The young people going hungry in the UK this winter

[Vikrant]

well , she's the one that highlighted RISOTTO and nice food . Wife tells me that risotto is a little more expensive than white rice which sells at about 70 cents a pound in the USA .

I think she was saying that she is a chef and she knows how to cook Risotto only if she had rice, vegetables and mushrooms to work with. She was not talking about buying prepared Risotto. That of course is probably more expensive than raw rice.

 

[Vikrant]

we eat free Kale until everything freeze up , same with red beets and tops , spinach , mustard greens , turnips . Same with Chinese pea pods .

Are you in the mid-west?

 

[pismoe]

pointI I'm making is that there is food to eat so she shouldn't be hungry . I ate soft white bread and potato chip sandwiches [primarily] for 3 months one summer when I was on an adventure when I was about 17 . Thing about Chef , well , I'm a cook at home but I got a job where I made enough money to be able to afford and eat 'nice' food .

 

[pismoe]

PNW as far as my location goes Vikrant .

 

[Vikrant]

pointI I'm making is that there is food to eat so she shouldn't be hungry . I ate soft white bread and potato chip sandwiches [primarily] for 3 months one summer when I was on an adventure when I was about 17 . Thing about Chef , well , I'm a cook at home but I got a job where I made enough money to be able to afford and eat 'nice' food .

It is not just her. There are some other people who are also not able to afford vegetables. This lack of vegetables is resulting in health crisis of sort, it seems.

 

[pismoe]

never hurt me , I was meat and potatoes , noodle , rice , starch, all home made . Only ate vegetables when my Mom made me and once on my own I ate mostly meat , starches , breads . Now I eat lots of veg , mostly to keep my weight down and because I've acquired a taste for them and also because they are free [garden] .

 

[Vikrant]

I think it is more than just the vegetable shortage. They seem to be having some food shortages. I guess the cause could be rising poverty. They are trying to fight it by building food banks.

Food banks don t solve food poverty. The UK must not institutionalise them Graham Riches Comment is free The Guardian

 

[Phoenall]

What seems to be the problem? The population in the UK is not too large.

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The sometimes "heavy-handed" use of benefit sanctions has been partly blamed for the rise of food banks. But what does that mean for the young people at the sharp end?

"I'd love to be able to afford some vegetables, I really would," says 19-year-old Yasmin.

"Being a qualified cook, I'd love to make myself a nice risotto or something. But I'm not rich; I'm not posh. I can't afford nice food."

For the last year Yasmin has been living at the YMCA in Burton-upon-Trent.

She is one of an estimated four million people in food poverty - without enough money to make healthy eating choices.

'It's horrible'
The counter-intuitive reality - particularly for poorer women - is perfectly illustrated by what she says next.

"I've gained loads of weight since I've lived in the YMCA because when I'm not eating my body stores the fat and makes me fatter. And then when I am eating, it's just stuff like rice and cheap stodgy stuff. You can't afford to eat nicely," she says.

It's a familiar story among the hostel's young residents.

BBC News - The young people going hungry in the UK this winter

The population of the UK has passed saturation point and can no longer support the numbers already here. There is no more land for housing which is why we are seeing floods every year. We are having to import more food than we export because we cant produce enough for our own needs of basic foodstuff. The supply of milk has reduced because the price has been kept low and the farmers cant afford to keep the cattle, this impacts on cheese, butter and other dairy products. Then grain is being used for biofuel production because the farmers can get more money selling it that way, more and more rape is being grown for cooking oil and margarine production. The boom years allowed everyone to eat fancy takeaway foods and many never learnt how to make filling and nutritious meals using basic ingredients, things like soups and casseroles. Then we have the offal that can be turned into tasty meals and does not cost the earth, fish in season is plentifull and cheap.

So really we need to cut back on our population and introduce birth control measures before we explode and see civil unrest spread throughout the country. We are close to breaking point and it will not take much to trigger a mob attack driving immigrants from this country, immigrants are seen as the cause of most if not all our problems and the country has very strong feelings in regard to them.

 

[Judicial review]

Take bulgur for example.

It's packed with fiber, protein, iron, and Vitamin B6.

1/2 cup bulgur, 1 cup water. Pour into boiling water then place on simmer with lid for 15 minutes, then turn off and let sit for 10. Yields a great, filling meal.

It's parboiled, dried, and cracked wheat. I stock up on it, and the price is worth it because it's so filling and healthy. Also helps scour out the bad cholesterol in your blood tubes. If you've had tabbouleh, you've had bulgur.

You sound like you're retired. Old.

 

[Judicial review]

I personally am a borderline vegetarian. Vegetables are a major portion of my meal. I think lack of vegetables in your diet can create serious health problems.

Asparagus is all I will eat as well as tropical fruit. Btw, just bought 20 steaks, 20 pounds ground chuck 80/20 all the way, and 6 bottles of a1 sauce. That's my food for next month.

 

[Phoenall]

I think UK has very cold weather which limits their options of growing food. It will be nice if posters from UK could share their views. I know it may be an unwanted distraction for them as they are busy contributing on 'Muslim Problem' in UK.

What are some of the crops that are grown in UK?
What are non-meat items that are imported?

Mostly sugar beet, wheat, rape, potato's, veg etc. but most are declining because of dropping wholesale prices paid to the farmers. This means that farmland is being put to other uses to generate income other than arable production. Even straw for animal bedding is in short supply. Prices paid to farmers for basics need to go up before we have to import all our milk, butter, chees, eggs, beef, lamb, pork and wheat.

