Took advantage of being down Kensington way today to check out the Whole Foods hypermarket at High St Ken. Very big, lots of stuff but somehow too glossy. Felt like being in Selfridges Food Hall. Give me Better Foods or the Sweetmart anyday.
On the subject of food, I had lunch with an 18 year old boy the other day: his consisted of white bread sandwiches with chicken/lettuce/mayo gunk; sweet chilli crisps; a bottle of Lucozade; and a huge chocolate doughnut. Later on he had a pizza, and then chips, because the pizza was 'disgusting'. I mentioned this to another lad later in the week. What's wrong with that, he said, as he started on his Pot Noodle sandwiches (4 slices of bread, butter, Pot Noodle - what could be simpler? He did have wholemeal bread though, but only because he knew I'd be watching - the white bread is 'hidden' from me, along with the Cheerios, on top of the cupboard).
As someone who feels they're taking their life into their own hands if they have the occasional slice of white toast round their mother's house, I find this very disturbing. I will have to step up my nagging. Or drag them along to the next Love Food Festival.
29 comments:
And yet you work in central London?You probably shouldn't check out the stats regarding noxious exhaust fumes. Personally, i'd prefer bowel cancer than lung cancer but I guess you gotta go someway and ain't any of 'em dreamy.
"Whole Foods" next to Kensington High St. Station is a rip-off, populated by toxic wives and credit card wannabees.
Having said that the sushi restaurant upstairs is worth a visit and you are a loony for thinking white bread will kill you.
For many people in this world sliced white bread would be a luxury. If I was the devil, I'd make you live on insects for ever.
But nagging can cause ulcers in the nagged and the nagger. Hard to know what to do for the best isn't it?
Nothing, probably. And no, I'm not a Tory.
It's not any of your business what people eat.
You make the classic mistake of thinking you have carte blanche to further your own dubious causes when you have only been given the remit to represent your constituents.
I knew this would get people going! Although the person who said "I hope someone in Bristol stabs you one dark night" was ever so slightly over-reacting, I thought.
Obviously the self-parody went above some people's heads. I'm not telling people what to eat - the person eating the Pot Noodle sandwiches works for me, and he still has a job. Although he is now on an official warning. (Joke).
Steven - you can feed the world without resorting to highly-processed foods stripped of all nutritional value. As I've said on here before, there's enough food to go round - it's distribution and price that is the problem. Give people the grain, not a slice of plastic.
Dick, I am more likely to die of hypothermia in my Westminster office. And quite soon unless they switch the air-conditioning off.
It's just hilarious how idiotic the response to this post has been, libertarians just aren't bright enough to grasp the concept of humour.
ps. crisp sandwiches are also worth a go.
No Kerry it is not 'distribution and price' that are the problems, it is mismanagement of land and bad government.
Before Mugabes land reforms Zimbabwe had enough food to feed it's poor and to export a surplus. Now farmers are terrorised by gangs of illiterate 16 year old thugs on drugs into not growing anything.
I bet there are plenty of examples all over the world of people using land badly and being governed by idiots.
The CAP is another elephant in the room.
You demonstarte typical socialist thinking along the lines of the fairtrade lot. You seem to think that a room full of good lefties should sit in a nice air conditioned office and decide how to distribute all the worlds food and at what price to do so.
This is what the USSR did, my housemate remembers soviet Slovakia where they did just that, he says it was rubbish.
Hey, insects are highly nutritious - and a very eco-friendly and sustainable food source. Someday we'll all be entomophage.
There may be enough food for now in 2009, Kerry, but only because we're asset-stripping the fertility of the Earth with huge machines run off petroleum, and pesticides and fertilisers made from petroleum, all causing terrible soil erosion, biodiversity destruction, unemployment, exhaustion of freshwater resources, blah, blah, all the stuff we're told to ignore and fondly trust will solve itself with miracle technology. Oh, and the oil might run out too, but of course no-one believes that, do they?
As to white bread, my wholefood-eating aunt who got stomach cancer had a bit of a shock when she was advised medically to lay off the brown stuff and only eat white sliced.
I don't have a nice air-conditioned office. I have an absolutely freezing air-conditioned office.
I have had the occasional crisp sandwich myself, and lived to tell the tale. Monster Munch would be a step too far.
"people using land badly and being governed by idiots"
Erm ... England springs to mind ...
@ northern lights,of course we take it seriously,we are being controled all the time by government,so how else should we react.
DMC: with a sense of humour.
Come on, the kind of reaction on other blogs is just infantile. Cheer up
Nice 'n' spicy Nik Naks are dangerous. On a vaguely serious note though - Jay err cheffy dude - has penned an article for the Observer today about calue foods and he's doing a dispatches this week and the stats are truly terrible. For 1p more added to the cost of manufacture the quality of the food jumps in double digit %.
I buy value beans and brown sauce as I can't tell the difference (or care) but I stupidly bought the sausages and tea bags at Uni and had to throw them.
