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.

which is pretty much what imademarion said but faster and better :o

It's always the government's fault.

Most of the rest of her blog is encouraging and helpful, but the post linked in the OP is not.

I guess we all have ranty days, and if you judged us by our bad days without seeing any of our good days you'd think we were much less pleasant people than we normally are.

But some people's ranty days end up on AIBU.

Fair enough artemisa, I wasn't familiar with her blog and just looked at this post.

I do still think it would have been better if she'd acknowledged she is not actually talking about the people who're struggling the most financially, but able people who're in a sort of 'stable poverty'. It's still helpful advice, though, I agree.

When my brother was working for homeless hostels, he used to teach people to cook, but I think he would laugh heartily at the idea of baking bread being a sensible place to start, or trying to source 'free thyme'. So I suppose I'd come at it from that perspective when she said she was talking about poverty. But now I understand the context better, and I still find it a bit smug but not so bad.

Her food sounds disgusting and she sounds snug.

And baking bread from scratch is not cheaper than the value white bread, nor is it lower in calories.

Smug.

Interestingly, in another part of her blog, she writes:
"This blog was never intended as a self-help guide to people as to how to live their lives ? it?s a brutal portrayal of mine."

That was in April. Guess she's realised it's more lucrative to relax that position a bit.

Katy how does it sound disgusting

I love chickpea curry. But each to their own.

katy maybe not cheaper, but a slice of proper home made bread will fill you up for longer than a chemical filled slice of white slobbery air from a value range.
value range bread is thus a false economy if you need to eat more to feel full.

I see nothing disgusting about bean burgers, curry and pasta dishes either.

I wonder why everyone is so defensive outraged over this?

I can occasionally get by on spending a tenner a week on food; but that's because I already have a lot of basics in my kitchen cupboard, chicken fillets and bolognaise sauce in the freezer etc. and just decide, 'we're a bit broke this week. We'll just have to manage on what we have in the house'. But there is no way that someone starting from a basis of nothing could cook seven healthy tasty dinners and lunches as well as provide a healthy breakfast for ten pounds.

Fair play malenska

Who wouldn't? Who wants to be skint forever?

I like chickpea curry,too..

I think cooking per se is as basic a skill as being toilet trained.

And sadly all too uncommon.

Nutrition, budgeting etc I agree are more complex. But hardly brain surgery.

People haven't been taught. It's that simple.

And a lot of people don't want to learn. No, it's not going to taste like a takeaway.

I am a bit bewildered that someone trying to point out that healthy meals are possible on a budget is being called smug

I don't blame her at all expat - I wouldn't walk away from the book deal either if I were her. But her blog is no longer coming from the perspective it was. Quite understandably

expat god, don't admit to liking chickpea curry (which is an actual Indian speciality called chana masala, katy) otherwise you'll be branded as disgusting by the smug police

DH bakes bread all the time.

He reckons it saves 0p.

We like whole grain bread with lots of seeds.

It's expensive howsoever you make it.

Also, bags of flour are heavy if you are carrying your shopping home on foot.

Maybe the people criticising the post on this thread should write their own blog post entitled 'if you are poor, your children are destined to be obese and it's impossible to do anything about it, sorry'.

And the content can be a list of reasons why -

• you won't be living near a cheap supermarket
• flour is heavy
• healthy food is 'disgusting' anyway
• you might not have a cooker or your pans will be thin

Now, I wonder, is that more, or less helpful than her post?

I love it , Art, and my kids do, too. I stopped eating lots of meat because I have a strong family history of heart disease.