What is really stopping us from eating healthy?

[LilMissRe]

Hi mums
I’m trying to balance full time mummy-hood and completing my degree and after what felt like an eternity, I am edging towards the finish line. The only thing left is to finish my research project. I say “only” but this has been a huge struggle and I am asking for help. My project is about promoting healthy eating in cities. I’m comparing what the government thinks needs to be done, to what families, and those particularly struggling to access healthy food, think is hindering their access to healthy food. So I am writing here, in the hope that you could share with me your opinions.

Most “experts” say that healthy food access is difficult because of price, location or income. (I’d add time too- but think there is more to it than that). We all relate to and value food differently so I am keen to find out how you think healthy food access is an issue.

My parents grew up very very poor in the Mediterranean; but they both insist that their diets were much healthier then than they are now and have always been surprised as to how diets have worsened, and obesity risen despite there being relatively more availability of food. My parents are from a different time however, and so I am asking you for your opinion on why you think diets are getting worse.

No. My mother tended to freeze raw fresh food before cooking whereas I will cook the raw fresh food and then freeze. It's something I started to do at university as my landlady had lots of freezeable food containers and I could cook in bulk on my afternoon off. I was actually inspired by ready meals which were quite aspirational when they first came out! But they were comparatively expensive so I decided to make my own

I never want to see the government controlling what I eat. It's not rocket science. I don't want any food banned or taxed. It's bad enough that you can't get cordials with sugar in much these days. Just cordial full of artificial sweeteners that are so much worse for you than sugar.

Last post in response to, Lilmiss

I really don't think we can blame it on schools.

I'm only 23, so secondary school late 00s early 2010s and I did plenty of cooking at school. Lots of healthy meals, as well as baking bread, pastry, cakes etc.

I know how to cook, I am just tired and can't be arsed some of the time. And the cleaning up afterwards is awful as well, I definitely cooked more when I had a dishwasher!

You only have to look at smoking of cigarettes to see the difference Government intervention can make in a generation.

It is way easier to go and buy a pizza or order a take away. I take lunch made at home into the office every day, Most people buy lunch on site, and the healthy options tend to be mayo heavy, or are salads heavy with lettuce and not enough calories to keep people going.

Time. Sleep deprivation. Stress. Snacking. The abundance of foods that have been manipulated to hit a human sweet spot between fat and sugar that overrides our "full up" mechanism. And ironically, dieting.

Main points probably already mentioned.

Dinner plates and bowls are much bigger now than when I was a kid.

There is so much variety of snack foods, savoury and sweet, usually high in calories available now.

Celebrity chefs and fetishisation of food. When we cook the we cook creamier indulgent restaurant treat versions of food.

Maybe most importantly capitalism demands we buy more and more. If agribusiness can't sell us more food they sell more luxurious food or diet food which isn't necessarily healthy or filling. McDonalds etc have power and use it to persuade us to eat food which we should restrict or not bother with at all.

Also when I use old recipe books, the same recipes tend to be healthier then than now.

@Milliy why is homemade food not tasty though. I certainly find it tastier than most /all ready meals.
We eat mostly restaurant food. I can’t remember the last time I had a ready meal, it was probably when I was a student but they don’t seem very appealing. And I agree that homemade food can be delicious. We just often can’t be bothered with the hassle of shopping, cooking and cleaning up after work when we could order something instead. I’ll confess it’s complete and total laziness on our part! What I meant was that I’ve already made the decision I’m not cooking. So when I order a takeaway I could choose something healthy but more often than not I opt for the non healthy option because it’s tastier!

Oh.. and much as I enjoy healthy cooking.. I hate doing dishes! Convenience food means less washing up!!

Well, how about my conversation with DP just five minutes ago. 'What do you want for packed lunch tomorrow?'.

[thinking really hard to find something I actually like].

How about egg & cress sandwiches? The supermarkets don't sell cress anymore and they don't sell wholemeal flour to be able to make a loaf in the breadmaker. Spinach/watercress is out because they're looking limp and a bit brown/slimy.

