How many sausages per person with bangers and mash? Are we a greedy family?

[sadpapercourtesan]

Bangers and mash for dinner tonight (I'm having soup because I'm trying to lose weight) and I was wondering what a normal portion looks like to other people? DH and my 16 and 18yo sons will eat at least 4 sausages each with a big pile of mash/peas/gravy. They would eat more sausages if there were more available! I remember when I was a child we were given 2 sausages each, but then I remember being very hungry as a child and meals often weren't generous enough (cup a soup and two slices of dry bread as dinner for a 9yo, for example).

So - how many sausages?

what other people eat won't tell you what you "should" be eating as an ideal portion either. people are different. that's why nutritionists are a thing.

The number of sausages someone has in a meal won't tell you whether they are likely to become obese. Plenty of people have one big meal and two smaller meals and are not overweight.
This.
I agree with PP about portion size and being overweight/obese and do think people's sense of what a portion is is out of balance, which makes sense given the average person is now overweight.

But sausages in a meal doesn't tell anyone very much beyond how many sausages someone would have, and unsurprisingly there's some people who want more meat than veg in their meal whilst others would have 2 sausages and more veg.

Food threads amuse me though because the average person in the UK is overweight and IIRC child obesity is on the rise but apparently on here everyone's children eat huge portions, 4 sausages in a meal but are all super athletic and slim. Meanwhile lots of posters competitively under eat so couldn't manage a single sausage with a meal because they would be full from the single lettuce leaf they had at lunch. It's funny and bizarre.

@Pebbles574

NHS dieticians recommend if you currently eat more than 90g (cooked weight) of red and processed meat a day that you cut down to 70g.

That's less than 2 sausages.

www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/meat-nutrition/

If you ARE going to eat more, then better to grill them and lose the fat, than fry or oven bake.

So, they could be eating 4 one day and no other red meat for a month? This is the problem when you make other people's diets "your business". You don't know them or their habits 🤷‍♀️.

IF someone is obese, there will be a lot more to it than sausages.

Also, your link is not actually concerned with weight. A skinny person also should be limiting their red meat even if they need to gain weight.

Amen @LolaSmiles. I truly don't know why I bother with food or weight threads on here. They are always so ignorant with outdated 'advice' from 'concerned' about anyone who isn't themselves and their weight.

'Concerned' about anyone who isn't themselves and their weight

I meant^^

*NHS dieticians recommend if you currently eat more than 90g (cooked weight) of red and processed meat a day that you cut down to 70g.

That's less than 2 sausages.

www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/meat-nutrition/

If you ARE going to eat more, then better to grill them and lose the fat, than fry or oven bake*

What if you only eat red or processed meat once or twice a week? Not everyday?

Literally no one eats a diet that follows all the diet "recommendations".

Food threads amuse me though because the average person in the UK is overweight and IIRC child obesity is on the rise but apparently on here everyone's children eat huge portions, 4 sausages in a meal but are all super athletic and slim. Meanwhile lots of posters competitively under eat so couldn't manage a single sausage with a meal because they would be full from the single lettuce leaf they had at lunch. It's funny and bizarre.

But doesn’t that just show that despite the average (which is a really blunt tool here) that there is a lot of deviation from this. How many sausages we eat is a snapshot for our family, who tend to eat quite differently from the ‘average’. Eg ds1 doesn’t eat potatoes so will eat 2-3 sausages and nothing else. I am very tall and athletic and I eat a low carb high fat diet, so will eat 4 sausages and loads of buttered greens, yet I am a size 12 and very healthy (I had recent medicals and was asked if I was a professional athlete as I was so healthy). There will always be exceptions to the average.

I personally avoid any nutritional advice or information from the NHS as I think it’s rubbish. My opinion is based on recent and emerging research. They still are advising low fat high carb type diets which isn’t great for diabetes and regulating blood sugar. That’s my choice and it works for me. Doesn’t mean I’m ill informed and in denial about being fat.

@LolaSmiles - I agree, MN is funny and bizarre about this issue. I should know better from my many years on here not to stray into the debate.

I'm not a 'concern troll' (or any of the other insults which routinely get flung) my position comes from genuine concern at the direction our country is heading in the obesity stakes.
I've worked in and around the food industry and public health for nearly 30 years and I have never been so depressed at the state of our nation's health.

Of course it is systemic failure across so many sectors:

• lack of food and nutrition/ proper health education in schools
• lack of time and knowledge to prepare health food
• lack of family & economic support for young, especially one-parent families
• availability and lack of regulation of high sugar/high fat food marketing/ ready meals
• normalisation of bigger sizes
• unwillingness to accept any discussion of weight issues/obesity except for in the context of MH issues/ medical issues/ 'other' extenuating circumstances

Anyway, the appetite on this thread is for sausages, not for health education so I'll bow out. But hey, next time perhaps add an extra tin of beans rather than 4th or 5th sausage?

DH and DS(17) get 3, I'd have 2 (because I'm not keen), and DD8 would have 1. Any cooked and left over I save and someone will have the day after.