 

[Phoenall]

thing is the girl want Risotto and NICE food . I've heard of families that were poor , they ate lots of oatmeal , fried oatmeal , potatoes , fried potatoes , home made bread but this girl is a qualified cook and she wants Risotto and nice food .

Offal you know liver, kidney etc. makes a healthy meal with some veggies and you are not paying a lot for it. Cheaper cuts of meat cooked slowly for long periods also make good meals. Then we have soups, stews and casseroles that are easy and cheap. A chicken can be used to feed a family of 4 for three days if done right. Roast chicken on day one, chicken and rice/pasta day two, chicken soup/broth on day three. Do the same with a bacon or ham joint, beef, lamb etc. and see the difference in your health. The problem is far too many people don't like the preparation required to cut up a chicken carcass to make a good stock for making soups/broths. But a good bought chicken stock can do the same thing.

 

[Phoenall]

Risotto is just rice and mushroom cooked in vegetable or meat broth. What is a big deal?

Is it so cold there that they cannot grow rice and mushroom there?

I am still picking the mushrooms I planted in late spring, they are not affected by the cold that much. I have button mushroome, straw mushrooms and chestnut mushrooms growing away in a dim shed. Just boxes of good quality compost and healthy spawn. The UK is one of the largest producers of quality mushrooms in Europe

 

[Phoenall]

Any veggie grown from the garden I will eat.

Heirloom tomatoes, kale, asparagus and the like are so darned delicious.

Once a day, I drink smoothie. It contains 50% vegetables and 25% fruits and 25% nuts. I buy lots of kale to put it in my smoothie. I feel very energetic after drinking it.

Banned from eating all green leafy veg, most red berries and certain meats by my doctor due to having to take warfarin after heart procedures to control A.Fib. But still eat lots of cereals, pulses and nuts along with root veg and peppers

 

[Politico]

Sounds like Yasmin needs to eat rice and get a job like the rest of the normal people.

 

[Phoenall]

Sounds like Yasmin needs to eat rice and get a job like the rest of the normal people.

Of course she does, and then find that luxuries like booze binges and designer clothes come way down the list of needs.

 

[Wake]

Take bulgur for example.

It's packed with fiber, protein, iron, and Vitamin B6.

1/2 cup bulgur, 1 cup water. Pour into boiling water then place on simmer with lid for 15 minutes, then turn off and let sit for 10. Yields a great, filling meal.

It's parboiled, dried, and cracked wheat. I stock up on it, and the price is worth it because it's so filling and healthy. Also helps scour out the bad cholesterol in your blood tubes. If you've had tabbouleh, you've had bulgur.

You sound like you're retired. Old.

I'm quite young. Only 26.

My co-workers and colleagues tell me I'm very mature for my age.

Food nutrition is one thing I've been interested in since I almost hit rock bottom health-wise five years ago. What we eat directly affects how we feel and what goes on within our bodies. For example, did you know that, if you're a man, eating celery increases the pheromones you release in your sweat, making you far more attractive to women at a subconscious level? I recently bought three packages of celery.

 

[Wake]

Offal you know liver, kidney etc. makes a healthy meal with some veggies and you are not paying a lot for it. Cheaper cuts of meat cooked slowly for long periods also make good meals. Then we have soups, stews and casseroles that are easy and cheap. A chicken can be used to feed a family of 4 for three days if done right. Roast chicken on day one, chicken and rice/pasta day two, chicken soup/broth on day three. Do the same with a bacon or ham joint, beef, lamb etc. and see the difference in your health. The problem is far too many people don't like the preparation required to cut up a chicken carcass to make a good stock for making soups/broths. But a good bought chicken stock can do the same thing.

You mentioning this strikes a chord.

Investing in a good slowcooker was one of the highlights of my life. You can eat cheaply and enjoy it by using a good slowcooker like that. Chicken soup from scratch slowcooked over 24 hours with more than 20 kinds of cubed veggies is an awesome feast, and I make use of freezing the remainder in convenient plastic containers.

One thing I'm particularly fond of is searing cubes of raw beef in my fry pan then adding them to the slowcooker for home-made beef stew. Oh, and try out some inexpensive ham hocks for a nice base in a soup or stew! Very flavorful.

 

[pismoe]

yeah on the kidney and liver because I remember eating them at home , Mom made them with mashed potato and a veg on the side . We weren't poor as far as I could tell but they had 5 kids to feed and Dad was the only guy that made money . Liver with bacon and onions was good and Mom always got calves liver . Kidney with onions , pork hocks in bean or pea soup . I eat Grains like Groats , brown rice , boiled corn meal , oatmeal , wheat berries , canned hominy only because it takes hours to cook dried hominy without a pressure cooker . We also dry our vegetables from the garden in an Excaliber food drier . Also eat lots of dried beans mostly because I like them . One of the cheapest foods out there is Eggs , cheap , nutritious and I love them fried , poached or scrambled .

 

[pismoe]

interesting , might be off topic but concerning food supposedly being expensive or in short supply in different places . I mean , maybe it is expensive but here in the USA I see an abundance of food although I see food , especially meat rising in price and I see canned food size shrinking from the traditional 1 pound / 16 ounce can. I just work around the rising price by buying cheaper or different foods . The last few years I also try to do healthy eating which to me means lean meat , more vegs , fish [Pollack and kippered canned herring] and more varied foods . Anyway , has anyone heard of the year without a summer . It happened in 1816 and is interesting time period to just be aware of . --- The summer of 16 ---