How about a prawn/pasta salad? And a yoghurt/some fruit? I'd like a soya chocolate milkshake or a fruit juice as well. And it would be nice to have hummus, carrot sticks/cucumber and pitta bread on Wednesday.

We therefore need

Prawns
Pasta
Cucumber
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Fresh Dill
Lemon Juice
Carrots
Chickpeas
Tahini
Garlic
Pine nuts
Pitta bread
Soya yoghurts
Soya milkshake/fruit juice cartons
Fruit.

DP goes to try and source these ingredients.

Supermarket 1 has frozen prawns and a bag of pasta. The veggies are largely inedible, so cannot be bought there (think green potatoes, brown lettuce and everything else is absent). The prawns are hidden at the back of a freezer, obscured by waffles, burger, nuggets, potato products, etc.

Off to supermarket 2. They've got a slightly soft cucumber, cherry tomatoes and some bright green bananas. Oh, we're lucky today, they've got some soya yoghurts.

Off to supermarket 3. A bag of carrot sticks (no whole carrots that would cost a hell of a lot less for a hell of a lot more). A tin of chickpeas, but no tahini. A single, sad looking garlic bulb. No lemons. We could have a punnet of strawberries, but from experience, they'll be furry by the morning. They don't sell dairy free items at all. There's a big tub of hummus, but it contains a ton of oil (and not olive oil). Instead of wholemeal pitta bread, they sell Warburton's Thins for a lot more. You could buy a prawn & pasta salad there, but it's nearly four quid for a plastic tub of mostly grated carrot and about 12 prawns.

In the end, he comes back with half the ingredients (so half the nutritional content), he's traipsed around three shops for my benefit and is quietly muttering about how much easier it would be if I'd settle for a pot noodle, packet of crisps and a Kit-Kat.

Is it any surprise that people pick up the less healthy versions when the supermarkets - particularly the smaller, 'local' ones where they've deliberately eliminated the independent traders - don't like selling the ingredients or fresh produce when they can make more in a smaller space by flogging the processed, prepared, branded stuff?

I used to work in a childhood obesity service. IME it takes 2 or 3 generations of food security, before children are not rewarded/ praised or comforted with sweet treats. Luckily none of my grandparents knew hunger growing up, my parents were not given excessive sweet foods growing up. Therefore we as children weren't rewarded or comforted with sweets. As an adult I can take them or leave them. A really nice bit of chocolate, a slice of homemade cake are once or twice a week treats. I can happily walk past, whole aisles of the supermarket, never buy food from petrol stations (cos I know it's rubbish). Despite working ft I do cook 4 or 5 nights a week (things like burritos, stir fry, pasta, chilli or curry) because my mother did. DH does the other nights. I have to say I don't really consider it a chore anymore than brushing my teeth, it's just something I do.

Tbh I think it's "headspace" as much as anything else. When I'm having a shit time (because of money, work stress, relationship or anything else) I cba to spend time effort or money on lovely heathy food - I just want something comforting. Possibly it's a bit of self hatred/self harm too - "I don't deserve to be heathy so I'll eat shit and carry on feeling like the fat useless lump that I am" etc.

@MitziK- That's crazy! Supermarkets definitely have a role in this, and are just concerned with the bottom line.

Mitz, you can eat a lot more simply very easily, though. Today for dinner we had some stuffed chicken breasts. I saved half of mine for a salad tomorrow. We always buy lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes. We always have a jar of olives in and various nuts. I mix the chicken with some mayonnaise and black pepper and have it with a simple salad. If you wanted more it's easy to add nuts and olives. If you had sun dried tomatoes, and roasted aubergines in jars in you could add them. If you had some mozzarella or Parmesan you could add that.

they don't sell wholemeal flour to be able to make a loaf in the breadmaker

Wow! We can even get wholemeal spelt flour at our local Aldi nevermind ordinary wholemeal. We make soda bread rolls with it and, you've guessed it, fill the freezer!

