why..?

[accymel]

MMm true points, but suprised nobody has brought up exercise tho thing is blame actually can be assertained to society as well, as someone brought up that parents are under enormous pressure to do things right either by all accounts. When i was young i was always out at the park, up coppice [gr8 exercise locally lol] running about but nowadays safety issue has been 'the' biggest concern certainly in our neighbourhoods coupled with the fact of the computer/gaming surge ~ the reality is that it isnt as safe or we are in fear more of safety than ever ~ gaming industry capitises on that plus peer pressure to be a good parent like someone said that 'we'd be different than our parents' attitude.


The gov has a responsiblity to pressure food industries about health & nutrition to which these companies get huge profits from, not only the big upsurge in takeaway variations & competition of fast food, but also packaged convienience foods ~ even our fresh foods have cast shadows of healthyness.... i.e too much salt, preservatives, pesticides, bird flu, samenella etc, even organic has had its critics but are very expensive. Todays life is more pressured, money is a issue whereas to live comfortably most 2 parent families have to be both wage earners, increase in low wage earners, single parenting, increase tax etc, long working hours & balancing of working hours means many families cant eat a good meal at the end of the day together putting pressure for quick fix meals that food industry capitilises on.

Education mmmmmm home Economics/food tech teaching of young people to cook decent whole meals..... rather than useless sausage rolls or fruit salad ~ not rocket science n sauage rolls is cheaper to get ready-done from shop, lucky i learnt to cook a roast from my mother [eekkk lol] nowadays many people dont know how to cook from scratch ~ even with me some things i dont know like casseroles n cakes lol, so that what used to be a generational thing of passing down recipes etc is now lost. Also they want to be careful as to where & how this is approached as far as pressure as we may have an increasing obesity but we have increasing eating disorder problems too ~ so balance is needed.

Gee i've uncovered a few factors there although im at other end of the scale ~ my son needs weight putting on him & i find that hard enough lol.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Phylum......I don't know if you have Lidl and Aldi supermarkets where you live.......Lidl are very good at selling their fruit and veg at half price.....and the best of it is that because the stuff is so cheap it flies off the shelf.....so it is always fresh.......they don't just do the usual veggies either.....they have sweet potatoes and aubergines and celeriac and kohlrabi......so you can usually make good nourishing meals cheaply.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Accymel....I think that I mentioned the activity issue in an earlier post......and we have had a subject like this before and I mentioned the role of cookery classes in schools.....teaching children to cook and letting them try out different ways of cooking and serving nourishing healthy food. I also think that when children have cooked something themselves they are much more likely to eat it. I also think that food labelling is a minefield......you choose something because it is low fat and find that the sugar content is astronomical......or you choose something that is low sugar and then read that the sweetener used in the food is reported to cause cancer. I have come to the conclusion that parents cannot win.

[SPUGGIE J]

I agree that if kids make a meal they enjoy it better. My daughter makes a cracking chicken curry with plenty of fresh ingredients and loves it. Snag is I dont often get any myself.