Does it matter if you don't cook from scratch

[brasty]

I was reading about Singapore and was surprised to read that nearly every one who lives there, apart from some older people, eat only food made outside of the home. They literally never cook. In Britain I think we are pretty moralistic about this. And it did make me think if it really matters if you don't cook? If you buy healthy takeaways and ready made meals, so what?

I don't see these things as processed

Er...

I love using curry sauces and adding loads of vegetables to 'make' a curry but it's not cooking from scratch it's ready food with added salt and sugar in the jar.

People's views vary on what scratch means though. Like something using breadcrumbs for example - one person might use a bought packet of them, another might make their own by whizzing up some stale bread, but yet another might say that's still not from scratch if you don't make your own bread in the first place.

Using a jar of curry sauce is reheating a food made by someone else to make life easier

I've just cooked real chips, paprika sausages and fried green beans.

It's from scratch but it ain't healthy

The thing about food you've cooked yourself is that you know exactly what's gone into it. Most preprepared food is full fat, sugar and salt to make it appetising and to mask the fact the manufacturers use very low quality ingredients.

I don't think frozen veg contains additives?
I will read the packet when I get home.

You can't really put together family restaurant food and ready made supermarket meals. It's 2 very different things.

I think you've slightly misunderstood how people eat in Singapore. They eat in hawkers or the food courts under flats. They all eat together out of the house and it's very cheap. It's not really comparable to the uk. I can't think of ever seeing ready meals, not even the tin foil ones from the chilled section. But then again I shopped very local to keep prices down!

In India and Thailand there are loads cheap street food vendors and the food is mainly made from scratch with simple ingredients. Its all about the economy as well, this will be the vendors only source of income. There is no welfare system to prop them up if they don't.
I loved trying all the different food and bought nuts and deep fried insects, all sorts from vendors walking around with carts. I just loved being part of it all via food.

Also when I lived in OZ it was so cheap to eat out plus you could take your own bottle of wine for free or very small corkage fee, I was in my early 20's and rarely cooked, I was always out with friends to eat after a days work and commute.

I learnt to cook from scratch when I lived in New Zealand, everything they eat is fresh but it is delicious and so much cheaper which makes a massive difference.

I have never cooked from scratch in my life. I can cook eggs and use the microwave and oven food. I only learnt to cook an omelette when I was 29. I've been a bit mollycoddled and never really got in to the cooking thing.

Oh I will add I have peeled potatoes and made them that way before and I did cook a roast once in 2009.

If your diet is healthy without too much salt or sugar, then i can't see it matters.

Generally that's easier to achieve by cooking most things at home. Depending on what you cook it can also be cheaper cooking it at home too.

I haven't got the foggiest how much salt and sugar I eat.

Frozen veg is not processed food. Ready made mash depends on what is in the ingredients but if only potatoes, milk and butter, I would not count that as processed either because it simply contains what you would use if you made it from scratch.

I really like the 'cook' range of ready meals. Frozen to microwave, and all the ingredients are stuff you'd use if made yourself.

I like the look of Everdine.

Another poster reiterating that the style of food under discussion will be home kitchen/hawker/street food, not supermarket ready meals.

I'm a functional cook, not a good one. If someone else's Mama wants to feed me noodles and veg, bring it on.

I won't use jar sauces anymore, not through snobbery but dh was diagnosed diabetic 2 years ago and alongside a very serious illness so his health was top priority.
The amount of sugar in the jars was just eye-opening. A simple pasta sauce also costs less than a jar of own brand sauce so that's a factor.
I enjoy cooking so not an issue there either.

We do enjoy a take away though, sometimes just chippy sometimes something more.
It's mainly cost prohibited. I can do a weeks meals for the price of 2 nights take away.