Hugh fearnley whittingstall

I think I made it clear I was talking about people doing this every day, gillybob.

I loathe the idea of daily cooking but I've learned to tolerate half an hour recipes and find that preparing veg can be quite therapeutic once I get started- and is within the half an hour! I certainly feel better for eating home cooked food - though unfortunately the DGC aren't on the same wavelength!!!
Buying veg singly helps to save money and waste too.
I have a simple slow cooker [not ceramic] with only an on/off switch which is just great and I make soup in a saucepan + a whisk - dead easy; no need for a soup maker

Oh gillybob a Greggs cheese pasty- sorry there's no hope for you. (I really want one NOW!)
As for HFW can't stand him. He jumps on band wagons and pretends to be things he isn't, all to sell his books and programmes. I remember thinking when I first saw River Cottage how great to see someone trying to live an ecological self-sufficient life. Of course he was backed by rich family and friends, so not quite what he pretended to be.

I have his mother's gardening book on the shelf behind me. Nice to browse through but I don't think it has made gardening any easier!

I've just realised that we went all the way down to Devon recently and failed to have an Ivor Dewdney pasty

I've just checked online - they can post them to me!

It's the ready availability of take-away foods which is a huge problem.

loopyloo's point about the mums gathering in the playground with chips and large sundaes was interesting - perhaps it was just a one-off and a treat.
There don't appear to be any obese children at the DGD's school (admittedly a small school) but it is a village school with no nearby fast food outlets or coffee shops. The fish and chip van calls once a week so that is a special treat (and not every week either).

I don't think there is anything wrong with someone from Hugh F-W's background wanting to help people who may come from a deprived background - it's just his 'I did it so we all should be able to try' attitude.
After all, if we start criticising people about their wealthy background, those who try to help poorer people to have a better life, we would have to start criticising Jeremy Corbyn and his desire to help the more deprived in society because his background was also wealthy.

Personally, I think that is a non-sequitur but others may see it differently.

Thanks Teetime - I have pm'd you!

I have downloaded a six week walking plan which I shall start as soon as I get off these crutches in 4 weeks time.
Teetime that sounds interesting. I have been off my crutches for over 12 months now and still not getting to grips with much walking.

Didn't Cornish tin miners eat pasties every day? If they were unhealthy it'll be because of their working (and possibly, living) conditions, not because they ate a lot of pastry.

Nowt wrong with pasties. It's just another kind of sandwich. As is pizza.

I don't think they ate the pastry though - the meat was at one end and the apple or other sweet filling at the other end. The outside could have got dirty or contaminated and the pastry kept the filling clean.
They carried them by the crimped crust.

I wonder if robust good health is partly inherited?

That's interesting, jal.

Bet they ate the pastry they didn't hold by.

I think so.

I couldn't leave the pastry - unless it had been down a tin mine and contaminated with arsenic.

Tell me about arsenic in tin mines!

Even then they probably ate it- arsenic was responsible for quite a lot of deaths in Victorian times!
I don't mind HFW being posh it is his misrepresentation I don't like. If you are posh admit it.

Perhaps he doesn't think he is posh. Or perhaps he thinks posh is accusatory when used in the tone of that last post.

I was 'accused' of being posh (yonks ago) so it clearly means bugger all.

He doesn't really tell us anything we don't already know and he isn't going to change peoples eating habits.

It's all down to choice isn't it? I choose to prepare my own food and consider what I eat and how much it costs me. As it seems do most of you on here. Or people can choose to live on a diet of junk and takeaway foods. I don't know how people can afford to eat takeaway food as much as they seem to, yet it seems to be the people on low income who buy them the most.

I bring my own food to work every day for lunch and constantly get comments about how nice it looks, but how they don't have time to do the same. I have no more extra hours in my day than the rest of them, and they are no busier than me, but it's okay because they have 'no time'. And then they moan about the excess weight they are carrying while tucking into their fat food and sugary delights.

I have seen all three episodes and don’t see what the problem is with the presenters - they came across as human when they both admitted to eating 1 packet of crisps a day!
However I don’t think he is paying enough attention to the need to show people how to cook easy and cheap meals with everyday veg and what to eat with them - after all he is first and foremost a cook and a lot of the people who have joined the campaign don’t look at all fat, he is not attacting those that need the campaign most and I doubt if they are even watching the programme.
Unfortunately some people will just go for the easy life until they get diabetes - the statistics were shocking - as were the ingredients of the so called ‘healthy’ foods. The attitude of some of the food producers is unconscionable. Out goes my Innocent pomegranite Juice!

Of course there’s nothing wrong with a pasty. Or a pizza, or a burger. Or anything else in moderation. In fact, I’m looking forward to a curry for my tea, and not a homemade one.

But regularly, as an extra snack, washed down with a can of Coke? Seriously, we have a major health crisis here, and our NHS can’t cope. If we don’t like wealthy celebrities telling us what to do, and so many people are just ignoring the information that’s out there, then what should be done?

I’ve changed my view of Innocent as well, starbird.

Maggie, your post has reminded me a yr 8 boy I taught. We were doing a 'smart shopping' activity and in reply to a question about planning your meals and making a shopping list he replied, 'Why are we doing this, Miss? Everyone knows you just open the freezer and count how many pizzas you have left?'

This was a young lad known for his quick wit and I welcomed his light-hearted contributions but despite the laughter in the class room there was an air of unease amongst the students from the poorer families.

Yes. What's to be done?

OldMeg wrote:
"Fennel I’m confused. Why should overweight people need a proper meal quickly?"
Maybe I should have said a filling meal, whether healthy or not.
Eldest daughter and her partner both work long hours and come home famished. She used to try to cook them a meal, and she knows how to cook, but I've noticed that recently they either go over to the Indian place for a curry, or heat up some precooked supermarket meal.
I bought them an electric grill thing, for chops or steak or fish, but they rarely use it.
Not that they're obese, but do tend to be overweight, and I worry about their health.