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.

@JaneEyreAgain is spot on.

For me it's not lack of time. We live in a city and there are lots of healthy fast food options, places like Pod and Itsu.

It's about temptation. Every supermarket has its queues walled by sweets. You can't walk 5 minutes without dodging a cupcake stall.

The government should treat unhealthy food like smoking and make it expensive & inaccessible.

This morning I read and listened to these two things with contrasting ideas.

The first was this preview of a book:

www.amazon.co.uk/Active-Hope-without-Going-Crazy/dp/1577319729

The second was this interview:

In the first the idea of 'active hope' that is the act of doing, even small, things to support your vision of how you want things to be, even in the face of adversity, is seen as vitally important. In the second, viewing other people 'as doing the best they can' is seen as important in terms of being able to have compassion for them. Which is vital when it comes to offering appropriate support to others.

I think balancing these two conflicting ideas is particularly relevant to this debate because there are barriers to eating healthily but there is an element of people not doing the small things they can do which would make a big difference.

As I said, earlier on in this thread, for me, with regards to time and economy, batch cooking and then freezing is a real game changer. It doesn't entirely solve the problem of food availability but if a trip is made to further away to obtain better quality food it can certainly help with the storage of that food. Eating well helps with sugar cravings too IME. I found when cutting sugar and simple carbs I crave them much less.

As for 'treats' I enjoy my big mug of coffee with cream after lunch, a good book or film.

The government should treat unhealthy food like smoking and make it expensive & inaccessible.

But what is healthy is quite complex. Yes, too much sugar is bad but diabetics might need an emergency supply. Fats are pretty controversial. New research is beginning to show saturated fats really aren't that bad and oils are more problematic, for example.

I also think shaming people for buying 'unhealthy' food might actually be worse for people who are really badly affected although it might deter the people who could very easily, with a bit more effort, eat healthily.

The government should treat unhealthy food like smoking and make it expensive & inaccessible

. This

At the moment, shops are stuffed to the gunnels with junk food, so much so that I can barely walk through my local co-op without banging into end of isle stands or sending the contents of the check out space crashing to the ground as it’s surrounded by chocolate and sweets, so much so that there’s no space for my bag as all the surfaces are piled high with junk.

I do believe that market is designed to nudge us to make unhealthy choices- what we think are culture and cultural values have been created by some large corporations.

For a longtime I questioned why white bread was so popular until I read about HOVIS and how they marketed and priced white bread to 'middle class' consumers.

Dark bread was considered 'low status' for such a long time in history even though it was actually nutritionally better than white.

But white bread was eaten by those who had more money, so buying it was a sign of social mobility- and here we are.

If you can find it OP watch The Men Who Made Us Fat - it was on the BBC quite a few years ago. Fascinating look at how the food and drinks industry in the UK and the US actively worked to change eating habits for the worse, and the complicity / silence of various governments in this. In the US the aim was to supersize everything. In the UK the aim was to break the routine, 3-meals a day habit, and to make snacking normal, and to make food aspirational by making it possible for ordinary people to eat industrial versions of fancy / foreign foods rather than boring / healthy old meat and three veg meals.

Willpower is a pretty poor defence against behavioural psychologists working in the food industry, whose sole aim is to change behaviour for the benefit of said industry.

I used to get healthy start vouchers when my DS1 was small. They were useful but I could only spend them at the co-op or Asda, I couldn't spend them at the local independent greengrocer's which was where I preferred to go. Luckily there was a veg bag/box scheme in our area which accepted them I found after a while which was a great help and I did use that. I found the box scheme to be fantastically handy for getting some veg in which was seasonal (because I don't know off the top of my head what is) and with somebody else making the decision for me. Is it just me who stands in the veg section or looks at the veg section online and just has absolutely no idea/inspiration about what to order? And so subsequently when I come to cook I don't have much in the way of random veg to add into meals. Something I liked about the veg box was I'd have something like half a sweet potato or a cauliflower to use up, and I'd be able to google things to make with sweet potato (or whatever) and find something nice.

Without this I think you need to meal plan or have a very good sense of what vegetables go with what and/or what you like and what is likely to taste good because it's in season. I don't really have that awareness.

Yeah for sure corporations nudge us this way or that because it makes more profit for them. I actually think corporations controlling the masses for profit is a huge problem across all areas of life. Not only nutrition although of course it's a big deal there. The trouble is thanks to globalisation corporations are becoming bigger and more powerful than governments, which is a bit scary. In the US big corporations actually put (financial) pressure on the government to effect legislation which benefits them. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that was happening here as well, especially if we end up leaving the EU, it will get worse. And I was reading something the other day about hand driers vs paper towels, such a non issue you probably never think about it, but if you look behind and follow the money, a lot of the research etc which looks into either which option is more environmentally friendly or which option is more sanitary and so on, these are funded by the companies themselves and only if they are supportive to the product in question. I know this is starting to sound a bit like a conspiracy theory... but how do you know who to trust?

