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 suspect it depends where you live. If I go in my town this is what they offer but in the next town over which is overall more deprived they have way less healthy options and just a ton of sandwiches and crisps in the meal deal section. I really notice it or like in an express shop, they must order a lot more sandwiches than anything else. If I don’t see a Mars bar in the deal I don’t think I would think I wanted one? It’s subliminal. I used to go in a bakery for my lunch meal deal and always chose my cake first as right in front of my face!

This.

And another thing is the fact that the pharmaceutical industry have come up with a lot more medications which cause weight-gain! Patients are very grateful for new medications to help with their health condition(s), but so many of them can lead to obesity, particularly anti-depressants, amongst other things.

Yes, and there loads of recipes available online. You just have to Google 'Simple Lentil Recipes' and loads of ideas appear. Same applies for chickpeas etc. None of this stuff is hard to cook - it's all very easy. I suspect though that a lot of people feel they just don't have time to look for recipes which is such a shame.

Yes, and there loads of recipes available online. You just have to Google 'Simple Lentil Recipes' and loads of ideas appear. Same applies for chickpeas etc. None of this stuff is hard to cook - it's all very easy. I suspect though that a lot of people feel they just don't have time to look for recipes which is such a shame.

Chickpeas and lentils aren't everyone's cup of tea and do cause a lot of wind!

A decently-priced sandwich, drink and some crisps/snack for lunch does not make you obese. What are you supposed to eat when out and about?

You're right. However why the need for a "deal"? The answer of course is to convince you to spend (and eat) more. It would be better to price each item fairly and individually and not offer a better price for buying more items.

And also kelsaycobbles immediately above that: the ingredients on the website are sometimes wrong because the product changes and the website is not updated straight away.

Even the actual labels are sometimes wrong and products then get recalled, but that's rarer than the website being wrong.

Well the point is that it’s at the front of the shop where you will go first and means you don’t have to think for yourself what you want, or make your own choices as the set menu of what’s in the deal is presented to you, with a limited selection of what’s in the offer.

This is sociology to feel like you are being given a bargain - that yellow label ‘deal’ will appeal to your hungry brain that you are saving £. So you have to buy what’s in the offer, and the majority of it is high calorie/fat/salt. you then won’t walk further into the shop to look at other options because they aren’t neatly packaged like this one.

So if you eat a 700+ calorie lunch every day, thats actually quite a lot in terms of not much filling nutritious food if you choose a sandwich and chocolate every day. You will probably eat again later on around 3pm still hungry then most people grab something fast for dinner and before you know it you have eaten a ton of mostly empty calories a day and gained weight. I am one of these people! I am working really hard not to be tempted in by the ease of this convenience food. Choosing good food to make for yourself does take effort. When you are hungry and in a rush you will just grab what you can

I dont think its gonna work. People will eat it regardless.

but folk are lazy. On here I’ve seen people day they have no reason to go for a walk, they don’t see the point. There is a point. Move.

you don’t have to think for yourself what you want, or make your own choices as the set menu of what’s in the deal is presented to you, with a limited selection of what’s in the offer.

I'm autistic. I'm in the middle of my work day. I am not in a position to be thinking hard about food at that point. I don't have access to a kitchen at work to start assembling food in. If I'm lucky, today's site has a fridge to put a from-home lunch in, but I don't know that until I get there if I've not been to that site before. If I'm super-lucky, there's a microwave, but I'll be queuing for that.

Tesco usually have a GF meal deal, either a sandwich or some sushi (please, Tesco, never stop doing GF sushi because no one else does it). I don't have to worry about it getting warm and giving me food poisoning if there's no fridge because I buy it immediately before I eat it. I don't have to heat it. I can carry it to somewhere quiet and get away from the break room without being told "no hot food outside the break room, it's a hot spill hazard" or "not hot food at your desk, it stinks the office up". I don't have to find somewhere to prepare it. It won't leak into my laptop and keyboard and mouse on my journey to and from and between sites.

I think that you and others on this thread don't understand the challenges of having a job where "going to work" means going to a different place every day, especially on top of being autistic.

In my local supermarket people regularly ask where the sandwiches etc are so the right at the front thing doesn't always work. To add, they offer items from the hot food counter (at the back of the store) in the meal deal too.

