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.

Astonished by the suggestion that crisps are "unlikely to fill even the smallest child up" (post way the hell back on first page).

That's not the 'function' of crisps. Most people eat regular, balanced meals to fill them up. Crisps are a nice treat. So is ice cream, chocolate, and all the other stuff mentioned here. As is - or should be - the occasional fish and chips or McDonalds or whatever else.

Whenever I see that fucking moron Morgan Spurlock doing his mugging up to camera 'well I guess you better super size me' bollocks it drives me insane because the point is WE HAVE A CHOICE. If they offer you shit on a stick, there is no compulsion for you to eat it.

My kids want all the crap that's pointed at them on TV and posters but even at the ages of 6 and 8 they understand what is in the main canon of healthy food and what is a treat. Anyone who blames the supermarkets, or indeed fast food restaurants, for obesity is kidding themselves. I am carrying a few more pounds than I should, and I'm under no illusion that it's anyone's fault but mine because I am a greedy bastard.

But you see, crisps, horrid cheap chocolate, McDee etc. are vile, why oh why is such junk considered treats is beyond me?!
Now proper handmade choccies, great artisan cheese, fresh oysters ...... etc etc.etc. now you're talking treats.

Personally anyone that shops at any supermarket, either in store or online is to blame for the continuing support and profit to the supermarkets. I would not send my dog to Tesco.

The problem is not the stuff inside the stores, it's the stores themselves. Shop at the Co-op if you must, at least profit goes to its members and not some millionaire shareholder like Tescos.

It's a bit harsh but the reality is that we are to blame for shopping there and keeping them in business!

'Personally anyone that shops at any supermarket, either in store or online is to blame for the continuing support and profit to the supermarkets. I would not send my dog to Tesco.
'
where are people in many rural areas supposed to shop then?

I'd grow what I could myself but we have no garden.

This tesco bashing really is over-priviledged middle class bollocks.

A supply chain is a supply chain. Your local corner shop won't personally be traipsing around strawberry fields and milking Daisy the cow.

Tesco are very efficient. Maybe ruthlessly efficient. Yes, there'll be collateral damage if they squeeze too hard.

However, crisps aisle or no crisps aisle, they are effective at giving the vast majority of the population access to safe and nutritious food.

Local grocery shops have their place - but they do nothing to reduce the consumption of junk food.

Did you see the Mary Queen of Shops in Corfe? The 'before' shop was the standard non-supermarket grocery shop - everything long life apart from a furry onion. The 'after' shop was in an entirely different category to the supermarkets, focussing on a very local linkage between producers and consumers.

well never mind rural areas - I'm kind of wondering where I should shop here in town.

I have no garden (well I do - but it's all gravelled over, and it's not "mine" so I can't dig it up and plant stuff), the local butcher sells, in the main, the same type of meat that the supermarket does, indeed he does even better deals on the same stuff that the supermarket does, 3 chickens for £10 anyone, or Danish bacon.....from the English butcher .

There is now just one fruit and veg stall on our "market" (there used to be 3 or 4) it's shite, it was the one stall I avoided when I had a choice betwen stalls as it's expensive, and the fruit and veg doesn't last long at all.

We do have a Co-op but it's right up on the estate on the other side of town, and tbh there isn't much to choose from (it was my "local" shop for a while)

The green grocers that used to be near them market (only one I ever found here) has closed. I don't drive so can't get to the farm shops.

Where exactly am I supposed to shop if not in the supermarket?

I'd love to be "over-privileged" and "middle-class" but alas, I'm not; living on a council estate in inner city Newcastle means I can't even pretend!

Why is there no longer a butcher, baker or greengrocer in you nearest high street? Why is it all 3 chickens for £10? and organic, over-priced produce? Because supermarkets have aggressive over-expansion policies which cuts the competition and leaves no choice but to shop at these places. Don't believe the hype!

Again, this is a rural area. Our nearest high street is 4 miles away.

Where are we supposed to shop if not in a supermarket?

To even get to a Tesco costs a bomb as it involves a ferry crossing.

I don't understand the problem? Newcastle town centre is 4 miles away and I don't have a high street with any decent shops? Tesco's is 4 miles away also in the opposite direction? Plus we don't have a car - I cycle to work and have to put my shopping in the panniers.

you don't understand the problem? um, this isn't newcastle. the nearest city is over 50 miles away.

there are two tiny supermarkets in the wee town 4 miles away and that's it.

so it's there or where are you supposed to get food?

once a month, i cross the water and load up in farm foods, lidl and tesco.

there's no online delivery out here at all.

you're saying 'don't patronise supermarkets', and some of us are telling you that would mean going without food at all because there's no other way to get food other than a supermarket in many areas.

you don't understand the problem? um, this isn't newcastle. the nearest city is over 50 miles away.

there are two tiny supermarkets in the wee town 4 miles away and that's it.

so it's there or where are you supposed to get food?

once a month, i cross the water and load up in farm foods, lidl and tesco.

there's no online delivery out here at all.

you're saying 'don't patronise supermarkets', and some of us are telling you that would mean going without food at all because there's no other way to get food other than a supermarket in many areas.

we don't have a "high street" - I live in shite town

We're not "over-run" by supermarkets either, in fact Tesco CLOSED their town centre store in the shopping centre as it wasn't making them enough money several years ago.

