Choosing what to eat

My usual considerations when deciding what to eat would be cost and what's quickest/easiest. I try to make healthy choices when possible.

In my opinion, it is far more expensive to eat healthily in London (or anywhere) than it is to eat unhealthily. I don't agree with the sugar levy, whilst the overall message is a healthy one, and the cost of some unhealthy products has risen, this tactic fails to lower the cost of the healthy items.

When living in a city where the cost of living is so high, lowering the cost of fresh fruit and veg and healthy snacks and making it cheaper and easier for people to eat healthily really is key.

Real healthy food should be made cheaper.  It's a shame that the healthiest foods can also be the most expensive.  For people without much money it's cheaper for them to buy cheap processed foods over the healthier fruit, vegatetables, pulses and whole grains.  We sacrifice other areas of our life so we can afford good organic plant based foods for our family.  Really these are the foods that should be the cheapest as they are the ones that would increase peoples health and as a result take the strain off hospitals and doctors.  Increase taxes on processed foods and make raw food products such as fruit, vegetables and pulses tax free so more people can afford to eat that kind of diet.

What I want is more healthy food that is tasty, less packaging around food, more intersting vegetarian food available.

I am not a vegetarian but I don't eat meat except for chicken and I like fish.  However I know vegetarians and I like vegetarian food especially when it is a healthier option.  But, when eating out vegetarian options are mostly very limited and often tasteless and boring.  Even for non-veggies there should be more veg/salad to go with the meat or fish bit and more fruit to go with the naughty puddings to give a better balance.

These days there is so much temptation and not enough info on what is good and what is bad and it is so easy for people to get very over weight.  Not that long ago, before all the ready meals and masses of junk food became commonplace, people were generally rather slim and looked good and felt better (and were also more active - less cars for a start but that's another issue). Education on nutrition would be a great help.  It's no good saying the parents should control their children as often the parents are obese and have no idea themselves and are a big part of the reason the children are overweight.  So many people don't undestand about nutrition so I think it should be taught at school to everyone - it's a basic life skill that everyone needs.  In the meantime nutrition info should be put out somehow to all.  There are the odd TV programmes that explain but not eveyone will watch them.

I try to support local business / farmer or preparing their products at home

What I can buy within a few minutes walk of home that is healthy (check the traffic lights!) and reasonably easy to prepare.  

We aim to eat as much fresh organic produce as possible although this is not always afffordable. Diabetes is dangerously on the rise and yet there is still far too much added sugar in our food. Supermarket bread, cereals and ready meals are far too high in sugar and saturated fats and antibiotics in meat and poultry are very concerning. We are fortunate to live close to a good fruit and vegetable stall, a healthfood shop and a weekly farmers market so can access fresh fruit vegetables and good fish, cheeses, pulses and olive oil. But it's very expensive. There are some great food outlets and restaurants in London, but for people on a tight budget it's the cheap sugary high fat and salty foods that are more accessible and affordable. Why does almost everything have added sugar (even natural sugar like maple syrup) when it's not necessary?

We can eat very healthily at home but to eat out healthily in London certainly costs. 

My main considerations are: is it healthy (low sugar, low processed, lots of fruit and veg, variety of food sources); is it produced, packaged and sold in a way that would have lowest negative impact on the environment; largely or wholly vegetarian.

It is possiblke to eat healthily in London - but more difficult to - costs more, have to go out of your way often. And being bombarded by unhealthy food and encouragement to over stuff ourselves from every/ every other shop outlet now being some sort of food outlet or chain - and thei sight of people constantly eating on the mpve - makes it very hard to resist giving in!

I look for healthy tasty food which for me is often Japanese. I find my choices restricted in London, in major part due to the import restrictions imposed by the EU protecting EU interests from Japanese Producers. Finding authentic Japanese ingredients is often very difficult and the already high costs of eating in London is made worse by this. I hope that post Brexit, trade barriers with Japan will come down and the costs of Japanese food in Lodnon will follow suit. I would liek to see London forging stronger cultural links with other Major World Cities and food is a very strong part of that culture. There has been a tendency of late in Britain to think food is European, Indian or Chinese but that is a far too restrictive view and we shoudl promote more diversity.

Just eat what you enjoy.

There is so much choice in the supermarkets now.

Just choose a restaurant to suite you taste and budget.

Don't complain about the price all the time.

I'm a pensioner but I eat a balanced diet that we cook ourselves and also eat at restaurants we like and can afford.

I always choose my food for its quality. First of all, I don't eat sugar for more than 10 years because everyone knows that it is a proper addictive poison for our body. And this should be the first "food" that the authority should get illegal. There are lots of different substitutes of it like the xylitol, Truvia, stevia, honey and some fructose.
Then, of course, less red meat and cheese than you can (once per week). Here in London if you want to eat healthily you have to spend more than the junk food. This is the real problem!

But I would like to highlight the real scandal here in the UK: the junk food in the schools. There are the majority of the English schools that give low-quality frozen pizzas, fried chicken and fries, besides the number of junk sweets full of poison (sugar).

This is unacceptable and outrageous because in this case, they cannot choose the healthy food they want.
Am I wrong?

Let's change it please, cause we are what we eat.

I avoid fried, salty and sugary foods, and seek out leafy greens, whole grains, organic fruit and nuts. Morefish than meat, very little red meat, vegetarian at least twice a week.

Plenty of healthy food in London, but I find healthy food can be either convenient and expensive, or cheap and inconvenient. Plenty of discount supermarkets and markets selling good value healthy ingredients, the cheapest foisted you can buy often, if you have the time to cook from scratch. If you want healthy food that is ready prepared, then it costs more than unhealthy fast food. 

People who chose to do all their food shopping Online are in fact missing on many of the bargins and reductions that are only available in the shop. 

organic and locally sourced products. grass fed meat. in London it's a great place to eat helathy but it's too expensive.