I don't get a meal deal every day but when I do, I find it more than filling and often by dinner time I'm still not hungry, thats with a sandwich or a pastry from the hot food counter, a chocolate bar (a boost preferably, they are amazing things) and a large tin of red bull. I work a physical job and am on my feet all day, they're more than filling. I'm a short arse and am 7st 10 so hardly obese either

I think they should provide more attractive healthy options, not ban meal deals, plus they are already expensive.

Sugar tax is awful and a miserable failure. The drinks taste disgusting and replacements are just as bad (likely worse) for obesity, strokes etc.

It’s just another. Stealth tax. Overweight people will stay overweight as it’s nur about the meal deals they eat portions too large which meal deals are certainly not! It’s about portion control and self control which a lot of those people do not have in abundance. The UK is worst for trying to “Nanny” people’s eating and yet they can’t lower they number if overweight and obese people. It’s like the tax break for rich people it doesn’t work and they know it but they still do it as it’s good for their own pockets.

This is political and not about people’s health at all.

Personally I think banning promotions for junk food is just too easy for the government(s) (the Scottish government is also consulting on bans/restrictions).

They need to invest in turning our car-centric society into one that emphasises active travel and quality accessible public transport. But that costs too much, so they go for the easy target.

I don't think a child is going to ask their parents for broccoli because they saw it advertised instead of chocolate.

On the other hand, nobody "needs" sweets in a cost of living crisis, so no need to have 2 for 1 offers on them.

I think it would be better to ban drive-through takeaways and ads for delivery services like Justeat- try to "nudge" people to at least collect their food.

Absolutely same here. I get the meal deal so I don't just eat a bag of crisps and a cake. Leave the meal deal alone.

Is there any evidence that says 50% of people who eat meal deal regularly are overweight, or 50 % of overweight people regularly eat meal deal. I doubt it.

It won't stop people who want to buy it, from buying it 🤷‍♀️

I hate cooking, and see zero point in spending ages prepping and cooking something that then takes 10 minutes to eat and I still have to clean up afterwards.

I live off ready meals for dinner, but am a healthy weight and very active. Paying extra for the convenience won't stop me

That's just stupid.

No one is going to walk miles (potentially having to take all their kids with them, carry a baby with them) to collect a takeaway on foot because it would be stone cold when you get home and also dangerous to walk at night, and anyone with access to a car would just drive and thus gain zero benefit.

If the government were serious rather than cooking up soundbite headline grabbing policy they'd also consider easy and cheap access to physical activity. There were some stats knocking around a while ago about the amount of sports playing fields that have been lost to housing in recent years - 6 have been lost within half a mile of my home. Similarly new developments round our way are being built without pavements so more houses can be squeezed in meaning that you have to walk in the road to get the kids to school - unsurprisingly most people drive as it's perceived to be safer.

The demands of the national curriculum mean that children have less and less time for physical play. When I was at school you had a morning and afternoon playtime as well as lunch play. My DC will enter y1 in September and her day will be almost entirely seat based as the teachers need to cram so much in to meet end of year targets. The forced drudgery of the daily mile does not inspire much enjoyment exercise - it would be far more rewarding to make it play based.

The hackneyed cycle lanes that got squeezed into already narrow roads in lockdown are not the answer... it needs something far barver.

They'd still have to get out of the car, though. That is my point. If all you have to do is drive everywhere, you get zero exercise. It's not just about the intake of food.

When mum's with babies finally asleep in the car after not sleeping for hours on end finally get some time to grab some food this would make it impossible.

I'm assuming that you have never felt the need to get a drive through takeaway but it happens for various reasons and even to those of us who envisioned whole food nutrition in family life

600 calories for a snack ?

I've been eating much healthier and far less processed food in the last few years. It has worked but it is so much more expensive, especially lately. Why is there never any government intervention to make the healthy stuff cheaper? Maybe there should be some kind of tax break for companies related to sales of fresh, unprocessed food?

Weight is such a complex issue and lack of consideration to all the factors mean judgemental views and quick fixes, neither of which help.

I see it less as judgemental and quick fixes and more as chipping away at the factors that make it easy to gain weight

It is complex which is why it can't be solved by one single action - but that doesn't mean we should not try and move towards a world where the cheapest and easiest option is eating healthy

This is negative, punitive action though and doesn’t make any positive step to making healthy food easier or less expensive for people.

I had suggested having more healthy options for meal deals upthread, better than banning them.