I've been doing some research on the nature of British food habits and found some very interesting excerpts from a book that I remember hearing about when it first came out a while ago. The author is Joanna Blythman and it makes for a fascinating, riveting read. On "Bad Food Britain: How a Nation Ruined Its Appetite", published in 2006, she delves deep into the root causes of the unhealthy, bland grub that Britons eat and how these lazy habits are driving the population into an early grave.
Some of the depressing statistics she resorts to in order to illustrate her points are, for instance, that one out of every three Britons say they do not eat vegetables because they require too much effort to get ready. Hence the incredible preponderance of convenience, ready-made, boil-in-the-bag, do not lift a finger-type food that only in this country could occupy such a large chunk of the supermarket. This is meant to be the result of the ever-perpetrated myth (which I've heard so often and yet, in every single place I have worked at struggled to see any evidence of) that Britain has the longest working hours in Europe. As Ms Blythman points out, official data shows the average length of the working week in Britain for all occupations, both full and part-time, fell to 31.8 hours in July 2004, the lowest on record. Thus, she concludes, it is not so much that Britons do not have time to cook but rather, that they do not see cooking as a good use of their time (as opposed to drinking which seems to be the favourite British passtime for which, somewhow, there is always time).
It is quite striking that so many people will think nothing of spending hours tending to a garden whilst heating up some processed frozen junk in the microwave. A lot of people I known or have known in the past see cooking as 'boring', 'tiring', 'difficult', etc because they are so far removed from a direct relationship with ingredients that they have lost all track of how they can be handled and turned into a meal without a manual. Relying on instinct, as most cooks do, is a completely foreign concept as they grow up with boiled vegetables and baked meat covered in butter or gravy. Anything else must be difficult so why bother?
Ms Blythman even has the nerve to have a dig at the sacred British roast which, to be honest, is something that exist in lots of countries and is generally associated with basic fare: put some meat in the oven as well as veg, let it cook and eat! Before I get a tirade of abuse, I do like roasts (especially what to me is the best bit about it because it is uniquely British: the Yorkshire pudding) but I think most of their merit resides in the quality of the produce and I have to confess that the first time that I actually had a decent roast was when I met my partner Mike (who takes pride in his). Before that, I had only experienced the straight-from-frozen variety of Auntie Bessy's Yorkshires AND roast potatoes, frozen peas and carrots with no dressing and frozen chicken or turkey plus jars of processed sauces which, in my book, rather than a meal it was a barely edible assembly of joyless rubbish.
Still on the subject of roasts, Ms Blythman goes on to say that: "...there's nothing quite like Bisto to evoke the mood of a traditional British roast dinner. The product comes in a jolly orange tub showing a mouth-watering golden roast chicken, flanked with green beans and roast potatoes.
The only thing is, it does not contain any chicken at all, being a mixture of potato starch, maltodextrin, hydrogenated oil, salt, wheatflour, flavourings, colours, flavour enhancers, sugar, emulsifiers, spice, herb and vegetable extracts. Still, it's no fuss ? and it's quick". In a nutshell, the 'I can't believe it's not chicken' chicken gravy encompasses the whole approach to food that has prevailed in this country for way too long. An Italian, Spaniard, Greek Mexican, Chinese, Indian person (and the list could go on almost to include most countries on the planet but you know what I mean) will think nothing, and genuinely take pride in, spending hours preparing their own sauces, dressings and meals, sourcing good produce and thoroughly deriving pleasure and joy out of the process as much, if not more, than the actual culmination of eating the results. If a Brit would actually consider that heating up some chicken in the oven and pouring a ready-made sauce (heated up in the microwave...less washing up to do!) over it is making a meal. My heart weeps for the poor chickens, turkeys and others who had to die only to end up being served in such a pathetic fashion.
Ms Blythman is obviously a very unusual British person who is actually capable of acknowledging how awful the food culture in this country is. As she eloquently puts it herself: "Not the least of our current troubles is our inability to admit that something is wrong. Like an alcoholic who can't accept that he or she has a drink problem, Britain is in denial that it has a Bad Food problem." Ask the majority of Brits what they think about their food and they will defend a plate of overcooked meat with boiled, unseasoned veg slathered in processed gravy as a delicacy! You have to respect the fact that they were brought up on it and indoctrination is one of the most powerful forces to contend with. It takes a very open, self-critical mind to actually question what you were given as gospel even if the evidence pointing to its deficiencies is overwhelming.
