# Am I living in the 21st century or the 19th.



## Vince_UK (Apr 2, 2018)

This has made me both angry and ashamed.

Even when I was growing up in the 1950's we never experienced this and I am from a poor family.


"Malnourished pupils with grey skin are "filling their pockets" with food from school canteens in poor areas due to poverty, head teachers say.

The heads, from various parts of England and Wales, described how some of their poorest pupils looked thinner, had poor teeth and a grey pallor.

One head said: "My children have grey skin, poor teeth, poor hair, they are thinner."

The government said measures were in place to tackle poverty.

Lynn, a head teacher from a former industrial town in Cumbria, did not want to give her full name for fear of shaming families in her school community.

She was one of a number of head teachers speaking to reporters at the National Education Union conference in Brighton".

http://www.bbc.com/news/education-43611527


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## Bubbsie (Apr 2, 2018)

]


Vince_UK said:


> Even when I was growing up in the 1950's we never experienced this and I am from a poor family.
> 
> 
> "Malnourished pupils with grey skin are "filling their pockets" with food from school canteens in poor areas due to poverty, head teachers say.
> ...


Food banks...a choice between heating & eating...homelessness increasing...frustratingly part of our 'have & have not' society nowadays Vince...but...shhhhhhhhhhhhh we're not supposed to talk about it...if we ignore it...it  doesn't exist.


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## mikeyB (Apr 2, 2018)

Well, for sure when I was a kid you could always spot poor kids because they were thin. The two only slightly overweight kids I knew, one dad owned a crisp making company and the other ran the local offy.

Same as now, really.


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## Ralph-YK (Apr 2, 2018)




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## mikeyB (Apr 2, 2018)

I’m just reading about this story in the Guardian. They must know something that I don’t - they describe child poverty increasing “across the UK.”

They then report on schools from England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Last time I looked Scotland was in the UK.


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## Amigo (Apr 2, 2018)

They miss the point that malnourished kids can be the ones who live on total carb laden sugary crap and be overweight as a result. They’re also likely to have bad teeth because of the bulky but none nutritious offerings.


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## Matt Cycle (Apr 2, 2018)

It's certainly a scandal that these things are happening.  Fruit and veg though can be bought cheaply.  Aldi super 6 at the moment is carrots, swede, leeks, parsnips, cabbage all for 19p each and 2.5kg potatoes for 29p.  That's £1.24 for all that veg.


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## Grannylorraine (Apr 2, 2018)

I totally agree Vince I often wonder what century we are living in, I am part of a charity who provide home made birthday cakes for kids who would otherwise not get one, referrals are made through food banks etc and sadly in some cases it is not just because of low incomes, although that is still an important factor, but also because sometimes the parents have addictions which mean money that should be spent on food is not.  This is not judgemental as these parents often need support they are not getting or are too frightened to ask for help in fear their kids will be put into care.


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## mikeyB (Apr 3, 2018)

Amigo said:


> They miss the point that malnourished kids can be the ones who live on total carb laden sugary crap and be overweight as a result. They’re also likely to have bad teeth because of the bulky but none nutritious offerings.


Actually, not many children in poverty are obese. They just don’t get enough food to be fat. I don’t disagree they have a crap diet, but there just isn’t enough to get fat. Childhood obesity is commoner in dual income houses.

When I was a magistrate in Youth Courts I don’t recall any of the customers being even overweight, and many of them were from economically challenged backgrounds.


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## Amigo (Apr 3, 2018)

mikeyB said:


> Actually, not many children in poverty are obese. They just don’t get enough food to be fat. I don’t disagree they have a crap diet, but there just isn’t enough to get fat. Childhood obesity is commoner in dual income houses.
> 
> When I was a magistrate in Youth Courts I don’t recall any of the customers being even overweight, and many of them were from economically challenged backgrounds.




This seems to be shifting significantly Mike and I began to notice it professionally too though I accept the perception of the skinny youth. This is a pretty hefty piece of research over a very long period. This study was funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Wellcome Trust using 4 longitudinal cohort studies.


https://www.nhs.uk/news/obesity/children-poorer-backgrounds-more-affected-rise-childhood-obesity/


This is one of the conclusions;


‘The study makes for sad reading, suggesting the rise in childhood obesity – with its risk of long-term poor health – affects children from more deprived sections of society disproportionately.

The study doesn't tell us why deprived children are more likely to be overweight or obese than their less deprived peers.

But the reversal from underweight to overweight suggests that changes in society, rather than poverty itself, is behind the shift.’


Here’s the full research from the Lancet (in an effort to show no journalistic bias);


http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(18)30045-8/fulltext


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## Ralph-YK (Apr 3, 2018)

I've heard it said that calories can be got cheap, nutrition cost money.