For me, yes overweight yet exercise lots; laziness around cooking, the prep, cleaning up, I’m not worth it - will make ‘good’ meal if others are there not worth it for one, portion sizes, guilt - must clear your plate, food as reward.
Very contradictory. Interesting topic.

I think it's cultural - bad nutrition and reliance on snacks and convenience foods/ready meals is so ingrained in British culture, much like in American culture.

I am not from here and grew up in a culture where people cooked every day as a matter of course - and my family was not privileged. School food was good, and there was no such thing as 'vegetables are horrible'.

Your palate gets used to what you give it. So if you eat shop-bought ready-made stuff all the time, that is what you will prefer.

I find sauces in jars disgusting, really industrial-tasting, as well as most ready meals/soups. And I don't think crisps taste better than an apple.

I think fussiness is also largely caused by parents pandering to their children. I am not saying mine haven't had their moments but I simply won't allow them to be fussy and become more and more restricted in their diet like a lot of children who will only eat this or that.

I'm on holiday abroad and it's interesting to compare the space given over to ready prepared meals here in the supermarket with that of a similar sized shop in in the UK. Its tiny Same with the confectionary aisle!

I think people lack cooking skills and so have become reliant on convenience foods. Also think people are working long hours (and there’s isn’t a parent at home FT cooking) so there’s more demands on time.

I don’t mean a parent cooking FT, but being at home FT and cooking as part of the course of that!

Adverbs.

Adverbs are stopping you.

I think this is a multi-layered issue, but I agree with PP that time is likely the main reason; I work part time and have a toddler and I try to cook in bulk at the weekend and on my days off so I can easily heat up something decent on the days when I'm at work. If I don't, I just don't have the time to do a home cooked meal from scratch in the evening after work and sorting out my LO.

I think knowledge and skill is the second issue. I learnt a lot as a child watching my parents cook, and cooking is a skill that I think a lot of people have either not been taught or haven't bothered learning. I try to cram as much veg in any meal I make (grated carrot and courgette in any tomato based sauce is a great way of getting extra hidden veg!) because I love veg, but also because I'm conscious that I don't really do any exercise other than walking so I need to counter-balance the volume of chocolate I eat somehow.

And I'll go against the trend and say cost is a factor with lower income families; yes you can buy a shed load of fruit and veg quite cheaply, but pasta and chicken nuggets (for example) are dirt cheap and filling, and if you haven't got much money and a family to feed, being full wins over nutritional content.

And this never used to be an issue. Our grandparents generation all did manual work and were constantly moving; there was no such thing as an office job. And they eat carbs and stodge and serious amounts of butter and dripping and are living into their 90s, and it's not because they eat healthily or organically, it was because they were active, and as a generalisation we just aren't anymore.

Because junk food is constantly present from the earliest opportunity. Children's menus are crap and chips pretty much wherever you go. Sports centres and swimming pools all have the obligatory junk food vending machines. Petrol stations are rammed full of junk. You can't even pop into the shop for a book of stamps without being upsold a bar of chocolate.

Add to that the fact that cookery lessons in schools, if they exist at all, are assembly jobs like 'a healthy sandwich' (on shitty sliced bread, no doubt), pizzas on bought bases and fucking fruit kebabs.

*Don’t underestimate the power and cleverness of food scientists and food marketers. They have worked very hard and very successfully to break our relationship with ‘normal’ food - vegetables, fruit, grains, small amounts of protein etc - and replace them in our daily lives with highly manufactured products that trip all our bodies «wow» sensors by delivering a high dose of sugar, fat and taste which comes in an easy-to-prepare-and-shovel-in format. No boring chopping, no picking out bones, no yucky stuff to deal with. And a taste / mouthfeel that makes your brains pleasure-centres sparkle!

It starts early too: sugary formula that tastes the same every day rather than breast milk which changes daily depending on what mum has eaten. industrial baby food jars rather than whatever food the family is eating, bashed up a bit. It’s all part of the same trajectory to get people eating industrial food.*

This!

I've lived and had two children in France. The healthy eating advice starts as soon as they're born. The GP / pediatrician goes through with you the baby's diet and how to introduce foods -starting with vegetables at every appointment until they're two year's old. The weight in grams of meat/ protein you should feed them everyday, no added salt, only water at meal times etc Everyone follows the same meal times and afternoon 'gouter' with no snacks in between, which makes it easier when visiting people.

When they start primary school at 3, they'll have a proper sit down three course meal with no chips or deep fried food. The weekly menus are posted outside the school. No packed lunches, no vegetarian option.

At work everyone takes a proper lunch hour (1 1/2hour in one place I worked) and normally eats in a restaurant. You get vouchers for this.
So evening meals are normally simpler and lighter.