To be sad and appalled that a healthy diet is now beyond the reach of many.

[Darkesteyes]

Absolutely appalling. And it will have an effect on the NHS. Poorer people are bashed for being poor.. and bashed for being overweight. Why do I have a feeling its only going to get worse.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27225323

It's worrying. I don't know that the working group will come with an answer in a timely manner. At least, though, it will make public the fact that people are struggling due to the current financial situation. No hiding behind the green shoots of economic recovery.

It's absolutely awful, especially when you look at the price of fruit for example.

WRT being overweight though, I equate that more with portion sizes and lack of exercise rather than poor diets.

It's perfectly possible to be overweight and malnourished, too. It simply means badly nourished, and it's easy to see how a diet consisting of cheap, high fat, high fillers with little quality protein and fresh veg leads to poor nourishment. And yet we still don't pay the true costs of much of our basic foods such as meat and dairy, because of subsidies. It's shocking to realise how much quality food is priced out of the reach of an increasing proportion of people.

Its because of cheap carbs like pasta and potatoes. If I even eat a small amount of pasta I gain or stay the same. Currently attending Slimming World... I eat more veg and fruit (not citrus because it gives me colic)
When I was on JSA in the late 90s there were the final 3 days before the giro came where I ate very little Body went into starvation mode so anything you eat after that it clings on to Then the cheap carbs which was all I could afford then made it worse.
I lost the weight when I got a night job in a chatline office.

I come from an Irish family and we had potatoes with every single meal, but no-one snacked between meals apart from perhaps a piece of toast before bed.

Portion sizes were a fraction of what I see many people around me eating nowadays. If a family had a car at all, it was only one per family and most kids played out from morning til late evening.

Of all the overweight people I know well enough to have spent a lot of time with, I can honestly say all of them eat huge portions at meal times and snack between meals, and most of them drive everywhere.

However, I think they genuinely don't think their portions are anything other than normal.

I think fruit is expensive. For 3 children just two bags of apples (6 x pink lady) and one of bananas, £6. Bought at lunchtime today, eaten after school, only a few of each left. Repeat x 3 during the week. There was a time when I'd have taken a chance on something more unusual for them as well, now I go with the tried and trusted, can't afford it.

I am not sure that it is a clear-cut as that.

Even the article in the link states that there are differing opinions on the scale of the problem.

And I totally agree with you, Worra - it's a v complex problem, not helped by the fact that some people eat as if they were digging ditches all day when they lead v sedentary lifestyles AND they are not aware of that discrepancy.
Also, highly processed 'convenience' food is v expensive and relatively nutritionally poor, but a 'staple' for many.
Driving the shortest of imaginable distances.
'Junk' food as a regular part of meals - crips for lunch?
Etc etc

I am not sure what the solution is, but compared to the 1950 we actually spend less of our income on food, but our diet is worse and our physical activity is less

darkesteyes most people don't gain weight through eating pasta and potatoes, unless they eat too much of it.Most Italians eat pasta on a regular basis, yet there is a lower rate of obesity in Italy than in the UK.
As worraliberty says, potatoes were a staple for Irish people. I grew up on bread and potatoes, as did many poor families in Britain during the 60's and 70's,and there were very few obese people to be seen.

The price of fruit is horrendous here unless you live within walking distance of a market (which I don't).

My lovely MIL does and she brings tons of fruit for the kids when she visits. She says if she goes as the market is packing up, they're almost giving it away...although it's generally over ripe it's still edible.

I think that's one reason you'll often see MNetters saying "Go to your local farm shop" or "Get it from your local market".

But how can you, if you have to pay for public transport or petrol to get there?

Re: sedentary lives. Last weekend I counted the number of times I got in the car: 12 short journeys of approx. 1 mile each. If I had more time and didn't have to cram everything at the weekend, at least some of those journeys could have been done by foot. Or if I were better organised, but even that requires time.

fatlazy my mum is Italian There is obesity on her side of the family. And on my dads (the British side too.)