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## Amigo (Apr 3, 2018)

This may get removed but it’s quite true. A mother once told me on a pretty deprived estate that she’d get crack easier than she’d get a cauliflower on the estate!


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## Grannylorraine (Apr 4, 2018)

Ralph-YK said:


> I've heard it said that calories can be got cheap, nutrition cost money.


Agree, look at all the offers in supermarkets for crap.  You can buy lots of cheap ready meals in a frozen food store that are full of fat, but I can see why people on a low income would do that a couple of pounds for a large tray of pasta bake type things.  

Plus lots of us, me included want everything done in minutes,  to explain if I know I am going to be making something with chicken I usually by the pre-diced breasts rather than a whole chicken, and butcher it myself.  It is very easy to fall into the trap of high fat calorie laden ready meals or cook in sauces.


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## mikeyB (Apr 5, 2018)

Yes, I want everything done in minutes. That’s why I’ve got a pressure cooker. I made a hogget casserole tonight, normally a slow cook epic, in 25 minutes tonight. Perfectly cooked meat and veg. The same would apply to cheap cuts of meat like skirt or shin. Doing the same with diced chicken, 10 minutes. 

It’s not the speed of getting a meal ready, it’s not having a clue how to cook stuff.


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## Vince_UK (Apr 5, 2018)

mikeyB said:


> Yes, I want everything done in minutes. That’s why I’ve got a pressure cooker. I made a hogget casserole tonight, normally a slow cook epic, in 25 minutes tonight. Perfectly cooked meat and veg. The same would apply to cheap cuts of meat like skirt or shin. Doing the same with diced chicken, 10 minutes.
> 
> It’s not the speed of getting a meal ready, it’s not having a clue how to cook stuff.


or inclination but we shouldn't be judgemental


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## Grannylorraine (Apr 5, 2018)

mikeyB said:


> Yes, I want everything done in minutes. That’s why I’ve got a pressure cooker. I made a hogget casserole tonight, normally a slow cook epic, in 25 minutes tonight. Perfectly cooked meat and veg. The same would apply to cheap cuts of meat like skirt or shin. Doing the same with diced chicken, 10 minutes.
> 
> It’s not the speed of getting a meal ready, it’s not having a clue how to cook stuff.


Don't disagree with you there Mikey and Vince (but this will take me to a totally different subject of getting children to help in the kitchen when they are young with both the cooking and the chores).  I was looking at an electric fast cooker, (can't remember what the actual thing was called), but it is was basically a £200 electric  pressure cooker, when chatting to my son about which bit of kitchen equipment I could get rid of to find space for it (small kitchen issues), we decided that a normal old fashioned one for the hob will work just as well.


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## Lucy Honeychurch (Apr 5, 2018)

Budgeting loans, social fund loans and community care grants are all a thing of the past, since this Government and 'austerity'. It's great IF you have an Aldi you can walk to and IF you have a cooker and IF you have enough gas or electric on the meter to cook. Fuel poverty is increasing, people in work are accessing food banks, food banks are asking for pot noodles as many people don't have either the means, or the funds, to actually cook anything.


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## Grannylorraine (Apr 5, 2018)

Lucy Honeychurch said:


> Budgeting loans, social fund loans and community care grants are all a thing of the past, since this Government and 'austerity'. It's great IF you have an Aldi you can walk to and IF you have a cooker and IF you have enough gas or electric on the meter to cook. Fuel poverty is increasing, people in work are accessing food banks, food banks are asking for pot noodles as many people don't have either the means, or the funds, to actually cook anything.


Another good point Lucy, as our many posts have shown, once again there is no single reason why we have this issue and sadly no single or simple answer.


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## mikeyB (Apr 5, 2018)

Benny G said:


> I ordered a pressure cooker from Amazon last night.
> Your power of advertising is strong, MikeyB.


I could also recommend “(Easy) Good Food Pressure Cooker Favourites” which has some great recipes, and all of them have full nutritional information.

Now I’ve just got to go and fill in my application for a fridge salesman job in Alaska....


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## Vince_UK (Apr 5, 2018)

Grannylorraine said:


> Another good point Lucy, as our many posts have shown, once again there is no single reason why we have this issue and sadly no single or simple answer.


That statement @Grannylorraine sums up the situation as I see it perfectly. There is no single or simple solution.


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## Vince_UK (Apr 5, 2018)

Amigo said:


> This may get removed but it’s quite true. A mother once told me on a pretty deprived estate that she’d get crack easier than she’d get a cauliflower on the estate!


There are a couple of housing estates in my neck of the woods where that is absolutely the case Amigo.


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