Poor people in the UK can't eat healthy food because...

a reply to: research100

We are talking about the majority of of over weight people that have no illness.

You are talking about the tiny percentage of people that do.


It is physically impossible for a body to gain mass without mass being added from an outside source.

This statement is a fact.

You can not gain weight without adding mass.

If you don't agree please tell me how a body grows fat cells from nothing. How can you get something from nothing.

you heard about the people on the biggest loser

Those people did not lose weight in a slow controlled manor. That's why they hurt themselves.

you do know about leptin right.

I know all about that being a person who struggled to force themselves to eat for many many years.
I starved simply because I didn't feel like eating. You ever went a month with no food just because the thought of it made you feel ill? I know what I am talking about.

The only ignorant people here are the ones who think we are fat shaming.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Well I have an anecdotal story for you, I live in the northern rivers of nsw, this place is unique, it's has a cluster of hippies who for the most part are vegetarian and into sustainable foods, the farmers markets are very popular. There are no fast food places for 100km, no traffic lights either but that's not the thread .

The people here for the most part live reasonably healthy, it shows, the fat people are a tiny tiny minority, as soon as you leave this area and go where the fast food places are there are fat people everywhere, it's really noticeable...

Soylent green is the future!.
I have worked it out the dead could feed up to 180000 people per year in the UK.
Or 100000 fat people.

originally posted by: testingtesting
Soylent green is the future!.
I have worked it out the dead could feed up to 180000 people per year in the UK.
Or 100000 fat people.

What do you think they make all those fast food burger paddies out of
Soylent green is maccas...

originally posted by: CornishCeltGuy
a reply to: DerBeobachter

Agreed, laziness.
I am a poor person right now after little work and cleaning out my savings.
I have plenty of time to shop, cook, and prepare healthy food, same as other out of work poor people, just laziness.
My son and his girlfriend are coming round for a big bowl each, they're bringing the buttered bread rolls.

I'm working remotely; now I have time to visit our farmers market - there are so many different vegetables available, I wouldn't know what to cook with them.

My knowledge is limited to home cooking with pasta, mince, bolognaise sauce, peas, potatoes, lettuce, carrots, cucumber
and pickles, red/yellow/green peppers. Quirky food I like eating include frozen peas. A packet of rice and a can of chili-con-carne does me for two evenings. A bag of apples and oranges last me a week.

Can't say about UK but in my community it's hard and here is why we have only 2 store in town of about 1000 .
More than half town has no transportation.
Only 2 stores 1 is a convenience store where severouly outdated foods are found .
The second is a dollar General
Dollar General foods are not cheap and are not healthy yes they sale steaks and pork chopsbut they barely bite size and are 1.50.
Cans of cambells are like 2 dollars vegetables are. 2 dollars a can
The bread is a dollar or 2 for store brand but it taste like it made with saw dust.

originally posted by: CornishCeltGuy
I read this a lot on ATS and other forums and it seems to me like just making excuses for people who are too lazy to cook...there I said it so I'll explain my stance, and if it offends you then present a better argument to explain why the majority of fat people in the lower socio-economic scale who are fat are in the condition they are.
Big bones won't cut it, slow metabolism won't cut it, absolute myth, and neither will medical conditions.
I know 'some' folk have medical conditions which make them fat so give it a rest answering like that, I'm asking about the mainstream overwhelming majority of people who take in more energy than they use, not the tiny percentage of people with medical conditions.
I will of course include depression as a medical condition where the effort of cooking healthy is too much so don't bother raising that one either.

I'll go first, essentially addressing all the arguments I can think of where people are making excuses for being fat:
"Poor people can't afford to buy or cook healthy food"
Absolute myth in the UK. There are mini Tesco's in even the smallest of towns, also Aldi's and Lidl's usually within a short walk. Fresh food is dirt cheap, fruits, vegetables, even cheap cuts of meat. I've missed a lot of work these past few months due to an ongoing medical issue myself so I've been really poor (self employed, no work = no money), and had to really watch the penny's.

