On Eating Properly...

[Janne]

And people re getting back those diseases like Ricketts. I even saw Scorbut ( Vit C deficiency) in UK!!!!

Poverty of old was not because of laziness but "fate'. Food was expensive. No fresh fruit and veg. Today?
Superb schools, superb, cheap food. Superb hygienic standards, home, everywhere.

No excuses to be ignorant today!

 

[daveO]

When I was young, just after the war,(the second, not the first), I remember we were given, Malt, Orange Juice, and free milk at school, all free from the NHS, and basically if you were poor this helped to keep the youngsters fit, remembering in them days there was a lot of illnesses linked to bad nutrition, rickets, vitamin deficiencies, as well as polio, etc etc, the only thing there wasn't a lot of in them days amongst the poor was obesity, now we never ate fancy foods, even chicken was quite rare, but the Mothers were able to make a nutritious meal out of anything, and out of cuts of meat you would not think of eating now, tripe, Pigs feet, ( even though these are still eaten by some these days)
Nowadays its all fast food because the Mothers(and Fathers) have got no idea of how to cook,the kids don't eat fruit, don't get free milk anymore (thank you Maggie), it makes you wander what will happen when the kids of today progress to become parents, you only have to look at the growth in fast food outlets, coffee shops etc, to see where we are heading.

I read this recently, possibly a bit exaggerated to fight cuts in school budgets but still quite an eye opener

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43611527

 

[snappingturtle]

You can eat fine for not a lot, I have, it costs more in power/gas because you cook and you can always go poaching....not that I did! of course...anyhow the food is more simple lots of soup an stews and porridge, home made bread etc, and when really short on food I have made onion and nettle soup or raided food skips.......

 

[Janne]

When I worked in Crowborough, some of the young d. nurses had no clue about cooking. Skill level - boil water and dip a tea bag in.
I bought them the basic cookery books, like the one from the milk company ( forgot name).

Nobody had taught them.
Simple oldfashioned food = good healthy food.

Baked Beans on toast is not healthy food. Many Brits think it is.

 

[snappingturtle]

When I worked in Crowborough, some of the young d. nurses had no clue about cooking. Skill level - boil water and dip a tea bag in.
I bought them the basic cookery books, like the one from the milk company ( forgot name).

Nobody had taught them.
Simple oldfashioned food = good healthy food.

Baked Beans on toast is not healthy food. Many Brits think it is.

It is Janne! you just need to add an egg, sausage and a cheap burger, stack and cheese up that bad boy and you have a fine Scooby snack

 

[Janne]

It is Janne! you just need to add an egg, sausage and a cheap burger, stack and cheese up that bad boy and you have a fine Scooby snack

British Haute Cuisine: chip buttie!

( I have had a few of those. Like a dab of mayo and catcup on it.
Or a couple of slices of processed faked cheese, 10 seconds in the micro and a can of Stella)

 

[Janne]

I used to love hamburgers, since I attended the premiere of the first hamburger place in my hometown in Sweden in -72 or -73.

Once I got my stomach/ intestinal problems around 8 years ago, my brain lost interest.
I wish I did not. Soooooo tasty!

 

[Robson Valley]

The organic meat rolls in and more to come over the next month.
Have 3 different barters happening for pork, lamb and chickens.
All farm free-run stuff.

Buy a freezer. Learn how to apple-wood-smoke cheap cuts BBQ for 3 hours.

 

[Janne]

Got two chest freezers. Prime cod fillet, Norwegian Bacon. Mango.
Fridge freezer full too.

Ready for The Great Carib War!

 

[Robson Valley]

For me, it isn't about delicacies and treats. Just the meat that goes with the potatoes or whatever.
The bartering for all sorts of other foods is the real treat. Nobody sprays for anything out here,
it's all organic with chicken poo etc for fertilizer.

When the beef pack (50 lbs) arrived today, they had tossed in several packages of sausages and gluten-free (no crumb) hamburger patties
"just for me to try." I have no food allergies but FODMAP may show otherwise.

You get in with the locals, you shop local AND you are seen to be shopping local and the deals pop up.
Cost? To be honest, no more than 2/3 the cost in the city. Over a few years, it really adds up.

I'm living better and eating better than I did when I was working. Food is more of a % that it was.
Hindsight says I was tired. Too tired to be really effective at feeding myself after work.
Health-wise, dangerous and I may be paying for it now.

