To think that we don't actually need to eat "a hot meal" every day?

[Machli]

Dd and I both prefer cold food, salads, fruit, sandwiches. Most days dd eats 8 plus portions of fruit and veg a day. I am not so well nourished .

It seems that many don't feel it's a proper meal unless its a big cooked, hot one. I quite often see "kids need a hot meal" or "I always make sure there's one hot meal a day, cooked from scratch" on here.

A lot of food that needs to be cooked, pasta, rice etc hold minimal nutrients and usually cooking processes destroy or diminish nutrients also. Understand that meat and fish need to be cooked to make it safe and palatable to eat, but I just don't understand why it's so necessary to provide a hot meal daily.

What is the reasoning behind The Hot Meal?

YANBU - I never have a cooked meal.

Always cook for DH and DS though.

No idea, salads and such like sound perfectly fine to me. I think the idea is to not live on sandwiches/ beans on toast (although I don't have a massive problem with the occassional beans on toast meal anyway)

I think there is a lot if comfort in a hot meal, especially if you are really hungry. In summer I am happy with salads and a bit if grilled meat/fish but I definitely get comfort from soup in winter.

I see no harm in it and during the summer we don't eat as many hot dinners either. But during the winter a hot meal is an easy way of keeping your core body temperature up.

Are you sure that people actually mean 'hot' though ? I've always seen that as shorthand for one .......'formal' is the wrong word - but anyway a sit down family meal, whether hot or otherwise.

Hot food feels nice in your tummy in a way a salad doesn't, I find.

It's nice having a hot meal though. But if you like cold meals YANBU, and hot meals aren't inherently healthier. I'd really miss hot meals if I had to have just cold meals, that's just me.

YANBU. Hate cooking and wish my children would live on salad and cold meat!

I agree op, never understood this. also never really found that a hot meal warms me up particularly - maybe if I was trekking ti the arctic but in my life I don't need warming food. Also don't really understand the concept of a "light lunch" vs "proper dinner" vs "a sandwich". A sandwich can be equally as fiddly and faffy to prepare as a "hot dinner". It's all just food!

YANBU, but I do find warm food in cold weather more warming than cold food.

Cooking veggies does not destroy their nutrients

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=raw-veggies-are-healthier

And cooking stuff makes it easier to chew and digest

That said, you don't need a hot meal everyday

I think it's shorthand for 'a meal which is not a bag of crisps and a ham sandwich'. As in a 'proper' meal, which I suppose does not have to be cooked if it's not including meat or fish.

YANBU, I would happily live on sarnies and salads (with the odd takeaway thrown in!) - perfectly nutritious and so much less faffing around.

But why is a sandwich not a "proper" meal? It usually contains carbs, protein, vegetables...often a significant no of cals

I don't always have a cooked meal - I eat when I'm hungry basically...tho, I don't have children so that makes it easier... :)

but normally have a hot meal at work, and a snack when I get home...need to keep my slim waistline slim...

Doesn't it depend on the method of cooking though? How many of us lightly steam our veg when cooking in the recommended fashion. My Mum used to and probably still does boil all veg at maximum temperature for considerable lengths of time. I'm spite of the linked article I refuse to believe much could have survived.

Exactly stealth. Boring as it may be be I ponder this question pretty much every time I eat a substantial sandwich usually accompanied by a big salad as I love salad.

The idea of a notable difference between 'a sandwich' and 'a proper meal' probably dates back to when the concept of a 'proper meal' involved two if not three separate courses eg soup or salad/meat and veg/pudding.

I think if people are consuming enough calories and enough varieties of food (ie veg/protein/carb) then it really doesn't matter what shape it comes in.

I don't think you need a hot meal as such but in our house we both love cooking and in the winter I think if anybody tried to take away my bangers and mash/roasts/stews I would actually cry. Or turn a bit violent.

Salad is such a faff. All that washing, chopping, grating, arranging.... As for cold meat, well that needs to be cooked originally (buying ready cooked cold meat is ridiculously expensive, and it's mostly packed full of salt and nitrates).

Often a hot meal is less hassle.

I've not had a hot meal since Sunday - and someone else cooked that!

Salad twice a day for me throughout the spring / summer.

Just don't wash it! I don't and am still alive *

*nb this may not be the best advice

I put salad in my sandwiches. Which I am starting to think is not normal, as everyone else seems to think making a sandwich is so much easier than making "a dinner".

Ps I wash salad when other people are eating it too, its only when its just mine that I'm so cavalier

I think the problem is whats in your sandwich, particularly if its meat - more likely to be processed, which is quite unhealthy.

A 'bad' sandwich is not a proper meal, as in two slice of white with plastic cheese or reconstituted meat. Yes, it contains calories and fat and a little bit of protein, but it's not a proper meal. So that's what I think people mean when they talk about a sandwich not being a 'proper dinner'.

However, I don't think that's what the OP is talking about... I am now imagining a smorgasbord of loveliness