To think peoples lives are crap enough without needing the government to interfere with Meal Deals

[Jeansmeansheinz]

FFS just let people have the pleasure of a Meal Deal. I really don't need the Government telling me what I can and can't eat.

I rarely eat breakfast and lunch either. It’s not an eating disorder. I eat when I am hungry.

Which I don’t think many people actually know what hunger is. It’s not a blood sugar crash which is what most people probably think it is. Hunger is a quick 5 minute thing then easily ignored again for another hour or so.

My weight is perfect bmi. It’s wholly stable. My blood pressure is always perfect every time. I eat whatever I want whenever I want it. I just don’t usually want breakfast or lunch as they don’t appeal that much.

I have an extremely manual job so it’s not like I am sedentary. My dinners easily reach 2000 calories, so I am not depriving myself.

"Let kids (and adults) enjoy a bad of crisps or a bar of chocolate."

This right here is the problem, these things are taught to children as a "treat", a "reward", and this is where education needs to come in. We shouldnt be treating foods like this as special when they have absolutely zero nutritional value, that is where bad eating habits come to play. Fruit has plenty of natural sugar in it to satisfy cravings, its parents that frame this as healthy boring food that leads children to not want it, they want the exciting treat food. If chocolate and sweets were never given to children, they'd never crave it, nor emotionally prioritise it over beneficial food.

Its the same as taking kids to McDonalds as a treat, rather than having "boring" food at home, what are you teaching them? McDonalds is the happy food.

Would they not just do free stuff outside instead?

If I were to pump money in I’d do it for children’s clubs. They are expensive for many and good to start young

Reply’s aren’t working for me.

Aboves in reply to @MeowOnceForOffended in support of @Harrypewter and anyone else who eats when they actually need to.

As an overweight person I would say the following causes of obesity are:

1. The sad fact, that can’t be ignored, that high carb/ fat/ UHP foods just taste better and are more satisfying. And quicker. They could make courgettes etc free for all and I still wouldn’t eat them. The only way I can see this being solved is to remove high fat/carb/UHP food from sale, which won’t happen.
2. the lack of home cooking skills in the U.K. to help address the problem above
3. sport in schools - a huge opportunity to develop a love for exercise or ‘find your sport’ missed. Too much focus on team games continues to put people off sport for life. Instead schools should focus on introducing pupils to a wide range of activities/ sports, especially non competitive activities, so they can find what they enjoy. I guess this costs money tho.

I have this dream where you turn the entire country into a garden full of trees, plants, parks and trails. Train people up to maintain these, plan these. Community allotments. We use technology to our advantage and restructure the way we work. Local hubs for those who prefer being in the office, or more WFH contracts for those who can. Shorter working weeks, or fortnights. No idea how you'd tackle teaching, hospital work etc but I'm sure someone does.

Prioritise sports in schools. Not just team sports but dance and non-contact martial arts too. More basketball courts, and skate parks. Subsidise leasiure centres. Run sessions like yoga or tai chi in parks for free when the weather is good.

We can make cheap unhealthy fast food - why can't we make cheap healthy fast food that people want to eat? Look at the real reason why food is full of salt, sugar and undesirable chemicals. Is it to prolong the shelf life or to get people to eat more? Ban the latter.

The entire way we live has to change. Probably the hardest thing to tackle is housing and wages which significantly impacts health. Change to a meal deal is a tiny tiny little thing which screams tick boxing.

They do walks but as I said before walking gets boring. Variety is the spice of life and most people could find a sport or exercise class they would enjoy if they could afford to try out a few things.

I agree with your point about subsidies but Labour are in charge in the context of this thread, remember. The meal deal thing is not yet happening in England, Scotland or NI.

Longer lunch breaks and more old style works subsidised canteens may help. We have one at work and on Friday I had a mushroom stuffed baked tomato with a large green salad and some rice for £3.50.

Haha, I love satire comments like this.

I don't get home from work till 10pm and I'm rushing around London to many different appointments in different locations all day (not in an office). Which I already said.

So according to you, I'm supposed to carry:
Laptop bag
Bag containing heavy books and notebooks
Handbag
Cool bag with ice pack in it

Somehow juggle FOUR large bags on a mile walk to the station, cart them on and off two separate trains, take them to my first meeting, find somewhere to stash cool bag during my first meeting, retrieve cool bag, go to second meeting, repeat etc. until 10pm? Then cart nasty, soggy food remnants home again every night?

