook same for our GC.

I still prepare cheap as chips easy meals.

SueDonim

I don’t believe the ‘too busy to cook’ excuse for one moment. All of my AC and spouses with a family work FT yet they all manage to serve up home cooked meals every day. Who can afford ready meals for a family of four, anyway?

One of my AC is a school governor, he reckons there’s a sub-section of parents who just want an easy life. All these parents talk about is the next Netflix movie they’re going to watch and their next glass of wine. Their kids are kept quiet with screens and are bought off with bribes of takeaways and sweets. He gets fed up of these infantile adults who refuse to take responsibility for themselves or their children. These aren’t people battling poverty etc, it’s a very nice area where a three bed semi costs north of half a million quid. There’s really no excuse for it.

Why is it that people in areas such as the one you are describing still manage to live healthier lives than this in more deprived areas? I doubt if living in a half a million pound semis makes them immune, but the fact is that they live longer healthy lives than those in poorer areas.

I would imagine parents are the same in all areas, so why is it that only the ones in poorer areas are affected?

We have the data. It's unequivocal. People in more affluent areas have healthier lives. Nobody seems to be addressing that.

TerriBull

twaddle

TerriBull

I meant to add, given the title of the thread, yes it's a problem for society when people can't afford to feed themselves properly. However, I can't get depressed about other people's unhealthy habits, smoking, drinking, lack of exercise and unhealthy take away food etc., we all have enough information at our disposal to know what we should and shouldn't be doing.

So why do they still do it? Why do people still eat more of the wrong kind of food? The people who are doing it tend to be concentrated in certain groups in certain areas. Why?

"So why do they still do it?" Wasn't there a programme once to suggest that some of these fast foods are addictive. Going to the US for the first time was a revelation, enormous people, especially in theme parks, often on mobility vehicles, they can walk, they did when they got off, they weren't actually disabled enough not to rely on their legs. The explosion of fast food and super sizing everything has a lot to answer for, portions are just enormous there, hence the doggie bag, and people do ask for those in restaurants. Where they lead we in Britain follow. I read somewhere this "are people overweight because they're disabled?, or are they disabled because they're overweight?"

So why is it regional? I don't think for one minute that fast food is more addictive in Middlesbrough than it is in Richmond-on-Thames.

When we were very hard up I fed my DC fish fingers, peas and home made chips once a week and sometimes 😲 turkey drummers. Macaroni cheese another night.
We always had a roast dinner on Sundays and other cooked from scratch meals but fish fingers were cheaper than a whole piece of fish each and turkey burgers cheaper than, eg lamb chops.
I make no apologies. They were fed and they were happy and energetic.

Ready meals can be much cheaper than cooking from scratch, Asda, 6 sausage rolls 99p, tin of beans 98p. It’s not healthy, or balanced, but cheaper than decent sausage meat, making pastry and cooking in the oven, rather than microwave ding.
Vegetables can be relatively expensive, fuel prices have increased and if it’s how you’ve been bought up, it’s all you know.
Most of our generation actually cook, our children learnt by osmosis or direct tuition, this doesn’t happen in all families.

Norah

SueDonim I don’t believe the ‘too busy to cook’ excuse for one moment. All of my AC and spouses with a family work FT yet they all manage to serve up home cooked meals every day.

Who can afford ready meals

I agree. Our children all manage to serve up home cooked scratch made meals daily, how could anyone possibly afford ready meals?

Well, I do believe it because not all parents are in couples, some are single mothers struggling with doing everything.

My DS is the one who cooks in their family.

SueDonim I don’t believe the ‘too busy to cook’ excuse for one moment. All of my AC and spouses with a family work FT yet they all manage to serve up home cooked meals every day.

Who can afford ready meals

I agree. Our children all manage to serve up home cooked scratch made meals daily, how could anyone possibly afford ready meals?

horrid
No - not horrid. Horrified.

twaddle

CarrieAnn

Don't you think the lack of cookery lessons in schools has exacerbated the problem?We had to cook from scratch and learn to iron!My friends daughter asked for ingredients for a cookery lesson a few years ago,list a tin of rice pudding,a tin of pears and a bottle of chocolate sauce,to make pear belle Helene,you couldn't make it up.

No, I don't think so at all.

I didn't do any cooking lessons at school and never spent any lessons ironing.

I learnt to cook by reading cookery books and, later, surfing the net. I learnt about macronutrients, vitamins, minerals and fibre in biology.

I went to a girls' school. We did do some woodwork.

I agree.

I did learn to iron at home and was always tasked with ironing handkerchiefs, pillow cases and tea towels from the age of about 14 but never my father's brothers' shirts! so when I was faced with detached collars which needed to be starched when I was first married I was horrid. They went to the laundry!!

