Vocal Voices

They now want a reduction in the size of portions in small to medium sized eateries to combat, you guessed it: obesity.

I can see this going the way chocolate bars have gone; smaller size, new price same as the old price.

When will somebody fill up these 'Think Tanks' that are running on empty?

We need to tackle the source, the cause, of the overweight/obesity problem: the fact that most people cannot cook. Many of them do not know where to start. And when TPTB do get round to tackling the problem please leave out the TV cooks, especially Lorraine Pascal. Her latest offering 'How to be a Better Cook' is about as patronising to a hesitant cook as things can get - Quick linguine with prawns, clams, garlic and chilli. Please!

You missed out the part where every second ad on TV is saying "Don't Cook, we'll fill you with garbage for just that little bit more".....

Maybe it's because I don't watch TV ( I certainly have the satellite capability), that I'm very sensitive to what is being said. Also maybe because I'm currently living in a apartment and cooking for my self all week and every second weekend. I listen to this and think "Well if you want to start somewhere, start there".

Good point about the advertising. There is a company that will deliver nutritionally balanced and calorie counted meals - heat and eat.

I am not making it up.

There are several!!! Diet ones abound, and also the Wiltshire Farm type for the elderly, to stash in their freezer and then mic when needed!

Cookery lessons in school, good basic lessons, are the key - not the stupid Food Tech type that B used to get

I had to learn to cook for myself. Since I like good food I had to learn to produce reasonably decent food.... It's not hard if you can read.

I find this depressing. The state thinks that everyone is so stupid that unless the state is there to tell us how to live our lives every step of the way, we are sure to fall over and bump our heads. We get told what to eat, how much of it to eat, how much we should be drinking, how much we should be exercising... it's never ending.

A young local woman who is obese nad hasa child wants more benefits so she can be healthy food.
Walking a few miles each day would be more beneficial

People who refuse to take action to solve their own problems are part of the reason why the rest of us are saddled with the 'Nanny State'.

There is no such thing as healthy or unhealthy food, per se. There is nothing wrong with a kebab or pizza or TV meal every now and then. The problem arises when they become the norm for just about every meal.

As for the obese woman, Cruiser. She needs to go for a shop with someone who knows what they are doing. She will discover that "healthy" food, fresh food, is a hell of a lot cheaper than processed glop. The problem she would then have is that she would have to get off her lardy ar5e and prepare it before cooking it rather than piercing the film on top with a fork. I suspect that would be beyond her, and probably be beyond millions of others as well.

I have found virtually nobody who is incapable of preparing food when pushed to it. The Army is a great leveller that way. Cook or go hungry. They don't always get tinned field rations. Sometimes you get a live chicken

Don't want to? Another question entirely. Even if you were to turn potatoes into cubes cutting off the skin, it would still cook perfectly. If being extremely wasteful.

From cooking comes the fact that the freezer is not just there to stuff in the pre processed fast food. Cook double or triple portions and produce your own fast food for the freezer..... Especially when there are large bulk deals in the supermarkets. Even single people can do that.

It's not Can't. It's Wont. Then we have to have the thought police on our case about food. I know why I'm fat, I eat too much and I'm too tired all the time because of my lifestyle. I lose stones when I go home for an extended period. But then other pressure in terms of lack of income come into play...

Why are they constantly making excuses for people. Can't cook??? Start having expectations. They were taught to read and even to think. The rest is their own effort.