Can't afford to eat healthy food...

Education used to begin at home. Sadly, we are a few generations past that now. News items lately describe young people unable to tell the time on an analogue clock. In my experience as a primary teacher, they are also unable to understand money (because they rarely see it?), cannot use a knife and fork, have no manners and are increasingly not able to speak a coherent sentence or use the toilet independently when they start school. They can't tie their shoelaces or wash their hands either. All these life skills were assimilated at home simply by learning by example within a family. Nowadays, teachers are expected to make up this deficit as well as convincing children that reading, writing and arithmetic are important.

Many families are cash rich but time poor. They are so busy working to maintain a house, cars and holidays that they haven't the time to watch a child slowly and inexpertly chopping carrots. It's easier to put them in front of the TV or games console and put a ready meal in the microwave.

When children arrive at school hungry in the morning without having eaten since the previous evening, they are in no fit state to learn anything. Thank goodness for breakfast clubs and for the teachers who spend their own hard earned cash (we have families to feed and bills to pay too!) providing food, clothes and toothbrushes for the worst cases.

It's pointless for teachers to lecture pupils about healthy eating if their parents are ignorant. (The word 'ignorant' is often used as a throw away insult but simply means unaware, don't know.) Children are pretty much powerless. It's very sad but, as far as teaching about nutrition in school goes, we missed the boat years ago so if parents can't/won't reinforce what children learn at school by cooking healthy meals from scratch, it's a losing battle trying to educate their children about it.

MamaCaz

I don't think you're talking about normal rented housing, more, emergency accommodation which has shared facilities, often on a landing between floors, or illegals living 10 to a room.
Anyone on benefits without a cooker would be provided with the means to buy one.
As for those you cite as having been 'put on' high standard tariffs...lol.
There is more info about changing energy tariffs and options than you could possibly shake a stick at, so there is no excuse.
People over 60 (depending on their DOB) receiving the guarantee element of pension credit, also receive a winter fuel payment each November of £200 for a single person and £350 for a couple which rises when over 75 or 80 (can't remember which)
They also receive £145 off their electricity bill each year.
No-one is poor in this country unless they squander money on Sky, Netflix, iPads and iPhones, takeaways, cigarettes and booze.

Thank goodness for the likes of anniebach and Spaniel on this forum. Many of the poor are working hard with long days, juggling childcare and just trying to keep their heads above water so don’t find the time or energy to stand chopping veg, etc. Organising fresh food takes time, needs to be bought more often, etc. Also, processed food is addictive because of its added sugar so it is a viscious cycle.

Could be young mothers reading this thread find it amusing , and mutter ~ get a life . We have to accept much unhealthy eating is a choice. Some here are so patronising , sorry.

I do love a takeaway as I cook from scratch daily. DH is very judgmental over what goes into ready meals and is good for us but I feel that in my seventies I can eat some rubbish and does it matter. My basic cooking is soup - Swiss barley soup at the moment. We have very conservative grandchildren but they try something new every time they come but do have pizza and nuggets when I'm pushed.

Calling people ‘pathetic’ is condemning in my view.

It is choice for many not poverty , and no use telling a young mother what your mother cooked during WW2.

May heaven protect these mothers from Mary Berry , Jamie Oliver @co.

Jamie Oliver tried changing school dinners, mothers went to the school playgrounds with bag of chips during lunch time.

Lifestyles have changed, 24 hour tv, play stations etc.

If people can't or don't learn how to cook from their parents, there is always YouTube. No excuses whatsoever. There are still 24 hours in a day just as there were tens of thousands of years ago. There are no excuses for not eating a healthy diet.

It's ipads/iphones/macbooks/xboxes Sky/Netflix plus takeaways and ready-meals VERSUS outdoor activities and fresh fruit and veg plus home-cooked made from scratch meals and everyone eating at the table and having proper conversation.

I have mixed feelings about food banks. If people are genuinely going hungry then I think it’s a wonderful thing to help out, BUT how many scrounges visit them? You only have to look at people trying to get something for nothing from things like the Grenfall disaster fund when they were in no way involved to make me sceptical ?

Yes Baggs with you on your post but would also add lack of exercise.

The number of people who cannot afford to eat a healthy diet are very few.

