Talkinpeece what ivory tower nonsense! Your family were clearly relatively well off.
Working class families possibly working 2 nmw jobs each parent understandably don't always feel they have the time, energy or motivation to teach their children to cook. In addition families with low incomes probably daren't risk food being wasted due to new cook mishaps.
And I say that as a Lp on benefits who came from a working class family who WAS taught to cook and I taught dd to cook. But just because I managed it doesn't mean I can't open my mind just a CRACK to see that not everyone is capable, knowledgable or confident enough.
In addition among the lowest income families, there are more likely to be those with disabilities including learning disabilities and mh conditions. (Me again).
I generally cook from scratch BUT on better days and because I have bad days I cook 'too much' so I can store meals for worse days. I'm LUCKY
1 that I can cook
2 that I'm not yet so incapacitated that I can't physically cook at least 3 times a week but that's a possibility in the future.
4 that dd can cook, was happy and willing to learn but she's 17 she'll be leaving home in the next few years.
I'm only 46 but there's a real possibility I may need to use convenience foods more in the near future. Shopping is also difficult. At the moment I get online delivery from a supermarket, I've just had this weeks. I'm in a LOT of pain today and I'm in tears writing this because I barely managed just carrying the bags from the door to the kitchen and putting the stuff away. That'll be me gubbed for the next 2 days in all likelihood, I'm even struggling to dress myself at the moment.
Not everyone is privileged financially, practically or in terms of good health.
"We are really weird when someone tries to be healthy in this country" yep! Clearly from defensiveness I think. When I first went veggie (just realised 30 years ago this year 😱), people were very weird in their reactions, my mum got flak too. People seemed to either think I was a sort of militant hippy (not too far wrong there at the time), or (and this is where my mum got the flak) I had an eating disorder. I actually ate more as a result of going veggie because I never enjoyed the taste or texture of real meat AND coincidentally it turned out red meat really badly sets off my ibs (symptoms quickly improved vastly, on a couple of occasions I was unwittingly given red meat or eg food cooked in red meat juices or fat and I was VERY bad with ibs the next few days, it was dismissed at the time but is now recognised as an ibs trigger).
Formerbabe - I can well believe that re the not drinking. I don't drink due to meds (pain and mh ones that's a conversation stopper! Because there is ALWAYS some clever dick who'll go "oh one won't hurt you'll just get pissed faster") but even when I wasn't completely teetotal I didn't drink much/often because all one side of the family are addicts inc alcohol and I'm very wary (another conversation stopper for clever dicks "because I don't want to be like my alcoholic relatives") it's unhealthy that drinking, and drinking heavily is seen as the norm in the uk. We don't have the monopoly on alcoholism (contrary to popular belief) but we definitely have an unhealthy view of it. Personally I don't think it should be so easy or cheap to buy. I remember when you could only get in pubs, off licences and a few restaurants.
Teasandtoast I get what you're trying to say but I think demonising or banning 'junk' food does create other issues. Because you can't put the genie back in the bottle so you'd better make sure you know how to word your wishes!
As I said upthread, no complete food is completely nutrient empty but I have seen children who are not allowed anything but uber healthy food at home/by their parents go overboard when they are in a position to choose. I'd say it's both extremes are the children that at eg a children's birthday party with lots of sausage rolls, crisps, dips, choc, biscuits, sweets, cake will spend the most time eating - those who never get to eat this kinda thing and those that almost always eat it. The 'forbidden fruit' factor.
BUT I agree with those pps (usually non Brits) that we've also kinda demonised fruit and veg! It's seen as boring, utilitarian food! Yet raw or cooked (properly not boiled for a decade!) fruit and veg is colourful, appetising and delicious.
The idea that other European countries don't have the same issues with food/eating that we do is ridiculous. Eg Austria and France have high levels of anorexia, I have friends that live in various European countries and I have lived in a few myself. The attitude to mh issues generally is pretty poor. There's very much a culture of "pull yourself together" and that it's a personal weakness to suffer one.
I think also we eat the biggest number of calories at the wrong times. Breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen, dine like a pauper yes? I think yet another factor is our short lunch breaks. In eg France and Italy I can't see 30 min (or even shorter) lunch breaks being tolerated as a regular thing. And less time to eat means more likely to eat calorie dense food, takes longer to eat a decent salad than a greggs sausage roll! Plus it leaves no time to exercise. I was at my healthiest when in an office job that had flexitime availability. I used to go for a run, shower, have a healthy lunch then back to work, essentially having a 1.5hr lunch break but I worked an extra half hour at the end of the day to make it up. This was pre DC admittedly. But I do think a proper lunch hour would at least allow time for better food choices and a little exercise.
"Before 1960 children were looked after and fed proper food by their mothers while dads went to work" not true for the working class plenty of working mothers post DC there. My grans AND great grans (who were born late 19th C) all worked after having (lots!) of children.