To think processed and pre cooked food is way too common in this country?

So forget about Brits- what’s your advice to your fellow Italians to help them stop growing such fat kids?

I both agree and disagree at the same time.

Yes, people are often tight on time. And yes, some dishes can take ages to cook, plus, if you’re watching every penny for your gas and electricity costs, it can be tricky.

However, what I disagree with is the idea that all home-cooked meals are time-consuming or expensive. In many cases, it’s really about convenience. People often choose what’s easiest, not necessarily what’s best or most economical.

Sometimes I wonder how people manage to watch hours of TV in the evening when, as you mentioned, they come home from work, sort out the kids, and still need to eat. It makes me think that for some, convenience has become the top priority , so they can spend the rest of the evening sitting on the sofa doing absolutely nothing. And that’s fine occasionally everyone needs downtime, but when it becomes the default, it’s part of why people stop seeing cooking as worthwhile.

What people often forget is that taking a little time to cook something from scratch isn’t just cheaper it’s so much healthier. You actually know what’s going into your food, and it doesn’t take as long as many think. I don’t believe most people realise how big of a difference it makes for their health and energy levels in the long run.

Take a simple spaghetti bolognese, for example. A bag of pasta costs less than £1, add some tinned tomatoes, mince, and Italian herbs (you can buy a mixed herb blend instead of several separate jars). From that, you can make several portions, bringing the cost per serving quite low — and it doesn’t need to simmer for hours. There’s no way that buying ready-made versions os spag bowl is cheaper, especially since you’d need multiple of them To feed everyone. And for those who can plan ahead, it’s easy to make a bigger batch and freeze portions. That way, you’ve got quick, homemade meals ready to go and much healthier ones too, without all the added sugar and preservatives you find in ready meals.

Don’t get me wrong, I sometimes buy ready meals too. I’ve got a few “emergency” ones in my freezer for when life gets crazy, and I think that’s exactly what they’re for. But I wholeheartedly disagree with relying on them. When ready meals become the everyday solution, that’s when it turns into a habit that’s hard to break and honestly, it’s our health and wallets that pay the price. It’s false economy for sure.

That’s just one example off the top of my head. I’m not saying anyone should live on spaghetti bolognese 365 days a year, but I hope you get the point I’m trying to make :)

Pasta is rubbish really, not much different to sliced white bread. The amount of veg in that probably wouldn't amount to 1 of your 5 a day.
Quite frankly, a decent ready meal with a side of veg often won't contain any upfs and will be just as healthy. It is perfectly possible to buy a jar of ready made pasta sauce (that can be used for things other than pasta), which contains no sugar or upfs.
Upfs are just the current MN obsession to rival the massive salad and mythical chicken which feeds 20 and there's still leftovers.

I’ve had this and it is nice but has to be eaten straight away. Its the sunshine version of pasta pesto.

I think future generations will look back on the prevalence of ready made meals / UPFs in the supermarkets in the same way we look at smoking. It was so widespread not so while ago and socially accepted. Now it’s this processed shite poisoning us - and the kids who are increasingly unhealthy; and we just go… yeah ok. It shouldn’t be allowed to be so available, so in your face and marketed often as ‘healthy’. In the same way that smoking isn’t anymore.

I grew up in a very poor and battered country and largely ate very simple foods as a child. Various lentils, beans, veg, soup, bread, meat or fish sometimes. Everyone cooked from scratch because there was no other option. No one was ‘not smart enough’ or ‘not confident enough’, people had to cook for their families. It’s SO much easier to do well
now. It’s the availability and promotion of shite foods that is the biggest issue - from companies that just want to make money. It should be criminal.

How is it Brit bashing please? I agree with her, and I am British born and bred (Liverpudlian/Irish/Scots). There was no need for you to make childish threats to be xenophobic towards the OP.
I grew up in a UK family where home cooked meals was the norm, so I also cook, but that is seemingly no longer the British way. Feel free to accuse me of Brit bashing, given that I am a Brit 😁

No shit, Sherlock. Have you anything useful to add?

Sadly I don't think they're as extreme as you assume. More and more people are struggling with the cost of living.
I've just written a longer post about the mindset needed to take steps to find out things for yourself. I know these things seem simple to some of us, but really, not everyone is starting from the same point.
This mindset thing is really hard to get across, but I see it in my own family and my peers from where I grew up. It was socially pretty disadvantaged and most people didn't (still don't) set much store by/care much about education or any sort of intellectual curiosity. It was and is somewhat frowned on/sneered at to be 'clever' or 'posh' (and by 'posh' I mean things like growing your own tomatoes, or buying fresh fruit and veg to make your own food from scratch).

Really?

I just googled how to peel a garlic clove and countless videos, all under a minute, popped up, mostly on you tube.

If you want to find this stuff out, it's easy to.

Well, again, you need a certain amount of initiative, intellectual curiosity and confidence to even think to go and do that.
It is really easy to just assume everyone is starting from the same point, but that is just to take for granted your own advantages.
Speaking personally, there is a mindset among my family of 'Oh, I just don't know about that.' and that some things are 'too clever' or 'not for the likes of us'. This translates into a resistance/refusal to use initiative and try to educate oneself. Some of my relatives with this mindset just wouldn't think of going online to look up something like a recipe or food tips.