But doesn’t that just show that despite the average (which is a really blunt tool here) that there is a lot of deviation from this. How many sausages we eat is a snapshot for our family, who tend to eat quite differently from the ‘average’. Eg ds1 doesn’t eat potatoes so will eat 2-3 sausages and nothing else. I am very tall and athletic and I eat a low carb high fat diet, so will eat 4 sausages and loads of buttered greens, yet I am a size 12 and very healthy (I had recent medicals and was asked if I was a professional athlete as I was so healthy). There will always be exceptions to the average.
I have literally just said that how many sausages someone has in one meal doesn't tell us much.

I wonder how many have used this thread to consider if they maybe eat too many sausages or too much meat generally?

The thread was asking how many people eat and people answered. But having always given X amount of sausages or any other food doesn’t mean we have to rigidly defend that position and never adjust.

Most of us would benefit from eating more veg or less red meat or less carbs, and it wouldn’t mean we would be hungry.

We know for a fact that most people overeat. Yes, this is just one meal and we can’t tell everything about food intake from that one meal. But there are an awful lot of people saying ‘he needs a lot of sausages’. There will be lots of posters on this thread who do fall into the category of misjudging portion size, just based on statistics, because large proportions of the population do.

I haven’t seen anyone say that on the basis of this they might consider reducing from 4 to 3 or whatever.. but perhaps these threads make people defensive and determined to insist they are always right. Clearly there won’t be a categorical right answer for everyone, but most of us would gain from smaller portions of processed meat, even if we love them.

@LolaSmiles

But doesn’t that just show that despite the average (which is a really blunt tool here) that there is a lot of deviation from this. How many sausages we eat is a snapshot for our family, who tend to eat quite differently from the ‘average’. Eg ds1 doesn’t eat potatoes so will eat 2-3 sausages and nothing else. I am very tall and athletic and I eat a low carb high fat diet, so will eat 4 sausages and loads of buttered greens, yet I am a size 12 and very healthy (I had recent medicals and was asked if I was a professional athlete as I was so healthy). There will always be exceptions to the average. I have literally just said that how many sausages someone has in one meal doesn't tell us much.

I know, I’m generally agreeing with you (obviously badly worded as cooking lunch - not sausages- at the same time) but the first sentence in the paragraph I quoted I interpreted as a little incredulous that despite the average everyone was saying they were different and therefore may be in denial/unaware. I was also addressing pebbles point about the NHS.

But hey, next time perhaps add an extra tin of beans rather than 4th or 5th sausage?

Will you be doing that for the members of your own family who have too many? You are a hypocrite otherwise.

MrsKoala
I see what you mean.

I was just laughing at Mumsnet life. A thread about kids eating almost always seems to turn into a competition over which children eat the most whilst being super athletic, very tall and slim, and can never gain any weight if they tried... but in a totally healthy way obviously.

A thread about women eating turns into a competition of who can eat the least and how posters are simply too full to eat 3 meals a day as that's faaaar too much food for an adult/no wonder there's an obesity crisis when people have two spoons of green beans with their steak.

It's as predictable as the Mumsner chicken feeding a family of 4 for 9 days and anything under £50k a year being a low salary.

I have three of the Richmond Meat free ones, mash and loads of broccoli and gravy ...yum!

This thread is classic MN.

A whole tin of beans????? I have just fainted away into a diabetic coma

I do love a sausage and mash tea!

Got to be decent sausages though, can't stand a Richmond!

I'll have 2 sometimes 3 if I'm hungry, I'll plate OH up 4 but he would easily eat more if there is any. DD who's 3 will eat 1 and 5 year old DS will eat 2 sometimes 3 as it's favourite meal.

We're all fit, active and eat pretty healthy most of the time, so I'm not worried at all about previous posts of becoming obese for just having a extra 1 or 2 sausages every so often 😂

@rawalpindithelabrador

It certainly is classic. It lucky it wasnt a drinking game as I'd be really trollied by now!
-strapping teens ✔
-6'3" DH✔
-proper sausages✔

• butchers sausages✔

-organic sausages✔

• sausage snobbery about cheap sausages✔
• not being able to finish a whole sausage✔
• concern about (other peoples) portion control✔
• unlimited veg✔
• unable to imagine the gluttony of more than 2 sausages✔

Have I missed anything?
I think the mash got away quite lightly considering it's a carb....

You missed a few @Exhausteddog

Talking about “wolfing” and “scoffing” instead of eating ✔️

Oh noes, the NHS ✔️

Anyone not frothing themselves into a frenzy about what other people eat must be a big fat heifer who’s one sausage away from being on a channel 5 documentary about people being winched out of their houses for gastric band surgery ✔️

@MadameButterface

Dh has 4-6. If there's any more he'll finish them too. He's incredibly active, runs, works out, manual work and doesn't snack so has big portions at mealtimes.

I have 2-3. Primary dc have 1.5 fat ones each or 2 chipolatas. Only buy sausages with at least 80% pork.

"Have I missed anything?"

Has anyone mentioned their husband having a "very physical job" so burns off a million calories per second just be existing and needs an entire roasted hog for dinner every night?

Two per person. And I think even that is quite a lot of saturated fat. I mean, my teens probably could eat more, but that doesn’t mean they should. I definitely wouldn’t be able to eat four.

The carbs, Madame, won't someone think of the carbs?!