Hugh fearnley whittingstall

A Polish takeaway serving cabbage soup?
I'm up for that - cabbage soup is excellent for losing weight.

I think we should Bring Back Delia - start with the basics - at least she told viewers how to boil an egg.

Local fish and chip shops having a big rotating drum like a dishwasher to oven cook the sweet potato chips, while the fish is grilled.

How about a vegetable stir fry only Chinese takeaway, or an Indian restaurant just serving vegetable curries cooked without oil, in calorie counted packs. The possibilities are endlless. Burger joints doing just veggie burgers, served between large mushrooms rather than burger buns

And following on from your noir theme Monica how about a remake of Taggart (pretty noir) as Scotland in general, and Glasgow on particular, is known as the heart attack centre of the first world.

Casualty is looking like it need revamping for sure. Bring it back to reality Alexa ?

A Polish takeaway serving cabbage soup?

I think a whole new soap is called for here. Let’s set it in a Town like Leeds, so we can have the both poor, trodden down workers and the university students. Instead of posh restaurants or pubs we could have community caffs (with examples of cheap and healthy nosh of course) where they all congregate to discuss their amazing health, longevity and fitness and compare the works of Proust and Descartes.

What about local takeaways?

That's the way to go, MOnica and OldMeg. I also suggest including house makeover programmes so that kitchen arrangement explains basic solutions to food preparation problems. That's to say not dishwashing machines but easy and cheap washing- up method: use of one-pot cooking method: storage of essentials.

Perhaps a story about how people feed themselves when they have to live in a small and shabby caravan far from the shop, or an unromantic council flat . As I have.

I can think of episode one.The heroes are searching for supermarket leftovers in skips. However the heroes don't seek only carb-rich food, they also want the sound hearts of cabbages, and oranges just a bit soft but not mouldy. The heroes make a surprise feast for their elderly neighbours who have vitamin C deficiency, symptoms of scurvy in explicit photography.

OldMeg, that is a BRILLIANT idea! But I think they could discover murdered bodies or characters doing what they shouldn't or have nice shouty rows when they are in the woods, so that every thing feels normal.

But why stop at soaps, how about Scandinavian noir series, where the cause of death is exacerbated by poor eating habits or lack of exercise? Strictly contestants talking about how eating an apple before each dance gives them ... something or another. Hospital series where miracle cures occur when a patient eats a tomato. (unless of course they are allergic to tomatoes, in which case they would die).

The possibilities are endless!

???
Now I’ve got it! The soaps are obviously the answer then Monica. Less murder and mayhem and more showing these families shopping for fresh ingredients, cooking up a great meal after a hard day at work and sitting down round the table with the family. Or first thing in the morning, while their porridge (made from real ground oats and not this stick in the microwave rubbish) is cooling, the whole family set off (like the three bears) for a walk in the woods or Watford!

That’ll do it!

Don't most people know the theory behind a healthy lifestyle?

No they don't and they have never learned to cook and cookery programmes as now seen on television are so far divorced from real everyday cookery. Everything has to be competitions, whether Masterchef, The Great Bake-off and now this programme to find the best family cook or something. I saw a trailer for it but that is all. Such programmes make cookery look so difficult using expensive and exotic ingredients no wonder those who can't cook are terrified from trying.

We also spend too much time finding excuses for people not cooking - working long hours, not much money - we demotivate and deskill ordinary people by accepting that of course they cannot be expected to cook, poor things, with all their problems. It is patronising and offensive to talk that way about people.

Constant hectoring by government doesn't help either. The news today said that the behaviour of young men in a youth custody facility improved beyond measure when a they were given incentives to improve, in this case access to sweets and company, rather than before when they were punished for bad behaviour.

Perhaps what we need to do is not hector people about their bad diets and losing weight, instead have lots of fun programmes about people enjoying life cooking simple inexpensive healthy meals for themselves quickly and easily. Saving money. Show how easy it is to keep fit without spending money. Walking around local markets, visiting parks and green spaces, possibly with adult gyms.

Just show how enjoyable life is when you eat well and keep active.

Oh, isn't that the psychological approach?

I imagine that this whole conversation is in the end about trying to discover a workable psychological and sociological approach to the problem of people not feeding themselves well enough.

I personally find Dumpling's hints to be of practical use, but others might be very influenced by fast food providers near schools or on the high street which doesn't concern me personally. The problem needs to be diagnosed before it is sorted.

