This article uses data from the 1993 Health and Lifestyles Survey of England to present findings on how, why and when people use cooking skills; where and from whom people learn these skills. The implications for policy are explored. The survey data suggests that socioeconomic status and education are associated with the sources of people's knowledge about cooking. The first or prime source of learning about cooking skills was reported to be mothers; cooking classes in school were cited as the next most important by the majority of correspondents, with some class and educational variations. The importance of mothers as sources of information on cooking skills is observed in all social classes. What emerges is a population unsure of specific cooking techniques and lacking in confidence to apply techniques and cook certain foods. Women still bear the burden of cooking for the household, with four out of every five women respondents cooking on most or every day, compared with one in five men. This may be related to the large number of men who claim to have no cooking skills (one in five).

Demographic and socioeconomic factors can act as powerful predictors of consultation patterns. Though it will always be necessary to retain some local planning discretion, the sets of coefficients estimated for individual level factors, area level characteristics, and for practice groupings may be sufficient to provide an indicative level of demand for general medical services. Although the problems in using socioeconomic data from individual patients would be substantial, these results are relevant to the development of a resource allocation formula for general practice.

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This is the unspecified version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link 2 ABSTRACTThis article examines the issues of access to food and the influences people face when shopping for a healthy food basket. It uses data from the Health Education Authority's 1993Health and Lifestyle Survey to examine the barriers people face in accessing a healthy diet.The main findings are that access to food is primarily determined by income, and this is in turn closely related to physical resources available to access healthy food. There is an associated class bias over access to sources of healthy food. The poor have less access to a car, find it harder to get to out of town shopping centres and thus less able to carry and transport food in bulk. The majority of people shop in supermarkets as they report that local shops do not provide the services people demand and that food choice and quality are limited.In tackling food poverty and promoting healthy eating health promotion practice needs to address these structural issues as opposed to relying on psycho-social models of education based on the provision of information and choice.