And I'm lazy for not doing so? For not carrying FOUR bags for hours and hours at a time?

No thank you.

Anyway I need a hot meal during the day. That's why I eat all my lunches in restaurants. I've never weighed more than about 110lbs in my life so clearly I'm doing something right, but go off some more.

@flurbubbly 100% what you said. People always assume that everyone has access to air fryers, slow cookers, freezers etc and the power to run them. If you're at the mercy of universal credit and what a landlord provides or in shared/temporary accommodation, a cheap ready meal once a day is probably a better option than spending 2 hours boiling chickpeas and root veg. It might be your only option then supplement with a sandwich or a few biscuits to keep hunger at bay. All the fat taxes and patronising cookery/budgeting classes in the world will not help with obesity/health until the deeper issues are resolved and no one has both the means and the will to do that from what I can see.

When it comes to weightloss it is calories in against out, the source doesn't matter

A lot of women don't feel safe exercising outside after dark. We get about two knife crime-related murders in my neighbourhood per year, I personally don't feel unsafe, but I wouldn't walk or exercise outdoors after work.

Oh true! I was thinking more in terms of when Labout win the next GE they could do more to make paid exercise accessible to everyone in the UK.

True we are talking about Labour

Drakeford is determined that we will not enjoy ourselves in any capacity in Wales. Alcohol tax, meal deal interfering, driving 20mph everywhere etc.

Maybe if he pumped more money into educating people and into the NHS instead of wasting millions on upgrading A&E waiting rooms with wifi, buying farms for festivals, stopping road construction halfway through and wasting millions and buying airports that don't make a profit things would be very different.

Be careful what you wish for when you say you'd rather a labour government because we've had one in Wales for a long time and we are no better off for it.

Yes and then you can have a bad back, achy shoulders, and arrive sweaty like me just from taking all that and lunch and then starve until 10pm to make a healthy dinner, not !

People won’t go for the same reason they don’t use free outdoor gyms or just go for a walk.

That'll be limited leisure time then.
No one but the Uber health conscious are going to choose the faff of heading out to exercise over vegging out in front of the telly after working most of the daylight hours.

I lost 5 stone a few years ago and one of the ways I did it was by having a Boots Meal Deal for lunch three days a week. I still have them now most days.

Typical choices for me are the sweet potato falafel salad (about 250cal) or a vegan wrap (350cal) for the main, a pot of olives or snack sushi for the snack (about 100cal, and I usually have this later in the afternoon) and some water or diet Pepsi for the drink.

No doubt someone will be along to tell me what a fat unhealthy pig I am but it's worked for me. Also it means that my lunch and afternoon snack costs about £3 which is cheaper than buying all the ingredients and making it at home, and more convenient, with less waste.

If the government want to do something about public health, ban smoking. It literally kills one in two of the people who do it, harms the health of those who don't die from it and costs the NHS billions. Leave our fucking lunch alone fgs.

Yes,it's all about being seen to be doing something .

I used to work in a leisure centre,a few months before I left the council announced a 'new,healthy eating initiative'.The vending machine was removed and the cafe was no longer allowed to sell bars of chocolate.
They could still sell crisps though,as well as sweets,chips and all kinds of highly processed crap.

And is there evidence that your meal deal falls into the unhealthy categories?

600 calories is actually quite a lot for lunch!
Especially considering it's probably 5 days a week

It's family culture. If you don't cook, your children won't. If you don't exercise, your children are likely to do the minimum too. Being a healthy person is part of being a parent. If you eat junk food, or meal deals then what do your kids eat? The same most likely.

Before anyone says, a chronic illness or condition is different. But obesity is mostly not a medical issue except for more fat means more health problems.

It's up to parents. Look after your own health. You can live a long time even with poor health. It's not something you want for yourself or your kids.

Of course it would but not everyone has the time, or wants to buy in a load of ingredients, or has a workplace with an onsite fridge etc. There are plenty of reasons people choose a meal deal over making a packed lunch so your comment is pretty irrelevant.

Banning meal deals isn't going to suddenly mean everyone starts cooking and preparing their own lunch. It will just be removing an affordable and potentially healthy choice

Why would having a meal deal for lunch at work mean you don't cook at home? How are you supposed to cook lunch while you're out? And why are you conflating meal deals with junk food?