yes you can be overweight and in poverty

[Mumof4worriedfor]

Just saw this story on ITV twitter.com/itvnews/status/614128648585617408

Most of the comments are about her weight. Don't people understand the cheaper food is more unhealthy and you can very quickly get into poverty! Really annoyed by the response.

[Raveismyera]

I think rationing is a bit of a red herring tbh. Only certain foods were rationed so it was not dietary control or a "way of eating"
Many additives/ preservatives/ hydro whatevers used now hadn't even been invented.
People expected to spend a significant amount of their income on food; people now expect it to be minimal. And obviously, people in ww2 were far unhealthier than us; suffered severe stress and certainly had shorter life expectancy

[Trooperslane]

MDV -yup.

[Trooperslane]

And you rave.

[PHANTOMnamechanger]

parents not knowing how to cook, and not being able to afford the gas/electric for cooking, not having basic utensils like whisks and colanders and baking trays and casserole dishes, not having access to good cheap fresh ingredients. And wanting to treat themselves and their kids with nice tasty comforting food like pizzas, pies, sausages and chips, which they can buy cheaply.

[LaurieFairyCake]

I think that's the point about rationing. We were physically healthier during that time 70 years ago.

We should expect to get more healthy, not less.

The point about poverty also needs to include the increasing divide being rich and poor, greater now than ever before.

[NewFlipFlops]

It's definitely easier to access cheap and non-nutritious food, so fatness is becoming more and more associated with relative poverty.

The key is relative poverty, though. When George Orwell was documenting poverty, obesity wasn't an option. People were actually starving, not malnourished through making bad, though understandable, choices.

[SoleSource]

MrsDevere

[BertrandRussell]

There are 4 shops in our town. In order of socio- economic class Sainsbury's, Morrison's, Tesco and Iceland. You can shop for a family for practically nothing in Iceland- and they deliver free. It will be nutritionally crap, but it will taste good, the children will eat it, it's quick and easy to cook and it doesn't use much electricity. Which, when you are poor is what you want.

[elderflowerlemonade]

I think that's phrased fairly and well, FlipFlop

[NewFlipFlops]

Thank you elderflower.

[BlueThursday]

A lot of people simply can't fathom that some people don't have an oven, never mind money to power it.

And when you are poor, even if you do have an oven, electricity is more expensive because you pay through a meter rather than by DD

When I grew up we were by no means well off but not until I watched a Ross Kemp show featuring a man who lived about a mile away from me did I realise how shelters a life I really had

[BlueThursday]

Sorry didn't mean that face

[JassyRadlett]

Yes - for most people their nutrition improved during WW2. The diet was dull and restricted but designed to have adequate calories and be nutritious by the standards of the time.

It was an equaliser - the poor are more and better, the rich ate less.

[TheHumblePotato]

When you need to survive you do what you need to do. So someone decides to feed their family on a diet of 60p white bread with 80p burgers. However, all it takes it a little bit of forward planning to make informed (better) decisions.

I admit it is more expensive to eat healthy food but there is no reason why a lentil based veg or meat dish won't do. It certainly does not cost more than the afore mentioned white bread and burger sandwich. Admittedly there is a great deal of resourcefulness and creativity required but I don't accept that poverty = overweight. The vitriol the woman in that link faced is very wrong.

[JassyRadlett]

MrsDeVere, we have clearly been reading different things.

I think the difference from say the 30s was (a) price controls on rationed foods and (b) more or less full (and forced) employment in the war industries.

[Dowser]

If you eat a very carb laden diet which cheap processed food often is , it sets you up to just want more of the same when your sugar spike comes down again.

[Momagain1]

mrs. DeVere: yes. YES

Being frugal is damned hard when your funds are so restricted that you avoid cooking so as not to increase your fuel expense, or you have unplugged the refrigerator. i have been too poor to have the option to be frugal, eventhough I had been raised that way. Only once we were solidly middle class could I afford to live a frugal lifestyle, baking my own bread, stocking the freezer, canning fruits and veg, and making almost everything from raw ingredients.

When I was broke, I fed the kids & ate what they left, convinced office mates I was a perpetual dieter so wouldnt go out for lunch, but let them roll their eyes at my ability to sniff out treats brought in for sharing. My groceries were always the cheapest option in a immediately isable amount, I couldnt afford to 'stock up' on a larger container, as I was living paycheck to paycheck.

[HeyDuggee]

I think those comments are comparing the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who die because they can't get enough food.

[Raveismyera]

Laurie my point was that people weren't healthier during rationing

[Mumof4worriedfor]

Agree with pp that it is a complex issue.

I think education is a key factor. I know that I could cook a lentil stew for a family of four for a pound including 1-2p eletric costs. But I have grown up with wholesome food and have an induction hob and pressure cooker.

I'm currently eating a 25p avocado on rye with homemade sauerkraut (40p for two big maison jars) and a bean pâté (probably 50p with a can of beans, spices and tomato purée). But that's having the spices and the knowledge of cooking.

[Wrcgirl]

Mrs dv spot on.

[Raveismyera]

Mumof4 that's not education. That's liking that food (I'm very well educated and I wouldn't eat any of that) and having appliances.

Personally after a shit day of stress and worry I would much rather a Iceland £1 pizza than a lentil stew.

I never understand why people are so Obsessed with poor peoples diets. Poor people have far bigger problems than food.

[GnomeDePlume]

DD2 is involved with a youth food poverty action group.

From what she sees the issue is very complex. It isnt simply money. There is also access to cheap healthy food.

Young carers can be a case in point. There may be some money but the carer cant access it and even if they can they may not be able to get to suitable shops. Also they are young so not necessarily aware of the need for healthy as well as filling.

Far easier and quicker to go to the corner shop and buy cheap, processed food with a high calorie count.

[formerbabe]

I know that I could cook a lentil stew for a family of four for a pound including 1-2p eletric costs. But I have grown up with wholesome food and have an induction hob and pressure cooker

Lentil stew is fine in the context of having lots of other nice, varied things to eat...on its own, its a depressing thought...chicken nuggets, oven chips or cheap pizza is a more enticing option when you have little choice.