Is a healthy diet more expensive?

YoungBlueEyes

Longwalker said:

Cheese on everything here where I live

One of the most popular sides where I worked was cheesy champ. Buttery mashed potato with spring onion and cheese mashed through, then a wee well made in the top and a big nob of butter put in so you had a pool of melted butter. Or if that weren't bad enough, cheese and bacon mash. Luckily I dont like mash so Ive never tried it

<snip>

Crisps were always my "thing" Loved them, at least 1 if not 2 bags a day. Now though I cant take them. Oh I like a baked crisp now and then but crisps nope. I think its because over the years of living out here and our diet changing to a more basic home cooked one, that the fat and salt turns me now. Its like chips, I love a chip, Im a connoisseur of chips , but I cant eat a full take away portion and when I cook them here at home it really is just a medium size spud, once again I think the oil is what turns me

What I wouldn't give for a big plate of bacony champ and a well for the butter/bacon grease right now. Yum!

Crisps are my thing too. Himself is a chocolate gorger and I don't mind some occasionally, but what I really love are kiddie crisps. Wotsits and space raiders and all them... *sigh*

Nelliegrace

I had the oven on yesterday for a pot roast, a small boned rolled breast of lamb which will be our meat for most of the week. We are limiting meat to £2.50 each a week. 

I did the week’s baking while the oven was on, a malt loaf, a large apple crumble, and a batch of flapjacks. I used malt extract and golden syrup and 4oz,100g of sugar in total. (The flapjacks with syrup and softened butter, didn’t need the sugar in the Be-ro recipe.) I used an ounce earlier in a rice pudding and a bit in an egg custard made in the slow cooker.
We have had a little bit of homemade jam in natural yoghurt. We don't add sugar to tea or coffee or put it on our porridge.

The sugar and golden syrup, has been well under our 1lb, 450g ration for two for the week. We enjoy sweet things, who doesn’t? We don’t want to be so miserable that we binge on sugary stuff. We just keep to the amounts households used in the 1940s and 50s. 
The average waist size then was 27 inches for women, 34 inches for men.

The average consumption of sugar in the UK is about a kilo per person per week, more than four times the amount used then.
It is in breakfast cereals, cakes, biscuits, deserts, cereal bars, sweets, fizzy drinks, and hidden in all sorts of foods including savoury things.
People eat far too much sugar and that is not good for their health. 

trailingspouse

Brambling said:

So where would you draw the line? Ban all flours, sugar, butter or fat of any kind to stop me making my own baked goods? Let's add in motor bikes and any extreme sport! can't see the politicians happy to add alcohol to the ban. I'm not sure I want to live under a nanny state I'm a adult and I'm able to make my own life choices part of being an adult is learning from our mistakes. Surely the answer is education as we can see from the thread so many different variations on what people think is a healthy diet

My problem is with the ultra-processed food that is calorie dense but nutrient poor. It's made because manufacturers know that, given a free choice (and we can argue as to just how 'free' that choice is), people will buy enough of it to provide them with huge profits. The manufacturers don't care about the effect it will have on our health.

Nelliegrace

Perhaps all ultra processed food should be in plain packets, like smoking or vaping products, clearly labelled as such, with warnings to say, “This will damage your health, probably leading to kidney failure, chronic inflammation, blindness and amputations.” 
Or, “This contains chemicals which may not be safe, so we can sell old food.”

Junk food should not be allowed to have spurious health claims like, “high fibre,” “low fat,” or “added vitamins.”

The poor diet in the UK is shortening lives, but worse, people can expect nearly 20 years of miserable health before they die. 

pumpkin89

It's been really interesting and insightful to read this thread.  I can see I'm going against the grain, but I am firmly of the view that it is more expensive to eat healthily (but worth it!  It's a long term investment in your health, and anyone who has poor health will confirm you can't put a price on that).

A lot of people are contrasting home cooking with ready made options and takeaways.  In my view, that's apples and oranges.  We all know that convenience comes at a premium but, whether you do it yourself or pay someone else to, there is also a health premium.

If you're a home cook, it certainly costs more to incorporate a wide variety of vegetables each week rather than buying a huge sack of potatoes.  Lean mince is more expensive than fatty mince; natural yogurt is more expensive than sugary yogurt; fish is more expensive than processed meat.  The cheapest way to eat is stodgy, high in carbs but low in micronutrients.

If you prefer convenience food then healthy options are readily available, but seriously pricey!  A sausage roll from Greggs is £1.20 or a protein salad from Pret (with the same number of calories but far more nutrition) is £7.  Supermarkets sell fresh ready meals without added sugar or salt but they are £5+, whereas most £2 options have added oil, sugar and salt.

Brambling

I still say we are adults and it's a matter of choice and we can vote with our feet.  Considering that it was identified in the 30s/40s that smoking causes lung cancer and they still produce and sell cigarettes I don't think the PTB will do anything about it  

YoungBlueEyes

Average is a kilo per person per week?! Not in my house it bloody isn’t. 

People need to stop shovelling carp down their necks. Or rather - people might want to consider choosing to stop shovelling carp down their necks! 

-taff

Brambling said:

I still say we are adults and it's a matter of choice and we can vote with our feet.  Considering that it was identified in the 30s/40s that smoking causes lung cancer and they still produce and sell cigarettes I don't think the PTB will do anything about it  

Not when they're making lots in tax, no. But there's no cocaine in coke now

Auntycaz

A kilo of sugar per person per week seems very high, especially when lots of foods have a high sugar content already. A small bag of sugar lasts me ages I keep it in mainly for visitors as I don't take sugar in my tea but I like a teaspoon on my porridge.
 

YoungBlueEyes

I think @Nelliegrace meant that, in all the foods the average person consumes in a week there will be a kilo of sugar in total. 

Horrifying and disgusting.