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

True, I feel you are right - and I think that’s coming across as quite virtue signalllly… I don’t think it’s actually helpful.

You think I'm virtue signalling?
😔

I live in a low income shithole of a town, and we have a market here where stuff like strawberries and blueberries get sold off at closing for something like 4 punnets for a £1. The traders can't take it with them so it goes really cheap. Strawberries keep really well in a glass jar in the fridge.
Lidl do weekly offers on fruit on and veg.

Steak and salmon and never cheap, and are the more luxury end of meat items anyway.

I think it is many cases, people just don't know how to plan meals and cook from scratch. I think there should be free/cheap courses on that, rather than there being subsidised food.

What if your city doesn’t have a market?

Mine doesn’t, in past years there was a European Market that came a couple of times a year, but it was very expensive.

No not you necessarily @Koalafan

@XenoBitch I agree re food courses…

I use a lot of recipe books, and inspiration from social media to do my meal planning. I made a wonderful dahl today. Made enough for it to cover lunches this week, and future dinners by freezing some

I still don't really understand your virtue signalling comment, but I don't need to.

Even If your city doesn’t have a market, it will have specific shops where you can bulk buy cheap herbs and spices. They keep well and last a long time. You can google how to use them. And you can buy decent frozen fruit and veg from any Aldi or Lidl.

....and if you don't live in a city at all?
Also, lots of folk with texture sensitivies, which aren't their fault, cannot eat frozen veg (aka frozen mush, mostly).

I have never found frozen veg to be mush... unless people are letting it defrost first and then using it?
I find tinned peas gross. Always grey balls that taste of nothing. Fresh peas are very expensive, but frozen garden peas are great, and definitely not mushy!

What do you eat

I know how to cook frozen veg and most of it is watery/mushy compared to cooked from fresh. Peas and sweetcorn are the exception.
I like tinned peas in all forms, but mostly only eat petits pois or garden peas in water (obviously drained prior to eating).

My main protein is chicken thighs. Cheap and tasty (to me anyway). Can use them in curries, roast dinner, salads, soups... loads of things.
I do like a steak too, but it is an occasional treat. Salmon too. I have made some salmon and sweet potato fishcakes which makes it stretch further. Sweet potatoes are cheap and also count as 1 of your 5 a day.

There are so many recipes online. If I pick up a yellow sticker item, I look up what to do with.

I buy all my fruit and veg from Aldi, no issues
strawberries only when British ones are in season
I take a multi vitamin (plus extra vitamin d and iron) to cover anything I’m missing because I don’t think many people have a perfect diet

There is not yet a consensus on what constitutes healthy food: for example, you say "lean" steak, which suggests that you believe that fatty steak is unhealthy, which research has proved not to be the case. Also, this idea that fresh vegetables are better for you than frozen has been proved to be nonsense: frozen vegetables are frozen as soon as they are picked and remain in that state of preservation until they are defrosted. Fresh vegetables are deteriorating the whole time they are in transit to your home.

Why the actual fuck would taxpayers subsidise steak and berries?

No lazy people need to learn how to cook and use healthy food more ans not live on crap that is not the government's fault

Do you honestly think people think 'takeaway or make a salad?' Is down to cost?

We eat both but don't blame anyone else for our choices

Isn’t it interesting that people in the developing world where there are genuine food shortages don’t seem to have this level of sensory and textural issues?

And I do get it. I myself have real textural issues around some foods, so I’m not denying that they’re real. But the fact is that we are privileged in this country.

We have universal access to online shopping, beyond most countries in the world, even the US and Australia, we have multiple access to supermarkets and fruit and veg stands, and even if there isn’t a market, almost everywhere has at least a fruit and veg stall.

And for the people saying “but what about those of us who live in x or y?” Surely you considered that before moving to the back of beyond?

I was wondering how to say that. And you don't even nees to compare the countries with actual food shortages.

It is a massive privilege to be able to play these But Olympics people do every single time on these threads.

Also moaning about quality of veg and fruit when people want to pay even less than it already costs is illogical tbh. The food in UK is already cheap. People moan, producers try to produce cheaper, quality suffers because breeds and methods are used to do it fast and cheap. I mean carrots are 69p a kilo... Is there really a wonder why more watery, faster growing variety is sold? And it's still not good enough?

People want cheap-fast-good.
You can't have all three.

If some people didn't live in the back of beyond, as you put it, built up areas would be even more crowded, less food would be produced (farming, fishing, etc often in remote areas), tourism would suffer (nobody to work in the cafe/garage/shop etc in remote areas) and so on. And again, not everyone choses to live there.
People aren't just complaining about living there, more pointing out how life is different.

I'd rather pay a bit more for a decent carrot tbh.

Steak isn’t healthy. We should be eating much less red meat. Salad leaves have f all in them as regards nutrients and are covered in pesticides. Berries are covered in pesticides and unnecessary.

Eat seasonal, mostly veggie. That’s healthy and cheap.

Supermarkets’ profit margins are consistently very thin (1-3%). They make money by massive scale.

If you mean gouging the farmers then you have a point, but that drives prices down not up.

Apples and carrots aren't expensive, what odd examples. It might help to give anyone with food vouchers optional access to a course on food budgeting and cooking (seasonal, reduced price, how and what to freeze, cheap vs expensive grocers, bulk buy an item each shop to gradually build up a stock etc). Often though issues can include people not having cooking or preparation resources, simply insufficient money due to other expenses, not being comfortable learning to cook, etc. Food itself does not need to be expensive though, it's only expensive if you're choosing to buy items like steak.

Just to be clear, ‘governments’ don’t pay for anything. Taxpayers do.

Given the costs to the NHS, and wider society, of obesity, heart disease, diabetes etc., I'd rather see unhealthy foods taxed a lot more than healthy foods. No-one needs fizzy drinks!