Can't afford to eat healthy food...

I’m with you starbox absolutely no reason that anyone can’t afford to eat well and cheaply, sadly some people only want to eat Pizza, Lasagna, pies and sweets, and it’s cheaper to buy these than make them and they aren’t interested in whether they are healthy or not.

TBH I don’t care if people want to eat badly and suffer the consequences but I get very cross that they inflict their bad choices on their children, who then go on to perpetuate the shopping habits of their parents......

Back to basics, Home Ec. for all school pupils, compulsory and half a day, like it was when I was at school. On another thread they are discussing school subjects that should prepare children for life rather than University, bringing back Home Ec. Metalwork, Woodwork and real life skills.

I Don’t know if it will ever happen though

I usually recommend frozen fruit and veg to people who say they cant afford the fresh ones - they have almost as much nutritional value.

I think the problem is that many people can’t cook. Even lasagne is cheaper if you make your own. Certainly fruit and veg are cheap if you look for Lidl and Aldi specials.
There is an issue for people living in temporary accommodation without cooking facilities and those working for long hours on minimum wage who really don’t have time. But mostly it’s lack of education and family tradition of cooking properly.

You don’t have to go to Lidl and Aldi either. How much are carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, frozen peas, etc.? None of these are going to break the bank.

I don’t agree it’s just lack of education. CBA’d to peel and chop a few vegetables more like.

Makes me cross when people say they can't eat healthily as they are on a low income, but they can afford to eat junk food take aways on a regular basis. I'm sure it's more expensive to buy the junk food than to cook and prepare your own food. I can't afford to eat a diet of takeways that's for sure, and I certainly couldn't when my daughter was tiny and I was living on supplementary benefit. I had to eke my pittance out very carefully.
Veg is not expensive and frozen veg has more nutritional value than fresh and generally comes ready prepared for those who can't be bothered to chop for themselves.
Nobody taught me to cook, my mother was terrible at it and regularly served us undercooked chicken! I taught myself and these days there is no shortage of cooking programmes, websites and youtube for those who do want to learn.

Can’t afford to eat healthily? Ha! It’s just an excuse to be lazy and fall for the advertising “Value for Money” ads.

There’s even an app on their iPhones joemaxster that allows them to order in from their chosen takeawaywithout getting up from their chair!

Wonder if there’s one that shows them how to slice and cook a carrot ?? ???

However, I do understand that there are far too many people in this country who are on an extremely low income and do struggle to have enough food to eat and don't spend what little they have on takeaways and junk. It's so sad that in this very rich country of ours we have to have food banks trolleys outside each of our supermarkets because so many people are hungry.

I think until you have been in the position of worrying constantly about money, how you will clothe the children, pay the rent, bus fares etc. it is very difficult to judge the choices people make in this regard. I can make lots of cheap meals out of a bag of lentils but if my life was so stressed and lacking in purpose I would probably want a tasty pie or pizza for a treat, and a smoke as well! I also don't want to patronise those who are short of money but do cook and eat healthily and cheaply as I'm sure many do.

How to cook vegetables app,

And indeed there is!

Sainsburys used to have recipes for weekday meals for a family of four for £20. This has probably been updated, but did show how you could eat cheaply and well.

Since when has a ‘tasty pie’ been a treat? It’s a basic food that was, and still is, cooked by many to make a bit of meat and veg go further?

And pizza???

And of course treat yourself to cigarettes (how much do they cost? ?) rather than ingredients, that’s going to be a real treat isn’t it?

Sorry Lazigirl but that's exactly the sort of thinking that’s behind this problem.

Don’t you mean £5?

I was in that position when my first marriage broke up so I do have some understanding. Having to survive on the pittance I got certainly concentrated my mind on managing this budget and ensure my girl and I were fed. Frequently not eating so that she could. A pizza or similar was most definitely a treat which I could never afford, but you are right sometimes you have to do it and make other sacrifices.

As a child growing up I was one of 8 children and my widowed mother had to raise and feed us all on an extremely limited income, and even though her cooking skills were limited we made it. Treats when they came were from generous people outside the family. Looking back she was totally amazing, feeding, clothing and keeping a roof over our heads even if we didn't realise it at the time.

I feel so guilty every time I chuck food away because I've wasted it.

Sorry Lazigirl I disagree with you profoundly. It is so easy and quick to make cheap tasty food - and without even using one lentil. I think the time has come when the pendulum has to start swinging back a bit and we must stop making excuses for people all the time and start expecting them to make some effort to help themselves.

Look at Jack Monroe's blog. [cookingonabootstrap.com/category/blog/] She has been there (living in dire poverty) done it - and made a good living on it since! But she shows that good food does come cheap.

Lazigirl- i'm not disputing for one second the joy, sugar rush etc of unhealthy foods- I can eat 4 Wispa bars straight off, given the chance! My post was simply to refute the argument that people give of not being able to AFFORD healthy stuff. Not WANTING to eat it, preferring junk food, comfort eating to combat stress is a totally separate issue. But I hear the former argument far more than the latter!!