Tonight I'm making a huge cooking pot of vegetable stew and needed a few ingredients, this was my shop earlier:
400 gramme can of chopped tomatoes - £0.35
750 gramme bag of new potatoes - £0.49
Medium sized Leek - £0.05
5 medium carrots - £0.30
10 Spring Onions - £0.26
One whole Garlic - £0.30
30 gramme jar of hot crushed Chillies - £0.85 (will last me a month or two)
Oh and as a snacking treat I bought a 180 gramme dipping pot of spicy chilli houmous to munch with some sliced baton carrots. That cost £1.20, but as I said, just a treat, I could do without it.

Anyway, the whole lot came to £2.60. I have two fiths of the garlic left, 5 spring onions, half the bag of potatoes, and obviously lots of crushed chillies because I can't use too much lol, they'll last for ages. Take away the houmous and what I've actually used in ingredients the whole cooking pot meal cost around £0.57 in total. It's cooking away and will feed a hearty bowl of veggie stew to a 4 people easily, healthy and cheap. I forgot stock cubes but a box of them is only 30 odd pence so I always have them in.
You might want to add cooking gas charges, I've checked my meter and it's been simmering away for an hour now and that has cost me £0.09 so far.
Poor people in the UK cant afford to eat and cook healthy food is a myth in the UK.

"Poor people may not have cooking ovens or education to use them"
Most poor people live in rented accommodation and it has been the law for many years that landlords must supply cookers and ovens. The law is enforced rigorously by local authorities - Myth
No education to use them??? They know how to heat a frying pan to cook their fat laden frozen fast food crap, same as how set the timer on the oven for the crappy processed frozen ready meals!
Education, give me a break, most poor people are out of work and daytime TV is awash with cookery programmes. Plus I don't know anyone who is 'poor' who hasn't got google on their phones. Another myth that they are so uneducated they cannot cook healthy food which explains why the are fat - insulting if you ask me.

"It's because people have such busy lives"
Busy lives? Doing what? Going to the Jobcentre to look for work once a day? Taking the kids to school then going home to watch Jeremy Kyle on TV? Having a child under school age so you are not required to look for work to get your benefits? Take the little one in the buggy and walk to the cheap shop nearest to you. It's what I did with my small child, stop in the park on the way, the exercise actually walking a mile or so will do you good in losing that fat.

So, in closing, I assert that the overwhelming majority of fat people in the UK are fat solely because they are too lazy to walk to the cheap stores which exist everywhere urban within a reasonable walk. I also assert that they just want the easy life of sticking something in the microwave and eating it from the dish provided with no washing up to do, again laziness.

Now, all comments welcome, but please see my caveats in the first paragraph, and if you come out with some lame line like I hate fat people you are just being ridiculous, I just hate the lame and mythical excuses for being fat.
Remember, it is a choice what energy we intake and the energy we burn...there are no fat people in prolonged famine conditions.

I with ya. I eat good and cheap myself.

But if what you are saying catches on, good and cheap won't exist.

The reason all of your items are cheap, is because the majority of people are not buying it.

If the majority does start buying fresh, raw, ingredients the prices will sky rocket.

I'm happy people eat cheap, and expensive, restaurant grease as it keeps the prices at the market low. Up the demand, and up go the prices.

But to those that suggest food, good food, isn't cheap enough for everyone right now, they are poor witnesses of the reality.

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
a reply to: paraphi

Their kids subsist on sweets and fizzy drinks

And then they act like idiots at school and get diagnosed with ADHD.

It's ridiculous.

I thought it only happened in America.

originally posted by: Xtrozero
Get a 50 pound of rice and a bunch of chicken. Stir fry the chicken with some veggies and spice and you got a ton of cheap meals...

Pfft, I have a wok and a Chinese stepmother. All the first-hand learning in the world couldn't help me with any cheapo wok meals, "You just not meant to cook, that's fine."

Cooking IS a goddamn art, it's the art of balance between science and math at it's most basic. Many people are paltry at it. Myself included. Which I why I made sure I married someone with serious cooking skills. Everything I try to cook usually burns black, no matter how hard I try to do it right. You're damn right I'm going to default to tossing in a box of Stouffer's, at least I can count on their lasagna to come out the way it's supposed to and not an overcooked, formless, mushy mess of a "soup" in the pan. Yes people, Nyiah f#s up LASAGNA. I have no business being anywhere near a kitchen.

