Theresa May Mark 2

Firecracker- "Common sense " is a socially constructed concept I,e. What people think is commmon sense can change over time and between cultures - so what you think of as common sense may differ from someone in the past and someone brought up in another culture. So I suggest common sense is not necessarily more significant than statistics. Although statistics are socially created as well, they are more easily scrutinised and verified than common sense.

'Common sense' often means little more than people's prejudice about what is right.

Do you work in MacDonalds, Firecracker?

No do you.

Agree with you, Jalima. I think some people's taste buds change too. My mother will rarely do anything other than pick at 'real' food, but she eats loads of sweets and cake. She used to eat quite healthily.

I also find it boring to cook a proper meal at times. Quite honestly, I really can't be bothered to spend time preparing a meal which is going to take me 10 minutes to eat. I have to be careful, because I'm diabetic, so my 'fast food' is usually nuts and raw veg. I can't afford takeaways, but I always have a supply of 'ping' food in the freezer.

I can understand that people with limited mobility would eat stuff like biscuits and cake, especially if they have a sweet tooth. As you say, they're likely to be overweight, but still malnourished. There used to be a day centre in town, which provided hot meals for pensioners, but it closed last year.

I just wondered why you spent your days spying on people eating takeaways.

Because I travel around a lot and visit lots of different towns and villages socially and no I don't eat takeaways often, perhaps fish and chips occasionally. I am in to healthy eating.

'The number of people so ­malnourished they need hospital treatment has QUADRUPLED in 10 years.

In a shocking indictment of the nation’s food poverty , more than 16,000 cases of malnutrition were reported in hospitals in England last year, an average of 45 every day.

More than 900 of these cases were classed as severe – meaning patients were in danger of starving to death.

But these alarming NHS figures are just the extreme tip of an iceberg of misery and deprivation as GPs treat thousands more poverty-stricken patients for malnutrition.

Campaigners blame spiralling food prices, falling wages and ruthless benefits cuts and sanctions.

Simon Capewell, professor of public health at Liverpool University and vice president of the Faculty of Public Health, said: “It is a national scandal." '

Not about people eating the wrong food. It's about people starving themselves to death, nearly three a day classed as severe.

ddil
DMIL used to pretend she was eating but we found that she wasn't touching most of it (meals on wheels and home-cooked meals which her other DDIL used to take her at weekends).
However, when she came to stay she would eat more and put on a bit of weight and I think it was the company more than my delicious food.

That is why day centres providing cooked meals are (were?) such a good idea because older people may well eat more if they are in company, as well as the fact that the meal is cooked for them.

When my Mum went into Hospital after a fall, and I flew over, the first thing the doctor said was how malnourished she was.
I had spent my previous trip over filling her freezer with lots of nutricious meals, my Mum likes strong flavours and really found the bought ones boring, they were all ready to microwave.
Very few had been used, I questioned this and was told the carers had to use shop bought ones as they can see what the ingredients are and the time for microwaving etc.
I had put clear instructions on each meal, including ingredients and spoken to her carers.
The only one who used my meals was one who came on a Friday and was one of the ones my Mum paid for privately.

Sorry DGS just wandered in and pressed send.
If I went out at lunchtime when over I would leave a nice lunch ready for my Mum, some of the carers just ignored it and gave her a ready meal.
My Mum got very upset as she loves my cooking(only thing she likes about me) and they put on her record that she was being disruptive and refusing to eat. She has all her marbles and is very articulate and knew what she was supposed to have for her lunch.
I soon sorted that out.

I agree with you, Jalima, although I'm sure your food was as good as your company. I think loneliness has a lot to do with it. Eating is a social activity.

The article says the average of admission for malnutrition is 64, so I hardly think they're malnourished, because they eat too many takeaways or don't know how to cook all of a sudden.

@Firecracker

As you travel around, you don't actually know whether these people eat takeaways every day or just indulging in an occasional treat.

My MIL first became severely malnourished during an unexpectedly extended stay in hospital and her weight loss was quite alarming. She said she often didn't feel like eating the food (it was not very tempting) so they would take it away, she would feel hungry a bit later but there was nothing else until tea-time when it would be a sandwich.

Even buying nice shop-bought ones (M&S) for MIL did not work felice - I would freeze them for her and then the carer would throw them out because they were a few days past their sell-by-date - well of course they were, the sell-by-date was for using fresh but they were OK for a month if frozen. MIL said she thought the carer was taking them home with her, she used to open MIL a tin of soup or make her a sandwich.

Obviously I am referring to younger people not infirm or the elderly.
daphnedill how do you know they don't.

Not obvious at all, Firecracker. You keep saying most people. You have never once used the word young.

Next week the Paris Agreement on Climate Change comes into force.
It was negotiated by 196 heads of state, and all agreed not to build any more fossil fuel projects.
act.350.org/go/12527?t=3&utm_medium=email&utm_source=actionkit&akid=17148.2200035.fo2XWZ

So why is our government keen on fracking? Does it not realise that it is a fossil fuel?

www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/25/renewables-made-up-half-of-net-electricity-capacity-added-last-year

This is excellent news about renewables.
Again, why is the government so keen on fracking?
Could it be because Osborne's father in law, Lord Howell, is the man who thinks the North is desolate and deserves fracking?

theconversation.com/theresa-may-has-a-very-special-technique-for-avoiding-questions-67424

This explains how Theresa May got to be PM, and how the same technique is causing problems in her Brexit strategy.

Boris Johnson said he would lie down in front of the bulldozers if Heathrow was given the go-ahead by Theresa May.
Looking forward to that.

Also looking forward to seeing how May and Hammond explain this, too.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-spending-budget-black-hole-16bn-treasury-leaked-document-john-mcdonnell-labour-a7378891.html

What's the betting they still try to blame Labour.