Can't afford to eat healthy food...

I think there are so many vulnerable people in society today, in so many different ways. (Maybe there always was?)
Surely schools should include budgeting, cooking, keeping house type lessons?

I used the word pathetic about not knowing how to begin chopping an onion. I stand by that. Not knowing how to chop an onion is pathetic.

The person who does not know it is not pathetic.

The patheticness applies to a society that can raise people to adulthood in such ignorance about basic foods.

What is pathetic is that we have brought up a generation of people who are incapable of taking the initiative and doing anything for themselves. What is there to stop those who cannot cook finding out how to? They all have access online and charity shops are awash with cookery books, most selling for a pound or two. There are blogs galore. Jack Monroe's, to start with for those who are cash poor.

I didn't learn to cook at home. My mother was an excellent cook but I was at boarding school and when we lived abroad we had staff. I taught myself by experimentation and with the help of a good cookery book. I had lots of disasters to start with, too many to list, but in the end I got the hang of it.

MissA Yes, they were always there.

I grew up in a very poor household but our Mother ( who worked full time) still fed us properly, it may have been a meat pie and some tomatoes( I liked that) or beans and fishfingers ( I also liked that )but it’s still nutrition.At weekends she cooked things like corned beef hash or salads with new potatoes.The point is, I knew other poor households, some similar to mine others where the Mothers were idle so and so’s and the kids would be lucky to have a slice of bread and a mug of Oxo.It’s not all down to not being able to afford it.

MOnica, My 1 year old Australian granddaughter has been fed a very healthy diet since she was weaned. One of the staff at her daycare said that it's amusing to see her choosing pieces of tomato and cucumber from the lunch plate, even when there are sweet treats on offer.

Preparing your own food is less expensive, I think some people just can't be bothered to cook a meal.
Foods needs to be instant for some people.
The ready meals I've seen in the supermarket are very expensive and the amount you get is so small.
When I cook meals I generally will prepare twice the quantity and freeze half for another day.
I make my own soups, stock for gravies Hommus in large amounts and freeze.
I've cooked all my life even baby food when the children were small and when I worked.
It's just a matter of being organised.
I feel sorry for anyone who has to eat ready meals you don't know what is being put into the meal.
We do have bought fish and chips or a Chinese meal occasionally but I wouldn't want to eat this type of meal on a regular basis.

As animals we are programmed to eat.
Once upon a time food was more difficult to buy and prepare, it was also ‘real’ food.
Now it’s everywhere in huge quantities so we have to be aware that we should avoid most of it. This is very difficult ?.
The adulterated food is made very palatable by the food manufacturers and sugar is very addictive. Have you seen those replacements for butter in their true state before the nice yellow colour is added. Ugh.
Low or no sugar have additives that make one want to eat more.
It is possible to eat good food on a tight budget, even ‘naughty’ treats. You will need less good food to get the nutrients for achieving a healthy weight.
Obesity is no respect of intelligence or prosperity. My fat friend has both in spades but doesn’t get it!

I think part of the problem is the classification of some kinds of food as junk. A lot of rubbish is talked about nutrition. Perhaps cutting down the "nutriprejudice" (Catherine Collins, NHS nutrition) and stopping bossing people around about what they eat it would help. It's not going to help less than the current methods, which are achieving nothing, is it?

As animals we are programmed to eat

Exactly. Genetically we are programmed to gorge now and starve later. We have not had time to adjust in evolutionary terms to an endless abundance of food. That, I believe, is the problem. Otherwise, why would obesity be a problem when we are individually intelligent enough to prevent it?

I work in a supermarket....the people that come through my checkout who eat the "most" ready meals is......older people!
not younger, if I count the meals its normally 7 and possibly tins of rice pudding,very few buy fresh meat.chicken etc.

Perhaps their on their own and see no point in cooking.

As for the younger ones, lots do buy big packs of fresh veg big packs of chicken/mince/pasta etc.

A very good source of guidance on healthy cheap eating is Jack Monroe. She is bringing out a second cookbook this year.

I never thought I would live to see times like this

Endre, I feel the same. Food banks always seemed like an American thing, something we'd never need here. Something that was only necessary in a country that didn't provide a decent safety net for its people in need. Now they are so commonplace here that we're in danger of accepting them as the norm.

That's a very interesting observation, bikergran.

Agree with everything you have said Starbox,
Once walked around a shop with a lady who was saying she couldn’t afford certain items (which would have fed a family with possibly some left for the following day) her purchases cost more, fed less, but needed no effort to prepare.

Perhaps their on their own and see no point in cooking.
That could be the case bikergran -add in the cost of the fuel when cooking for one and it could work out just as cheap to buy a ready meal.
Sometimes there is no joy in just cooking for yourself either.

Unfortunately for the very poor they rarely have cars and buses can be expensive so are unable to travel to a supermarket. If I wanted to go to lidl or aldi it would cost me £6.50 luckily I live in a town with a Tesco and a Waitrose. Some large housing estates do not have this access and have shops which charge more for the basics.

goose I’d normally say that’s a good point you’ve made but now Tesco will deliver for as little as £3.49 a month.
Instead of a delivery charge on every order, you only pay an upfront monthly subscription starting at £3.49 a month. This means you can choose the delivery slot that suits you, regardless of price.

That’s interesting Old Meg I didn’t know that. What a good idea - £3.49 a month sounds excellent value to me. I occasionally do an online shop at Tesco.

But then I thought - lots of poorer people don’t have access to a computer or a smartphone. Or have the literacy or IT skills to access online shopping. Also £3.49 paid monthly subscription needs a bank account and forward planning.

Us gransnetters take some degree of computer literacy for granted, (we’ve all got smartphones or laptops etc.) but it’s not an option for the most deprived in society.

And goose I can remember shopping for a family when I didn’t have a car available, not easy!

I wasn’t trying to be sarcastic there Old Meg. I genuinely did think that could be very useful for me. (Apologies if you thought I was being sarcastic.)
Then I thought lots of the people who can’t afford healthy food wouldn’t be able to use online shopping either.

Back in the day our nearest big supermarkets used to put on free buses for shoppers. I used to catch the Asda one round the corner with my three children and do the weekly shop, giving them a bag each to carry when we got off afterwards (child labour!). I’ve just checked online and there’s nothing like this round here now.

Maggiemaybe ‘child labour’ made me laugh out loud. Reminds my of taking me son, niece and nephew shopping, and giving them all a bag to carry. Nephew was only 4, so only had 2 loaves of bread in his bag. He dragged them behind him the whole way complaining they were “just too heavy”, neither was edible by the time we got home!

Never thought that mostlyharmless.

Tesco's delivery charges assume an order of at least £40. If it is less than that they add another £4. So if you don't have somewhere to store £41 worth of food you could be paying between £2.50 and £6 for the delivery, plus another £4.

In that £40 there will be cleaning products (washing powder, etc) toilet rolls, breakfast cereals, tea, coffee and other items which don’t need special storage arrangements. So £40 is not a lot for a family per week if these essentials are added in. Certainly cheaper than your local corner shop.

Also re internet access..there are really cheap,deals out there if you receive:

Income support
Income based Jobseeker's allowance (JSA)
Guaranteed pensions credit
Income based Employment and Support Allowance
Universal Credit, with zero earnings

You may be able to sign up for this package, which costs £9.95 a month for a phone line and broadband from a well known provider.

There are no installation charges either, you just have to pay for delivery of the router.