Taking away the poverty aspect of the OP's rant, he can shove his opinion up his delicate English fanny for all I care.

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes

originally posted by: Muninn
Kick them when they are down, classy.

Nonsense. The OP is correct and even provided evidence of how cheap it is to eat healthily in this country.

Are you an obese dole dosser by any chance?

LMFAO!!

One of the most common components of a diet that causes weight gain is carbohydrates....also one of the most filling food out there.

Bread, pastas and rice are incredibly inexpensive, filling, and sadly, contribute to an ever expanding waistline.

I'm on an exceedingly tight food budget and carbs comprise 75% of my diet.

I'm not happy with my current size so I'm going to be switching to a Keto diet, but I'll have to eat twice as much to get the same "full" feeling that breads and pasta provide.

So it's going to be more expensive than my quick fill of cheap carbs.

Perhaps the quick carb fix plays a part in these folks diet as well?

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

I don't know about the UK, but in the US I spent many, many years on food stamps. I just got off of them last year. Here, the healthy stuff is simply too expensive to buy on the typical food budget. When you're living on $100 worth of groceries per month (representing about 15% of income), or $3.33/day you can't afford things like salads which cost $3 per serving, or fruits that are $1 each.

Your meals end up being things like Kraft Mac and Cheese which is 50 cents per serving. You can have an occasional good crock pot meal which will run more like $2/serving, but you also have to eat a like of junk to offset that. It also doesn't help matters much that soda is literally cheaper than water in the US. Thus, if you're being cost conscious, you're better off drinking Mountain Dew.

The wife and I spend about ten bucks a day on food, making a high percentage of it ourselves. Our problem is that it tastes so good, we eat too much. And of course, going to the farmers market, the wife comes back with Saffron bread, Cardamon bread, and pickapulls which are the best thing ever created by man. All homemade by some older women we know.

We do go out and eat about once a week, that cost is included in the ten bucks a day average. It runs a little more sometimes, I make bread and rolls and soups and pasties for the kids and grandkids and also buy eggs from friends to give to the kids and a few friends of mine. I include the beef we eat in that ten bucks a day, but usually not the stuff I give to my relatives, we buy a half a head of grass fed beef each year, almost half of it is presents for Christmas.

It is not expensive to make good food, and when you make a roast or chicken you can get soup and lunches or even a supper for many days. A nice pasty will cost about a buck and a quarter, one makes a meal for a person. We buy higher quality products and it is not that expensive to eat well. Many people waste a lot, buying things then throwing half of it away, we waste hardly nothing here. We even use real maple syrup and buy pure cane sugar for our sugar.

I'm not so worried at being overweight, we are looking towards mascular degeneration happening in the next ten years, withering away to nothing takes longer if you are not too skinny to start with.

a reply to: GENERAL EYES

last september I have cut out bread in my diet as I could feel it making me ill. Since then I have lost 32 pounds. I eat anything I want and I don't diet. And every month more weight falls off me, very slowly and stays off, just by giving up bread.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy
I saw an ad in the local grocery store ad that showed Fried Chicken in the deli 99cents/pound, and on the same page apples $1.99/pound...
Whenever we cook we will spend $40 on basic ingredients...it is much easier to go to McDonalds when money is tight

a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

Thanks for writing that. I do feel our society, on both sides of the pond, are bombarded by fast food and prepared food. We'd rather do anything than cook. We love entertainment which takes our minds off our life reality and transforms us from living our lives to living through fantaasies. Tv, movies, video games etc.

We are a sick society physically due to alot more than just food diet.

The stresses of living can result in many bad choices; diet being a big one.

Sorry, op. I believe you have fallen into a rut of self righteousness and judgement of others without looking at the bigger picture.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

When things are ever tight for me....or even when they aren't....a slow cooker is my best friend.

You can get them new for less than twenty quid, or often see them in charity shops going cheap. I get a £3 chicken from the supermarket, or a small beef roasting joint for the same price...chuck casserole veg mix for about a quid, add a beef stock and leave it stewing all day. A whole pot of that will do me about six meals, a good few days. Under a fiver for almost a week of hot good meals.

