Drew Lawson wrote:
Headline:
Your healthy habits are eating into the packaged foods industry

I thought some here might be interested. An article on how packaged
food profits are down, and attributing it to the assorted "healthy
eating" trends.

They aren't going away, but I found it interesting that the effect
was as large as it seems to be (at least according to this author).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/b...oods-industry/

http://preview.tinyurl.com/mcfgnuw

I have watched this trend ebb and flow over the years.

I cannot understand why the time it takes to cook fresh food, in some cases
no more than prepared food, is such a problem to people. I cannot
understand how so many spend time and money going to the gym or jogging
instead of working in the garden. I know not everybody can have a garden
but so many who could don't try.

I insisted my children learn to cook and I taught them from scratch.
Starting about 13 they had to cook dinner once a week and were not allowed
to repeat the same dish all the time. By 17 they were reasonable cooks.
After some initial resistance ('who cares about cooking Dad I just want to
eat ') the penny dropped. If you have fresh ingredients and cook well then
you eat well and it doesn't cost the earth. Anyone can do it with a little
effort to learn how.

Now it is cool to cook. One child grows fresh veges in tubs because they
are in a rented house that cannot have a vege garden. They feed their
families and friends good food and are asked if they took cooking classes.
They might admit that they did but not the details.

I read that in some high-rise appartments they have built no kitchen or the
kitchen has been remodelled into some other use. This is because the
inhabitants eat out or take-away all the time because they don't have time
to shop or cook, because they have to work so hard to earn the money to eat
out all the time.

The move towards fresh food cooking has many fellow travellers, some of
these are sloganeering idiots.

"Don't use more than four (or some silly number of) ingredients" Meat and
three vege again - that will have them coming back for more.
"Don't use any ingredient your grandma didn't use" Well my grandma never
saw a zucchini, a capsicum or a chilli, and pasta was something those odd
people with funny accents down the road would eat.
"Don't ever eat this food group, you must always eat that food group".
Whatever happened to eating a suitable amount of a balanced diet?
"Fookyoo berries will make you live longer. Fermented tiger's milk will
extend your penis" And make me rich!
" We have a new study that will tell you why you are fat that contradicts
the old studies that tell you why you are fat, change your ways before it is
too late!" Oh wait isn't there an even newer study that contradicts the new
study?

It's a strange world where there are so many serious problems that seem to
have no solution but when the solution to the basic problem of good
nutrition is so obvious and easy many still won't do it.

--
David

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Corporate propaganda is their
protection against democracy