Let us concentrate of the multitude who can afford a healthy diet but choose not to. That is where the problem lies.

sarahellenwhitney I think your first few words hit the nail on the head ‘I learned from my mother’ ..... education, education education. We aren’t teaching our children to cook and they’re learning nothing worthwhile in schools. I worked until after 6pm, so our dinner was something heated up that i prepared the night before, my son didn’t actually see me cook.

This lack of know how is limiting families who are already living hand to mouth. Yes a casserole would last a couple of days, but if they don’t know how to make it, it’s a none starter.

Thank you Jaycee , I don’t feel a lone voice ?

I learned from my own mother how to make something out of nothing and can recall the days of rationing ,It was not how much you could afford more like what you were allowed. As one comment on GN says it is not always what you eat but how much you eat of it
Takeaways in many instances as a 'now and then' are great As a way of life are doing more harm than good.

Regardless of class, everyone can eat healthily very cheaply without too much effort. If my GC ask for pizza, I give them a wholewheat pitta each and they make their own with healthy toppings. Oats are cheap as has already been said, so mine also make their own flapjacks. I know not everyone likes cooking but so many dishes take so little effort. If electricity is an issue, plan meals in advance and cook in batches so that if time is tight in the week, it just needs reheating, a healthy and cheap casserole etc will last a couple of days. Stirfrys in healthy oil are good, cheap and quick. So many of us ladies moan about constantly having to watch our weight, so it also puzzles me that so many allow their children to become so overweight ensuring that they will have the same life long weight battles that many of us do. When I took GC swimming, it’s quite sad to see so many obese children, one poor boy had such big man boobs the other boys were being absolutely horrible to him. Is it something that some parents don’t see ?? We all love our kids warts and all, but surely we need them to have healthy lives and not expose them to unnecessary and cruel ridicule from others ?? Very upsetting seeing the humiliation on little faces.

I wonder how many posters have truly and honestly wonder where the next meal was coming from. It is so easy to think when you have a little money, when you have absolutely none it’s not.

While I agree effort goes a long way, I think education would go even further. Unfortunately we aren’t exactly breeding a nurturing environment for these young families to learn in. On this two page forum alone they have been called lazy and neglectful. They’d probably be absolutely terrified of attending a cookery class or asking a health visitor etc for support for fear of being ridiculed further.

How pathetic is it not to be able to cut and onion? Well sadly that is the situation that person has found themselves in, and mocking them isn’t going to solve the problem.

Anniebach Well said. The assumption that people have freezers, don't have to worry about things like shelf life of foods, don't have to worry about using electricity for cooking etc. Poverty often leads to depression when doing much of anything can be a chore.
Judgmental self congratulation seems to be the theme.

Stop watching soaps, films etc, and watch Mary Berry?

I am on a 'very' low income due to long term ill health. I buy fresh meat, fruit and veg and Cook from scratch for nearly every meal, occassional fish an chip supper once a fortnight being the exception.
Given the amount of benefits available to families, whether working or not, (average around £300 a week for 2 or more children!), it is a lifestyle choice to continue to eat junk food.
My D has 4 children, 1 is gluten free and 1 has severe dairy, fish, soya, nut allergies. Her husband works full time while she is the main carer for the 11yr old who is also ASD/ADHD.
They still manage to pay all their bills, eat healthily and pay the extra premium for dairy, gluten and soya free foods. Saturday is usually Movie night with pizza or chicken nuggets and chips!
Its choice not finances that dictate food habits.

Effort.

Well said, rosina.

My grandma had an electricity meter and was careful with every shilling. She was poor all her life. She was also functionally illiterate. She still managed to learn how to cook cheap meals.

What has happened?

This does always make me cross; we've had to really watch every penny in the past and as many have said, fresh ingredients can be bought for little and with some small effort turned into a healthy meal. That's the key - effort. I worked with young people for years and the excuses that came from some families were highly creative as to why the child was fat; however they mostly managed the latest mobile, smoking, and had a car. It was the 'government's fault' that they couldn't afford other food. One boy had whatever the offer of the day was at MacDonald's every single night for his evening meal, and another would 'only eat' frozen chicken pies. It was pointed out that if they weren't bought he couldn't have them but that was met with blank stares. It was easier to put a pie in front of him than washing some vegetables or even buying frozen, which I thought were often healthier as they are frozen very quickly. I do realise some people 'don't know'- but some don't want to know. There are plenty of cookery programmes, community efforts etc. to educate yourself

I don't condemn people. I condemn stupid attitudes like "I can't", "I don't know how".

Learn how!