Speaker A. (A boy aged about. 20) Everyone I talk to seems to eat rubbish. I can’t understand it. When I ask them if they learned about health and nutrition at school, they say they did. We are all students so we have plenty of time to cook. One of my friends eats fried chicken every day. When I tell him how unhealthy it is, he just smiles and says: ‘I know, but it’s delicious’!

Speaker В. (A woman aged about. 40) Why do people eat so badly in this country? I think it’s a lack of knowledge. I know schools try to teach their pupils about health but schoolchildren are too young to care and they forget these lessons later in life. There should be someone in Parliament who could organize cookery lessons for adults. Then we could tax fast food and use the taxes to pay for the lessons.

Speaker С. (A man aged about. 50) My parents ate very healthily and I enjoyed cooking when I was younger. I still do, and I love trying new recipes from countries that I’ve visited. So why do I eat fast food or frozen meals so often? I’m not poor and I can afford to buy high quality ingredients. The problem is that I’m a politician and I get home, exhausted at about 9pm. If I had to cook, I wouldn’t get to bed until about midnight.

Speaker D. (A girl about. 18) I’ve heard a lot of people complaining that supermarkets are forcing us to buy packaged food and that there are too may fast-⁠food restaurants. I’ve heard people blaming schools for not teaching cookery anymore but why? There are thousands of websites with cheap, healthy recipes from all over the world on them. It’s not difficult to change your diet. Just do it and don’t expect others to do everything for you.

Speaker Е. (A man aged about. 30) Jamie Oliver is right. We can’t blame poverty. We can’t blame politicians and we can’t blame a lack of time. I know Britain doesn’t have a long history of healthy food but we live in an Internet age now. We can get recipes from anywhere in the world. A lot of people in the world have a lot less to live on than even the poorest people in this country but they don’t eat badly. Let’s start looking to them for ideas.

Speaker F. (A woman aged about. 30) People say that poor people eat badly in this country. They say that, in other countries, people buy cheap vegetables and eat healthily. They ask why we don’t do the same. Well, I had great cookery lessons at school but I can’t afford to cook healthy meals. Why? Because fresh fruit and vegetables are very expensive here. Not only that but most of the recipes I know need a lot of cooking time which means higher gas and electric bills.