In fact in 2001 my mum went on holiday for a fortnight to see her family.
She was a size 12 when she flew out An 18 when she flew back She IS OBSESSED with weight and is now very slim And brought me up trying to instill in me that how a woman looks is the most important thing.

You can't use a bag of pink lady apples to demonstrate that fruit is expensive, they're about the most expensive apple variety you can buy.

fatlazy the trouble with the phrase "most people" is that it treats ppl as one big mass rather than as individuals I have had to give up pasta and drop my carbs as much as I can otherwise ....no weight loss.

Sainsburies are doing selected veg for 69p at the moment. I don't believe a healthy diet is beyond anyone's reach financially...

However, there is more to people eating absolute garbage than the cost of actual food.

Poor parenting, poor education, ease of eating fake food, constant advertising of plastic food, proliferation of fast foot outlets. People do not know how to eat properly any more... This is not helped in anyway by children having home tech lesson at school and making pizza.

If you're savvy healthy food is cheap and easily accessible.

She rose 3 dress sizes in two weeks?

Did she have any kind of medical problem if that's not too personal a question?

"And brought me up trying to instill in me that how a woman looks is the most important thing"

What a vile things to tell your daughters.

Although fruit and veg has been little bit cheaper recently, the supermarket offers are always on highly processed and carb laden foods. No wonder that people on a tight budget find it hard to afford fresh, healthy food. I know I'm finding it ever harder to feed us all properly each week

SoulJacker - I am demonstrating what's relevant for our family, that's what I found in the shop near work when I had time to go at lunchtime today. There may be cheaper options elsewhere but I don't have easy access as I work. I'm well paid, I have had to cut down massively.

It is definitely cheaper to buy half a dozen bananas than half a dozen bags of crisps for lunch boxes.

I think this perception of fruit and veg being expensive is part of the problem too, people are scared because they don't know how much it will cost and don't want to be short.

People do not know how to eat properly, nor how to cook properly IMO.
Nothing wrong with homemade pizza though…

Too many low fat 'diet' products loaded with sugar.
Snacking all the time.
Sugary fizzy drinks as a staple drink

Yy re the time factor when choosing whether to drive or walk. That is very true.
Having said that, I can walk to work in 10 min and usually do this when the weather is not exceptionally foul. However, I just cannot be arsed recently since Christmas. I gained half a stone… Just sayin'

She was a size 12 when she flew out An 18 when she flew back

That can't be right!

Supermarket offers are all well and good but they are just that...'offers' so they don't last.

Also, the high street where I live is crammed full of chicken/kebab/pizza takeaways and they are jam packed every lunch time when the local senior school kicks out, at lunch time and home time.

That's another reason why I can't link poverty with obesity. Those kids are spending a minimum of £3 on junk food every day when a healthy packed lunch would be much cheaper.

I'll also hazard a guess that they get nowhere near as much psychical exercise as I would have done at their age, because I had no Xbox/laptop/tablet and there were just 3 channels on the TV...and even they started at 9am and ended around midnight.

Worra Have you ever been to Italy visiting relatives. If you don't have something to eat in every house you visit its seen as an insult.

I have relatives ive not seen for over 30 years but considering its taken me since last August to lose 2 stone im afraid its going to stay that way.

Oh, and seasonal buying of fruit/veg.

My parents used to have 50kg of apples delivered at the end of the summer/early autumn, they were kept in the basement of our house and lasted all winter. The occasional rotten one had to be thrown out and they did become wrinkled by the spring, but it was dirt cheap. Yes, this was in an apple growing area and won't be feasible for everybody, but apples imported from South Africa and plastic wrapped are just not necessary and I avoid at all cost. I do buy bananas
And no strawberries in winter - I want my children to understand that not all food is available all of the time.
I live in a small town in Scotland, we have a fruit shop with an excellent selection and frequent offers of 'seconds' - misshapen carrots, overripe bananas (good for muffins) and soft fruit that needs to be eaten on the day - all for pennies.

Rhonda, yes, I agree there is a strong perception that all fruit/veg is expensive when it's not.

I agree re bananas cheaper than crisps. Devil's advocate but you can buy crisps in huge quantities and they last, bananas don't.