Anti-food
While JM was in Paris, I wound up watching some TV programs that I wasn't sure would be of interest to him.
One of the things I watched was called FOOD FRENZY, and which was part of the MONEY serries on the BBC. There are two episodes (next one is next Friday) about the rise of ready meals and "smart foods." Last night's was the one on ready meals.
There was a fascinating, and slightly frightening, statistic offered up. The UK accounts for the purchase of half the ready meals consumed in Europe. That is a staggering amount of ready meals! They showed two families, one of which uses them three or four nights a week, the other one uses them for EVERY meal except holidays and special occasions. This second family recently got rid of their dining room table and they all only eat in the lounge in front of the television. They never actually eat meals together, nor the same food at the same meal.
I've always been impressed at the variety of ready meals I've seen here in France, but even at LeClerc or Carrefour, there isn't anywhere near the vast selection that they showed at Marks & Spencers. The quantity there was actually staggering. And, while on occasion I have purchased one or two of them here, they are more in the way of a treat, something to have rather than going out to eat as opposed to something we would have all the time.
They tried to convince the mother of the family to buy a sack of potatoes so that she could make her own mashed potatoes. The entire bag (maybe 2 kg worth) cost about the same as a single serving pre-made mashed potato thingy that just needed heating in the microwave. She wouldn't go for it, as it needed to be peeled, cooked, mashed, etc. Forget the money, she wanted speed and convenience.
There were interviews with various nutritionists, etc., and the conclusion is that many people in the UK are totally without the ability to cook anything other than these pre-packaged foods. There is even a "food bus" that is starting to go around the country to schools, etc., to teach children and their parents how to prepare meals.
The presenter from the program convinced "non-cooking-mom" to make a lasagna for her family from scratch. It took her and her husband over half-an-hour in the supermarket to even find the pasta section! They did manage to make the lasagna however, which took two hours from start to finish, as opposed to the normal 6 minutes in the microwave that they were all used to. Even the teenaged boys of the family admitted that it was far better than anything that they got out of a packet.
Still, cooking will remain an occasional exercise for that family because they don't want to be bothered on a regular basis.
It made me think of our own lifestyle here in France. I DO use my microwave, but it is mostly to cook things that I'm putting together myself from scratch, and is just a more energy efficient cooking method. I suppose it does take a bit more time to cook food from basic ingredients, but the satifaction is so high that it seems worth it. In fact, I sent a jar of my homemade plum-fig preserves to my MIL with JM. She called me 3 times to tell me how good they were, and the jar was gone by the time JM left yesterday morning.
Now, other than cleaning an preparing the fruit, it took me practically no time to make those preserves. Yes, I can buy really wonderful jams here and I do, but the satisfaction making those and having other enjoy them as well has no price.
It's really a shame that people don't take the time to figure out that you can make your own homecooked ready meals out of healthy, natural ingredients, which you can then freeze and zap in the microwave when you want them. Not too much hassle and oh so much better.
Ciao for now.
Randy
One of the things I watched was called FOOD FRENZY, and which was part of the MONEY serries on the BBC. There are two episodes (next one is next Friday) about the rise of ready meals and "smart foods." Last night's was the one on ready meals.
There was a fascinating, and slightly frightening, statistic offered up. The UK accounts for the purchase of half the ready meals consumed in Europe. That is a staggering amount of ready meals! They showed two families, one of which uses them three or four nights a week, the other one uses them for EVERY meal except holidays and special occasions. This second family recently got rid of their dining room table and they all only eat in the lounge in front of the television. They never actually eat meals together, nor the same food at the same meal.
I've always been impressed at the variety of ready meals I've seen here in France, but even at LeClerc or Carrefour, there isn't anywhere near the vast selection that they showed at Marks & Spencers. The quantity there was actually staggering. And, while on occasion I have purchased one or two of them here, they are more in the way of a treat, something to have rather than going out to eat as opposed to something we would have all the time.
They tried to convince the mother of the family to buy a sack of potatoes so that she could make her own mashed potatoes. The entire bag (maybe 2 kg worth) cost about the same as a single serving pre-made mashed potato thingy that just needed heating in the microwave. She wouldn't go for it, as it needed to be peeled, cooked, mashed, etc. Forget the money, she wanted speed and convenience.
There were interviews with various nutritionists, etc., and the conclusion is that many people in the UK are totally without the ability to cook anything other than these pre-packaged foods. There is even a "food bus" that is starting to go around the country to schools, etc., to teach children and their parents how to prepare meals.
The presenter from the program convinced "non-cooking-mom" to make a lasagna for her family from scratch. It took her and her husband over half-an-hour in the supermarket to even find the pasta section! They did manage to make the lasagna however, which took two hours from start to finish, as opposed to the normal 6 minutes in the microwave that they were all used to. Even the teenaged boys of the family admitted that it was far better than anything that they got out of a packet.
Still, cooking will remain an occasional exercise for that family because they don't want to be bothered on a regular basis.
It made me think of our own lifestyle here in France. I DO use my microwave, but it is mostly to cook things that I'm putting together myself from scratch, and is just a more energy efficient cooking method. I suppose it does take a bit more time to cook food from basic ingredients, but the satifaction is so high that it seems worth it. In fact, I sent a jar of my homemade plum-fig preserves to my MIL with JM. She called me 3 times to tell me how good they were, and the jar was gone by the time JM left yesterday morning.
Now, other than cleaning an preparing the fruit, it took me practically no time to make those preserves. Yes, I can buy really wonderful jams here and I do, but the satisfaction making those and having other enjoy them as well has no price.
It's really a shame that people don't take the time to figure out that you can make your own homecooked ready meals out of healthy, natural ingredients, which you can then freeze and zap in the microwave when you want them. Not too much hassle and oh so much better.
Ciao for now.
Randy
1 Comments:
Sadly as an englishman you've hit the nail on the head there. I read your blog as my kiddies live in Chalabre and your blog gives me a flavour of what's going on around them, anyway back to the point, whan you look around my town you see so many fat, sallow faced kids and I compare them with mine(fresh faced and sparkling eyes,with maybe just a hint of bias!) I think I can sum up the difference with this small fact, from the centre of Chalabre you have to drive to Limoux for the nearest McDonalds(some 30 km's??), from the centre of my town there are 4 McDonalds within walking distance and a further 3 within a fifteen minute drive........draw your own conclusions!!
By Andy, At 10:11 PM
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