Low income equals low quality diet (Το καλό φαγητό δεν είναι φτηνό)

Here in Crete, people generally eat a lot and have rotund bodies. The middle class eat a lot of ready-to-eat food, eg souvlaki and other takeaways, while the poor buy low-quality supermarket brandname food to prepare their meals with, eg cheap ham, cheese, macaroni, sliced bread etc. The well-off definitely eat better. For a start, they themselves cook less, their food contains more high quality ingredients, eg fresh fish, and food is not the most important priority in their daily lives, with the result that they eat quality and not quantity. A low income definitely equates with a low quality diet.

As the chief cook in my family, I limit meat intake to a mince or chicken dish mid-week, and a pork, lamb or beef dish at the weekends. We grow a wide range of summer vegetables, and limit our sugar intake to a bought sweet once a week and a homemade madeira cake that I cook on a weekly basis. On non-meat days, we eat rice, macaroni or potato dishes cooked with vegetables, and always served with a salad. Once a week is devoted to a bean dish, eg lentils, bean soup, etc. We don't eat out very often, because we find it too expensive to eat quality meals at restaurants, while budget restaurant meals are of low quality. As the children are quite young, they are still eating at home, but once they start eating out with friends, I doubt they will be eating good quality meals. You definitely are what you eat.

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SEE ALSO:
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Taste sensationalism
School meals
The restaurants in the Agora
The rape of the countryside
Bulgarian pasta
Snacks
The open-air market
GAIA
To eat or not to eat?
A day in the field
Losing weight
Freezer clearout
Weekly food plan
Fridge contents
Eating locally