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Bad Food Britain: How a Nation Ruined its Appetite
Award-winning investigative food journalist, Joanne Blythman turns her attention to the current hot topic - the state of British food. What is it about the British and food? We just don't get it, do we? Britain is notorious worldwide for its bad food and increasingly corpulent population, but it's a habit we just can't seem to kick. Welcome to the country where recipe and diet books feature constantly in top 10 bestseller lists, but where the average meal takes only eight minutes to prepare and people spend more time watching celebrity chefs cooking on TV than doing any cooking themselves, the country where a dining room table is increasingly becoming an optional item of furniture. Welcome to the nation that is almost pathologically obsessed with the safety and provenance of food but which relies on factory-prepared ready meals for sustenance, eating four times more of them than any other country in Europe, the country that never has its greasy fingers out of a packet of crisps, consuming more than the rest of Europe put together. Welcome to the affluent land where children eat food that is more nutritionally impoverished than their counterparts in South African townships, the country where hospitals can sell fast-food burgers, but not home-baked cake, the G8 state where even the Prime Minister refuses to eat broccoli. Award-winning investigative food journalist Joanna Blythman takes us on an amusing, perceptive and subversive journey through Britain's contemporary food landscape, and traces the roots of our contemporary food troubles in deeply engrained ideas about class, modernity and progress.
268 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
10 people are currently reading
119 people want to read
About the author
Joanna Blythman
17 books21 followersJoanna Blythman is a leading Scottish investigative food journalist and writer. She has won five Glenfiddich Awards for her writing, and, in 2004, won the prestigious Derek Cooper Award, one of BBC Radio 4’s Food and Farming Awards. She contributes regularly to Observer Food Monthly, among other newspapers and magazines, and frequently broadcasts on food issues.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
October 30, 2021
I don't want to reduce a whole nation to silly clichés, but I have to admit that, being a Frenchman living in England for now more than a decade, Britain and food seem to be two worlds apart. It's not that our British friends are alien to good gastronomy (far from that!), it's just that they don't seem to care even about their own culinary specialities (and they have a very good cuisine too, don't be mistaken!). Personally coming from a country where food is a cultural heritage taken very seriously, I find that really sad... And I don't even enjoy cooking!
Sure, here's a country where so-called 'celebrity chefs' are flooding our TV screens. But how many viewers, actually, cook even as a hobby? Personally, I might not like to cook (or even bother to learn how to) but I still know what a healthy diet is, and, since I must eat to survive I still can manage cooking proper and healthy food as necessary! Here's a country, though, where people rarely share a meal around a table (one household out of four don't even have a table where to sit together and eat!) but rather 'grab' fast food and takeaways; where, at the time of publishing, the government spent more money feeding its military dogs than children in school canteens (you've read that right!...); where 60% of the population have no clue of what constitutes an healthy diet and what isn't; and on, and on...
Pessimistic until the last line, Joanna Blythman portrays a sad picture of British eating habits, and it's far from being funny. It's not only the consequences upon people's health which will be impacted (obesity, cardio-vascular diseases, diabetes...), or what to expect in the long term with new generations so saturated with fatty/sugary/salted junk completely destroying their taste buds. The problem is the flabbergasting attitude towards the simple fact of cooking, let alone consuming healthy products. We have indeed reached a point where tossing ready meals into a microwave is considered a feminist victory (no more slaving in the kitchen!) or, again, offering fruits or home made cakes in school cause both a class struggle and a rising concern about public health and safety! Should we laugh? Should we cry?
You might retort that, well, this is Britain -and we don't want to reduce whole nations to silly clichés but... Fair enough. The British case surely is quite extreme, and, no doubt, the author focuses here upon extreme cases to make her case even more extremely compelling. Nevertheless, if it's easy to throw a stone at these food manufactured in factories and wrapped up under dubious packaging, the triumph of snacking and fast eating coupled with a growing ignorance of what is an healthy diet in the first place, let alone a reject of cooking even just for the sake of cooking, is a telling tale of what happen when the culture surrounding proper food is no longer taken seriously. It ought to be a red flag.
It doesn't matter whether you enjoy cooking, or, like me, can't be bothered beyond the necessity of cooking meals because you have to. Just make sure you don't lose your appetite!
