Obesity

[Reynard]

Given that this is a thread about obesity, I'll come back to topic with the thought that if more people took an interest in cooking their own food and not making lazy choices, perhaps the nation could be healthier. This doesn't exclude ready meals, but if a person is consistently lazy with their food choices then they are unlikely to be eating healthily.

There's definitely been a loss of cooking skills in the home, and I'd imagine it correlates pretty well with the rise of convenience food - and the microwave. I don't think we can blame Delia Smith's "How to Cheat at Cooking" for this one.

Education is the key here, as well as working out why, with all the labour-saving gadgetry we have, are people so time poor?

I despair at the array of pre-chopped and peeled fruit and veg on the supermarket shelves. Chopped onion, sliced peppers, carrot batons, peeled potatoes, shredded lettuce, those diddy little packs with a few slices of apple and half a dozen grapes in, never mind things like pre-grated cheese...

But if the market didn't see a need for this sort of thing, it wouldn't be available. Or is it just a solution looking for a problem?

 

[Reynard]

I'll withdraw the 'leftovers' term because it can be misunderstood.
Use of reformed ingredients cannot be denied however.

A lot of ham is reformed - even some of the more poncy stuff, not just those convenient square slices one puts in sandwiches. I think they're just cuts that are squeezed together, probably with something starchy, to make sure they stay squeezed together.

Would be more convenient if pigs had square legs, no?

 

[Blue Hills]

Sounds about right. Wine in France or Spain, for example, is much cheaper than here, presumably because the taxation is less? I wonder, do they have an alcohol / drink problem?

significantly less tax in italy - some of the best wine I've ever drunk was 2.30 euros a litre out of a big drum. 15 per cent or higher as well. In truth I think it best to drink beer in the UK.

 

[winjim]

There's definitely been a loss of cooking skills in the home, and I'd imagine it correlates pretty well with the rise of convenience food - and the microwave. I don't think we can blame Delia Smith's "How to Cheat at Cooking" for this one.

Education is the key here, as well as working out why, with all the labour-saving gadgetry we have, are people so time poor?

I despair at the array of pre-chopped and peeled fruit and veg on the supermarket shelves. Chopped onion, sliced peppers, carrot batons, peeled potatoes, shredded lettuce, those diddy little packs with a few slices of apple and half a dozen grapes in, never mind things like pre-grated cheese...

But if the market didn't see a need for this sort of thing, it wouldn't be available. Or is it just a solution looking for a problem?

I think pre-prepared veg is like electronic shifting. It could be really useful for people with limited dexterity.

 

[Julia9054]

I think pre-prepared veg is like electronic shifting. It could be really useful for people with limited dexterity.

Or those who can’t be arsed chopping veg. It’s really not some kind of moral failing to get someone else to do the most boring bits of cooking a meal for you.

 

[Blue Hills]

Or those who can’t be arsed chopping veg. It’s really not some kind of moral failing to get someone else to do the most boring bits of cooking a meal for you.

well I rather wonder what sort of cooking someone might be doing who can't be arsed to chop a vegetable.
Pre-chopped stuff is of course already on an accelerated path to going off.

 

[winjim]

Or those who can’t be arsed chopping veg. It’s really not some kind of moral failing to get someone else to do the most boring bits of cooking a meal for you.

That's what commis chefs do after all.

 

[Julia9054]

well I rather wonder what sort of cooking someone might be doing who can't be arsed to chop a vegetable.
Pre-chopped stuff is of course already on an accelerated path to going off.

Someone who has had a long day at work but wants to eat something a bit nicer than a pre prepared meal that you bang in the microwave (also not a moral failing imo)
I can cook but find it tedious. I am fortunate to be married to someone who loves it and is extremely good at it. If he was no longer around, Im really not sure whether my love of good food or my dislike of cooking would win out.

 

[winjim]

Someone who has had a long day at work but wants to eat something a bit nicer than a pre prepared meal that you bang in the microwave (also not a moral failing imo)
I can cook but find it tedious. I am fortunate to be married to someone who loves it and is extremely good at it. If he was no longer around, Im really not sure whether my love of good food or my dislike of cooking would win out.

I only cook well when I'm cooking for someone else. When I'm on my own I eat like crap and left to my own devices would probably survive on nothing but bowls of cereal. I love to cook but I think I need that affirmation of someone appreciating what I've made.

 

[Reynard]

Hmmm, pre-chopped veggies are not a moral failing per se.

But it *is* a very efficient way of throwing money away unnecessarily...

£1 for 200g of chopped onion that doesn't keep terribly well in the fridge.

Whole onions are 85p per kilo.

 

[KnittyNorah]

I despair at the array of pre-chopped and peeled fruit and veg on the supermarket shelves. Chopped onion, sliced peppers, carrot batons, peeled potatoes, shredded lettuce, those diddy little packs with a few slices of apple and half a dozen grapes in, never mind things like pre-grated cheese...

But if the market didn't see a need for this sort of thing, it wouldn't be available. Or is it just a solution looking for a problem?

