to think that the amounymt of junk food in the supermarkets is f*cking RIDICULOUS

[sallyseton]

whole AISLES dedicated to sweets, chocolate, crisps, cakes, biscuits etc!!! is sthere something wrong here or is it just me?

no wonder half the country's fat if every time we go shopping we're bombarded with all this. packaging is often designed to be most appealing to children, too.

there's an argument that supermarkets promote this food as unlike say, a potato, these foods do not go off quickly. so it is more profitable for them.

i am not a food nazi, i like chocolate etc as much as anyone else, i just think the choice on display is ridiculous and we all as a country probably eat too much of it.

there's a very good argument that says that if you want cake or something, you should make it yourself. that way you can see what goes into it (and no additives or preservatives) but because of the hassle involved it really will be a treat. i might try it.

oh, and nefore anyone flames me over using the word "junk" food, yes i do believe that the kind of preservative filled crisps etc you find at the supermarket are junk food, almost no nutritional value, unlikely to fill even the smallest
child up, abd the packaging will be thrown away and fester away in the earth, certainly not biodegradable.

i do feed my child crisps btw, but the
slightly healthier "baked" ones, and i am certainly not
judging anyone, feed your child anything you damn well please i just dont think we should have such a surfeit of crap in the supermarket!

ps i bought some light mayonnaise yesterday, it had a little sticker on it saying it was a good source of omega 3 and 6. MAYONNAISE!!! you have to be f*cking kidding me. these food companies are all damn immoral liars.

expat - 400g custard creams at sainsburys = 30p. basics bananas = 17p each. So 2x bananas is more expensive than a hell of a lot of biscuits which would do way more than 2 snacks.

I am in agreement with there being too much junk food available at supermarkets, it is so ridiculous.
What annoys me the most, there are so health warnings about child obesity, then why do supermarkets place sweets/other kinds of crap at child levels next to tills etc. My son tries to make a grab for them (he's almost 2 so he doesnt' know what they are yet) but soon enough he will.

Yet supermarkets produce magazines go on and on about getting to kids to eat healthy, its bullshit.

I have also seen very obese people fill up their trollys with crisps/biscuits/sweets etc.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to insult anyone but I think that if you have health problems then eating crisps isn't exactly going help.

Rant over

I think supermarkets are culpable to some extent - there are always many more BOGOFs etc on the junk than on the healthy fresh foods

(there are rarely any BOGOFs on the gluten free ranges, because they already have a captive market there who HAVE to buy)

a couple of weeks ago i was at the tills in asda behind a lady who had bought -

2 large tubs ice cream, one family sized meat pie, 3 if not 4 12 inch frozen pizzas and a bag of oven chips, 3 swiss rolls - all value range

it came to less than £5, which surprised me (and i dont know if there were any BOGOFS there)

at first i was very judgey and thought, "must be all full of cheap crap"

then i thought

OMG, do people really have to choose to eat like this because of low incomes

But what about those of us with no health problems or weight problems. With happy healthy kids.
Are we anot allowed to buy crisps to protect others?

The world cup is on apparently it is an English mans duty to sit on the sofa eating rubbish and drinking beer.
The supermarkets promote rubbish food because the rubbish food manufactures offer them all sorts of insentives to do so. Special offers are funded by the manufacturers. They cannot promote fresh food as the farmers would not pay for it as they are already being screwed.

'OMG, do people really have to choose to eat like this because of low incomes'

No.

We've never had even a middling income.

We're on the bones of it all the time.

There is plenty of good food to be had on the cheap.

Income doesn't have as much to do with it as you think.

I agree with Litchick.

agree totally with expat.

Unless you have specific dietary requirements, there's no reason at all you can't cook on the cheap and eat well on the cheap

Sure, we do have crisps and ice cream and such in, but it doesn't have to be dear.

I stock up on some pretty good quality veg and tinned products in FarmFoods for cheap.

I use tinned pulses quite a bit and the tins have a load of other uses.

We have a local healthfood sort of shop where we place orders for flours and sugars in bulk (5kg at a time and we bring our own containers).

It takes planning and budgeting, though.

But brown rice is a great filler and far cheaper than so-called 'crap' foods.

Ditto potatoes, couscous, other types of rice (basmati, wild rice).

