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.

I hope you didn't get a splinter from that stake

I noticed that bike, the bushes are full of juicy blackberries right now! Going to have to pick them earlier this year I think? We are definitely having an early Autumn.

Op, I think rotting your dcs teeth on sugar is a great idea...they will fit in better on jk.

My rabbit likes stakes

Vampires don't though.

Applewood stakes are his favourite...and he's a vegetarian. Personally I think he has been taken in by the whole vegetarian thing, probably a big conspiracy thing aimed at rabbits.

op presuming your dc is at least 4, if not 5, surely you have weaned her onto ALL fruit and vegetables? not just sweetcorn

what about strawberries, cherries , nectarines and plums which are all in season now and delicious

My son (14) loves kale; my mum grows it just for him.

He doesn't like coke.

Yesterday he made a broad bean, asparagus, spring onion and poached egg bruschetta for our lunch. He also enjoys the odd mars bar after swimming and likes beans on toast for breakfast occasionally.

We find that enjoyment of fruit and veg hasn't hampered his childhood at all.

I feel sorry for any child who's balanced diet is restricted by their parents' likes and dislikes.

snort at 'big farma' - that really tickled me.

Op don't be so bloody ridiculous and immature

Have you tried cabbage chopped up and mixed with bits of chopped bacon cooked crispy? If you mix any leftovers with mash, shape and fry in a bit of olive oil you can serve it with a poached or fried egg on top and it will be delicious.
What about pasta with a tomato, mushroom and onion/garlic sauce? Your dc are missing out on so much lovely food.

I love fruit and veg and would always choose cherries, lychees, grapes etc over sweets or chocolate. I also love a tomato as a snack yummy.

I do like cake though. Carrot cake, Victoria sponge... nom nom nom

I am a big fan of fruit and vegetables, although fish fingers and chips is pretty delicious too.

Hate curly Kale though. I tried to like it but its just too strong.

If you only like boring basic food with no fruit or vegetables then thats your lookout, but with few exceptions, I love them

No wonder there are so many fat kids about.

I'm lucky as my kids like all fruit and veg (apart from yellow plums as, apparently, they are supposed to be purple).
They also love a fish finger. Especially in between sliced white with ketchup and a fake cheese square.
And I even let them have a small glass of cherry coke last night. Call SS!

I think the coke thing depends on age of the children. My DS (7) has an occasional glass for a treat but not regulary and I would prefer he has normal coke to diet.

I think the fishfingers and beans is fine for a tea with other kids over

My son went through a phase he wouldn't eat veg so we had a lot of carrot and swede mash, Peas are easy to add into anything.

I don't think my son has ever had Kale nor me for that matter but try basic foods like carrots. My son likes raw carrot stick with humous dip.

Bannana and custard cheap and easy to make.

So to answer your question no tea was fine but not every day. If you are feeding processed food all the time the salt and sugar content are really high .

As adults you and DH can decide what you want to eat but the children should be getting vegetables or fruit in there diet. You are storing them up for problems in the future if you don't encourage vegetables at this age.

I love fruit and can't understand why anyone doesn't! To lose weight I started replacing sweets & chocs with fruit such as raspberries, grapes, apples, peaches, cherries etc and it really worked!

I'm not so keen on veggies only because they need more processing (eg. cutting up, cooking) to be made edible (and I'm a bit lazy).
But if I had children I would make the effort.

Morning all. Just popping head in to proffer tin hat hold OP's hand on first post.

Noting lovely recipes (loving Stratter5's kale fried in coconut oil tip) as always useful for soaking up the gin at MNHQ. In the meantime, a gentle reminder of our peace'n'love policy

As you were.

Well, I eat tons of veg because I like it, that's the main reason: always did. There are so many ways to eat vegetables: if you want to, I'd recommend a good South Indian restaurant for inspiration.

at the pearl-clutching over one glass of (gasp) diet coke though...

The tastiest veg IMO are sweet for example organic carrot sticks, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, baby sweetcorn, sugarsnap peas, frozen petit pois (I have a very sweet tooth).

There's no need to force your kids to eat boring veg like cabbage when there's so much variety of veg.

Did you know that in Sweden a lot of people eat things like broccoli and cauliflowers raw in florets and it tastes better than cooked. Try raw purple sprouting broccoli.

Kale and broccoli are delicious! Cod in a lemon sauce is also tasty. All my family would enjoy a meal consisting of those items.

Fish fingers, beans are just uninteresting processed bland beige stuff.

As far as I know orange juice has more vitamins then a mars bar.

I think the OP's meal for the children was fine - baked beans provide lots of fibre and vitamins, fish fingers are fairly low calorie and fat, and a bit of diet coke is better than full sugar coke.

It's similar to how my mum fed me except she'd have added a large portion of frozen peas and some boiled potatoes.

otoh, op beans and fish fingers are a good kiddie meal, i will grant you that. and the person that was horrified was a bit rude really.

The Times had a recipe in its weekend section yesterday for a salad that was basically grated carrots mixed with lots of chopped fresh coriander, dressed with a white wine vinegar and oil dressing, and sprinkled with pumpkin and sesame seeds.

Sounded absolutely delicious and fabulously healthy to boot.

Nowt wrong with the occasional fish fingers and beans dinner, both of which are at the better end of the processed food spectrum, but I agree with others about the diet coke. Anything other than tea, coffe, milk, water, bit of fruit juice and moderate alcohol for adults should be avoided where possible.

Fizzy pop both diet and normal really is one of the biggest public health threats when it is being consumed daily.

And no, fruit and veg isn't a big fat con job, it's normal food, that we should all be eating every single day. The big con is the enormous amount of shitty processed food that all our supermarkets are stuffed with.

I think the op has a point to a certain extent. The 5 a day thing is something we've all bought into but it was just invented by a group of fruit and vegetable companies who wanted to boost sales.
Having said that of course fruit and veg contains valuable vitamins, nutrients and fibre and will always be healthier than eating processed foods.

I wish I had one of these rare children - only heard of on mumsnet - that love vegetables. I have to employ all sorts of stealth tactics to get them into dd's food without her noticing.

My dc love some veg mainly carrot broccoli and cauliflower cheese but I do ensure they eat it by putting it in spag bol etc

DS and i both love fruit and veg so it's not a punishment
to make him eat it, and I'm glad he enjoys it since he's fussy with just about everything else. You need to educate yourself a little if you really don't see how it's necessary for your health.

That said, I'll go out on a limb here and say
that, whilst DS wouldn't have eaten fish fingers or beans, he'd have loved the diet coke and I wouldn't have been that bothered by him having it as a one off.