Bags of frozen chopped onions and similar was a godsend to me over the years my eyesight was so very bad - it meant I could still have 'fresh' (albeit frozen - but certainly fresher than if it has been in my veg cupboard for an unknown length of time …) food. Ready grated cheese likewise - it helped prevent me grating my fingers and my knuckles! The prepared frozen veg continues to be extremely useful as a single person who has effectively been forbidden to cook for others during the pandemic - there is far less waste than when buying eg a net of onions and only using a part of one, wanting just a few strips of pepper, etc. I do see the point of the bags of prepared mixed salad leaves, too - it would be impractical for me to buy a couple of different lettuces, a bunch of watercress, a bunch of rocket and so on, just to have a mixed green salad - a small bag of mixed leaves is a useful, cheaper and less-wasteful option.

That said, I totally agree with you about some things - what is the point of frozen baked potatoes, for instance? However, a frozen baked potato - with some cheese - ready-grated from a packet maybe? - followed by one of the diddy little packs with three cubes of mango, two each of three different types of melon, and five grapes, will be a far better option than a packet of reformed potato thingamajigs with artificial colourings and cheese 'flavouring' followed by a 'fruit flavoured' ready-made shelf-stable single-serving jelly...

I think many - not all - of the things you mention are solutions to the changes in lifestyle common today - more people living in single-person households, more people living in tiny residences with fewer facilities and/or less space for cooking, more people with long, long hours at work and commuting for whom convenience and short preparation time is key, and more people with handicaps, disabilities and other 'problems' living independently in the community. All of those people like, want, and in some cases actively need some of the aforementioned items.

 

[Julia9054]

Hmmm, pre-chopped veggies are not a moral failing per se.

But it *is* a very efficient way of throwing money away unnecessarily...

£1 for 200g of chopped onion that doesn't keep terribly well in the fridge.

Whole onions are 85p per kilo.

For some people, time and effort saved is more important than money.
I can certainly think of lots of things - from using my lbs for repairs to going to a beautician - that I pay for that would be cheaper to do for myself

 

[KnittyNorah]

I can cook but find it tedious.

I am told I am a very good cook, but I too find it tedious in the extreme. I do enjoy baking, though, and pickling and things like that. In a different life, I had a houseboy who could be instructed to do the most tedious of the tasks - peeling, chopping, washing, cleaning up etc - which removed a great deal of the tediousness from it.

Im really not sure whether my love of good food or my dislike of cooking would win out.

I've found ways to still eat well without doing very much cooking at all. It helps that I'm virtually vegetarian (in reality pescatarian) now, so have little yearning for the meaty dishes which seem to take more effort and leave more mess behind.

 

[Reynard]

Fair game @KnittyNorah & @Julia9054

I can't argue with points well-made. A friend of mine who cares for her disabled husband uses a lot of the frozen veg, and I totally get that. It's good value for money as there's no waste - because it's frozen.

Which is why I never mentioned the frozen stuff. It's the fresh stuff that really frustrates me.

Thing is, I see the other side of that as a yellow stickerer. Quite often it's the last things left of an evening, and invariably well past its best and headed straight to the bin. And it's still inside the supermarket, still able to be legally sold. The local food project that the above-mentioned friend volunteers for won't take it - they prefer stuff with a longer shelf life.

I love cooking. It's one of my favourite things to do. Only two of us here, so I do have to watch quantities when buying. But one thing I will do is batch cook, which a) uses up a bigger quantity of ingredients and b) there's always something tasty in the fridge to warm up and eat.

 

[KnittyNorah]

Fair game @KnittyNorah & @Julia9054

I can't argue with points well-made. A friend of mine who cares for her disabled husband uses a lot of the frozen veg, and I totally get that. It's good value for money as there's no waste - because it's frozen.

Which is why I never mentioned the frozen stuff. It's the fresh stuff that really frustrates me.

Thing is, I see the other side of that as a yellow stickerer. Quite often it's the last things left of an evening, and invariably well past its best and headed straight to the bin. And it's still inside the supermarket, still able to be legally sold. The local food project that the above-mentioned friend volunteers for won't take it - they prefer stuff with a longer shelf life.

I love cooking. It's one of my favourite things to do. Only two of us here, so I do have to watch quantities when buying. But one thing I will do is batch cook, which a) uses up a bigger quantity of ingredients and b) there's always something tasty in the fridge to warm up and eat.

It distresses me the way that food banks so often refuse fresh food (I don't mean slimy salad veg). I know that often it is because they don't have the storage and distribution facilities for anything other than tinned and packet foodstuffs, and when they refuse for that reason, I can't fault them. But when I still lived in the village and had a big allotment, I was one of the instigators of a project to distribute our over-production. After we'd given away as much as we could in the village and set up a 'free produce stand' outside the village shop (which didn't sell any fruit or veggies, so they were happy to have it there) with a box for voluntary donations, we then explored the possibilities of giving the excess to a food bank in the nearest town, but were met with the strangest sort of refusals - 'we don't know where it has come from' , 'it's got earth on it' and 'it's not packaged'.
We did eventually find a good home for it all - the langar at the gurdwara in a nearby city - and lasting friendships were made. But it was a bit of an eye-opener to us all that the foodbank did not want good, fresh, locally-grown fruit and veggies. We could probably have sold it to Booth's (the Waitrose of the North, but better) who were always having 'locally grown' promotions!