[kirklancaster]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

Yes, I do think that certain politicians need to actually go around various supermarkets and look at what is going on. Junk food is cheap. And I mean, really, really cheap. Your typical Iceland / farm foods ready meals are so cheap that I have to wonder what part of the animal is actually in them. Hooves and arseholes I can only imagine? Anyway, yes, any normal supermarket, the cheapest possible weekly shopping trolley is going to be stuffed full of hydrogenated fats, metabolism-busting additives, salt, MSG, sugar, sugar and more sugar. A healthy, balanced diet is far more expensive.

As a family of four (and that's with two little'uns, not hungry teenagers) we easily spend over £100/week on our shopping and we eat well and healthily. I reckon I could do a quick trip round Iceland and feed us for a week for under £40 on microwave / oven junk, no problem.

To put it simply: A lot of people in this country are fat because they are poor. They are not poor because they are fat. As has been mentioned already, there are plenty of rich fat bastards swaggering around. What of them? What of their punishment? Shall we refuse them treatment when they hit 50 and need their inevitable triple heart bypass? An operation like that costs a small fortune.

I actually agree with most of what you're saying T.S. The publicity stunts of certain politicians 'living on benefits for a week' are pathetic. Anyone can live on benefits for a week, but it is the reality of struggling with a meager fixed income and wrestling with cumulative debt, the repayments of which swallows up most of that income, that is the real issue - and this applies to working people on (disgustingly) low incomes as well as genuine claimants.

That said, I must point out that I was not 'tarring' all obese people on benefits 'with the same brush', but referring to one in particular whom I have direct personal knowledge of. There are dozens of obese people I pass by in an average week and I would not know if they were on benefits or not, let alone whether they were fraudulently claiming or not.

Another point is that there are cheap alternatives to eating processed low nutritional packaged foods just because they are cheap. I love mashed potatoes, baked beans and liver and onions, and can cook a substantial, wholesome, and deliciously tasty meal for 4 people for a couple of pounds.

Home made stews and hashes, and even curries, are also relatively cheap to make and are all delicious and very nourishing - throw in Yorkshire puddings or dumplings with the stews and hash, and you can fill the hungriest family for a few pounds.

Home made poached egg and baked beans on toast is a quick and cheap meal - far cheaper than most frozen processed foods - and provides nutrients, and roughage.

I agree that processed sh[I]t with 'mechanically recovered meat' (there's a nice 'get out of jail free card if ever there was one which covers bone, fat, sinew, offal etc.) and all types of chemical enhancements are unhealthy, and that anyone forced to live on a diet consisting of such 'food', will be prone to obesity or health problems, but I still maintain that quantity as well as quality is causal in this issue. Metabolic or physiological problems aside, most obese people are obese through gluttony - not only eating too much of the 'wrong' type of foods, but just simply eating too much.

Ice creams, crisps, chocolates, cakes, buns, fizzy drinks and 'fast food' are fine in moderation, but in quantity are a recipe for disaster, and I'm sorry, but whether walking around town, the markets, or the 'Garden Center', or strolling on the seafront at Scarborough or Blackpool - it is the obese people who I cannot help but notice, are the ones usually gorging on copious amounts of junk food as they walk. Whether they are on 'benefits' I wouldn't know, or care, but the facts are - in my own direct experience - that these people are both obese and gluttonous.

Finally, coming to your very valid point about wealthy people being obese as well, I am in full agreement, but I hardly think that when the day comes should they need surgery or specialist medical attention for heart disease or any other illness caused by their gluttony, that they will be relying on the NHS for such treatment - which is a good thing, and why I've never understood opposition to private healthcare. If those that can afford not to, don't use the already failing NHS, then good, that alleviates the burden on it and leaves it better able to cater for those it was originally initiated to help.

I'm glad we seem to be agreeing more here and there though T.S and I detect a mutual respect creeping in which I'm also pleased about.