BBC The truth about healthy eating

Well said, monica. What I've been saying for ages but usually get criticised for by one or two whose attitude to people who apparently don't read labels or "can't understand" labels I find patronising.

I love marmite M0nica, and you are right about having some flavour so I will have a look at that. At the end of the ingredients on the marmite jar it says it (contains celery). I can have celery but only a couple of inches of itbut I have been amazed at how many things contain it - it probably isn't either a good or bad thing I was just unaware.

I don't think you can "blame" the government for the high sugar content but I do think you can question them not insuring good food labelling a lot earlier than they did and ensuring people understood what a sugar is.

I don't actually think blaming anyone is a positive thing to do. Poor people often make bad decisions because they are poor and uneducated people because they do not have the knowledge.

Hmm. The trouble with the flavoured ric e cakes is that it encourages the eating of too many of them. Perhaps best to stick with plain wholegrain lightly salted?

It's not just the "poor and uneducated" who don't have the knowledge though. No one, not even the so-called experts, know for certain how different foods metabolise in the body.

Poor people do not make bad decisions because they are poor, although sometimes they are forced into doing things that are unhelpful by poverty. However poverty, other than extreme poverty, of which there is very little and mainly episodic in this country,is not a good reason for a poor diet. For most people a primarily vegtable based diet is cheaper than one based on cheap processed foods.

The vast majority of those on small incomes live in towns and cities, most of which, with few exceptions will have street markets selling fruit and vegetables far more cheaply than in the supermarkets. Brassicas and root vegetables, apples and bananas are just as good for you as any 'super' fruit or veg and most of us manage to survive without eating strawberries all year round.

Canny shoppers, rich and poor go to markets towards the end of the day when fresh food is reduced even further because traders do not want to take it home.

M0nica. You seem to have no idea how limited the choices are of the poor. Of course it is better to live on "a primarily vegetable based diet" but:

1) In many poor areas it is difficult to buy fresh vegetables. The shops simply cannot afford to stock them
2) Popping down "at the end of the day" simply may not be a choice for those who are both time and money poor and may have transport difficulty.
3) Even cooking may be a difficulty if your cooker has broken and you cannot afford to renew it. If decide you have to buy a new cooker it may well get you into unaffordable debt - poverty makes bad choices not the poor.
4) Either with no working cooker or in temporary accommodation your only way to cook may be a microwave - hence the sugar laden gloop that may be available within walking distance of the third or forth "temporary" you have been in within the last year.
5) I imagine that for many of these poor families a superfood would be a good square meal when the parents don't have to go without so the children get enough.

I live in a city and yes, we have a food market. But it's not aimed at the poor. Far from it.

Yes of course "the poor" should be cooking hearty, healthy stews from fresh ingredients sourced at markets.

But the reality for most is to get as much food for as little outlay as possible, just to get by. And that means processed carbs.

Since I came upon a family in Lidl who had 40p to spend on a family meal, I think twice before judging other people's food choices.

Hard cases make bad law and the same thing applies to other decisions. In cases of extreme and exceptional poverty you eat anything you can get, but cases like this are the exception not the norm and many families on small incomes eat adequately and well.

It is like saying no-one in a large group should be expected to take regular exercise because one person has a broken leg.

I do not believe they are as exceptional as you think M0nica nor do I understand which laws you are referring to.

I think that if your group knew that they had the chance of having their leg broken should they ever be in the circumstances the person with the broken leg was they would be organising to avoid that situation arising where possible not talking about exercise.

Toasted brioche biscuits are nice, easy to digest. But do have a little bit of sugar.
I have 4 for supper, with margarine and Marmite.
I like soft marg. now, don't like the taste of butter any more.
re price of veg - supermarket prices much cheaper than local market.

margaretx I'm just getting to the end of that book you recommended. Interesting stuff..

Yes it is! It has an answer to many of today's problems but no pharmecutical concern is going to get rich with it therefore it will remain as a sideline for those who follow it and try to improve their gut bacteria.
In the meantime the thread has become obsessed with calories like all the food threads on GN.

Have to take this back. I see there has been a lot about poverty and bad diets.

I think it's easy to be obsessed with calories though. At least you can count the buggers! Although I gather there's new research that suggests that one calorie is not necessarily like another calorie so...we'll have to wait and see I guess.

So much more research to be done! Meanwhile, we get fatter and fatter waiting for the right answer (even if some of us appear to have cracked it).

One of the most interesting things that the book suggests is a definite, though not completely explained, link between successful weight management and fasting, or intermittent fasting.

Very useful thread