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Bad Food Britain: How A Nation Ruined Its Appetite
Fourth Estate Ltd Search Fourth Estate Ltd by Joanna Blythman Search Joanna Blythman
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Customer Reviews:
One sided non-rounded take on things...
Bad Food Britain - good title but unfortunately Joanna takes a full book to say what a decent newspaper article could do, herein is my problem.
The main premise of the book is that pre-packaged frozen food is the main staple of the British diet juxtapositioned against the european household, which seemingly is a bastion of fresh, fabulous creations for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper, whereby hundreds of family members laugh, converse, debate and generally live life to the fullest around the dining table never eating the same meal twice in any one decade....and the lonely individuals which make up the British 2.4 family eat in front of the flickering idiot box with chemically prepared mush in front of them like zombies never taking their eyes off the magical screen (ironically watching some *superstar* chef prepare eggs bendict by first inseminating the hen live) etc... etc..
Whilst the reality may not be too far from this scenario, what Joanna has failed to do is to flesh the book out with some solid factual information about what exactly these "artificial" ingredients actually are and why they are actually harmful to us.
This information would have given some credence to her writing and some interesting insight into the food industry. She does touch on the sneaky yet very clever way that the advertisers get people to buy into the whole "fresh and wholesome" idea of their chemically produced fare but she doesn't really give anything more.
I would recommend "Fast Food Nation" or "Fat Land" over this 2D analysis of the British diet. And just for the record, I do buy fresh produce - I do cook even after a long day at work - I am an average Briton...C'est la vie.
Read, ye junk food eaters, and despair
Following on from the glittering tour de force that was 'Shopped', this is a wider attack on the food industry, not only on supermarkets but on the food companies, the government, schools and families that have turned British food into the homogenized, fatty, effort-free laughing stock that it is today.
Blythman skilfully compares our current food culture not only with contemporary European trends and American junk food, but also with our own history - we may have been less fat, and have cooked more and passed on vital culinary knowledge but, she argues, even fifty years ago we were favouring fatty traditional food and packet mixes over healthier meals cooked from scratch. The comparison of our eating habits and values with those of our European neighbours is devastating, particularly relating to family values around mealtimes and healthy eating, and the way school meals are approached here compared to France, for example.
Though the book doesn't try to beat the reader over the head and inspire them to turn their entire lifestyle around the way 'Shopped' does, it is still very relevant, thought-provoking, and extremely accessible. Perhaps despite our lack of a real British food culture, Blythman can offer some inspiration to us to try to eat fresher food, cook simple, wholesome dishes, and enjoy our meals instead of accepting our Bad Food and letting the decline continue!
An excellent polemic 
This passionate polemic is readable and entertaining throughout. Blythman has an argument to make and deploys anecdote and statistics to do so, but the real strength of her approach is its breadth.
We are used to reading about our bad food: it's the supermarkets' fault; it's schools' faults; we have too much fast food; it's farmers' fault for not caring for animal welfare or the environment; or it's the government's fault. But Blythman while acknowledging all of these co-conspirators locates the blame squarely in the culture we all share.
Each of the above offenders only succeed, she argues, because they deliver to the British public what they want. No one culprit is to blame, but a vicious circle means ever worsening food backs them all up.
One satisfying aspect of this approach is that the TV backlash against mass produced food, the much-reviewed London restaurants or the Dr Gillian McKeiths of our world are not presented as heroes but as part of the whole dysfucntional problem. In other words, this is not just the work of a foodie snob sneering at what poor people eat, she nails the food snobs too.
My main criticism of the book is that Blythman's counterpoint to our sad food culture, the culture in Europe, is too perfect to be true. She gives good examples of how things are better in Europe (and few would argue they are not) but her vision is somewhat idealised and generalised.
In addition, she could, like many journalists, really bolster her analysis if she had an appreciation of the world beyond Europe and the US. In Japan and South East Asia there are important lessons to be learned about the erosion and preservation of food culture, but we never hear about them.
Read it and weep
Another book that had a huge impact on my shopping and consumer behaviour. Well written and d well argued, this should be essential reading for anyone who buys or eats food. Joanna writes well and fluidly, neatly skewering the irony of the nation that doesn't cook and lives on ready meals but is drowning in a slew of cookery books, magaines and food programs. She shines a powerful light on to the appalling state of child nutrition in schools, restaurants and homes. It's not a rant or a polemic however and there's also a great deal of humour and irony in her writing. Read this together with Hugh Fearnley Whittinstall's 'Meat' and Felicity Lawrence's 'Whats Not on the Label' and Eric Schlosser's 'Fast Food Nation' and if you're still heading for the supermarket 'ready meal' aisles then shame on you. Blytheman was ahead of the game and in the light of the current spate of food programmes laying bare our bizarre and tortured relationship with food and food production,this book remains as relevant as ever. (I'm ordering a second copy as my original is so battered and worn from re-reading). The role supine and craven governments in thrall to big business interests, an industrialised food industry driven by profit and shareholder interest and consumer lack of interest in what is eaten and how it is produced is expertly laid bare. Above all the way in which we as consumers collude with the industry, determinedly practicing self deception to protect and deliberately nurture our ignorance is cruelly well depicted. Joanna neatly lays bare the folly and denial that lies behind the 'so busy I haven't time to cook' excuse and the determined pursuit of ever cheaper food that underpins our shopping habits. We're not powerless victims but willing collaboraters enthusiastically assisting to create the current state and understanding of British food and nutrition. We don't cook because we can't be bothered to cook and don't value the role food, cooking and shopping for food plays in our lives and society. Its uncomfortable reading precisely because we as consumers have the power to act but don't and there's a lot of people who won't face up to the realities behind our idolisation of cheap, industrially produced food at any costs. This book is shocking, ironic, funny, angry and only too accurate a picture of our food culture. It's a cry to arms to all of us as consumers to stop playing the victim card and to think about what they eat and how they shop. I certainly haven't bought a 'buy one get one free' meat product since reading this and I haven't bought a 'ready meal' in over 2 years. (And I do work full time and have a very busy schedule).
Smug, simplistic and unreliable 
Having read Shopped, I was prepared to be amused by this book. But the writer's lack of understanding of statistics, her cheap anecdotal evidence and her fantasies about life here and on the continent disappointed me enormously.
Yes, there is a problem with food and cooking in this country. It is representative of a larger problem with work, shopping and time.
My copy is going straight in the charity shop box.
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