New costa meal deal is irresponsible

[Habanero]

Costa have just launched a lunchtime meal deal with a toastie, crisps and a coffee. The one pictured on the ad with a cheese and ham toastie and a latte contains 754 calories, 34g fat, 15.4g saturated fat and 2.1g salt. You can cut off a bit of the calories and fat by opting for lower-fat milk, but it’s still a third of an adult’s daily calories with no source of fibre and no fruit or veg. This sort of thing normalises overeating: by making this a “meal deal” the company is presenting this as a normal lunch option, psychologically nudging people towards consuming an energy-rich, nutritionally poor midday meal.

Clearly it’s a first world problem and we all have choices and don’t need to buy this, but it’s the normalisation of overeating like this which I think has done more than anything to raise obesity levels. AIBU?

Such weird responses here. People getting all offended about healthy eating advice. Of course people, - eat whatever you like - it's your choice. But why make yourself potentially ill when you are older? Diabetes and its associated problems (blindness and amputation)? Heart disease (pain and early death)?
OP YANBU. Most of the replies here seem to be from people sticking their fingers in their ears and going "lalalalala not listening".
The British and US diets are shit.

It’s true
Hence why everyone is getting fatter

Just look around

I looked at some old family photos and they were definitely leaner back then

I don’t snack routinely. My meals are all mostly 400-500 cals when I’m dieting and around 600 each when maintaining. I’d definitely eat that if I had room in my macros / calories that week.

If this was OP asking: "is this a health meal" - the majority would be saying no.

I wish retailers would offer healthier options for a choice on a special offer.

It's a meal. Food is food. It's like cars, here to stay.

wish retailers would offer healthier options for a choice on a special offer

But they do - even the toastie deal quoted offers fruit/black coffee/tea options or white coffee with skimmed milk.

Other offers include sandwiches or salads rather than toasties. Pretty much every meal deal is the same structure in the chains/supermarkets I've visited at lunch times. And you don't have to buy a meal deal - just buy the sandwich or salad.

Poor nutrition has many causes but demonising meal deals which do include "better" options is not one of them.

Focus your ire on the large pockets of people whose access to fresh fruit and veg is an unaffordable bus ride away or who buy cheap ready meals. Or the fact that children are not allowed out to play because of traffic and absurd over anxiety about stranger danger.

None of those are caused by an entirely option packet of crisps in a meal deal which is unaffordable on a regular basis for anyone on low income.

who buy cheap ready meals because they have no cooking facilities.

Suffering from premature posting today, sorry!

The anorexia hospital admissions are just the tip of the iceberg though. Great ormond street’s children’s eating disorder service that specialises in under 13’s did a study on trigger factors and one of the main culprits was the healthy eating talk and weight check that 5 year olds have at school. The way “healthy eating” is taught not only in schools but in the media to young people is going to contribute massively to the rise in eating disorders. (CAMHS ED Practitioner here and I see evidence of this on a daily basis)

Dozer you cant be serious, surely? Every taste and dietary requirement is available in London. Same as every other large city. You can’t actually be looking very hard. M&S does a great range of calorie controlled, vegetarian, vegan and gluten free lunchtime type food for a start.

I wish retailers would offer healthier options for a choice on a special offer

You mean like this exact retailer and exact deal, where you can choose a healthier sandwich, fruit instead of crisps. and water or tea instead of a latte with sugar? That kind of healthier option?

I eat in central London a lot, and often not the low cal options! A colleague who had been obese and had lost a lot of weight once looked into this closely, she had tracked down the lower calorie options within a 15 minute walk of our workplace, or the stations she commuted through, and the choice of outlets offering reasonable choice was surprisingly limited.

I don’t think there is much low calorie, veg-filled, relatively low priced food available in the part of central London I work in. Of 25 or so shops and food outlets in the big stations perhaps 4 - Pret, M&S and Boots, sushi place - offer a reasonable range of lower calorie food. The rest offer mainly 800cal plus meals with virtually no veg. A couple more options if you sit down to eat.

It’s clear that most adults can’t maintain a weight within the recommended BMI range.

For God's sake, why not just bring back rationing? That way noone can eat more calories than strictly necessary. It's clear that people just can't be trusted to moderate their own intake, the government needs to step in

I just had a cheese and turkey toastie (with mayo 😱), with a pack of Cheetos and a can of coke. Yum.

Planning on steamed salmon and veg for dinner. Is that ok?

It’s true Hence why everyone is getting fatter

If you're getting fatter its because you make poor choices and don't exercise enough. I'm not getting fatter.

For my lunch today I had a triple cheese sandwich, packet of crisps and a bottle of full fat coke meal deal and a cheeky cheese straw from Tesco. I was having a shitty, stressful day at work and had a pounding headache plus menstrual cramps.
Most days I have salad, wraps or jacket potato but today o fancied eating crap.
Stop being the food police. If you want a healthy lunch go elsewhere there's plenty options 🙄

Well bully for you repeal !

I refer to the general population - the ‘average’ who clearly are from looking about in public places

Because this type of poor nutrition is normalised

Because this type of poor nutrition is normalised

It doesn't matter, they still make their own choices. Look around you, avocado and quinoa salads have been normalised too, so has sushi or soup! Society aint forcing you to eat the lardy guts lunch, if you choose it then own it.

People aren't getting offended by healthy eating advice. They are pointing out that if people want a cheese toastie and a latte, then that's not Costa coffee's fault. Its that persons individual choice. There are healthy options available, but I bet you they sell more cheese and ham toasties and a packet of crisps than they do grilled chicken wraps and fruit or whatever else they have.

But McDonald's burger King is OK?

Costa is not a health center.

If you're getting fatter its because you make poor choices and don't exercise enough.

100% this.

I hate tea and coffee so v seldom go to costa or Starbucks etc, but surely the calories, carbs and fat are printed right there on the packet?

I remember all the fuss about supermarket sandwiches a few years ago, when people were shocked by the content of them. (I mean, seriously. You buy a double cheese, onion and mayo sandwich on white bread, and you're shocked that it's sky high in saturated fat, salt, carbs and sugar??) But since then, labelling has been much clearer.

You can't police what people eat. You can only try to raise awareness.

Since I'm not going to Costa every day I don't give a fuck, and I don't need you or anyone to police my choices.

I don’t think there is much low calorie, veg-filled, relatively low priced food available in the part of central London I work in.

Whereabouts in central London? I often work with clients in the centre, I can't walk ten minutes without seeing Tesco Metro, Sainsburys, M&S food, all the big coffee chains and the Wasabi/Itsu/Sushi places etc. all of which have salads, lower calorie sandwiches and soupls, fruit and low calorie drinks.

You don't have to buy an entire meal deal either - you can just buy a sandwich or salad.

Wow if that is how hard it is in London than the Market towns of Britain and their limited Hight Streets must be filled with weebles rolling their way to work.

A bottle of water, cheese and onion sandwich, bag of squares and a banana are my usual from Sainsburys.

They are, HoneyDragon.