There definitely seems to be some correlation between wellbeing, health, and healthy eating. It's more of a cycle, and there are so many wellbeing concerns here in the UK, that feeds into how we choose our food. I guess maybe we feel a little disconnected/drained? Isolated than previous generations?

I'm just thinking of family friends who have lived through rationing during WW2; I remember hearing there was a real sense of community and resourcefulness; they cooked together, eat together etc -It could be nostalgia on their behalf though.

We could have a punnet of strawberries, but from experience, they'll be furry by the morning.

Just wash them and stew them, no need to add sugar, and they won't go furry. Can freeze in individual portions (if you want to). Great to add to porridge and yoghurt.

I think it is a mindset, lunches will be made from the left overs from cooking. I can see if you had to go out specially (like your DH) it turns into a total PITA. On Saturday night DH did HM pizzas, we can goats cheese and olives on ours. I had a goats cheese salad (made with salad left over from last night) for lunch at work, it took me maybe 5 minutes this morning. Tonight we had burritos, tommorow's lunch is rice, refried beans, gucuamole and salad (it will take less than 5 minutes).

We have an incredible choice of packaged and processed food nowadays but actual fresh food of good quality can be harder to come by.

When I have visited the med or even Brittany in France during the summer it seemed easy to buy lovely salad stuff and fresh green vegetables. The quality is MUCH lower at my UK supermarket. For the few weeks a year the garden produces lettuce and spinach and a few spring onions it's brilliant and we relish a salad. Another factor is that when I'm cold I'm more likely to eat stodge and stay indoors.

I'd be far healthier living in the med!

Some areas are also food deserts and processed food is so dominant everywhere.

@tinylittlebird sounds delicious! I'm jotting ideas down ;)

Money. Literally just money.

My knowledge is not limited, I'm a trained chef. I know what a proper portion and a balanced meal looks like.

I far prefer healthy food, and I am willing and able to cook.

I just can't bloody afford a good diet that isn't boring as fuck.

The answer is habit. On the whole we learn our food habits from our parents. Eg I don't buy sweets but do buy biscuits. Just like my parents.

Also when I was broke it was very tempting to buy me and the kids something as a treat, so life didn't feel so bleak.

These days it's stress that leads me to feel like treating myself.

There is a complex relationship between food and emotion.

Also some parents who haven't learnt to say no to their kids.

I just can't bloody afford a good diet that isn't boring as fuck.

What fresh ingredients can you afford?

Haven't got much to add that hasn't already been said but I'll throw my tuppance in for the day (I am quite fat).

I've got some personal stuff going on just now, feeling a bit miserable so couldn't be arsed preparing today's lunch yesterday. Got up at half 5, walked the dogs, got ready for work and in work by half 7.

Lunchtime - well I didn't take anything with me so I went to tesco. I cannot eat a salad, lettuce cucumber and tomatoes all make me heave (I know, and I've tried) so it was a chicken sandwich slathered in mayonnaise, which won't fill me up so a bag of crisps as well oh and there's a meal deal so I'll get a bar of chocolate too. Oh wait, the only bars in the meal deal are the DOUBLE BARS. I mean, I could have left half but I'm greedy.

By the time I've left work, ran a couple of errands I had to do, get home at quarter to 6, walk the dogs again, have a shower, put some washing away... Its 8 o'clock.

Now, I'm meant to get 8 hours of sleep apparently because lack of sleep can also be considered as a cause of obesity which means I need to be actually asleep by half 9 (HA!) I am tired, DP is away for work for 10 weeks so I still have to fit in my nightly phone call with him which is usually half an hour to 45 minutes so now I need to eat something and am I bollocks standing in the kitchen chopping up onions and peppers and chicken breasts and dirying three pans and an oven tray etc etc when I coukd just make some super noodles and smoked sausage.

Plus it takes me hours to think of home cooked meals to eat and write a list of all the ingredients and then traipse to 4 different shops to get them all at a reasonable price.

tldr; I'm tired, don't have time, the benefits don't outweigh the output.