In reply to Caralynh:
> (In reply to Sarah G)
>
> Agree totally. I had weekly cookery lessons in the first 2 yrs of secondary school (I am 39). Nothing fancy, just things like fish pie, shepherds pie, and things involving the very basics like pastry, roux sauces etc.
I too loved mu cookery lessons at school but then the world changed with Maggie leading the helm.
Its all Maggie's fault?
No it isn't her's and hers alone but its the capitalist concept and the seeds well and truly sown in the early 80's.
In my simple mind cookery wasn't considered a profitable course to teach a country going through a massive industrial and economic upheaval caused by the previous governments, mostly Labour, feking up the economy and infrastructure. Yes the unions have a lot to answer for as well, especially Mr Scargill taking on Maggie, who was always going to win and win with a crushing victory that would send shock-waves through our society for decades.
During this brave new phase of change from an industrialised country to one that has become dependant on the service industry and the Golden Mile within the centre of London, schools and councils sold off land, used to teach PE and other leisure activities in the quest to save money and cut waste from expenditure and budgets.
30 years down the road we have at least two generations that don't know how to cook or how to exercise because they are no longer taught in schools because there is no profit in it or that they are considered not good enough for what ever academic reason you care to think of. We then have the viscous circle that progressive parents can't even pass these skills on to their children because they too don't know how to do it.
After the Second World War we had the seeds sown of Fast-Food chains invading the west and becoming all consuming on the high street, our homes and ultimately out mindsets.
After fast food took a hold then so to did TV dinners and ready meals. Here capitalist companies could pump as much fat and high calorie ingredients as they want to maximise profit for share holders.
Today we have a nation of families who work too long and hard to want to come home and cook a meal from scratch. They are too tired that they shove a box full of calories into a micro, wait for the ping and gorge.
So after my ill-informed rant the reasons for obesity are:
1 Poor education on eating, now several generations along
2 Poor eating habits, now several generations along
3 Poor exercise habits, now several generations along
4 Fast-food too easily and cheaply available compared to healthy ingredients
5 Too easy to graze on cheap fast food while watching 'mind bleach' TV
6 People too tired from work to take the time to cook from scratch
7 Fast-food chains selling bigger and bigger portions for profit
8 Governments with no idea on how to tackle obesity
9 Political correctness not to call fat people what they really are, which is fat.
10 Fat people not taking personal responsibility for what they ingest but rather blaming society or on fancy scientifically sounding disorders which personally divorce them from their responsibility to eat less and move about more.
End of the day, nobody is force fed in this country with a gun pointing at their heads if they refuse to eat.