Eating well is a long-term investment in good health, which is within the reach of most Scots. Yet the image, and too often the reality, of a Scotch pie and chips, washed down by a sugary drink or a beer, is the reverse. The conditions to which poor diet and obesity give rise are, in health terms, burdensome to treat, poor in outcome, and more common in Scotland than almost anywhere else. In human terms, they account for diminished lives, pain and stress. Of course, food cannot simply be approached in terms of health.
Food is also a part of people's enjoyment of life.
Eating out, linked both to work and pleasure, has become common. And many people are fed by others. This is true in households, but also in workplaces, schools and other institutions. The concept of diet as medicine is profoundly unappealing and will not work. But a framework of healthy eating, which looks more to fruit and vegetables, cereals, fish and leaner meat, and less to fat, sugar and salt, can offer plenty of room for enjoyable, varied, and adventurous life-long eating, that takes account of the cornucopia of foods available in Scotland, and the restrictions on those whose income limits choice.