I think part of the problem for younger families is that a lot of children may refuse things like lentils or mackerel so if they spend money on that it may just ended up wasted. Whereas a bag of 60 chicken nuggets from Iceland may be less healthy, but at least they know it'll be eaten, there's no waste and the kids won't be moaning that they're hungry later when the parents have nothing to feed them. I see this a fair bit in my extended family, they would rather be sure kids have eaten than risk wasting food and therefore wasting money.

I think it is a question of how children are fed from the time they are weaned. If you suddenly start feeding them mackerel and lentils when they are used to chicken nuggets, you will have problems, but if their first food is dahl or some other pureed lentil recipe they will eat it. Lets face it billions of Indian children have happily been eating lentils for 1000's of years.

Why people think eating cheaply means lentils I do not know. What about rice, potatoes, pasta, home-made pizza. All can be the basis of enjoyable meal with out a dried bean or lentil ever being involved.

I never bought baby food. I just pureed and froze whatever I was cooking for DH and I and DS first tasted curry at 10 months and it has been his favourite food ever since. The food he hated was fish fingers and baked beans.

Oh I completely agree with that! It's why I'm currently weaning 9mo DD on a bit of whatever I eat, apart from all the chocolate. But it's a cycle I see quite a lot in the families I know, and my own family. I grew up in a family where chicken nuggets etc were very common kids meals, and I didn't have things like lasagne or enchiladas (not that fancy I know, but they were to me!) until I cooked for myself, so I'm conscious of trying to get out of that habit before it starts. I do think there needs to be a massive overhaul on the education of diets in schools and in foods offered for school meals. My health visitor was particularly good in asking me to come for a chat with her before weaning, but I know not all are so good.

Whilst I absolutely agree that it is possible to eat healthy on a tight budget, I’m not convinced that this judgemental attitude is the way to solve the problem.

I also do believe that education is an issue. My son did ‘cookery’ at school, and made the most bizzare and useless collection of things, in no way did it set him up for life. I was working single mum for much of his childhood, cooking together wasn’t really an option. He has had to teach himself. Dil is a good cook, but again as vegetarian has taught herself. She and my ds now have a varied and healthy diet. I am also in awe of how she has weaned by dgs, he has been offered foods that I would never have thought of.

I also think it’s unhelpful to pretend there isn’t a issue with the price of healthy food. If you visit Asda’s online shop, the cheapest chicken you can buy is £2.39. Very reasonable. However for only £2.22 you can buy a frozen pizza, oven chips and a tin of baked beans. For families who are truly, truly on the bread line, that is an entire meal. A tin of mackerel is 59p and serves two, but a bag of 20 chicken nuggets that could serve four or five is 79p. Those, oven chips and another tin of beans is a meal for £2.07. Better than feed a family for £5 if you are properly struggling.

I do agree that money is sometimes used as an excuse, but there is a much deeper issue here.

Well said, SpanielNanny, I think education is a significant factor. We didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up but my mum, in that post war sort of way, could make a good healthy meal out of next to nothing. Like your son I learned nothing useful about cooking at school and never cooked at home as a child. As an adult I did draw on my experience of food as a child, even though I’d stubbornly never ask advice from my mother, and in time I learned to make good food out of very little. My own children are all good cooks and can make meals from scratch without a huge reliance on convenience foods and so it goes on. Criticising low income families is an easy option and won’t change established patterns but education can empower people to make wiser choices in all sorts for ways. There will always be some who fit the stereotype of the lazy parent who sits in the sofa ordering yet another takeaway but it’s not always the case. There are many more who try to do the best for their children.

So now we have schools teaching a level of English grammar for SATS that most of us never had to learn, with stressed 11 year olds worrying about subordinating conjunctives. Meanwhile the media is full doom and gloom about an obesity epidemic, an NHS that’s struggling to stay afloat and a social care system that’s flawed. Now maths was never my best subject but it seems to me that something doesn’t add up. Education, education, education has to be the way to go in my book!

For families that are truly on the breadline, of course they buy as cheaply as possible. But once again I refer people to Jack Monroe's blog on how she fed herself and her son on £10 a week. Not everyone are as inventive or as determined as her, but it shows what is possible.

More importantly the majority of families are not on the extreme breadline. Most people have to budget but you only have to see the range and price of foods in any supermarket, or look at what goes into people's trolleys, to know that there are plenty of people buying quite expensive ready meals, vast quantities of canned and bottled drinks, biscuits and sweets. Then there are the High Streets full of coffee shops and eateries (rarely low price take aways) and you only have to see the number of families in them to realise that the vast majority of families in this country can afford to eat healthily.

And, yes, I have no problems about being judgemental about many people. It is not being judgemental and far too prepared to patronise those poor things who are not able to work out how to feed their families properly that has contributed to the current situation of obesity and poor nutrition.

From a newspaper article today:

"a leading dietician said that the concept of junk food was simply a middle-class insult for poor people’s diets. Catherine Collins, a registered NHS dietician, argued that “nutriprejudice” was behind efforts to clamp down on the advertising and promotion of unhealthy foods."

Collins also maintains that "many high-end products contained just as much fat, salt and sugar as confectionery or burgers. For example, some Duchy Originals biscuits contain more fat, sugar and calories per 100g than a Mars bar."

I like her attitude and I like the term "nutriprejudice". Food snobbery in other words.

I'm not convinced that what people eat is the cause of obesity. I think it is how much that is the problem.