To think that as big food industry cause a huge chunk of the NHS bill that they need to be taxed an NHS surcharge? Whats more galling is that many large food companies are US owned and the medication is US supplied.

Nope, it's a big problem. The food we're being sold is absolute rubbish. Addictive rubbish at that.

That’s great but I can’t imagine having those kind of conversations with friends. It depends what kind of people you are friends with, if they invite each other round for lunch/dinner etc.

I have never been round to a friend’s house for food (not for about 40 years anyway) as it wouldn’t be a ‘thing’. Cooking isn’t a pleasure. It’s functional. And in my case not even that

Bread and weetabix made me very ill. I ended up with pancreatitis attacks after eating these. Bread now contains palm oil, which I hadn't realised. I still don't know why the weetabix did it though. I'm now off all processed foods and have been okay since. We have a breadmaker at home and I make my own muesli from scratch.

I can't be the only one who's ill from these seemingly innocuous foods.

Yes, I do completely accept and understand that will account for some people. But it won't account for everyone. And certainly not anyone relying on a diet of frozen UPF.

Cooking a meal from scratch can be as quick as 15-20 minutes once you have done that meal a few times . There are lots of meals that can be prepared in advance and stored in the fridge for up to 48 hours.
I think the biggest issue is luck of skill together with brain washing advertising.

The tinfoil hat brigade is out in force today!

As you say though, freezing changes it. Ready meals taste better because they are packed with whatever, which is what makes them popular. It may not be healthy but it is what it is.

Even the best home cooked food tastes like shit when batch cooked and frozen. I know nobody will admit it but it’s true.

You don't need to batch cook though people just need time cook.

The problem unfortunately is deep rooted and cultural.

I think this is the part I find hardest to understand.

Over the last couple of decades, i have learnt to cook meals from friends and boyfriends.

Eg i had an Italian boyfriend a long while ago. He cooked some delicious food for me and taught me to make some very simple Italian dishes that his mum cooked for him as a child. Some have become staples of ours (not necessarily freezable but quick and easy and all fresh and healthy). I've passed that knowledge on to other people (new boyfriends, my children etc) after cooking for them and so on.

I have friends of other cultures and even just from different parts of the country or with different cooking experiences/family traditions where we have done and do similar.

I just can't really imagine a world where I didn't share food with my friends and someone didn't ask how to make something or pass on recipe recommendations.

That should he the cultural aspect of food we share. Not a culture of buying fozen pizzas and ready prepared foods (even if they are from M&S!)

We learn best through experience. We shouldn't need to rely on schools to teach this. This is where cooking and eating should be cultural and passed on through and between us.

You do need plenty of freezer space for batch cooking though. Some people may only have a small compartment or a few drawers in their fridge freezer.

It’s not an education problem- everyone knows processed food isn’t healthy.
however, big corporations have been allowed to produce ‘food’ which is highly addictive. The brain has a reaction to the combination of sugar, fat, salt etc. They are purely designed for over consumption.
These companies should be treated the same as tobacco companies. No adverts, sponsorship etc. High tax, warnings on packets.
you can’t really blame individuals- it’s as if we’ve filled the shops with heroin then say ‘ don’t buy that’.

Any surcharge gets passed on by the business to the people using the product. So I guess you could make them stop but there is a lot to be said for people taking personal responsibility for their lives

We can see what has happened in the U.S. why would we want to follow in their footsteps. I don't think 'time' to make fresh food is relevant. I used to think this but the reality is most people could spend less time on their phone and peel a few carrots and potatoes. The mindset is strange to me, we can see where this leads to and take action now. Sometimes you have to take some responsibility for yourself and your children and stop expecting others to do it for you!

This is it, really.

I batch cook staples like ragu/bolognese; curry; chilli; soups; etc to go into the freezer every few weeks. All from scratch. No jars, no spice mixes etc.

I also freeze fresh meat in portion sizes I'll need. Sometimes I cook chicken breasts and freeze them diced, or freeze left over chicken from a roast to be used later.

If I fancy trying a new recipe, I always check to see if it's freezable and make double.

A chicken carcass goes into the slow cooker to make bone broth so we don't buy stock.

And then just cook fresh veg, or make guacamole or whatever I need to do whilst its reheating.

There are so many resources online now that it's actually really easy to learn to cook.

The problem unfortunately is deep rooted and cultural. This means it’s not something that can be easily fixed by schools - they are worse than many families with their daily desserts, croissants on “french day”, teachers who bring in sweets at the end of the year etc.

In fact, I would say the first step would be in reforming the schools so there’s no dessert except plain yoghurt and fruit, and no commercially produced frozen fish fingers etc. Teachers shouldn’t be allowed to bring in food and kids shouldn’t bring in cupcakes on their birthdays.

