A TAKE-AWAY-FREE ZONE

The average person, it's claimed today in the media, spends £365 a year on takeaway food. A lot of money - for very little nutritional or ideological reward.

A bit ago I read a book called Fast Food Nation - actually about America and the global junk food industry and well worth a dekko if you're a bit of an addict and want to find out some extremely good reasons for not funding the corporations who are ruining our health..Indeed, I can recall on my first -ever visit to the US being amazed at the number of grossly overweight people there were wandering about.

Almost 20 years on, the UK is fast catching up. No wonder. According to the study being quoted in today's papers, some gargantuan versions of take-out meals like burgers, fish and chips and chicken tikka masala amount to 3,000 calories - that's roughly a day and a half's worth of calories for the average person in ONE MEAL.

Now I have to declare an interest in this story as am currently on stringent diet which bans all forms of curry/chips/pizza etc but even when not I have never ever seen the attraction of takeaway food. Basically, it's all the expense without the fun of sitting down and enjoying a meal out. Clearly, and withoiut being smug because I have no cause to be, I am in a minority.

At a time when there are more food programmes on the TV than ever before, the irony is that fewer and fewer of us are bothering ( or even care) about what we eat as long as there's plenty of it.....