to think fruit and vegetables are a bit of a con

[mariej2]

Me and the hubby have both never been a big fan of fruit and veg. We don't worry about having 5 a day and probably rarely do. We are both healthy late 30s, not overweight and hardly ever get ill.

Now dd is at school we are having her friends round for dinner. One was horrified that we fed her daughter fish fingers, baked beans with diet cola. To be fair we would usually have sweet corn with this meal simply because we like it but we had ran out.

It feels like kids are being punished by feeding them kale and broccoli and nothing nice.

Apparently a glass of orange juice has as much sugar as a Mars bar. If you give your child the orange juice that's not much of a treat and once they become a teenager they will gorge on all the forbidden foods!

I think this whole eat fruit and veg is a conspiracy to make the supermarkets more money and make people miserable.

Don't be stupid. We did not evolve to eat pop tarts.

If you fed my child diet cola I would have something to say tbh

Yeah, right....

Mmmm pop tarts

Nothing wrong with beans. Probably the coke.

I really hope for the sake of the child that this isn't true.

Surely most people at least roughly know what should be in a healthy diet, even if for whatever reason they struggle to put it into practice?

Good grief you are serious? I can't even begin to address that. You won't listen to anything anyone has to say. Yeah you are right. It is all a big con by the fruit and veg manufacturers who make massive profits out of us by pushing fresh food at us through slick advertising and marketing campaigns. The whole 5 a day thing is just a big con cooked up by lobbyists from big Farma giving backhanders to corrupt politicians.

The diet cola I'd be iffy about tbh. Surely you could think up something a bit more exciting to eat when you/your dc have guests over?

And fruit & veg are not a con. They are densely packed with vital nutrients to keep us healthy.

Sounds like your views are coloured by the fact that you don't much like fruit and veg, so you have concluded that nobody actually enjoys it.

However, lots of people - children included - genuinely like eating the stuff! It's fine if you don't like fruit and veg, but really, there's nothing strange about others wanting to eat it.

have you had a cholestoral or blood sugar check ever? Just being a healthy weight and generally avoiding colds etc aren't the only indicators. I wouldn't be about the meal - its a one off so hardly going to scar them for life but YABU about the conspiracy thing - so much so I don't really know where to start!

I would be fine with fish fingers and beans, but wouldn't be happy with the coke at all. Not that dd would drink it she hates fizzy.

I'm betting the child doesn't come for tea again because his parents probably know the difference between a healthy diet and a very unhealthy diet.
Did you deep fry the fish fingers?

I would be really pissed off if my child was given diet coke.

Also, you do realise that although there may be as much sugar in a glass of orange juice as a mars bar, there are different types of sugars?

FWIW, I think fruit should be a treat, but we need loads of veg, nutrients need to come from somewhere and processed food is just empty calories and unhealthy.

YABU

I would never let my child go to your house again if you fed them diet Cola.

You say you are healthy now in your thirties. You are, however, laying down the building blocks for diabetes, heart disease, gout and many other illnesses, whether you believe it or not.

Many/most dc love broccoli and carrots at least. Fruit is often chosen above sweet stuff too. There is no nourishment at all in diet coke. My two youngest dgc would consider fish fingers and beans a very unusual meal and it would never be offered to guests. Do your dc not have apples, bananas and berries in season.

Oh yes and YABU for using the term "hubby".

My first thought was that this must be a joke, but after thinking about what most people I know feed their kids, it wouldn't surprise me if people did actually think like this.

I choose to eat kale and brocolli because they're delicious! You have to know how to cook veg otherwise like anything else, it can be bland.

I hate how some people see veg as horrible, they're delicious!

With my adult head on, I do believe that fruit and veg are healthy (and I notice how awful I feel when I don't eat them), but I do have some sympathy for the OP's thinking:

I often take the view that "if the government keeps nagging us about something, there must be a conspiracy".

The government nags us at length that fruit and veg are good.
Our parents nag us that fruit and veg are good.
Out teachers nag us that fruit and veg are good.
Therefore they are all colluding to hide something.

Indeed, the government nags us about many things, which make some of us want to disbelieve it simply because of that! Indeed, adverts of every kind are telling us "how dare you live without the tat we are forcing on you".

But OP, why should fruit and veg automatically make profit for supermarkets? If you grow them yourself, supermarkets need not get a penny! Humans were around long before supermarkets.

Yes, that's right, I regularly (every day in fact, several times!) punish my children by offering them fresh fruit and vegetables that contain essential nutrients to keep them healthy

I also give them water to drink, or milk.

Do you actually believe what you've written?

If you seriously think shops make a big profit from selling fresh fruit and veg, you're living fantasy life.

Were you both raised on a fruit and veg free diet? How are your parents doing now?

Fishfingers and beans is not that bad, though that would be my absolute minimum effort, can't be bothered tonight tea. I agree it's the giving diet coke to a small child that is likely to have the mum eye-rolling.

YAB ridiculous to think it's a conspiracy, though I agree it makes it difficult to eat well when fresh fruit and veg are expensive and processed crap is cheap.

Is this a joke? You can't be that ignorant and be a grown-up can you?
Silly me, it's the school holidays, I forgot.

I hate how some people see veg as horrible, they're delicious

I agree, I also struggle to understand (unless there are other sensory issues) how someone can not like any veg when there is such a variety of different veg.

We dont live on pop tarts, dinner last night was stake and a peppercorn sauce with boiled potatoes and a lemon cheesecake afterwards.

We have fruit in the house bananas and oranges but I end up always binning half of them!

How do you make kale nice? I bought it once, it ruined the meal and I felt like I had been conned buying it