Morrisons made £600 million, Sainsbugs £300 and Tesco £1.6 billion and Walmart - well, Wallmart. I don't necessarily think it's a health issue more of a they're taking the biscuit issue and this class of food has increased 46%. Hmm.
Northern lights,
Ben Bradshaw,lauching an anti obesity drive.....if it hasnt worked in 3 years he may have to think of ways of regulating the food industry.
Tell me to laugh,told what to eat next,just like Kerry did,this is happening every day.Over 3000 new laws.
and now even bigger laugh,one law for us rabble and another for mp's,going to vote to conceal expenses from the people that fund them.As the goverment said about ID,"if you have nothing to hide..."Is it any wonder goverment is so despised.
I imagine he meant something along the lines of regulating packaging to indicate the relative levels of fat and salt in food - which a lot of supermarkets do now of their own volition. Or am I wrong and did he talk about an outright ban on Pot Noodles?
I've had this '3000 new laws' argument with Old Holborn before and unless dmc has something more intelligent to add then I'm not going to get into it again.
Here's the link to Rayner's Observer article.
It's a bit confusing because Rayner and 'celebrity chef' Heston Blumenthal brand supermarket economy food a disgrace but avoid defining what they mean by 'quality' beyond saying it should 'improve'. Then add "We can fight long and hard about what the word "quality" means."
Indeed. In Rayner's case it seems to add up to more meat content - more meat apparently means better quality - and complaints about using pig skin in sausages. But if you're going to breed and kill pigs to eat, surely the least you can do is eat as much of it as possible?
nope,they all do listings on packaging thats accepted and sensible,probably more like the smoking ban,who used mainly ash members as voters,
not a peep about the expenses vote though.....
dmc, I've allowed this through as you're having a conversation of sorts with NL, but I really don't feel this is going anywhere and you're not making much sense.
sorry Kerry,I was trying to point out the control element,you may think its a great joke but it is happening.You said you would step up the nagging,haha,but thats how it starts.People are getting fed up with over regulation.
Perhaps NL and yourself didnt like the way it was going with the o/t points..
Good thing you haven't read any of my posts on music - or you'd be accusing me of trying to ban Chris de Burgh too. Although, come to think of it....
A person who feels as if they are "taking their life into their own hands if they have the occasional slice of white toast round their mother's house" is a hysterical namby-pamby who has no business telling anybody else how to live their life.
You are elected to represent your constitutents, not to nag them!
Antipholus, I think your sense of humour is far too sophisticated for readers of this blog. Can I suggest you try Guido's instead?
Do you realise how exspensive it is to eat organic and wholefoods Kerry? As a student in my final year (facing graduation into a recession- thanks Gordon) and an ever increasing minus number in my bank account, eating my five a day or opting for the M&S salad is not an option. My food bill has skyrocketed since your cronies put the economy into a blender. It's good to know you understand Kerry.
oxoxox
Yes, some organic foods are horrendously expensive, but so are some processed ready-meals. Including those from M&S, which is presumably why they're closing down so many of their food stores now.
Try searching elsewhere on here - round September time, Labour Conference - for stuff which will put you straight on the causes of food price rises.
Pot Noodle boy is having home-made butternut squash soup for lunch today, so he tells me.
Pssst financial elephant in the room...
My main contention with your post is that there is no acknowledgement of economic circumstance, no apparent realisation of the financial hardships that most of us are facing. Sometimes there just isn't a choice- you buy what is on offer. Given the heathen quandry of not so healthy but cheap food VS N-Power kicking my door in as I can't afford to pay the electricity bill, I'll choose oven cooked freedom fries.
Out of curioisity though, just how much is the gummint spending on the new healthy choice scheme? Can I have some of it instead- we could go shopping together and maybe we could take Gillian Mc Keith too? Or maybe we could just not spend all that naughty money on ID cards?
I'll make a promise with you- abolish ID cards and that other bad Orwell stuff and I'll send you my recipe for a super yummy 5 bean chilli.
oxoxoxo
You can't tell me there aren't cheaper, healthier things to put in a sandwich than a Pot Noodle.
I can think of tastier things than pot noodles to be sure but lets do some price checks...
pot noodles:
http://www.asda.com/asda_shop/sys/web_deep_link.jsp?link_type=promotions&promo_type=multibuy
eggs:
http://www.asda.com/asda_shop/sys/web_deep_link.jsp?link_type=promotions&promo_type=multibuy
Maybe tuna? lets have a look:
http://www.asda.com/asda_shop/sys/web_deep_link.jsp?link_type=promotions&promo_type=multibuy
Close but still, FAIL. My god tuna is exspensive- just for one tin!!!! ugh.
If I do a "healthy shop" it will be at least £10 more than my average shop. I agree that its beneficial to eat healthier foods but why do you [NuLab] care what I eat when you don't give a hoon when I say I don't want an ID card or a third terminal at Heathrow?
A pot noodle advert was pulled after about a day as they unwittingly stated that 'it's not really food but it tastes good' - whoops!
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