Back in flavour! Why ARE we turning to nostalgic nosh to help us cope with the recession?

by Jan Moir - 14/09/2009

"Do you fancy a Wagon Wheel with that cup of tea? Go on. You know you want one."

Just sink your teeth into the famous, individually wrapped mallow biscuit with its ominous-sounding ' chocolate flavour' coating. Crump, crump, munch. Aaaah.

Feel better now? You should do. For you have not merely satisfied a sugar craving, made an interesting breakfast choice or plugged the post-lunch/pre-theatre hunger gap.

You have just indulged in what food experts call recessionary-induced emotional eating. And you thought you were just being a greedy pig!

Dear old Wagon Wheels are just one of the food items that have rolled right back into fashion as beleaguered and depressed British consumers hanker after the nostalgia, flavours and carb-rich comforts of yesteryear.

Sales of long-forgotten foodstuffs, such as Arctic Rolls, Cadbury's Wispa bars, Angel Delight, the Steakhouse brands and Findus Crispy Pancakes are fuelling an edible nostalgia boom worth more than several hundred million pounds.

So gaze upon the dinner tables and teatime trays of this once great country and ask yourself: what in the name of Bird's Eye Haddock Lattice is going on?

Exactly this. A tanking economy, global warming, assorted wars, that pesky UK-based green shoot-free recession, the terrorist threat and a general feeling of impending doom have all had a big effect on consumer needs and choices. All that stands between us and the end of civilisation as we know it is a tube of banana Toffos!

Subliminally, we want to pretend that we are living in another age. Eating and drinking retro foods and beverages is the most direct and sensory way of fooling ourselves that everything is fine.

To devour a mint humbug - pick and mix your own generational equivalent - is to instantly project yourself back into childhood. It is the gustatory equivalent of burying one's head in the sand.

So as the going gets tough, the tough get stuck into a glass of dandelion and burdock - now available everywhere - and head for Memory Lane, pausing only to turn right down the Alimentary Canal.

Proust had his madeleines. Popeye had his spinach. We have our packets of Monster Munch, our Fab ice lollies (sales up a remarkable 27 per cent) or perhaps a nice slice of retro comfort in the shape of a Victoria sponge cake (up 12 per cent) to get us through the gloom.

To paraphrase Chesterton, we are the people of England, that never has eaten yet. So, if you thought the Seventies and Eighties were nothing but wall-to-wall bad taste, from Terry Scott advertising Curly Wurlies dressed as a schoolboy to Barry Gibb's unfeasibly tight trousers - stop it, you're putting me off my bumper pack of Kraft coconut marshmallows - then you'd better think again.

For recessionary-induced emotional eating is everywhere. One whiff of a Bird's Eye Chicken Pie crisping in the oven is enough to transport thousands of us back to a childhood of scraped knees, Clarks sandals and afternoons dappled with sunlight.

Or the quiet joy of a new Enid Blyton and a Mivvi freshly shucked from its paper wrapper.