I am really not sure cooking from scratch takes any longer or is more expensive. Certainly the second point is true. I work full time and do the food shopping and almost all the cooking in our house and still seem to be able to ride my bike and do other stuff.
If they had a choice of crap meals for same cost but way less time buying
How does it take longer buying some meat and veg than a ready meal. I shop at Aldi, chuck stuff in trolley, it's not hard. Admittedly aldinis a cost saving on Tesco but I do have to visit Tesco every few weeks for the odd this and that Aldi don't have....but still it's hardly difficult.
Edited to add it's Lidl not Aldi.
How does it take longer buying some meat and veg than a ready meal
Did you leave off the "and cooking them" accidentally or deliberately?
Every part of it takes longer. Coming up with recipes, choosing all the components for the many recipes that week, preparing all the raw foods, cooking all the foods etc,. Much more time that picking up some ready meals off the self and then just putting in microwave or oven. And when you can buy a lasagne for £1 it will also be hard to make one yourself for the same cost. Yes yours would be better tasting, better ingredients but would cost more and take much longer to make.
Thats another good point, Aldi has also been a bit of a game changer for us, in and out in less than 30 minutes with a trolley. Food quality in there has surprised me.
As I said above in the current climate thknga will only change if the indivodual wants to change and even then it incredibly difficult, I know, thats me. We might eat more healthily now but I stil need to eat less and move more.
Edit but most arent buying £1 lasagnes in Iceland tnough are they, they spend considerably more on thier crap food. Most of our meals take less than 30 mins start to finish, less if we get the kids to help. If ease is yoir priority go for it, dont complain of being too fat or having weight related issues. The other red herring is cheap food, to be as fat as many people are thats not just eating cheaper over procesed food, thats eating huge quantities of cheap over processed food with a large amount of snacks and alcohol (costly and not necessary). I look at the imcreasing number of people in their 20s that make me look slim, to be that fat that young takes some dedicated face stuffing.
What stuck with me, ages back, was listening to a podcast where they put forward the idea that physiologically we're still hardwired as hunter gatherers. Gorging on high sugar foods in the natural world - say you find a bees's nest - makes perfect sense because it's a load of energy that you convert into fat and, most importantly, it's only going to happen occasionally.
What we've done is make all that sugary stuff available instantly on demand, but we still have the basic drive to consume sugar in bulk. And that, of course, is what 'big food' exploits to sell as much stuff as possible and maximise profits.
It's not just 'junk food', witness the comedy reverence for cake and biscuits on this very forum, it's an unfortunate synergy of basic biological drives, cultural norms and the way our economy works. I pretty much gave up sugary foods - cake, biscuits, ice cream, processed breakfast cereal etc - when I had long covid because they had such a dire impact on my well being and I honestly don't miss them. On the odd occasion where I've had, say, a processed dessert since, I've found it almost unbearably sweet and sickly, Greek yoghurt and fruit is enough these days.
I doubt there's a simple solution, unless it's some sort of huge eco-social collapse that decimates the fast / convenience / processed food industry or some sort of pharmaceutical mass intervention that turns off the desire for sugary, salty, fatty foods, but as with wars and aggression, we do, as individuals, have the capacity to make considered choices for ourselves.
Did you leave off the “and cooking them” accidentally or deliberately?
Deliberately, you came up with a list of things that take longer, one of them is complete horseshit to be frank so I mentioned that.
And when you can buy a lasagne for £1 it will also be hard to make one yourself for the same cost. Yes yours would be better tasting, better ingredients but would cost more and take much longer to make.
Can you buy a lasgne for a £1?
Tesco one is £3.25
Certainly not one that would fill me up. Anyway it's a shit example as no one who is time limited mid week would make lasagne, far too much phaff. I can knock up a 50% meat 50% veg spag bol in 15 mins then leave it to simmer gently for half an hour. No probs. Cheaper than 3 of those Tesco ones for a family of 3. I usually have enough for next days lunch too.
I knocked up today's risotto in the time it took to play through "Welcome to the Pleasuredome".
Deliberately, you came up with a list of things that take longer, one of them is complete horseshit to be frank so I mentioned that.
So planning the weekly recipes and then getting all the required ingredients takes no longer than just picking up 7 ready meals, right.
Can you buy a lasgne for a £1?
