Healthy food should be subsidised by government

[ByJadeExpert]

just incase I say anything wrong, I have learning disabilities
I think it should be subsidised by the government so it can be cheaper and affordable for everyone.

I mean things like fresh fish, fresh berries, lean steak, salad leaves all full of nutrients that are beneficial for everyone and prevents inflammation and stress but too expensive for people to eat daily

Food production in the UK is already heavily subsidized. Farmers make tiny tiny profits. If we actually all paid a fair price for good food it would be ££££. I don't disagree with the basic premise that frozen beige shite shouldn't be the cheapest option but it's an industry with myriad problems. It's much cheaper to eat healthily if you are vegetarian..lentils, chickpeas etc are much cheaper than meat.

Meat
dairy
eggs
potatoes
sugar beet
feed grains
fruit and veg -less than meat and dairy

There needs to be some way of dealing with the price gouging supermarkets. They are the real problem.

The Healthy start scheme does this for those on a low income with children under 5 and pregnant women. I think the scheme should be extended

Nutritious food isn’t expensive. It’s a narrative that people like to push, but it’s simply not true. Beans, pulses, lentils, eggs, apples, frozen berries, tinned fruit, wholemeal pasta, tinned tomatoes, porridge oats. I could go on and on, none of it is pricey.

It doesn’t have to be organic avocado’s, fresh salmon fillets, golden yolk eggs, and corn fed chicken. You are being unreasonable and the idea it should be subsidised is a joke.

No the taxpayers shouldn’t be subsidising that. You’ve listed expensive foods. Steak is expensive and not particularly healthy anyway.

Berries are expensive, but bananas, apples and oranges are very cheap. Lots of veg is very cheap. Frozen fish is a lot cheaper than fresh. Eating healthy doesn’t have to be expensive.

Healthy food really does not have to cost a lot.

Apples, bananas and pears, oats, milk, eggs, lentils, green veg, onions and carrots - these are not expensive. You can buy chicken & beef mince quite cheaply too. Pork shoulders /shoulder steaks are cheap and delicious slow cooked. Raw ingredients like flour & butter don't cost the earth either.

All through august and september you can pick blackberries wild by the bucket load & freeze to eat through winter. Where i live (south east commuter town) there are also wild raspberries too growing. Red currants & gooseberries are also easy to grow & very nutritious.

These types of raw veg etc are already cheap! People choose not to buy them because our palates are conditioned to very tasty, heavily processed food.

No. “The government” cannot take responsibility for everything, people need to take responsibility for themselves. Frozen fruit and veg is relatively cheap and has almost and sometimes more, nutritional value as fresh.

This^

But also more than one G.P has advised me that DD needs a multivitamin because our food holds little nutritional value as it’s been churned out so fast.

You don’t ’need’ steak. You don’t ’need’ any meat in fact.
You also don’t ‘need’ dairy. We waste so much food, so many frappes, ice creams, desserts, cakes, you don’t need any of it! Probably the reason the prices are high - demand.

Beans, pulses, lentils- much cheaper, more natural because as you point out everyone wants meat.
How on earth do you think the Government could grow all this grub for free? Where? How? I have read some things in here but I’m astounded. 🤣

If government everstart subsiding berries outside of season to people, tax payers will bring up guillotines...

As pps said. Fresh and healthy needn't be expensive if you shop with season and reason.

I mean things like fresh fish, fresh berries, lean steak, salad leaves all full of nutrients that are beneficial for everyone and prevents inflammation and stress but too expensive for people to eat daily

There are a whole host of locally grown food that’s equally as nutritious and much more accessible financially.

Not anymore. Since Brexit there has been a huge shift towards paying for environmental improvement and little subsidy going on direct farm production. This year the Government, without warning, pulled the whole Sustainable Farming Incentive so many who hadn't already put their claims in have been left with nothing.

I agree that the average farmer makes very little - most of the profits go to the supermarkets.

Thinking about this further, is this another Sunday episode of wind them and watch them go 😕
Quite a few weird threads around

the quality of cheaper veg and fruit is really bad. Mushy juiceless apples. The texture of cheaper fruit and veg are horrible too. Even carrots aren’t as crunchy. Frozen is even worse. I can tell if something was in a tin, it has a metallic taste. It all makes me feel sick.
i just saw the comment about food having less nutrients in it now. That’s my point. And the ones I listed have more nutrients in

What

Some foods are already pretty cheap. But there are never any decent offers on fresh non-upf, which is a real shame.

A lot of BOGOF, 3 for 2, or buy one get one half price offers are on ready meals, pizzas and generic beige crap.

If you are on a budget, it's quicker and cheaper to get a BOGOF microwave lasagne, than the mince, milk, cheese, pasta, carrots and onions etc needed to make one from scratch.

Then you have to work out a way to buy what you need, as the taxpayer should not be subsidising your food preferences, Do you have a local community fridge? Could you grow your own vegetables?

Frozen isn’t worse. I buy both fresh and frozen. Frozen works for convenience and when I look at the difference in cost? It’s absolutely worth it.
If you don’t like it, that’s one thing. But you cannot expect someone else to pay because you prefer fresh.

People on here won't agree OP, but healthy foods are far more expensive per calorie than unhealthy foods.

And it's not about just buying lentils. To make lentils taste any semblance of nice, you need herbs and spices (which aren't cheap). You need to have enough confidence and education to cook with them. A lot of people just aren't familiar with cooking with lentils/pulses as they won't have grown up familiar with them. And good luck getting a lot of kids to eat them (unless you're blending them into sauces, which requires a blender, which costs money). I think people think anyone who can't afford meat should live on porridge, rice, and pulses.

Things like berries and fish should absolutely be affordable to everybody.

It is a complicated topic. A tin of sardines and raw carrots is not particularly expensive. Also for many ie half the country which is over weight eating one meal less a day and only drinking tap water is probably the very very best thing they could do for their health (not that they (or I) can manage that.

Vegetables are reasonable. Fruit can be pricey- we stick to stuff thats on offer. We don't tend to eat loads of meat. Discovered basa is relatively cheap fish.

A lot of the stuff we produce is already heavily subsidised.

And while I agree some fresh food is expensive, a lot isn’t.

I pay for what I eat? I’m just saying it costs significantly more and the foods I listed would benefit everyone

I think you are right to an extent.

The healthy start scheme should be extended to cover all those on benefits.

The question is who should pay for that? The government doesn't pay for these things, the tax payers do & most tax payers are already squeezed.