Elderly ladies who can still physically cook are obviously not where the problem lies.

Identifying which demographic has the problem will help the diagnosis.

That’s a cop out.

What’s the psychological approach then Jalima? I mean in give some examples.
I'll leave that up to Hugh

Absolutely agree day6, generations ago people ate more stodge but moved a lot more and burned it off. I cook only from wartime cookbooks - because I'm a terrible hopeless cook and at least the wartime cookbooks contain food that I know Plain meat and two veg I can do lol - all these dahls and curries and chickpeas make me heave. But 2 veg to 1 meat is healthy...

Don't most people know the theory behind a healthy lifestyle?

The way we live today is to blame for much obesity, and not ignorance. We sit far too much and drive rather than walk.

I was brought up on stodgy, filling food..pastry, potatoes, suet puddings etc, as was the generation before me. Like many of us growing up money was tight and bread and jam, bread and dripping etc, were our snacks. However, we didn't get fat and the generation before us and ours are living long lives. The difference is movement. Everything we ate we played off or worked off. We walked everywhere. Work was more labour intensive. The minute my life became more sedentary, through chronic conditions and ill health, I gained weight despite a reasonably healthy diet.

I brought my children up to eat healthily and I am so glad they just missed out on being the generation that used screens for amusement. They also walked to and from school. I used buses to get to work as well as much walking.

Fast foods are the easy option. Eating out has become the norm for many. I can't see the clock being turned back.

It's easy to make soup and it's not much harder to peel veg than open a can but time, lifestyle and habit have taken hold. I hate to see podgy children. There is no need for it but their parents are also victims of modern life.

We must remember too that weight gain and being seen as a couch potato can lead to a cycle of depression and when people lose hope and faith in themselves, food, ironically, can become a crutch.

I’ll definitely try it Baggs. Thanks. Just have to find a good patch of nettles! I’ve been wracking my brains, but I think nettles are something I just over look! I was wondering about butterfly eggs too, but it is early for them and I rather think they’re on older growth. Too many animals eat the shoots.

I’m definitely trying that one, Baggs.

Pick your nettles before the butterflies get to them!
www.britishbutterflies.co.uk/species-info.asp?vernacular=peacock

I blended it all.

According to one story, it was the Romans who brought nettles to Britain for edible greens.

Loads of mushrooms, a plateful of nettle tops (only use the fresh spring growth) not squashed down (essentially, a handful of nettle tops to a small punnet of mushrooms). Stock. Leftover bits and bobs from the fridge/freezer.

This last time I added a tin of drained butter beans. A potato or two works.

There isn't really a recipe. I just use what's about. A good stock is what makes the most difference, I find. Chicken carcass stock is the best, I reckon, but boiled up potato, onion, carrot, neep peelings make a decent stock too.

I shall look out for a good patch of stingers then Baggs! Recipe please! What proportions?

I made some mushroom and nettle soup the other day. We had some this evening. Twas good. ?

Don’t mention it Alexa. Chilli sauce or Lea Perrins black pepper all cheer up a boring soup too. I heard on Radio Four that Marmite mixed with a little water makes an excellent baste. Or brush onto meaty pie toppings. Haven’t tried that one yet.

Does anyone have a good recipe for gone over mushroom soup? I haven’t found one yet that matches a Campbells tin!

PS it was nfk Dumpling's post that was of great practical use to me. Thanks Dumpling!

I'd like to see a programme featuring people who can do short and easy food preparation. Several pages back a gran(I am sorry I cannot find which gran) posted about how she'd made simple soup by whizzing the boiled ingredients. I'd forgotten that I used to do this and I got my whizzer out from the back of the cupboard. Also slightly fried the onion before boiling. This gran's post is an example of a simple labour saving technique that ticks many of the good food boxes.

I need a comprehensively how to do it video of the best and easiest way to adequately clean green vegetables before cooking. Kitchen management does enter into food techniques, as a kitchen has to be free from clutter.

Shopping techniques also apply and cannot be divorced from good food. I mean for example, unless I thought of myself as someone who actively does not care for sweet things I'd continue to buy silly cakes. When I stopped smoking I became in my own self image a person who does not smoke. Psychology is important.

What’s the psychological approach then Jalima? I mean in give some examples.