Yes you can - try googling £1 lasagne, if you have time.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think people should be obese but I do think modern life and convenience leads them to it as an easy option. You don't and that is fine for you, I don't either and am 178cm and 67KG at 55 and am prepared to put whatever effort in it takes as it is important to me (even avoiding all UPF ingredients) but it is clearly less important/lower priority to a lot of people.
This is sad to read. Probably related in some part to the topic under discussion.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-67443189.amp
More illness among young affecting work ability.
"Working young people have experienced a particularly sharp rise - and are now as likely to report ill-health affecting their work as a middle-aged person a decade ago."
So planning the weekly recipes and then getting all the required ingredients takes no longer than just picking up 7 ready meals, right.
Pretty much, I just walk round Lidl and buy the same stuff I need each week. I can do this very easily as I have been living life as a fully functioning adult for quite some time. It takes no planning or forethought.
I am not sure 7 ready meals would feedthe family for a week
To be fair, it takes no planning or forethought because you have been doing it week in week out for your adult life.
That said I essentially do the same, or my wife will, as we both value avoiding processed low quality food.
As some have noted with practice the actual cooking bit doesn't take that much effort either.
To be fair, it takes no planning or forethought because you have been doing it week in week out for your adult life.
Exactly, it is easy for some of us and we have done it for ages. We are not talking about us though are we.
For someone to start planning their meals a week ahead, writing down all the ingredients, buying all the ingredients, preparing and cooking all the ingredients into meals is so clearly going to take more time and effort than buying ready meals that I really don't know why I am even wasting time writing this but then it is STW...
Exactly, it is easy for some of us and we have done it for ages. We are not talking about us though are we.
True, but when you keep saying it's quicker and cheaper to buy shit food you only make matters worse. It's not cheaper, it does take a little more time to cook and it doesn't take any longer to buy.
The impression given by all these cooking programmes is bollocks. Just try posting in here that you don't need to stand next to a risotto stirring and adding small amounts of stock all the time and you will get howls of derision, meanwhile I canleavea risotto on low for 20mins and it makes a perfectly acceptable family meal. This shit doesn't need over complicating.
More illness among young affecting work ability.
“Working young people have experienced a particularly sharp rise
Although obviously some proportion of this will be obesity related, as someone who has struggled with long COVID for nearly 4 years (and knowing others who have) I think there's another clear reason for the recent increase there
Added up the calories from my weekend beer drinking 1950! Yikes no wonder I can't out train that.
More illness among young affecting work ability.
“Working young people have experienced a particularly sharp rise<br />Although obviously some proportion of this will be obesity related, as someone who has struggled with long COVID for nearly 4 years (and knowing others who have) I think there’s another clear reason for the recent increase there
Judging by where I work, and completely anecdotally, illness among the 20-somethings here tends to be more anxiety related, not so much physical illness.
To be fair, it takes no planning or forethought because you have been doing it week in week out for your adult life.
That said I essentially do the same, or my wife will, as we both value avoiding processed low quality food.
As some have noted with practice the actual cooking bit doesn’t take that much effort either.
My oldest daughter is just learning this, having recently moved into a shared house. We keep having boring conversations about where to shop, and what to buy, and how much toilet paper costs! She is surprised by how few of her housemates can cook, but tbf, even when I was a student 30 years ago, few to none of us could cook. We just learned as went along. I don't think any of us who can now cook think that we popped out of the womb with that skill. 😀
True, but when you keep saying it’s quicker and cheaper to buy shit food you only make matters worse.
How can what I am posting on an MTB forum make matters worse, get some perspective.
It’s not cheaper, it does take a little more time to cook and it doesn’t take any longer to buy.
It may or may not be cheaper (depends what you buy) but it will take longer to cook and it will take longer to think about and buy - That time is well worth it for me, for others it doesn't appear to be.
More illness among young affecting work ability.
“Working young people have experienced a particularly sharp rise
Covid hopefully taught people that going into work when you are ill doesn't make you a hero, it makes you a "disease spreader" and an arsehole. It also taught most people that companies don't give a shit about them so why suffer when someone else takes most of the benefit of your suffering.
Young people have been disproportionately ****ed over by the financial crash and 15 years of austerity, high asset inflation and low wage inflation means they have really poor prospects for buying homes or into pensions, many had there educations badly affected by covid, they will bear the brunt of the climate crisis etc. etc.
Frankly I am surprised they don't reject the world we have created with far more vigour, probably because we have squeezed hope out of them as well.
How can what I am posting on an MTB forum make matters worse, get some perspective.
By people reading it and then repeating it. You are after all very keen to have me believe what you post is true
