Oats So Simple

Oh well, there's nothing like a third kick in the balls regarding healthy eating, it looks like 2014 is going to be one of those years. It started with the withdrawal of the health eating naan breads, our alternative to most breads and carried on with fromage frais consistently out of stock and the large tubs withdrawn in all supermarkets within twenty square miles. Last night I decided to have a few nairns oatcakes, a great low fat snack and broke open their new black pepper flavour which after looking in the supermarket promised the same great flavour but lower carbohydrates, a win win.

Then I noticed something sneaky, the packaging although it was the same size showed more oatcakes on the front. I'm always suspicious of packaging especially when they start extolling the virtues of a product but in this case didn't look hard enough. Can you spot the difference even though both cost the same price and are in the same size packaging?

There is 50g less in the 'new' black pepper range but it's been pimped up to disguise the fact that you are going to be a fifth poorer buying them. Even worse they were purchased because they offered 5g less carbohydrates per oatcake, it's only after visiting their website that they declare that the packaging has been incorrectly printed and the low carbohydrate claim is in in fact incorrect. I don't know about you but I'm absolutely sick to death of being ripped off over food, the manipulation of packaging and weights and being overcharged for healthier alternatives. According to reports a family of four that eats a healthy diet adds another £1500 to their normal food bills, that's a staggering amount so moves like this with the Nairns oatcakes just add more financial pressure on a healthy lifestyle.

A simple meal for two of a cooked chicken breast each (£3.25 for two), mixed veg (cheapest 75p) with a reduced fat mushroom soup sauce (95p) with fresh mushrooms (79p) and rice (value version 40p) costs £6.14 or you could have six, yes six ready meals and save time, dispense with messy preparation, washing up spend your remaining 14p on a Haribo Starmix. In a world of tight budgets it's a no brainer really and no surprise that in 2011 1.85 billion pounds of ready meals were sold with a 6% increase each year. Sigh.

So today the whole ready meal industry, supermarkets and manufacturers of certain oat cakes gets three couruses from the world famous buttband ensemble. Take it away boys!