had a walk around town at lunch.

We have either ready meals or fast food roughly once a week, usually when we can't be bothered to cook. It's our most expensive meal of the week and we don't exactly push the boat out - usually not much more than a tenner for 3 of us. By comparison, the price of our home cooked meals is dirt cheap.

My mum often cut up the spuds and veg first thing in the morning and left everything soaking in pans, ready for the evening meal.
Mums were proper mums in the 60s

 

not directly but maybe they will assume just being in the vicinity of an obese person is going to put a skinny person at risk from picking up bad eating habits so they will need to implement social distancing around obese people.

 

You can get ready meals for a ridiculously low price. Obviously you can pay more to get better ones. Unfortunately the cheaper the meal the more unhealthy it usually is, which adds to the issue.

Just had a quick look and it's not difficult to get a 400-500g ready meal for between £1 and £1.25.

For example: https://www.iceland.co.uk/p/iceland-spaghetti-and-meatballs-500g/50494.html
£1 and cooks in 9 minutes from frozen.

You'll struggle to cook a healthy meal for less than that per person. Especially if you've got fussy kids.

 

I know plenty of mums who are in that situation too I'm not denying it. Perhaps that's why the odds are against the good men. It remains the truth that men are given the short end of the stick in these situations regardless of the circumstances.

 

Sorry mate I strongly disagree with this.

my wife and I both work and quite often excessive hours, and have three children. There’s still always time to cook. I think it’s really important when you see what the alternative is. Have a look at the back of a ready meal pack to see what you’re putting in your body. All sorts of chemicals and the levels of fats and sugars in them are awful.

it’s a complete myth that it’s expensive to cook healthy food at home. For example in 20 minutes you could very easily cook meatball pasta (I think this dish is referred to elsewhere in thread as a ready meal) with all fresh ingredients. If you wanted to save a few quid, leave the meat out.

 

Spaghetti pack - 39p
Passata or tomatoes-59p
Red onion - 10p
Garlic - 10p
Carrot - 10p
Basil - 50p
Turkey mince - £1.99


Cheaper, healthier, a lot nicer, and takes about 10 mins more !

 

What, and have ‘ball pasta’? Sounds like a ‘get me out of here’ ordeal!!

 

I think you're massively oversimplifying it.

And by the way I don't eat ready meals, I cook meals every night, I'm just sympathetic to those that have no realistic choice.

Good on you for managing to find the time to do so, but don't dismiss those that are unable to. There are lots of very valid reasons why it's not possible for lots of people to do that every night.

It's easy to sit there and compare other peoples situations with our own and look down on people that don't do the exact same.

Obviously in an ideal world every family would have a home-cooked healthy meal every night, it's significantly better in basically every way (although I still maintain that cooking healthy meals works out more expensive than very cheap ready meals, especially with fussy kids or other special dietary requirements), but lets not pretend that that's feasible for everybody. I've seen your figures and I do generally agree, but I don't agree that it only takes 10 minutes longer. Especially when we're comparing cooking a meal to putting something in the microwave for 9 minutes and walking away.

 

I’m not looking down on anyone mate. I am challenging the notion that people don’t have time to cook a meal and it is more expensive. Even if it takes slightly longer, I think when you look at what you’re trading off (filling your body full of horrendous things), it is worth finding the (arguably minimal additional) time. I think it’s the easy option, which is not the same thing as not having the time.

 

But isn't the trade off valuable time with your kids? Instead of interacting with them you're in the kitchen. Fine sometimes and really much more manageable when there's two of you and one of you works part time but if you're a single parent working a full time job I suppose the question is that is it more important to spend your home time in the kitchen or in the living room with your kids?

 

I guess you could do both as you could be with them in the kitchen at the same time ?

 

Again that's practical when you're fortunate enough to own a bit house with a bit kitchen but in my house if you put a second person in the kitchen you aren't cooking anything other than one of you. Same growing up, it just wasn't practical to have someone else in the kitchen

 

Fair enough but I feel we are going off at a tangent here in the minutia…(!)

stick to my point that cooking is well worth it given the alternative of sticking crap in your (and others’ ) bodies. It’s no more expensive, takes little additional time and as I say, on the balance is well worth it.

Whilst there are obviously exceptions and different individual situations I do think there is a general lack of individual responsibility for personal health, and over reliance on the NHS.

 

I agree to an extent but I'm a bit curious when someone says 'cooking a meal' what do they actually mean? Does sausage chips and beans count as cooking a meal? Or does it have to be something made entirely from raw ingredients?

 

That would certainly be better than a ‘ready meal’

they’re horrendous

 

I completely agree.. spending 20 minutes cooking and giving your kids a healthier lifestyle surely isn't too much to ask.

 

No idea why this came out twice

 

If it's any consolation, I'm 65, 12 stone and pretty fit generally, I don't take oestrogen, but I've got a fine pair of man boobs....

 

For me it isn't that I eat unhealthy, I eat loads of fruit and veg and don't over indulge but my vice is snacking, the crisp box rolled out on a evening and bloody chocolate bars, I'm now getting a gut but I know if I cut out the 5hit I would lose a couple of stone, I was told by the nurse at work if I simply cut sugars out of coffee I would see and feel the benefits, the best thing the wife got was a slow cooker, half hour to prep the veg the night before, a tray of diced beef/ sausages/ chicken breast thrown in on the morning and a good meal after work, like I say my vice is bloody crisps and sugar in coffee