Sure, here's a country where so-called 'celebrity chefs' are flooding our TV screens. But how many viewers, actually, cook even as a hobby? Personally, I might not like to cook (or even bother to learn how to) but I still know what a healthy diet is, and, since I must eat to survive I still can manage cooking proper and healthy food as necessary! Here's a country, though, where people rarely share a meal around a table (one household out of four don't even have a table where to sit together and eat!) but rather 'grab' fast food and takeaways; where, at the time of publishing, the government spent more money feeding its military dogs than children in school canteens (you've read that right!...); where 60% of the population have no clue of what constitutes an healthy diet and what isn't; and on, and on...
Pessimistic until the last line, Joanna Blythman portrays a sad picture of British eating habits, and it's far from being funny. It's not only the consequences upon people's health which will be impacted (obesity, cardio-vascular diseases, diabetes...), or what to expect in the long term with new generations so saturated with fatty/sugary/salted junk completely destroying their taste buds. The problem is the flabbergasting attitude towards the simple fact of cooking, let alone consuming healthy products. We have indeed reached a point where tossing ready meals into a microwave is considered a feminist victory (no more slaving in the kitchen!) or, again, offering fruits or home made cakes in school cause both a class struggle and a rising concern about public health and safety! Should we laugh? Should we cry?
You might retort that, well, this is Britain -and we don't want to reduce whole nations to silly clichés but... Fair enough. The British case surely is quite extreme, and, no doubt, the author focuses here upon extreme cases to make her case even more extremely compelling. Nevertheless, if it's easy to throw a stone at these food manufactured in factories and wrapped up under dubious packaging, the triumph of snacking and fast eating coupled with a growing ignorance of what is an healthy diet in the first place, let alone a reject of cooking even just for the sake of cooking, is a telling tale of what happen when the culture surrounding proper food is no longer taken seriously. It ought to be a red flag.
It doesn't matter whether you enjoy cooking, or, like me, can't be bothered beyond the necessity of cooking meals because you have to. Just make sure you don't lose your appetite!
December 8, 2021
Entertaining Yet Depressing
An entertaining yet in many ways depressing read, particularly since nothing has changed since its publication in 2006. Over 60% of UK adults are overweight (Nov 2020) with obesity between a quarter and a third depending where you look. Joanna Blythman cuts through all the food angst and exercise obsessions with the simple advice to avoid the highly processed industrial food that dominates the British diet and eat home cooked food from fresh ingredients as far as possible. Along the way she highlights the peculiar notion unique to Britain that good food is 'posh', the loss of cooking skills, and the domination of the food market by a few retailers. The UK munches its way through more crisps and highly processed snacks than the rest of Europe, and four times as much as 1972 according to Henry Dimbleby. The profusion of culinary styles from Indian to Chinese to Thai and beyond is less a sign of openness to other cultures and more a sign of weakness of the native cuisine. Food just isn't that important. There is a price for relying on industrial food - chronic ill health and a lack of resilience to disease and pandemics. Yet dealing with it is beyond governments too terrified of offending vested interests and the message 'one that the British no longer want to hear'. Has the pamdemic changed anything?
An entertaining yet in many ways depressing read, particularly since nothing has changed since its publication in 2006. Over 60% of UK adults are overweight (Nov 2020) with obesity between a quarter and a third depending where you look. Joanna Blythman cuts through all the food angst and exercise obsessions with the simple advice to avoid the highly processed industrial food that dominates the British diet and eat home cooked food from fresh ingredients as far as possible. Along the way she highlights the peculiar notion unique to Britain that good food is 'posh', the loss of cooking skills, and the domination of the food market by a few retailers. The UK munches its way through more crisps and highly processed snacks than the rest of Europe, and four times as much as 1972 according to Henry Dimbleby. The profusion of culinary styles from Indian to Chinese to Thai and beyond is less a sign of openness to other cultures and more a sign of weakness of the native cuisine. Food just isn't that important. There is a price for relying on industrial food - chronic ill health and a lack of resilience to disease and pandemics. Yet dealing with it is beyond governments too terrified of offending vested interests and the message 'one that the British no longer want to hear'. Has the pamdemic changed anything?
April 8, 2016
I love food and I love cooking and this book just reaffirmed my own philosophy. Well written it is a sad picture that is painted of people watching food shows and buying recipe books but cooking and eating ready made and or processed foods. Eating habits now no longer focused around a social event around the dining table, instead more a need to eat mentality and what's the quickest at whatever time suits me. This gets added to fads which do not do much to enthuse any gastric juices.
"cooking is now widely seen in Britain as an optional activity, a refection of how little importance the country gives to food"
"cooking is now widely seen in Britain as an optional activity, a refection of how little importance the country gives to food"
November 26, 2010
Loved this book. It's full of interesting facts, well-written, makes me happy about my eating patterns and makes me want to cook. w00t
September 20, 2017
Blythman tries throughout not to be too patronising or finger pointy at the British people, instead waving her finger at the government, advertisers and the 'food industry' unfortunately she doesn't always succeed and often intimates that British people are basically a bit stupid, ignorant and willingly blind; which could be off putting to people who are not already "foodies".
