jrussel Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I have become increasingly aware of the fact that > many people, younger ones particularly, seem to > exist on a diet almost exclusively made up from > pasta. Or at least, a mixture of that and fried > chicken takeaway type meals when they are not at > home. Why so? I suspect the reasons are: > > - It's easy to cook. Any fool can cook pasta. > - It is easy to store. Meaning no organisation is > required in terms of planning ahead, unlike other > foodstuffs such as vegetables which tend to go > off. > - Many people probably do not realise that the > different shapes of pasta are in fact all the same > thing. They think they are getting a varied diet > but they aren't. > - Romantic associations attached to pasta: sunny > Italian villages and suchlike. > - Aggressive advertising by pasta sauce > manufacturers. > > The only variance in a pasta-based diet is to be > found in the accompanying sauces. But invariably > these are heavily processed substances from tubes > or cans. Of course some problems could be avoided > by cooking nutritious homemade sauces and side > dishes to go with the pasta but this is only a > sticking plaster solution and in any case, the > kind of people I am talking about are not capable > of this. Hahahaha jrussel I love ya! of course any "fool" can cook pasta... the more important thing would be SHOULD they? ;-) Yes pasta is easy to store but requires no organisation? Surely one needs to organise the pasta cupboard in such an order where consideration is taken for the size of the packet (or box if you're SUPER organised), which pasta is used most frequent, whether one has a particular pasta for certain "sauces", whether it needs to be in order of how long it takes to cook, if its gluten free/brown/easy cook, what about the "fresh" stuff? AND the spinach and tomato varieties??? see the list goes on. Hardly something to be thought as requiring NO organisation at all! Romantic associations? HAHAHAHA u having a larf!! Most concerning tho is certainly the "aggressive advertising bye suace manufacturers". Where/what have you been/seen such tactics jrussel? "buy and eat pasta or the spud gets mashed"??? ;-)