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

Ah, you mean no meat 😏

Yup, been saying it for years. When we're abroad, we immediately notice how much more tastier are the fruit and veg and we eat lots fresh stuff mostly raw! Back in the UK, it's all tasteless crap so we eat less as there's just no flavour and no enjoyment and it all needs covering with sauces etc to give it any flavour and make it edible.

@HotPotLove - I suspect that it’s down to a mixture of people having lost the skill of cooking from scratch - when I was a kid, we learned cookery in senior school, which helped people learn the vocabulary and skills of cooking, but that has pretty much stopped now, I think - and then people who are time-poor. People are working long hours, and in many families, both parents have to work, so coming home and cooking a meal from scratch is just too time consuming and too much work.

Yep.
Plus a lot of people from less advantaged backgrounds don't know how to cook from scratch.
Bags of dried pulses, dented cans of tomatoes, fresh onions etc are cheap to buy, but require knowledge and confidence to make into something tasty.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet

It's true. But people here are in denial and won't thank you for saying it. It's almost becoming a taboo subject lately.

I agree, eating crap and obesity are major issues and need tackling. Our health system is already in crisis due to obesity related illnesses such as T2 diabetes, heart disease, etc. which not also costs the country to treat them, but also in disability benefits if their conditions are bad enough that they're unable to work.

Yet all we get is being criticised for "fat shaming"!

I have a school photo from the early 80s showing literally only one overweight kid in our class. Today's class photos of same age at same school (as per local social media) shows over half as being overweight and probably a quarter obese.

It's not healthy and we shouldn't be shying away from calling it out - but at a national level, not individual insults. Our politicans should be tackling it but are clearly in hoc to the global processed food producing firms and their lobbyists to stop any action.

A lot of people simply cannot cook and got no desire to learn.
I know someone who is constantly cooking sausages and burgers in airfryer, most day as week and thats all she feeds her tennage daughter. She can’t cook and won’t learn. It’s shocking.

If you don’t mind sharing what country you’re from then I’m certain I can think of something negative to say about it. Of course, you won’t take it as an insult…!
The amount of Brit-bashing threads on MN is getting really tedious now.

Exactly

I am pretty lazy but cook from scratch every night unless it’s pizza.

That said my son survives entirely on pasta, fish fingers, chips and fruit. He doesn’t eat anything else and would literally rather starve.

Is there anything else you notice about this country and the way of life that might be linked to the use of processed food. I grew up on a farm and experienced real fresh tasty veg. I find so much shop veg and fruit to be so tasteless even organic stuff. I wonder if fresh veg and fruit in other countries is tasty?

I wonder if the working culture has anything to do with it? The long hours etc ... I work long hours and commute and I still cook a lot from scratch but I do the same recipes over and over cos I don't have the bandwidth to try new stuff and I used to love to cook. I have really lost my love of cooking with the drudgery I experience every day.

I highly recommend Mutti tinned tomatoes which I always buy when they’re on offer but for someone not so affluent any supermarket tinned tomatoes with a squeeze of tomato purée, a tiny bit of olive oil and salt is going to taste better than a jar of cheap tomato paste sauce.

Even without additions, it's a perfect to acceptable meal though. What do you think is wrong with it?

I think this is totally overblown.

Yes, it would be great to have more butchers and fishmongers, but there are enough options in most supermarkets to facilitate hundreds of home cooked recipes of high nutritional content.

People choose to buy other things.

Nail on the head.

I agree, but it goes higher than the supermarket chains. It goes up to the food processing firms. Literally a handful of huge conglomerates own nearly all the big brands between them. They control the supermarkets, who in turn, control the shoppers. It's why they're so desperate to get rid of UK farmers - they don't want competition and want to buy out UK farming so they can control it too (either to produce food or to sell off the land).

That’s not what the person commenting the recipe was suggesting though, they’re suggesting it’s a full main meal, no mention of sides or additional courses

I'd say that was a pretty shit comment, accuracy-wise.

It's usually eaten in the middle of the day, is usually followed by green salad, cheese, meat or other protein, and fruit.

It's true. But people here are in denial and won't thank you for saying it. It's almost becoming a taboo subject lately.

There are British people who know how to cook soups and stews from scratch, use extra virgin olive oil and can make a fresh tomato sauce. But they always get shouted down on here, accused of being morally superior etc. And people start talking about the cost of fresh ingredients and about not having time.

We're vegetarian and we always cook from scratch. As a migraine sufferer I'd find ready meals or takeaways too salty and would wake with a msg headache if I ever tried.
Even if we're pushed for time it will be pasta with a home made sauce or maybe an omelette or frittata. We also always have some pots of homemade soup in the freezer and it doesn't take long to thaw on a low heat.
We're a fairly low income household but we'd rather buy a good bottle of olive oil than a bottle of wine.

I absolutely love cooking. And I despair that my kids look around and see fast food and ready meals as the norm.

But I look back at my childhood, and mum had dinner on the table at 6pm as my dad walked in the door. Those days are gone. I'm a divorced single parent. I don't leave work till after 6. Any chance of getting a decent meal on the table at a decent time is long gone.

I batch cook. We still eat mostly home cooked, but times are different. Society has changed. And it's been decades in the making.

Cooking is a basic life skill, but there's often no one at home to teach it, and it's off the syllabus at schools. No wonder ready meals are so popular.

You’re absolutely right and the defensiveness people have around it is part of the problem in tackling it.

If you say your kids eat brown oven food and never touch broccoli you’re normal and people admire your bravery in being honest. If your kids love broccoli, eat salad and spices you’re lying or showing off and people think you’re a dick. It’s a weird inverse snobbery, especially around children’s diets.

There’s an advert out at the moment imagining the bizarre situation where a veg van pulls up and the child asks for broccoli as if nice green vegetables are a weird inappropriate thing for a child to choose to consume. That’s mad. Why is an apple a consolation prize while a lollipop is a normal treat? This stuff starts very early on. If you say you choose to wean your baby on sugary pre-made baby food you’re a real mum with more important things to do. If you give them a crust of bread or spoons of your homemade curry you’re a crunchy mad hippie who knits lentils and makes motherhood your identity. Even though it’s actually easier, quicker and cheaper.