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

Sainsburys do something similar for £2, a mix of fruit & veg. We don’t have a local one & not sure if it’s all stores but we’ve visited friends and family in different places the last few months and saw these at 3 different Sainsburys.

Aldi’s organic carrots are 60p and they are delicious.

Just don’t buy mushy bananas. Bananas are outrageously cheap.

Maybe the government should put extra tax on all processed food and then use that to subsidise unprocessed food.

It's a lot more expensive per calorie than rubbishy carb s though. How much do 2000 calories in fresh fruit cost

Several times ive heard "we all choose where we live" on this thread. What bollocks. Im child free by choice and live opposite a primary school. Now why would i choose that. I didnt I live in a social housing flat.

Yup. Leicestershire is full of them. Nearest supermarket for me used to be an hour’s bus ride away with buses that were only hourly and frequently cancelled.

There will be a lot of people who have very little to no choice where they live - because, for example of caring responsibilities, or being trapped by because of rental prices, or because they're in social housing and you have to be in area, or for younger people who can't afford (or find) rentals, or for people tied for work.

As for choice in shopping, yes if you live in (or near) a city and have transport or can afford deliveries. If you live in more rural areas you may only have one supermarket. In some rural areas you'll only have a small local co-op or spar. Even if you live in a city but don't have transport there may only be one supermarket within a reasonable distance / on a bus route.

Many areas don't have what you describe - numerous supermarkets and access to markets. As for Waitrose, most of Scotland, even very built up areas, don't have Waitrose!

Well you learn to cook and use herbs and spices to make it taste nice. It's not on the government to make your healthy meals exciting. Don't you think they've got other stuff to do and that people should be able to manage the basics? They're people too. Not some gods or parents who are responsible for our every choice.

Edited to add: especially in the days of the internet. It's never been easier to find a recipe or tips on cooking or - imagine! - growing decent healthy tasty food without it costing the earth

Approx 3quid?
If you go for bananas

Why should food be subsidised OP ?

Why should childcare?

Not all cheap food access is about privilege. I've lived in various areas that are classed as deprived and there's a great choice of affordable meat, fish, fruit and veg in Asian stores and markets, along with the ingredients to make them tastier.

It benefits everyone to eat foods that have more nutrients

To be perfectly frank, the price of junk food should increase, and healthy foods should come down in price. Make sugary drinks and junk food expensive!
The junk that some parents feed their children these days is nothing short of child abuse. McDonalds is an obvious example, parents too lazy to cook a healthy meal, easier to bang a ready meal into the microwave or order a pizza.
Obesity and the obvious health conditions attached to that… for example diabetes in children is at an all time high. Later in life heart conditions, cancer, skeletal pain from carrying the excess weight around, the list is endless. And how much is it all costing the NHS… the tax payer? The amount of obese people now is getting equal to America, go back to 70’s and 80’s… most people were slim, energetic and happy, junk food was not the norm.
I don’t think for one moment that overweight people are happy, people ask me ‘how do you stay so thin? Slim is the right word if they must ask, because I am not skinny with measurements of 36” 26” 36”. One ‘friend’ calls me a ‘skinny bitch’ and curls her top lip as she says it 😳
Now let me be clear, I don’t say a word to these people about their weight, it’s not for me to give advice or criticise what they put in their mouth, it’s their life, their body, their misery, and yet they think it’s ok to question me and call me names for being slim. If I asked how did you get so fat can you imagine to outcry!!!
so yes, healthy food should be subsidised by the government and hike the prices up on junk to pay for it.
Adults are responsible for what they put in their mouths, but kids aren’t, parents need to take responsibility.

We have a terrible food culture in this country. We all know that porridge, lentils, vegetables in season and other basic ingredients are cheap and nutritious and that we should be eating more of that type of food, and less ultra processed rubbish.

The main problem, it seems to me, is that many people are several generations on from having experience of preparing and eating this type of food. Not only dthmany people not know how to prepare it, but they simply haven't developed the palate for it because it has never been part of their experience.

I know some people live in " food deserts", full of fast food outlets and where basic nutritious ingredients are not available, but I think this is often used as a rather glib explanation. I suspect that even if healthy ingredients were available, the uptake would be low.

I don't know what the answer is, but I strongly suspect that subsidising healthy food would not make a lot of difference to our nutrition and food poverty problem.

No one should be looking to get their entire calorie intake from fruit. But it can be done cheaply and healthily via things like potatoes, pulses, beans, pasta, rice, dairy, eggs, starchy veg, fish (tinned or frozen).

Exactly, immigrant/second generation families generally eat way better than a lot of native Brits.

Well if we are going for the premiums I would like fresh tuna steaks to be subsided because the frozen and tinned just ain't it.

It is privilege to be able to access those.
Alas, nothing like that here.

Basic food isn’t really that expensive if you have plenty of shops and don’t like in a food desert.
Most basic vegetables are cheap. Carrots, onions, swede etc. Basic meat like chicken is too cheap (that was living creature) any mince etc.
Fruit apples etc but berries frozen are cheap.
It’s the treats and convenience foods that are really expensive. But cooking, planning buying takes time and head space.

But it's not the Government that pays, it's taxpayers. So why should the majority of adults pay for this?

But unless you don’t work or pay any tax, then all that’s going to happen is you still pay for it, just not at the till.

Any money the government spends to “subsidise” this would also have to come in, any extra spending means extra tax to be paid, so for anyone who pays tax you’re not actually any better off. You might be paying less for your carrots but you’re paying more in tax to get those cheaper carrots. There isn’t a money tree.

Move to Nelson, it's cheap as chips! But I don't think anyone would say it's a privilege. As PP said, people make their choices. It's not on the government to step in with a steak voucher just because someone can't suss how to make a decent curry on a budget. www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/budget_curry

You’re quite right.

I don't think anyone in the UK genuinely lives in a food desert. It's a US term (and even then, if you look at it the definition, it's far less dire than it sounds).

The UK is extremely well served for supermarkets and has some of the widest and cheapest online delivery services in the world.

This is not the problem here.