Porridge is a good cheap go to breakfast when money's tight.

You are right situation lot of what you say though, in my opinion doctors should be prescribing more cookery lessons and gym memberships, and less medication.

CX.

An emotive subject.

Obesity is a major problem, we all know it but for various reasons very little will or can be done. 'Shame' which used to be the way society forced people to behave responsibly has now been outlawed. I'm not talking about bullying etc, I am talking about behaviours that would previously be seen as shameful are now not. This has been to the determent of society in general and our health.

I have read that doctors in the UK have been asked not to use the 'F' word (fat) with patients as it might offend them. I'm sorry but if you have a self inflicted condition that can affect your health and cost the health system a considerable amount of money and resources that could be helping people that really need it, then you don't have the right to be offended.

Stories of 'people of size' complaining that their clothes cost more than the clothes of people that are in the 'healthy range' for their height and body type.

Stories of people complaining that they can't fit in airline seats, on the rides at amusement parks, in the seats on public transport, that car makers are ignoring them by not making cars for their size.

Health authorities all over the UK are spending considerable resources buying new ambulances and hospital beds, operating tables, baths etc to cope with the growing weight of the patients they deal with. Even crematoriums are struggling to dispose of the corpses of the morbidly obese.

When challenged in any way 'people of size' will tell you it's their life, their choice. They are in the main shameless individuals that do not care that thousands are being denied medical help for non self inflicted conditions because the selfish 'people of size' are hogging the resources.

What's the solution? There isn't one, well not one that doesn't involve a near extinction level event, which ironically would favour the morbidly obese as they have fat stores for a long fast.

I know there will be outraged people that will now accuse me of this or that, of hating on people. I am not talking about people with a few extra pounds, I am talking about the morbidly obese that refuse to accept responsibility for their own actions, that have no shame and want to blame everyone but themselves.

I live in an area that has one of the highest levels of obesity in the UK. That has a very high rate of hospital treatment for obesity related conditions. I keep myself healthy, I keep myself at a healthy weight range. I dread the day I might need to call on the health services here for any treatment as it's stretched already as it is.

Walking around town and seeing young obese people, morbidly obese young mothers, it's heartbreaking what they are doing to their lives. We have one of the highest infant obesity rates in the country too, those little kids aren't feeding themselves. They're being set up to be obese adults that will then bring up obese children themselves.

I used to spend holidays in Florida and I'd be shocked at how big a human can be, now the UK we have our own epidemic. It's saddening, I genuinely feel sorry for them and there's nothing that can be done as nobody wants to act and they'd be shouted down for fat shaming if they tried.

The OP is right, there is too much convenience/comfort food out there that is calorie high and ready to eat. People don't want to cook when they can throw something tasty in the microwave and eat it in minutes. My local town had one chip shop, one fast food establishment and two small cafes. Now every major fast food chain is here, there are loads of chip shops, kebab shops and pizza shops. A lot of them even deliver, so people don't even get any exercise walking for the food.

We live in sad times, how quickly we've descended into madness. The lunatics have really taken over the asylum.

Being from the U.K myself I have noticed a lack of people cooking at home and eating healthy. The lines for fast food joints are huge. People stand in the rain for 15 minutes just for some fried chicken.
I used to have a KFC once a week but kept active which worked for me at the time. These days I eat healthy and get regular exercise. That's my choice though. If people want to live on fast food then that's their choice.

Eating healthy is not expensive it's just not easy. Most foods are full of fats, saturates, salt and sugar. I found it hard to find a balanced diet at first but after research it all came together.

Recently I went out for a few drinks with workmates. On the way home they all stopped off at Burger King. I sat and watched them all eat for at least 20 minutes. That isn't my food anymore, but I'm not going to push my healthy lifestyle on others. It's their choice.

originally posted by: testingtesting
Soylent green is the future!.
I have worked it out the dead could feed up to 180000 people per year in the UK.
Or 100000 fat people.

Perhaps that’s the plan and we are fattening up fat people to eat!!!