We have a Morrisons (just on the edge of the town centre), a big Tesco right on the edge with only an infrequent bus service, Iceland (where does'nt have one of those ) in the town centre (not far from where Tesco town centre one used to be) and a tiny (and shite) Sainsbury on the edge of town - again no easy way to get there if you're not "local" to it.

I'm PMSL @ your "You don't understand the problem" for expat.

She doesn't live in an "inner city" estate (that's 4 miles from the city centre)......she lives VERY RURAL. You know what rural means - it means in the middle of no-where with nothing but cows and rabbits as neighbours

@Rollmops - lol yes, artisan cheese and finest caviar might be rather delightful but try telling that to a bunch of kids/teenagers. they want the junk and lots of it - if you tried to give them a grape and brie sandwich in their lunch box you'd soon hear all about it.

It's a travesty - pickled onion monster munch instead of fresh oysters!!

ahhh was so busy gossping to a friend while writing that I x posted with expat

I consider junk foods a "treat".

I like the salty crunchy goodness of crisps, the excellent fizz on the tongue you get when you have a sip of diet coke after ice cream or chocolate, the orangey glow of kraft mac and cheese. The fun of pressing a button and the cream frothing out. Weirdly flavoured cereal is cool as well, as is the convenience of whacking a pre-made lasagne in the oven and opening a bag of salad, instant dinner!

I also enjoy artisan breads and cheeses and plenty of everyday food like broccoli and carrots etc.

These things are not mutually exclusive and as I said in my first response, you can avoid this stuff in supermarkets by shopping around the outside, there is no need to head into the sweet aisle unless you want to.

DS likes cranberry jelly and brie sandwiches, but his fav is vegemite and cream cheese.

@Morloth - it's not just a sweet aisle tho, it's half the store taken up with frozen crap, over priced refrigerated ready meals, crisps, biscuits, sweeties, booze etc.

Like you, I love a bit of junk from time to time but I also like to eat healthy stuff and to spend a bit of time cooking. But I do feel like the shops shove the junk down your throat a bit...

hmm I'm pretty sure my Morrisons isn't "half" taken up with junk....

They recently reduced the booze aisles from 3 to 2, almost all of the "bottom half" of the aisles are non food goods and when I'm shopping for "raw" ingredients it's prety straight forwards - all the fruit and veg at the front of the store streching from back to front, "baking" stuff along near the bakery, pasta, rice, herbs, pulses etc over 2 aisles just before the milk/yoghurt aisle, 1 1/2 of fresh meat (plus the butchers on the end of it),

It's not really hard to avoid the aisles with stuff you don't want - I don't have a pet so have NEVER walked down the "pet" aisle in any supermarket.....

Living ruarally should be the ideal situation to source local egss, cheese and healthy food etc but what I'm trying to say is the likes of Tesco have eliminated the rural community, especially, to having this privilege due to large scale producers doing the work of previously small local-run farming communities. Many farms to the west of Newcastle now have turned their previous production of milk, meat etc to setting up B&B's, as they just cannot compete.

Toccatanfudge Very funny- 4 miles is still inner city in a wide spread city!

I know........but it's not RURAL is it.

Inner city anywhere still has shops, maybe not great ones, but shops of some description within walking distance. Rural doesn't.

There is a VAST difference between the two.

But there's no supermarket either! But that's what it's like living in the sticks - I'd love to live like that and if Tesco or Morrisions wanted to build in a field next to my idyll I would sure as hell have a lot to say about it!

Snowdrop2101 - 'millionaire shareholders'. Pension funds own the vast majority of Tesco. Pension funds that millions of ordinary workers pay money into every year in the hope (largely misguided, I must say) that they will be provided for in their dotage. Tesco screws up farmers, strangles the supply chain, and forces companies into bulk discounts.

Also lots of posters seem to be getting their horses and carts in the wrong order. Or even chickens and eggs. I've seen Somerfield in my area get a spiffy refurb with a fresh fish counter, meat counter, blah blah. Two years later, even the deli counter has gone. Reason? Vast majority of their clientele didn't want a piece of organic salmon or a boned shoulder of lamb. They wanted a Fray Bentos pie and some oven chips.

So people go to Tesco because it's cheap and easy. Hence the death of the High Street. But despite their issues, what they and their like have brought to us is choice. 58 brands of crisps. Asparagus from Peru. Chickens for less than the price of a pint. But I'll say it again - no-one is forcing you to buy this stuff. And if money is an issue, buy seasonal and local (UK produced) because it will be the best value thing in the shop.

You still don't need to go into the junk aisles whether there are 1 or 6 of them. If the supermarket isn't selling what you need, i.e. fresh food, then you need to shop somewhere else.

Moondog - do you really hand back packaging to supermarket?

oh foget it - you obviously can't picture at all just how RURAL expat lives - there's no 4 miles "hop on the bus" trip to the supermarket. (and yes I do know Newcastle reasonably well).

skifallow - hell if expats trip to Tesco is easy I dread to think what hard is