Malnutrition in England

Hetty58 which country? England has lost its global position and is no longer a very rich country.

I agree Hetty58, but poverty seems to be the price we're willing to pay to ensure some can live comfortably or even with great wealth.
We could make our country more equal but the will doesn't seem to be there.

Hetty58

Still, I don't agree that it's all due to bad choices, ignorance and laziness.

What I see is a society with increased levels of poverty, isolation, mental health issues, substance abuse, homelessness etc. - along with a lack of available care, NHS services, community help, others (family, neighbours) with time, energy and resources to monitor wellbeing. All in a very rich country - what a disgrace!

That's what I'm seeing, Hetty, particularly the increasing levels of poverty.

It's frustrating that what most people seem to see is bad cooks 😆

(and) the only person I know who was hospitalised - with a dangerous electrolyte imbalance - was a friend's daughter, a mother of two, who'd been on a diet, severely restricting her food intake - until she collapsed. She was normal weight to start with, yet convinced that she needed a drastic change to be attractive.

Still, I don't agree that it's all due to bad choices, ignorance and laziness.

What I see is a society with increased levels of poverty, isolation, mental health issues, substance abuse, homelessness etc. - along with a lack of available care, NHS services, community help, others (family, neighbours) with time, energy and resources to monitor wellbeing. All in a very rich country - what a disgrace!

Anyone ever tried polenta which has been around since Roman times? Made from corn and can be served in various ways. Also available as instant polenta as real polenta can be a hazard to cook as it erupts. Fairly cheap too.
The constant erosion of our human initiative and dependence on the government of the day is beginning to be very depressing. Do we have any self determination left?

growstuff

People seem to be ignoring the fact that most people who are hospitalised for malnutrition (and there doesn't seem to be data about those who aren't hospitalised) are middle-aged or older.

I think 'people' are ignoring a great deal in their rush to blame poor purchasing and cookery skills! Most noticeably the fact that the malnutrition is occurring at higher levels in the virtuous groups who know all about nutrition and cooking from scratch (i.e, us and our impeccably raised children 😆)

Perhaps they should look at the figures in the link you posted.

Of course, it couldn't be anything to do with increasing poverty brought on by 'austerity' measures since 2010, could it?

My children are better cooks than me. All are parents and all work.Not sure that this relates in any way to malnutrition.

nanna8

One of my grandchildren has 3 babies. Her husband works all day and when he gets home she goes out to work. All because of high mortgage rates. Their cooking is more or less non existent and the kids live on fast foods, horrible to me but what can they do ? I have to say the kids are happy and smiley and they are not overweight . I suppose there are fast foods and fast foods, some better than others.

In the 70s I worked full time,shifts, including nights. Hubby worked during the day. Whoever was at home cooked tea, nothing fancy like people want nowadays, basic good home cooking. Took an hour at most,or used slow cooker.prep during day, whoever was at home. Called working together. All my children can cook.

I went to a girls' grammar school. I realise now how thorough our cookery classes were. First we sat down and analysed what we were going to cook and if it provided us with all the nutrients. Then we were sent out to buy the ingredients and cost them.
Finally we cooked our dinner, sat down and ate it. A cooking lesson lasted all afternoon. I was not impressed with the home economics classes my daughter had in secondary school. She is a good cook though. Possibly because she has always seen me cooking from scratch.

One of my grandchildren has 3 babies. Her husband works all day and when he gets home she goes out to work. All because of high mortgage rates. Their cooking is more or less non existent and the kids live on fast foods, horrible to me but what can they do ? I have to say the kids are happy and smiley and they are not overweight . I suppose there are fast foods and fast foods, some better than others.

I did Domestic Science at school, and chose to study it to O Level. Passed with a top grade too. Along with passing several other subjects and A Levels too. But not an A Level in Domestic Science. There wasn’t such a course to do.
None of my children, nor my husband, received any formal teaching at school in Domestic Science, but they can all cook. My husband always says if you can read you can cook.
Anyway I don’t think the malnutrition is caused by people being unable to cook, but there maybe a bearing on it though a lack of knowledge about what constitutes a healthy and balanced diet.
I feel a great many of the adults in the survey who were malnourished may well be elderly people or people with mental health issues.

Hetty58

Callistemon21, the stinky fermented fish sauce they were so fond of was very nutritious, though (but rather them than me).