Cooking I learnt at home then from cookery books.
If you can read a recipe you can cook.

I don’t believe the ‘too busy to cook’ excuse for one moment. All of my AC and spouses with a family work FT yet they all manage to serve up home cooked meals every day. Who can afford ready meals for a family of four, anyway?

One of my AC is a school governor, he reckons there’s a sub-section of parents who just want an easy life. All these parents talk about is the next Netflix movie they’re going to watch and their next glass of wine. Their kids are kept quiet with screens and are bought off with bribes of takeaways and sweets. He gets fed up of these infantile adults who refuse to take responsibility for themselves or their children. These aren’t people battling poverty etc, it’s a very nice area where a three bed semi costs north of half a million quid. There’s really no excuse for it.

I agree with StTrinians, but sadly we haven't had (for a very long time) a stable government. None seem able to lead by example. The constant scandals and changes are time and cost consuming. None of them seem consistent enough for policies to become embedded and put into practice.

Personally I agree with other posters that processed/prepared foods are the issue. I stood behind a lady with a completely full trolley not one item was "fresh"food, nothing to prepare a "meal ftom scratch". She had 2 young children and it was full of ready meals including pasta dishes which are not difficult to make yourself, cake, ice creams, pop, crisps, biscuits and chocolate cereal. My husband said when we got in the car that he was very lucky I was a hood cook, make fresh healthy dinners and tried out new recipes because he'd be dead if he lived with the other lady in front of us!!! I worked full time, had 2 kids and still prepared and cooked for the family every night. Think my schooling had a lot yo fo with it plus a very strict but lovely DS teacher 😉

twaddle

TerriBull

I meant to add, given the title of the thread, yes it's a problem for society when people can't afford to feed themselves properly. However, I can't get depressed about other people's unhealthy habits, smoking, drinking, lack of exercise and unhealthy take away food etc., we all have enough information at our disposal to know what we should and shouldn't be doing.

So why do they still do it? Why do people still eat more of the wrong kind of food? The people who are doing it tend to be concentrated in certain groups in certain areas. Why?

"So why do they still do it?" Wasn't there a programme once to suggest that some of these fast foods are addictive. Going to the US for the first time was a revelation, enormous people, especially in theme parks, often on mobility vehicles, they can walk, they did when they got off, they weren't actually disabled enough not to rely on their legs. The explosion of fast food and super sizing everything has a lot to answer for, portions are just enormous there, hence the doggie bag, and people do ask for those in restaurants. Where they lead we in Britain follow. I read somewhere this "are people overweight because they're disabled?, or are they disabled because they're overweight?"

Sorry about typos!

I was shocked and saddened to hear the health foundation findings on health inequalities. The UK has the second steepest decline after the USA. Notably, sicker younger people, complex and more co morbiditoez, including: cycles of chronic disease, kidney disease, anxiety and depression, poverty related, COPD, diabetis, "isolationalism", with social prescribing increasing. Socio economic divides between north and south, rising debt, use of food banks, all reflect changes since 2010, The Mark Review (2010) highlighted the need to gove every child equal opportunities, but we have had years of austerity. The NHS has rising pressures put on it, hence it is failing. Sad news. Covid did exacerbate this divide, which has widened...but even within the UK, England is in a sorry state. Policies need to keep up, and try to reverse these latest findings.

TerriBull

I meant to add, given the title of the thread, yes it's a problem for society when people can't afford to feed themselves properly. However, I can't get depressed about other people's unhealthy habits, smoking, drinking, lack of exercise and unhealthy take away food etc., we all have enough information at our disposal to know what we should and shouldn't be doing.

So why do they still do it? Why do people still eat more of the wrong kind of food? The people who are doing it tend to be concentrated in certain groups in certain areas. Why?

CarrieAnn

Don't you think the lack of cookery lessons in schools has exacerbated the problem?We had to cook from scratch and learn to iron!My friends daughter asked for ingredients for a cookery lesson a few years ago,list a tin of rice pudding,a tin of pears and a bottle of chocolate sauce,to make pear belle Helene,you couldn't make it up.

No, I don't think so at all.

I didn't do any cooking lessons at school and never spent any lessons ironing.

I learnt to cook by reading cookery books and, later, surfing the net. I learnt about macronutrients, vitamins, minerals and fibre in biology.

I went to a girls' school. We did do some woodwork.

All I ever see in my local town is young mums glued to their phones, kids as young as 2 toddling along with Gregg's sausage rolls. Teenagers coming out of school eating McDonald's on the way home. These foods are cheap, easy to access, filling (temporarily) And they fit in with parents busy lives and budgets. It's got to be education for expectant parents about the needs of nutritious food from weaning. Society is breaking down and younger people are getting early heart disease and cancers like never before.