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

For those debating the toss about whether comfort eating is caused by poverty. Go back and read shadow's posts. She is saying something quite specific which is that when you have a life which is lacking in comfort and abundant in small stresses and big stresses and worst of all, having to inflict a lot of stress on your kids, then food is an affordable comfort, its a tiny luxury that makes a difference.

Poverty is certainly something that can cause comfort eating because it causes stress.

But give a comfort eater more money and it won't necessarily stop them from doing it...because there will be other stresses in their lives too that are not caused by poverty.

Not that I'm saying for a second that poorer people shouldn't have more money...just that it won't necessarily stop a comfort eater from comfort eating.

Poor people aren't allowed to eat crap food because if they do it's because their poor, depressed, uninformed and need cookery lessons

We offer cookery lessons, people are not forced to take them. It is voluntary

iwant I have done once and wouldn't like to again as I found them quite to be honest, but I'm willing to agree to disagree.

And I know that's not really relevant but reading this thread and the UKIP one has made me come out in a cold sweat.

Worra comfort eating will always be a problem for some people, it's recognised as a form of disordered eating is it not? I do think that a large number of poor who comfort eat however, do so because as said upthread, it's the only real comfort which is attainable, and therefore a much more seductive crutch.

Agree with Worra

ashadow you and expat and mrs Devere and many Mners who fight their way through hard times sound like AMAZING parents.

The posts written by these women ive seen on this and other threads in the past have been incredibly moving.

X posts again!

Get it right people! It's not a big screen TV. It's a 52'' plasma TV.

Yeah but I don't think this is really about people who comfort eat out of compulsion.

Its about people who eat a bit of crap because its affordable and its one of the few nicer things they CAN afford.

Comfort eating as a psychological issue is another issue and one that I agree cuts across class.

But this is a very different type of comfort eating. Its about cheap food being one of a very few nice things in someone's life.

I swear to all that is holy that I'd drink every fucking day and eat nowt but shit food if I was really poor. I'd embrace addiction and any drug going to take me away from the poverty.

And that would be normal. Look at other countries if you don't believe me.

You think someone in Cambodia is whiling away their cunting evening thinking 5 different ways with Mung beans ???

Nope, their smoking crack if they've half a cell.

Worra comfort eating will always be a problem for some people, it's recognised as a form of disordered eating is it not? I do think that a large number of poor who comfort eat however, do so because as said upthread, it's the only real comfort which is attainable, and therefore a much more seductive crutch.

I don't disagree but I don't think giving a comfort eater more money will stop them from comfort eating.

They are still likely to experience relationship break ups, bereavement and many other problems in life too that can trigger their comfort eating.

Get it right people! It's not a big screen TV. It's a 52'' plasma TV

64 inch. Keep up fatlazy

then food is an affordable comfort, its a tiny luxury that makes a difference.

But surely decent home-cooked nutritious food is an even more affordable necessity, and in the long run nourishment of the belly can lead to nourishment of the souls and heart. I had a friend who lived on cuppa soup because she didn't know how to cook. She was depressed, unhealthily thin and listless. My mum taught her to make her own soup from the vegetables that the greengrocer sold cheaply. She was a different person in six months.

I know that we all need to feel worthwhile and it can be a viscous circle, but the concept of thinking that crap, empty-calorie food is somehow both a treat and a right has got to be challenged .

Comfort eating is, I believe, directly related to the concept of snacking; unnecessary food as an emotional, not nutritional, crutch.

I worry that excusing it and finding arguments for why it's ok is not helpful long-term.

Yes but those things won't be a constant in the same way as poverty. Those things are the difference between spending money on junk every week, week in week out for years, and doing so when the bereavement or relationship break ups hit, then eating better again when happier etc.

If you have a secure house and you know you can pay the bills your preoccupations become about books you want to read, a night out with friends, hobbies. When you go to bed at night wondering if you will get evicted next week, and that worry wakes you up every night, you are going to reach for the chocolate far more frequently. So actually I do think more money, more support and secure housing would make a substantial difference.

That was to Worra.

*And that would be normal. Look at other countries if you don't believe me.

You think someone in Cambodia is whiling away their cunting evening thinking 5 different ways with Mung beans ???

Nope, their smoking crack if they've half a cell.*

My granny lives in a third world country and you'd better believe she whiles away her cunting evenings soaking, chopping, stirring and freezing. And reading the Bible. And she'd file out some licks to you for your defeatist disrespect.

I agree ashadow.

You know, in all of this I don't think we hav even mentioned the addictivemess of poor quality bulkers used in cheap processed food, or the difficulties in locating reasonably priced locally sourced food - a couple of generations back my granny would be picking up the stray potatoes in the field after harvest, picking wild fruit etc. I am not for a second suggesting we go back to the potatoes situation (though the wild fruit isn't that bad an idea, we went berrying when I was little and made jams and pies) but that's an entire side of things that's gone for most people I know in just one or two generations.

I'm not expressing that well befor ei get jumped on - I don't mean let the poor go find food in the wild - I'm trying to make a comment about our changing cultural relationship with food and the possible impact on weight?

I think again, life experience and outlook are relevant there Montegomongoose. If someone's current life is filled with debts, hardship, not being able to pay bills, worrying about how they will afford food or heating next month, they aren't going to give a monkeys about "nourishment of the soul". Once someone has the headspace to think about such things they can address them, but when your entire headspace is a place of stress, instant relief (food) and worry, you can't and won't care or want to care about how you could look less listless by making soup.

Again, better support, better welfare system, security of housing and then, without the threat of benefits being stopped again, the bailiffs coming knocking again, then people can think about new life skills. It's priorities really, for example I've managed to let a pack of mince go off in the fridge this week because I've been so so stressed about money and rent and the housing benefit situ that it just hasn't registered on my radar.

I swear to all that is holy that I'd drink every fucking day and eat nowt but shit food if I was really poor. I'd embrace addiction and any drug going to take me away from the poverty

Then you would be in a much worse situation, drugs don't solve anything neither does addiction. Upto 80% of children are taken into care because a parent is addicted to drugs or alcohol. Then you will feel even more shit

I know that we all need to feel worthwhile and it can be a viscous circle, but the concept of thinking that crap, empty-calorie food is somehow both a treat and a right has got to be challenged

100% agree

More money will not stop comfort eating, it is not that simple

I do it Rhonda, the berrying. I know that's rare in my generation (mid twenties) but I remember my Gran taking me so do it with my DCs. I think it's slightly on the rise again with River Cottage and other DIY type programmes being so popular and I'm sure that superscrimpers woman mentions it now and again. (Although I do agree it's something that's died a death on the whole)