To have found this blog about childhood obesity intensely smug and annoying?

[MalenkyRusskyDrakonchik]

agirlcalledjack.com/2013/06/13/dont-blame-poverty-for-your-childs-obesity/

Is it just me ... what kind of la la land does she live in, where everyone who is struggling for money lives in a nice house with a cooker and has plenty of time from not working two jobs to bake bread?

What she is describing is the sort of sensible cost-cutting I would expect most people who're struggling for money but not absolutely on the bones of their arses could do. I get what she's saying, I do, but the smug tone coupled with the failure to realize that quite a lot of very poor people don't actually have good enough cooking facilities to do what she describes is getting me down.

Am I being mean?

Plus the 'chicken to feed a family for a week' makes me slightly suspect her of embroidered truth.

[MalenkyRusskyDrakonchik]

I know she is. I think that's why it bugged me. I would imagine most normal adults could cope with disruptions that had them using only a microwave for a year or so, because that's not really a long time in an adult's life (god knows I lived off stuff I could do on one boiling ring for three years at university). But for a child it's going to be much more important I would think.

[Bonquers]

A single mother on benefits does not need to only spend £10 a week on food. Benefits to single mothers are quite sufficient to feed a family plus free school meals etc.

[halcyondays]

i think she"s seriously underestimating how much she actually spends in a week. "Roughly" £10 a week??

[squeakytoy]

It jut doesnt ring true to me.

My stepdaughter was in a similar position, and she certainly had enough money in benefits to live on.

[halcyondays]

30 ml wine 10p, yes lots of shops sell wine by the 10 ml, don't they?
handful of thyme free, yes if you shoplift it from Asda or have been given a pot of thyme as a gift

[DamnBamboo]

agirlcalledjack.com/2013/06/13/dont-blame-poverty-for-your-childs-obesity/#comment-8666

[fromparistoberlin]

My food shop costs on average, £10 a week. Yes, it does.

BULLLLLLSHIIIIIIIT!!!!

really, impossible

I want to see her food menu and bills

[perplexedpirate]

Wow! I used to like her but that is unbelievably smug! What a massive sell-out.

[expatinscotland]

I never believed she spent only £10 a week to feed her and her son. I mean, that is not possible and has not been for a long time.

[Birdsgottafly]

When she was having to rely on food banks, she had come out of work, beacuse of irregular shifts and was waiting for benefits to kick in.

That aside, i agree that poverty isn't the reason why there is obesity.

A lack of education and an unwillingless to accept that changes have to be made and why ,is why there is obesity, in these cases.

These blogs came on the back of a report into the amount of teens needing medical intervention because of being obese. This report did not include disabilities/health conditions.

The report just documented the families that the teens came from etc.

I know of many people who are living in poverty because they eat takeaways, only. Their shopping consists of drinks, bread, spreads,milk and things like bacon, literally.

I am sort of related to one such family, the mother sees nothing wrong with eating fast food (she is massively in debt) and likes her cooker and kitchen, clean.

I am cutting down to pay for decorating in my house, i have gone vegetarian and have cut down on the stuff i used to buy for my teens, i am saving a fortune.

We need to re-educate certain sectors of society, how to cut, eat and budget. The Children's Centre's run basic cookery courses and in all fairness are alway over subscribed. Our small local "collage" used to, but the budget doesn't allow for them.

[squeakytoy]

The smugness is irritating, but also, she had a job, she packed it in because the shifts didnt suit her... she put herself into that position..

Many of the people who are in poverty have never had the opportunities that she clearly has.

I am also confused as to how she spent ages posting blogs from an "ancient nokia phone"..

Sorry but something about it doesnt ring true to me.. but not to worry as she has certainly made plenty of money out of it now.

[Trills]

she had a job, she packed it in because the shifts didnt suit her... she put herself into that position..

I think that's an unfair thing to say - if childcare is unavailable for night shifts, or if the cost of childcare at non-standard times is such that they would have less money working then if they were relying solely on benefits, then you can't really claim that someone "put themselves in that position".

[Oblongata]

I hate things like this.

You cannot do this day after day if your only source of food is a tiny Spar shop, you've got shitty thin pans and burn everything through no fault of your own, and anyway you're working all hours and have no time or energy to give to it.

These days for many it is a privilege and a luxury to be able to cook healthy food from scratch.

[cantspel]

She is not cooking from scratch she is opening tins and mixing it with rice or pasta

[MalenkyRusskyDrakonchik]

znaika, my point was she's talking about baking bread! Not that people don't usually have a boiling ring and a pan. Straw man argument.

[imademarion]

I think this discussion highlights the absolute criminality of an education system that has failed at least two generations by not making it compulsory to learn basic nutrition and cookery skills.

That's why we have people like this poor woman (the one on tv with the obese children) she describes being wheeled out for the MC to look down on pityingly and people of a similar ilk to join in her surreal outrage.

The PP who said that value ranges are nothing more than an acceptable dumping ground for (literally) bollocks was spot on.

I volunteered to teach a community cookery class. It was cancelled as nobody signed up..

[Oblongata]

Someone much younger than me told me recently that cookery classes at her school included making a packet-mix cake.

[ArtemisatBrauron]

errr.. sorry but some of the above comments are both ignorant and nasty. She posts receipts for her shops and spreadsheets of how much the same shop would cost in different supermarkets.
If you read the post 'hunger hurts' on her blog you can see that she in no way thinks that this lifestyle is something to aspire to.

How about you all come down off those high horses and actually read through the blog properly before making nasty comments and accusing others of being liars.

[imademarion]

... excuses being made for laziness. People in much poorer countries feed their families using initiative and creativity like her.

Spot on.

But they do so having learned this basic skill at home.

Unlike the woman on TV who has mastered the art of blame-passing and responsibility shirking.

And where does that come from

[Oblongata]

It isn't a basic skill, it is a common skill and that's a different thing.

There are many aspects to cooking healthy food from scratch and being able to use leftovers so nothing is wasted. Budgeting, knowing quantities, having a wide repertoire of recipes, planning ahead so one day's food feeds into the next. Not to mention investing in good equipment (as opposed to crap cheap stuff which breaks down or doesn't cut etc) and having the money to buy the right things in bulk.

[Oblongata]

And life doesn't have to get very chaotic before being able to buy food and cook it in an organised way goes out of the window.

[BaconKetchup]

I didn't find it smug and annoying. Sounds more like she's encouraging and helping people realise that it's possible to cook healthy food on a budget (even if the £10 figure is a bit far-fetched).

How shocking.

[Kiriwawa]

What a hideously Why isn't she railing against the fact that so few people are taught about nutrition and cooking at school nowadays?

I read some of the (not infrequent) posts on here about the astronomical costs of ingredients for school cookery classes which obviously means the poor can't afford them.

I've had conversations with people who don't know what foods are high in protein and what are high in carbs. This woman is clearly pretty well-educated. Many people are not.

[expatinscotland]

And so you starve if you can't buy takeaways?