Changing Lifestyles

Many people still think that the ‘normal’ living arrangement consists of a family made up of a male adult, a female adult and one to two children. In fact, only one quarter of all UK households fall into this pattern. There are actually more households made up of just one person. Another 27 per cent are married couples with no children.

If you live by yourself, conventional meals can sometimes be a bit of a bother — you may skip some in exchange for several snacks or take-aways, (does this sound like you). If you have no children you may feel less pressure always to eat at the same time, or mostly at the same place.

Work patterns also dictate our eating habits. By 1988, women made up 48 per cent of the work-force. The reasons?: a mixture of greater  emancipation and a desire for a proper career — and an economic need to support the family. But a working woman approaches meals and meal preparation very differently from one whose main role is to look after the house and family. Many employees, are expected by employers to work shifts. Nearly half of those employed work at weekends, 12 per cent do shift work based on the ordinary working day, and Just under 2 per cent work nights. All of this has an enormous effect on whet, we eat as well as what we eat. This affects not only those who actually do the shift work, but everyone who lives with them, including children. Working in shifts means eating in shifts. There is a hidden hazard here, for slimmers: you may tend to eat with your loved ones as well as when you yourself are hungry — simply as a way of sharing some time with them.

There has been one other change during the last decade: many of us are having to travel longer distances to work.

Some of us have voluntarily abandoned the inner suburbs in order to live in a healthier and cleaner environment; others have found that a house or flat big enough for their needs is just too expensive in the city. Longer commutes means no breakfasts, snacks in the morning, later evening meals and, to compensate, more sneaked snacks in the late afternoon. The energy content of many favourite snacks can cause severe disruption to any diet plan.

This changed lifestyle also affects our patterns of hunger and appetite — we may feel hungry at times of the day when it is inconvenient to prepare and eat ‘healthy’ food. Our stomachs crave satisfaction when all that is available is instant junk food. Unless we have everything under control, any controlled diet scheme  will soon fall to pieces. What is worse, many of us are too weak-willed to tell ourselves that such snacks don’t really count: ‘It doesn’t matter that I had a quick packet of crisps or a biscuit, because my main meal of the day came with a “Low Caloric” label on it.’ Check out the calorie tables for crisps and biscuits in the eating out section, and see if you can still fool yourself!

The food industry — both manufacturers and retailers have adapted to our new lifestyles. Chill- cooked (or half-cooked) foods, new packaging methods, and new semi-instant foods to be cooked rapidly in microwaves have all become very important parts of our diet.

The traditional formal meal hasn’t completely disappeared, and it still plays an important role in our lives — but look carefully at the last week or two of your life: how much of your diet was made up of traditional meals?