The book jumps around a lot and doesn't have a coherent flow, consequently many points are repeated many times. It lacks any sort of guidance as to what you should eat and will probably leave non foodie readers non the wiser as to what they can do to change.
A little bit of the history of food and cooking in Britain would have been useful in illustrating how we got here.
Nonetheless it is still a worthwhile read and a good accompaniment to Blythman's other works, although it is starting to date.
The book jumps around a lot and doesn't have a coherent flow, consequently many points are repeated many times. It lacks any sort of guidance as to what you should eat and will probably leave non foodie readers non the wiser as to what they can do to change.
A little bit of the history of food and cooking in Britain would have been useful in illustrating how we got here.
Nonetheless it is still a worthwhile read and a good accompaniment to Blythman's other works, although it is starting to date.
April 2, 2023
Part ‘a warning from history’; part ‘old man shouts at clouds’. Given the book is just shy of two decades old, this can be dated in some respects, but prescient in others. On the balance of probabilities, the present terror described in the book at what the future holds and with the trajectory of food in Britain has likely simply become ameliorated by time and a low bar becoming the norm.
December 14, 2022
It's always a plus to learn something while reading and overall there was a fair amount of information about food in Great Britain. I would have liked a bit more substance, however. Perhaps I should adjust to say more imagination and personal stories behind the story.
May 14, 2019
A depressing read, but so true. And not just of Britain
January 22, 2012
Blythman is an investigative journalist specializing in food. Here she examines the state of food and eating in Britain, exposing the national food revolution as a publicity scam to end the country's reputation for badly cooked, tasteless food. Instead, Blythman says that the U.K. has stopped cooking at all and is now living on ready-made meals, frozen foods, snacks and takeaway. The state of school lunches and home economics are particularly dire, with cooking being removed from the agendas in favor of "food technology" classes where students learn how to create eye-catching packaging but never touch a stove.
This book was published in 2006, so perhaps some things have improved, but not by that much. As a regular reader of magazines like Bon Appetit, I was really surprised by Blythman's evidence that London's food revolution, the one that's been going on for the last 10-15 years and has put London as a major foodie destination after years of ridicule, is a fraud. She states that the majority of restaurants in the capitol, minus the most expensive ones, are having their food supplied by the two major catering suppliers in the country. Ready-made and frozen, so that the restaurants are using their kitchens for heating, not cooking.
Lots of surprising information that will have you packing your own lunch for a couple of days.
This book was published in 2006, so perhaps some things have improved, but not by that much. As a regular reader of magazines like Bon Appetit, I was really surprised by Blythman's evidence that London's food revolution, the one that's been going on for the last 10-15 years and has put London as a major foodie destination after years of ridicule, is a fraud. She states that the majority of restaurants in the capitol, minus the most expensive ones, are having their food supplied by the two major catering suppliers in the country. Ready-made and frozen, so that the restaurants are using their kitchens for heating, not cooking.
Lots of surprising information that will have you packing your own lunch for a couple of days.
April 11, 2016
If you're British (like me) I'd say this is a particularly enlightening (and pretty disconcerting) book and well worth reading. Not sure how far that would apply if you're not, but having watched a lot of documentaries about the food culture in the US, I found it really revealing to have someone work thoroughly through the way all of this applies to the UK and the many ways in which the UK is far worse than most other EU countries on this front.
I now know a whole lot more about ready meals than I did 2 days ago!
I now know a whole lot more about ready meals than I did 2 days ago!
December 9, 2010
Quite an interesting look at Britain and its deteriorating relationship with food. Yes, it nearly all applies to the US (and then some!). I am encouraged though by the resurgence of a foodie culture, even if it is only a small percentage of the population. Shows like Food Revolution (Jamie Oliver's USA version of the school lunch makeover he piloted in Britain) give me hope that we can make a change back to real food!
January 21, 2009
Read with 'not on the label' makes you not want to visit a supermarket ever again. I suspect I will though. Pasties don't grow on trees. And if they did would we pick them and eat them anyway?
April 3, 2014
Picks up on a lot of themes I'm interested in: food, health, production of food, agriculture and etc…..Great read.
June 11, 2015
Food.
April 28, 2016
Highly recommended get her books!
June 15, 2015
4-4.5 stars.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews