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.

The only veg I actually like is garlic and mushrooms. But they aren't very nuitritious are they?

I've also like mushrooms, and I have always been under the impression that they aren't particularly nutritious. However, the packages of mushrooms I buy at the grocery store of "SUPERFOOD" stamped on them. That could just be a con perpetrated by the mushroom people, though, to make us think they are better than they are. :)

Also, being skint and uneducated isn't an insult
Really? Uneducated not insulting? Especially in the context of your post.

I'm amazed some of you think there is effort required to cook scallops.

And as for courgettes I don't care how healthy they might be, they are still tasteless unless loaded up with butter/salt/oil/cheese.

Bollocks - you have washing up to do after the beans as well and you have to be able to set the microwave.

It's attitudes like that that put people off preparing their own food and leaves them reliant on crappy processed food with the thoughts that we're all being conned by courgettes

Bollocks my foot. Time yourself. it will take way longer to make the egg on toast, and requires more skill.

I am not trying to put people off. It's easy to make an egg, as I said. It's just far easier to make beans on toast. From start to finish it's easier. Whilst eggs last long, you can stock up for the apocalypse with beans, so you have to even make sure you have eggs in the house. My guess is that I could teach a 6 year old to make beans on toast; not so with the egg.

I refuse to eat anything unless it contains kale and spirulina

My 7yo can make scrambled eggs. Supervised of course.

She can't do beans yet because she can't manage the tin opener

How on earth dies it take more time to poach an egg? You boil a bit of water in a kettle, pour the boiling water into a saucepan on the heat and crack an egg in. Takes the same time as opening beans and stirring slowly until they are the required temperature ( hot).
Toast takes the same time whichever.
Yes eggs are more expensive and will go off before a tin of beans but they aren't any quicker.
And beans require measurement. An egg is a portion in itself.i have a little less than half a can of beans in the fridge which won't be enough without cooking a slice of bacon or something to make a second meal.

Eggs were one of the first things I taught my dcs to cook when they were 5.
I really can't believe the debate has come down to length of time and skill involved between cooking an egg and heating up some beans...there is little effort in either. If you haven't got the time, skill or inclination to even cook an egg then eating a healthy diet is going to be a fairly challenging objective.

Feeding a visiting child what you did is fine - but I find the idea of fruit & veg- very easy and cheap to grow yourself < eyes up dm's courgettes and strawberry crops> being described as " a con" very odd indeed !

At 3yo DS could 'cook' both egg and beans in the microwave.

3yo can use microwaves but not jobs so I'd def say a fried/poached egg is harder than anything microwaveable.

Do people really cook beans in a pan?
1 portion tin,
Easy open,
In bowl,
1 min,
Remove,
Teaspoon to eat.
Only 1 dish to wash.

Hobs not jobs, stupid iPhone!

I cook everything in a pan. We have no space for a microwave.

Well you learn something new every day. I knew mushrooms counted as one of your 5 a day, even though they arent actually a fruit or veg but i never knew you could count a portion of beans or pulses:

" Three heaped tablespoons of baked beans, haricot beans, kidney beans, cannellini beans, butter beans or chickpeas count as one portion each. Remember, however much you eat,beans and pulses
count as a maximum of one portion a day." - extract from NHS choices website

that means i always exceed 5 a day!

weatherall - i will only eat baked beans cooked in a pan, it thickens the sauce and they taste nicer. Microwaved baked beans are beyond vile.

Aren't most eating out occasions for social rather than purely convenience reasons? So why not order what you feel like eating, even if it's simple. You're there to chat, not have a fancy service.

I would disagree that eating out is mostly a social occasion - plenty of people eat at McDonalds/Greggs/greasy spoons/coffee shops etc etc as an alternative to preparing their own food.

But when I am eating out, there is usually loads of things on the menu that I would like to eat. I am the opposite of all those people who worry that a restaurant wont do one single thing that they like I usually struggle to decide between several things at least.

One of the elimination methods that I use is 'could I make it at home'. I am unlikely to pick things like steak, scallops, beans or egg on toast for example, because they are very simple to prepare and dont require any complicated ingredients that you are likely to spend a lot on a small pot of, only to use one teaspoon of.

I stand by my original assertion that both beans on toast and egg on toast are very easy, but if we are being that pedantic about it, beans on toast is very very easy and egg on toast is very easy one poster said she didnt understand why people bother having beans on toast out when they could just make it at home and there was outrage when I suggested that this applied to a lot of restaurant/caf food.

And I dont think that having eggs in is particularly unusual dont most people buy them during every shop, assuming that they like them and are not allergic, obviously?

When eating out, I would rather have something like Thai that requires a range of unusual herbs, spices and vegetables that I wouldnt have at home.

I am usually not happy with the results of stir fry type things that I make and prefer to get this type of food from the Chinese takeaway its probably a lot to do with gas burner power being a lot higher in restaurant kitchens.

Mexican food often requires lots of ingredients and sauces so that is something else that I would prefer to eat when eating out, rather than something I could do easily at home.

Do you know that diet (not just weight) is one of the biggest causes of preventable cancers? There is a reason that most proven, research backed medical advice recommends fruit and vegetables. Ditto for limiting added sugar.

My parents eat out a lot, they NEVER cook at home. So yes convenience, but they don't eat out alone unless it's fast food in a drive thru rush. Always as much social as convenience.

My parents cooked from scratch when we were growing up and now they eat processed rubbish, mil is the same. It's a shame, they really could do with putting some nutrients into their ageing bodies - I'm sure it's part of the reason for many of their aches and pains.

I cook beans in a pan. Much less liable to end up like bullets and easier to simmer until soft. Same amount of washing up, whichever, unless i want to burn my hands trying to eat from the container I microwaved them in.

Really? Is this a fake post? I haven't read the replies.

That orange juice and mars bar comparison is ridiculous. It's the difference between processed empty calories and shit and natural sugars with vitamin c.

You said you're not overweight but that doesn't mean you're healthy on the inside.

Well, urmmm.

On a positive note there is absolutely nothing wrong with baked beans.

Veg and fruit are lovely? DD gobbles it down (no doubt baby on the way will too)

What were you doing to it to make it boring and a punishment? Covering it in shit?

overtiredandconfused the health advice I've seen is 5 portions of fruit and veg, but nothing on specifically veg.

Eg I eat a lot of fruit. I eat baked beans. But I eat next to no veg. Garlic bread doesn't really count .

Since this thread I'm now really worried that I'm heading for an early grave because of my diet even though I don't eat much sugar, no sweeteners, not much processed food eg take aways/ready meals. I never have digestive pr

Problems.

One of my favourite going-out-to-eat scenarios is a big fry-up at a decent greasy spoon on a saturday morning. Yes, I could cook all that at home (and no, not much of it is good for me at all, except maybe the grilled tomato), but they will cook it much quicker than I could, will bring it to me all hot at the same time (a challenge I find when a plate has about 7 different things on it) and will take the dirty plates away without me ever having to think about them again. Best of all, it doesn't cover my kitchen with grease. I am more than happy to pay for that once in a while.

Meanwhile, back to veg: If you buy fresh peas you can make a really nice veg stock out of the empty pea pods. In a large pan, roughly chop and sweat an onion and a couple of sticks of celery in a bit of oil, add all your rinsed pea pods and cover with water. Simmer gently for an hour or so, strain and refridgerate or freeze for when needed. You can also add any leftover bits of veg you have lurking in the fridge. Herbs, black pepper etc. are good to add too. Excellent in soups, stews etc.

weatherall, don't worry, enjoy your food

If you do absolutely everything you're supposed to do you don't live longer, it just feels like you do

You eat plenty of fruit, that's an excellent start. How are you with cherry tomatoes and raw sweet peppers? They're excellent 'gateway' veg IMO - although they are probably both technically fruit.