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

On a recent holiday to Morocco I found out healthy foods and fresh foods are subsidised by the government, upf are heavily taxed. Feels like this is the way forward considering how much upf effects our health and ultimately the extra cost burden on the NHS.

@snowwhiteisfeelinggrumpy
45g of protein per day for an adult female is the amount needed not to be protein deficient. It's not enough for optimal health which is substantially higher.

The protein in pasta is poor quality and not well absorbed compared to protein in animal sources. It lacks the essential amino acids to make it a complete protein.

I am a bit preoccupied with my protein needs after doing much research after an accident a few years ago which cost me most of the muscles in my legs.

I know Italy has poverty 🙄 But it has a landscape that provides in a way that much of the UK hasn'/doesn't. Much of the north of the UK, particularly west, it's basically rocks with a thin layer of earth and you're lucky if you can grow potatoes. Taking a little boat out fishing on to the Med in November is a little less treacherous than taking one out onto the North Sea or the Atlantic Ocean. The Sicilians will have had poverty but the quality of food they would've had access to year round on the whole would have been a bit more varied and plentiful than someone from say Shetland or Lewis.

No.

Obviously all European countries have cheap, reasonably healthy and easy to prepare meals.

I'm talking about something that takes max three minutes to produce and is such a staple of a nation's diet.

The food/meal habits is still healthier imo and being one of the poorest doesn’t necessarily translate into bad food.

I also come from a god forsaken middle of nowhere and the food is still pretty good. Lots of bread, olives, cheese, cured meats, fruit, vegetables.

Not the fanciest, sure, but a lot more sustaining than what we have commonly available these days.

Yes, we did a range of pastry, with both sweet and savoury fillings. The needlework was actual sewing techniques - we made two styles of bag, I remember, and a cuddly toy, all by hand, and other things I don't recall.

I actually think learning to use a sewing machine would have been useful, but I suspect health and safety ruled that one out. I learned to use a sewing machine from my mum but I'm not hugely confident or adventurous with it, as long as it's feasible, if I need to sew nowadays (altering/mending mostly) I do it by hand. I have made curtains and cushion covers using the sewing machine but the finish wasn't exactly professional 😣

Throw is a way of using language to make a task sound faster than it really is. People always use this language on threads explaining how quick and easy cooking is

Italian childhood obesity is thought to be due to the drifting away from the traditional diet from what I have read and a marked difference from older generations

Just say you can’t be bothered lol obviously “throw” in this case is a way of saying it’s quickly sorted

It doesn't. A sedentary lifestyle combined with loading up on cheap carbs and high fat cheese is just as much of an issue as obesity caused by other food types.

You mean a cheap, reasonably healthy, easy to prepare meal?

Mediterranean people have such a strong culinary culture and possibly less of this scarcity mindset

Southern Italy is one of the poorest regions in Western Europe. That's why it's traditionally been the source of high levels of emigration, both to the richer Northern regions of Italy, and abroad. And parts of Sicily and Calabria have very harsh terrain. Not long winters, that is true, but it's never been an easy place to live.

As so often, there's a lot of romanticisation of 'other countries' on this thread.

Is there a European equivalent of beans on toast for dinner?

I used to agree with views like the OP’s, back when I had my health, decent income, some support, and a tidy home.

Now that I’ve developed a lifelong debilitating mental illness, cognitive impairment from the meds, struggle to even have enough cups clean to drink out of and get exhausted just from making my kids packed lunches I think statements like the OP’s is bullshit preserve of the privileged, healthy and lucky. DFOD.

I’ve spent time in plenty of other countries thanks.

what difference does it make if Italian kids are obese because they spend too much time gaming and eating pasta? They’re still obese.

I read the OP differently. Not so much as caused by people but by the industrialisation of the UK's food production. This is happening in other parts of the world - it was Brazilian scientists that devised the NOVA classification of foods.

However in the UK it is quite stark at the prevalence and rise of industrially manufactured foods. I live in an area that has 3 Tesco that I go into - it is noticeable that the one located in the least well off area has much more shelf space given over to ready meals and a smaller vege section. Even if you want to buy fresh food from that store it is more difficult than the ones in the better off areas. This was not the case when I was growing up.

I am enraged by the way the food industry is manipulating our buying and cooking habits. Fun fact - the food industry uses the same tactics as the tobacco industry to push unhealthy foods.

This is true but it also makes the moniker of “all upf bad” nonsense.

Everyone saying all countries like this (or that Italy etc are just "behind" us) makes me wonder if any of these people have ever spent any time in other countries.

If Italian kids are obese I suspect that's more to do with increasing sedentary lifestyles, computer games etc and eating big portions of pasta and good cheese than eating TV dinners and pot noodles 7 nights a week.

I am from Yorkshire and my child's dad is Italian and our food cultures couldn't be more different. I wonder if it is in part down to how we've developed through the ages. I have evolved from a scarcity background, limited food types in a harsh terrain and harsh climate with long dark winters... so when I see something high fat and high sugar I have the overwhelming primal urge to scoff it like I won't eat for a week (when in fact I'll probably eat in a couple of hours). So I think me and my people are perfect targets for the marketing of this high sugar high fat processed crap! Mediterranean people have such a strong culinary culture and possibly less of this scarcity mindset so they just don't fall prey to this kind of food marketing to the same extent..

I'm not well off, I eat pretty well and the most expensive stuff I buy from supermarkets is the processed stuff. Eating semi healthily and well is neither cheap nor massively time consuming, lot of people kidding themselves when they say that it is. I respect that loads of factors eg ASN kids, disability, mental health issues etc can make home cooking less accessible and I don't think people with these barriers should be made to feel guilty for grabbing convenience food but most people could eat well they just can't be arsed.

It's not coming across as rude to me!

I'm British but I lived in Italy for years, and I would say that there are many things that are better in Britain (standard of driving 😱!) but there really is no argument that people eat better in Italy. There seems to be more understanding and knowledge about food and nutrition, and much less reliance on ready meals.

Instead of being automatically offended, why don't we stop and think about why we have got to this point here and what we can do about it?

It's a big thing in Italy to eat together as an extended family, and so eating good food and knowing how to cook it is passed down through the generations. Unfortunately this happens less in the UK (in my experience) and it's a vicious circle; how can people pass on food knowledge to their children if they've never been taught it themselves?

Also you can check the actual diet of British people using the 2019-2023 diet and nutrition survey if you’re interested - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-diet-and-nutrition-survey-2019-to-2023/national-diet-and-nutrition-survey-2019-to-2023-report

I found when travelling through France and Italy that there were far fewer ready meals available in supermarkets. We seem to have aisles full of them here.

That's because it's an M&S ready meal. Go and look at Tesco's, Aldi's or Asda's cheapest lasagne ready meal and I'm sure you'll find it's full of added junk and salt. The premium versions of everything are generally UPF free or have minimal UPF, while the cheapest versions are loaded with them. This is true across the board - jar sauces, cakes, biscuits, pizzas etc. As usual it's the poor who suffer the most.

Except they sell those in most supermarkets…

Why would we yell? You’re completely correct. However this is the case for most high income nations now. Even in Japan, lauded for its low obesity rates, where I used to live the shops were stuffed full of ultra processed food.

In the Italian equivalent of Lidl they have ready meals like salad with walnuts, olives and a small sachet of dressing. It’s difficult and expensive to find ready-made salads like that in UK stores.