The reason why it is necessary to do so is because there is no denying that the British staple diet is extremely unhealthy. This is one of the nasty consequences of early industrialisation. Whilst the Brits were expanding their Empire, feeling rather smug in comparison to those they subjected, in actul fact people in the colonies had, and still have (although, thankfully they are not under the Empire's thumb anymore) a direct relationship and utter respect for their source of nourishment.
In Britain, the industrial revolution and the post-war rations have wreaked havoc with the nation's diet, with food becoming a casualty of the process of mass-production using cheap, chemically altered ingredients and fattening, tasteless ones that were provided in post-war times to keep people going through the hardships such as butter, fatty meats and root vegetables that were easy to preserve and full of calories when times of deprivation and manual labour called for it.
In this day and age, wher the vast majority of us work in offices and do little exercise, the need for that type of food is nearly non-existent and the fact that it is still so prevalent explains, partly, some of the urgent health problems on the rise such as obesity. Alongside her 'first ally' (in war and, apparently, in food as well), America, Britain is leading the way when it comes to junk. It is somewhat ironic how indirectly proportional the quality and knowledge of food is to the supposed progress and advancement of these countries in the world scene.
The book also mentions the national obsession with butter and margarine although the latter has been proven to be one of the worst sources of bad fats. Butter, in moderation, is not bad for you and most countries use it in one way or another to make some of their essential dishes. In India, ghee (clarified butter) is used in many dishes but generally in very small amounts. Most cakes and desserts are made with butter but, again, they are not meant to be consumed everyday but rather, on special occasions or weekends. Margarine, on the contrary, has been marketed as a 'healthy' alternative when in reality it is full of trans and hydrogenated fats proven to be detrimental to the heart, among other things. However, the marketing by the margarine giants, Unilever, has been so clever and persuasive over the years that Brits are actually convinced that it is 'good for you' to spread Flora in lieu of condiments or other spreads over potatoes, toast and all sorts of perfectly nice foods in their own right which see their nutriotional value and taste ruined in the process. Here are some very interesting facts about margarine and butter:
- Both have the same amount of calories
- Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 grams
- Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical study
- Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and only because they are artificially added
- Butter tastes much better than margarine
- Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years
- Margarine is very high in trans fatty acids, it increases the risk of coronary heart disease threefold; it increases ttal cholesterol and LDL (bad cholesterol) lowering HDL or 'good' cholesterol; it increases the risk of several cancers up to five times; it lowers the quality of breast milk; it decreases immune response and insulin response and last but not least, it is only one molecule away from being plastic!
Margarine manufacturers are only too aware of the crap they sell, hence the unrelenting marketing campaign focusing on the 'lowering cholesterol' fake properties (cholesterol comes from animal fats so it makes no sense that you would need more saturated and hydrogenated fats to help lower it!), using celebrities extolling the virtues of foods covered in the stuff and the like. The same concept applies to many food products such as processed cheeses, tins and cans, sausages, etc that Brits consume without even thinking of what goes inside them.
The government with their patronising '5 a day' and traffic light signals makes matters even worse. Eating healthily should come naturally from birth and at home; imposing it will have exactly the opposite effect to that one desired as telling people off breeds rebellion. The only way forward is a slow-burning change which will only come with the realisation of how bad things are and a collective effort that will hopefully spread widely enough for the new generations to learn to appreciate, seek and get indoctrinated in good food. Only people like Jamie and Gillian Mc Keith (the latter so easy to dismiss and despise; the former, derided anyway) seem to be publicly spear-heading the move for change in Britain's eating habits. It beggars belief that until Jamie made it his personal mission to tackle school dinners, the parents were only too happy to have their kids being fed turkey twizzlers and chips every day when, as Jamie himself proved when he took the nasty crap to Italy and gave it to some Italian dinner ladies to try, they could not comprehend that such a thing would be actually fed to kids anywhere on the planet, let alone in a supposedly 'developed' nation like this one.
There is always a fear of coming across as pontificating or preachy but it is a risk worth taking when it boils down to something as essential and crucial as good food and the many remifications that derive from it.