 

[santaman2000]

It's also largely a matter of cultural tastes. You can teach proper nutrition until the cows come home but you can't make lean baked chicken breast taste as good as fried dark meat. Soul food beats health food every time.

What does that have to do with financial status? Well, several things really. First, frying poorer (cheaper) cuts (or adding fatty gravy or sauce) will make said poorer cuts taste better (reference French food or the aforementioned soul food) Want to make anything taste better? Add fat (sauce, gravy, or fat from frying)or sugar. It's really just that simple.

Second, if you can't afford expensive vacations, golf lessons, etc. then your enjoyment centers around simpler, cheaper things such as tasty (but unhealthy) comfort foods with family and vices like smoking and drinking (cheap when compared to the healthier lifestyle choices mentioned above)

Can you make healthy meals cheaply? Of course. Do they taste good? In my experience healthy meals never taste very good regardless of cost.

 

[Tengu]

I have found that too but I am sure there are exceptions

 

[oldtimer]

It's also largely a matter of cultural tastes. You can teach proper nutrition until the cows come home but you can't make lean baked chicken breast taste as good as fried dark meat. Soul food beats health food every time.

What does that have to do with financial status? Well, several things really. First, frying poorer (cheaper) cuts (or adding fatty gravy or sauce) will make said poorer cuts taste better (reference French food or the aforementioned soul food) Want to make anything taste better? Add fat (sauce, gravy, or fat from frying)or sugar. It's really just that simple.

Second, if you can't afford expensive vacations, golf lessons, etc. then your enjoyment centers around simpler, cheaper things such as tasty (but unhealthy) comfort foods with family and vices like smoking and drinking (cheap when compared to the healthier lifestyle choices mentioned above)

Can you make healthy meals cheaply? Of course. Do they taste good? In my experience healthy meals never taste very good regardless of cost.

You haven't tasted my younger son's cooking!

 

[Robson Valley]

I think that I do a good job of healthy eating. One very substantial part of my food must be the herbs and spices,
the mixes for seasonings that "dress up" any blah healthy dinner. Those are the things that I find myself looking for.

Braising cheaper cuts of meat. Smoker BBQ for 3 hours with apple wood. Game changers with attractive seasonings.
You can buy herb and spice mixes everywhere (eg curry powders) or mix up your own blends. Those are the experiments!

 

[Janne]

Cheaper cuts are far tastier than the more tender, expensive cuts.

Frying? Not in this household. Panfrying (butter/olive oil mix) yes. Deepfrying - no.

We buy whole deep frozen chicken. All cuts except the breasts are cooked for one meal, whatever receipe, after the large bones, spine, wingtips etc are removed. Those are properly while the brown meat dish is made, into a soup base, and refrigerated. The breasts we usually make into Scallops, cook and eat on day two.
The chicken soup on day three.

It does not take much to cook well, healthy and cheap.
Our son does not make much money, but he cooks well and eats healthy and well.

 

[Janne]

Disregarding the socio economics.

I blame the TV for the decline in people’s cooking skills.
All those cookery programs, food travel programs
The food travel programs overload us with crazy ideas and detract from our own tried and tested food, developed over hundreds of years to suit our surroundingsclimate and food supply.
The cookery programs show that unless you are a top notch chef, the food is no good. Top notch, beautifully served and ultra complex.

 

[Broch]

I don't know, not all the TV 'chefs' are guilty; St Delia's 'Frugal Cooking' was my bible when I was a student

 

[snappingturtle]

Disregarding the socio economics.

I blame the TV for the decline in people’s cooking skills.
All those cookery programs, food travel programs
The food travel programs overload us with crazy ideas and detract from our own tried and tested food, developed over hundreds of years to suit our surroundingsclimate and food supply.
The cookery programs show that unless you are a top notch chef, the food is no good. Top notch, beautifully served and ultra complex.

I think there is something in what you say about local and traditional eating, it dose need to be championed more, its something I like about the Polish and are Polish cleaner, "Ari" he brings me traditional Polish food to try and I do the same for him.

 

[Janne]

Broch, you are correct. Not all are bad.

Anybody remember the basic, old cookery book sold by the milk men?

Edit: found it. The Dairy Book of home cookery.

Others out there of course.

Polish food is nice, but I am not fond of the pierogi.

 

[Janne]

Do they taste good? In my experience healthy meals never taste very good regardless of cost.

The US food industry excessive use of added fats, various sugars, flavourings and artificial colourantd has ruined your expectation of what is ‘good’.
Hence the North American obesity problem, now slowly invading the rest of the World!