Maybe they'd have been better off eating take-aways while sitting in the communal latrines.

M0nica

I am no supporter of averages, but in this case I would expect the distribution to follow that of the usual bell curve, with the majority of people clustered in the centre, 5 hours+/- 1hour but with the ends tailing off to 0 and well over 15.

5 hours, +/- 1 hour would include a significant proportion of all respondents.

Either way a lot of 'busy' people spend a lot of their free time in front of a screen and could use some of that time more usefully cooking.

The ones who spend hours watching a screen are probably not the same ones who are single parents and work three jobs to make ends meet.

Callistemon21, the stinky fermented fish sauce they were so fond of was very nutritious, though (but rather them than me).

growstuff

Callistemon I didn't even do domestic science in Year 7 and I can't say I lost out. Latin was fun at times.

I really wish people wouldn't label all young people as food ignorami.

I reckon the real reason the Roman Empire fell was because they ate and drank far too much; they lay down on couches to eat and got digestive problems.

I can't really see the link between malnutrition - and lack of cooking skills. It's quite possible to buy and eat healthy food with little cooking involved.

Years back, my grandson (who lived here) asked his friend to play after school. His mum said she'd collect him at six, when his dad got back. The next week, grandson went to his house - and she asked me to collect him at six.

The next time I saw her, she said he wouldn't be coming again - as I hadn't cooked dinner for him! Apparently, he ate at 5 and was in bed at 7. We had after school snacks, ate at seven, with bed at 8.30.

The snacks were apple, cheese and red pepper slices with peanut dip. Her 'dinner' was turkey dinosaurs with chips. Of course, he'd had his dinner later anyway!

People seem to be ignoring the fact that most people who are hospitalised for malnutrition (and there doesn't seem to be data about those who aren't hospitalised) are middle-aged or older.

Callistemon I didn't even do domestic science in Year 7 and I can't say I lost out. Latin was fun at times.

I really wish people wouldn't label all young people as food ignorami.

I didn't do domestic science at school apart from in what is now Y7, where we made scrambled eggs, fairy cakes and I cannot remember what else for a term. Nothing useful, anyway. One term was spent hand stitching a shapeless nightie (and a lot of chatting). Nothing to prepare us for useful domesticity! 😀
Then, thank goodness, we dropped all that in Y8 and learned Latin instead.

grandtante
I’m over 70 and my cooking education consisted of DS at school where we made Victoria sponges, Danish open sandwiches and scotch eggs amongst other useful things. apart from the former I’ve never remade the other two.
However I could read recipes which was helpful as, apart from fish fingers, ready made food wasn’t available so it was learn or starve,
We HAD to eat real food.
Now the younger generation don’t have to and they believe that the UPF!s that they buy are good for them. The manufacturers make them taste very delicious. It’s in their interests to make them very palatable and do so much to make it seem like a healthy option. It gives them a very healthy profit even if it isn’t good for the consumers.

I am no supporter of averages, but in this case I would expect the distribution to follow that of the usual bell curve, with the majority of people clustered in the centre, 5 hours+/- 1hour but with the ends tailing off to 0 and well over 15.

5 hours, +/- 1 hour would include a significant proportion of all respondents.

Either way a lot of 'busy' people spend a lot of their free time in front of a screen and could use some of that time more usefully cooking.

Blondiescot

And if 'young people of today can't cook', whose fault is that? Did many of us on here not raise that generation? Both of my adult children can cook and indeed do cook most of their meals from scratch because that's how they were brought up.
I'm not seeking to blame anyone, by the way - just pointing out that it isn't always as straightforward as it may appear.

Indeed.
And ours are fabulous scratch cooks as well.

M0nica

We keep hearing how time short everyone is. How is it, therefore that the average person spends 5 hours a day watching a screen? This does not include work screen time?
www.uswitch.com/mobiles/screentime-report/

😀

I wonder how I found time to cook - children and all their activities, a job and an elderly parent 🤔
There were no mobile phones then, at least, if they were, they were just for phone calls.

We couldn't have afforded takeaway food.

M0nica

We keep hearing how time short everyone is. How is it, therefore that the average person spends 5 hours a day watching a screen? This does not include work screen time?
www.uswitch.com/mobiles/screentime-report/

There's no such think as an "average person".