This is an interesting topic, the rise of ready to eat foods isn't solely a British phenomenon. "Home cooking Recipes" from the USA have used pre prepared ingredients, like a can of chicken soup in a casserole for decades, long before it was common place in the UK. I have noticed on my holidays to France that the number/range of ready meals in the supermarkets has increased steadily over the years as the working and shopping culture changes.

Food education in schools is virtually non existent, if you don't have a parent who cooks no one has taught you those food prep skills. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the prospect of returning from work with tired grumpy children and then face cooking an evening meal. Quality fresh ingredients are more expensive than a supermarket ready meal (and anyone who says otherwise is delusional in my opinion) unless you are happy with quite a boring diet.

Home cooking is however, cheaper, tastier and healthier than a delivery or Uber eats! Money isn't always the cause of poor diet.

You can make a perfectly good tomato sauce in considerably less time with tinned tomatoes.

I think that your pasta dish sounds lovely.

I think that food and nutrition are viewed differently in different cultures. I definitely eat better when I’m abroad, I put this down to the weather! Fruit and veg taste better and I’m less likely to reach for something stodgy.

I don’t eat lots of processed foods but understand why people do. It tends to be quicker, easier and cheaper. You don’t have to think about it. I did have a frozen meal for the first time in years recently, it was vile!

The last time I spent any length of time in the UK was in 2019 and I noticed the predominance of processed foods and ready meals then.
I went to Sainsbury's to buy food to cook and was quite shocked at the minute amount of space devoted to fresh fruit and vegetables compared to what I remembered. Ditto Waitrose (which I do not like anyway) and M&S.
I ended up going to a farm shop out of town, where I was rewarded with exactly what I wanted (and some very pleasant Cornish gin - bonus).
The trouble with all the convenience products, apart from the UPFs etc., is that people "forget" or never learn how to cook properly.

Mine were very cheap, bought loads of 20 p plants from elderly neighbour a few months ago and they are still producing tomatoes which taste better than shop ones

Portuguese supermarkets stock ready made (and frozen) pizzas, lasagna, fish fingers and a few things such as corden bleu chicken, but these are a tiny minority of the available items. The fresh fruit and veg sections are vast and there are in store butchers and fishmongers, even in the smallest stores.

There was a survey recently (don't know who conducted in or how accurate it was) that showed the UK consumption of processed food was over 50% – the highest in Europe. Portugal was about 10%.

Fellow French here :) you are right about the price part but salaries are also lower.

Part of the issue I think is that people overestimate the amount of meat/fish in ready meals, so will compare for ex the price of a bolognaise sauce in a jar with the price of ingredients with way more meat than you have in the jar.

And another thread saying that the British are doing it All Wrong.

The OP isn't talking about how to make whatever you/ other posters think of as a 'good tomato sauce' though is she? She's saying here's a quick, easy and tasty meal you can make without needing to use jars or getting a pasta ready meal.

Again, I don't think jarred sauce is the devil, but it's probably not 'a good tomato sauce' either (I mean I'm sure you can get authentic, minimally processed sauces, but I'm talking about the cheap ones with all the added salt, sugar and whatever else). The meal the OP suggested would be equally as tasty as that.

I might be biased because I'd probably prefer the freshness of OP's version to what is being described as 'good tomato sauce' on this thread i.e. slow cooked, depth of flavour brought out over hours etc. I'd take a burst of fresh cherry tomatoes and herbs over that any day - but personal taste aside what the OP is saying isn't incorrect. It's a quick, tasty meal that is an acceptable alternative to a microwave carbonara and potentially better for you (although again, I don't think ready meals are the devil either!)

Same as the people picking it apart like 'oh but that's not nutritionally balanced, where's the protein' blah blah. It's still probably better than most ready meals which is what the OP was comparing it to.

I'm also a foreigner and I agree. I work full time, have 2 kids, have a long commute, large garden to tend and a busy house to run. I still cook every meals from scratch. We have a takeaway once a month but hardly ever eat ready made meals and I don't use pre-made sauces etc. There is a big BUT in that I'm super organised, absolutely can't sit still and grow up in a house where this was the norm. Also I've yet to find a ready made meal that doesn't taste like pants!

I agree that the consumption of processed foods is entrenched in the way we live in the UK. I don’t think there’s any one reason for it. It’s been a change over time and now multiple generations have lived this way it’s become habit.

I eat very little processed food, mostly because it’s calorie dense and now I’m older it makes me fat. It’s too easy to be lax and let the kids eat it though. I’m tired at the end of the day and throwing some pizzas in the oven is an attractive option. Laziness really and the knowledge they’ll eat it with no whining. I estimate they probably eat what most would consider processed foods around 2-3 times per week. More often than is probably healthy.

What do you think is wrong with the quality of it?

Yes, every time I visit the UK, I’m astonished by the choice of ready meals, meal deals, etc. And that type of massive obesity that you generally don’t see in other European countries.

it is quite often my "shit i forgot to buy anything for dinner, i'll make this" last minute meal.

it is delicious but it is not a good quality tomato sauce.