In Lidl you can get massive tins of olive oil that last for a year.

re: the mayonnaise, the bottle says it is a good natural source of omega 3 & 6. so hopefully it isn't fortified, otherwise they're downright lying.

as a rule, any food which makes health claims in colourful packaging, esp. if product is made by a big brand name, is not going to be good for you.

Nobody is saying 'no crisps'. It's just the proportion of stuff sold.

There is so much plastic and wrapping and so much prepared stuff with so many additives. When I actually shop for ingredients then aisle after aisle is 'no go' for me - with some good stuff tucked away here and there.

It's not just a question of choice either. There's tons of marketing going on over how to stock, what is at eye level and how to price etc etc. There's no 'free' choice. It's forced like a magicians card. It takes extra money to get the products kept at eye level.

no well no-one stops me looking up at the top shelves (although the height does make it a problem to reach ) or looking at the bottom, or looking at the mish mash of "reduced to clear" stuff (which frequently contains really good fresh stuff that just happens to be close/on it's sell by date..........but is absolutely fine to chuck in the freezer and use later!)

It really does not concern me in the slightest. I walk down the aisles I need and ignore the rest. I actually use Ocado mainly anyway but do visit Waitrose occasionally too. Yes, there are rows of sweets and chocolate there, but there are also rows and rows of fresh produce too.

And guess what - sometimes I buy ready made stuff. Most of the time I cook, but just sometimes the odd readymade pizza or curry comes in pretty useful and quite delicious.

I like to have the choice.

I personally like the wine rows - good source of my 5 a day I reckon - well, all those grapes must count, surely?

Hulababy I think you will find the juice of the Blue Agave plant much more nutritious...

Hmmm. that is a point; I should increase my spending on that also - just to add more nutritious elements to my diet. And obviously all tha fruit and fresh herbs in the Pimms in a summer - must all be good surely?

Yup, it's got cucumber in it.

What a strange OP!

Baking a cake is not a hassle. Have you never made a cake? I regularly chuck one in the oven last thing at night. It takes about 30 seconds to prepare a Victoria sponge.

I have no problems with supermarkets selling isles full of crisps and biscuits and bizarre "cereal" aimed at kids.

What I do have an issue with is packaging.Asparagus does not need to be presented in a plastic tray, and neither do Danish pastries. Which is why I opt to shop at the grocers and bakers in town for such things. But have you seen Thorntons? It's a whole shop full of nothing but Chocolate!

Mostly I shop on-line, though.

I make cake batter and cookie dough in a food processor.

It's really not hard and doesn't take much time at all.

My kids now don't like the taste of most store bought baked goods.

I am with LynetteScavo on the excess packaging. I also very annoying if you only want one or two of something and know that the rest is going to get chucked because you have to buy a bag of a kilo or something.

Like potatoes, we tend towards low carb so if I want a potato I want one to split between us, but you can't always buy just one, you have to buy a bag. So now I have to decide whether I am going to eat all of those potatoes even though I don't want to, or throw them away, or watch them go off, or try to give them to someone else (and therefore look a bit mad).

supermarkets are full of crap and all the offers are the crap
i too do ocado - therefore not bombarded with ' you too can eat cheaply if you buy trash food'

Oh, wait till moondog gets back!

She removes the packaging and hands it to the till operator to dispose of it!

Now there is an idea, I am probably not brave enough though.

I think the latest research shows that Omega three from non animal sources is not absorbed by the body so is almost totally useless. To get the omega 3 benefits you have to get it from fish.

So it's IN the mayo, but you won't get it, you'll poo it straight out without it touching your intestinal walls.

And I boggle that 90% of the supermarkets shelves contain pre-made, or unnatural foods full of fat and sugars just designed to make you put on weight and crave sugar.

Oh, and make kids think if it has a bright packet it must be GOOD. I told DD that the packets with cartoons had dog turds in glue inside them so that's why they had to put the pictures on, to take your mind off it.

I agree with the op.

So many offers on crap, I personally find it hard to avoid temptation and am not surprised by obeseity levels.

There was a fantastic programme on the tv months ago called something like "Who is really making you fat?" and it addressed this very issue, even some NHS trusts were sponsored by Burger King.