Culturally, I would love to see the practice of offering other people’s children junk food without the express permission of their parents to become heavily stigmatised. It’s not kindness, it’s self indulgent and harmful. This especially annoys me because my child has allergies and i feel bad for her having adults regularly offering her things she can’t have, however she is nearly always offered crap and it’s just really shitty behaviour to ply children with junk food for no reason.

They are free for children under 16 but my concern would be having to rely on it to feed my child.

My son also doesn't have an ARFID diagnosis at this time. He is under a dietician but it can be very difficult for it to be diagnosed.

My mistake, I'm in Scotland where prescriptions are free.

Maybe if this was a public health measure those diagnosed with problems could have exemptions.

Lots of "crap" is already subject to 20% VAT, i.e. chocolate bars, crisps, fizzy drinks (also liable to the sugar tax). No VAT on fresh fruit and veg, fresh meat or fish, milk, bread etc.

Yet supermarkets have huge areas devoted for fruit and veg, fresh meat and dairy products, some even have fresh fish counters alongside butchery counters. Fruit and veg areas are usually the first thing people see/walk past on entry.

It's definitely more that shoppers want to buy the ultra processed crap stuff because most seem to walk straight through the fresh fruit and veg areas almost seeing it as an annoying obstacle to get past without buying anything!

Rather than blame food manufacturers and supermarkets, how about we properly educate the general public, preferably by making cookery lessons fit for purpose in schools. Also start imposing consequences, i.e. charges for GP and NHS appointments/treatments. Bring back personal responsibility - no one holds a gun to someone's head to buy a multipack bag of crisps instead of a pack of apples or oranges (which are usually cheaper!!).

A lot of home made, cooked from scratch food is actually freezable! Yes, it looses some of the texture and often draws water due to the absence of binding agents and other chemicals.

But I can produce a decent freezer ready meal in the time it takes to boil some pasta!
But, that's the skills & knowledge that sadly so many people are lucking. (I found out by trail & error and of course Dr Google.)

I completely agree.

I agree, shouting for basic life skills to be taught in schools is always popular but the reality is a few hours of food at school is drowned in the everyday experience at home. Home is where we learn to eat and to prepare and cook food.

@Noras Fruit, veg, legumes, raw ingredients are already tax free whilst cakes, crisps, fizzy drinks and takeaways are already taxed. If you are going to call for wide ranging, complex and intrusive legislation into peoples’ lives its a good idea to check your basic facts first.

@soddingspiderseason it isn't that they think it's more flavoursome, what's in the food, the fat and sugar, activate the striatum and the mesolimbic reward system in the brain. When you haven't got other rewards going on, a £2 pizza is a cheap hit.

Our governments allowed the food industry free reign, then the supermarkets/shops. There wasn't public information. Again children centers and other community groups would offer cookery lessons, are now gone. We let food be about weight and what's fashionable. There was nothing wrong with the chicken/pork casseroles my generation cooked, padded out with heart healthy beans (butter/haricott/cannelloni) or pules. Likewise cottage/shepherds pie, padded out with lentils, occasionally rabbit with barley, or our local dish Scouse. Lentil etc soups, all cheap and filling. We demonised bread and potatoes, but none of the working class were fat on them in the 70s and poorer kids had lard on toast.

Poverty is linked to obesity because a certain combination of fat and sugar light up our brains. They are the new addictions. The food industry know what to put in the £1 pizzas to make us crave more. We moved away from tea. Admittedly my eldest was given tea, milk, no sugar, she had better teeth than the children having the ribena/juice that was being pushed in the 80s. Black/Rooibos tea is naturally anti inflammatory, I grew up drinking it because my father was South African, but affording a coffee became a status symbol, then part of our lives.
Tax on sugar drinks has just made them rubbish for mixers. We need guidance in schools, cookery lessons, community involvement and public health campaigns. I want to do Mexican cooking at my local college but it's £180. Yes, there's YouTube, but it hasn't been great. Our local housing provider ran cookery lessons and gave out a free slow cookery or air fryer, but only for tenants or over 55s, not families. Also I don't want recipes with canned soups instead of ingredients and needing to have fancy mixers. If you have a big kitchen, you can have gadgets, but when I did cookery, we called our, rice/soup etc maker, a big pan. Our mixers were a big bowl and wooden spoon/metal whisk. There's responsibility on the industry and government/councils.

The issue is choice. People choose to eat crap because they think its more flavoursome and its definitely easier to prepare. But its actually not cheaper in a lot of cases. I buy my veg and fruit at Aldi - its cheap. I’ve cut back on meat and processed meat. Saves a lot of money. I try to eat freshly made food. Yes it takes slightly more time but not that much to be honest. But that’s because I choose to do that. Many people can’t be arsed frankly, and then complain about being overweight and having chronic health issues. So yes, tax the crap. Educate about easy cooking of fresh food. And make it clear that we are all responsible for what goes in our bodies and how it impacts our health.