you can't possibly call a meal junk food if it had all of your 5 a day!

[bonded]

So a few weeks ago we had a play date that went well. Friend just what's capped me asking for advice for a meal tonight. I said recently that this went down well and is super healthy:

Baked beans, one of your 5 a day
Fish fingers, good source of ohmega and protein
Frozen sweet corn and peas, frozen has more nutrients.

Pudding frozen bananas whipped up into ice cream with a little chcoclate sauce and chopped dates.

Said friend called meal a bit to junky. I thought it was really healthy...

Bprocessed makes a huge difference. The difference between eating an orange and drinking orange juice is huge. The nutrient levels and the way your body accesses the nutrients is changed for the worse with most processing.

and if you ate all those fishfingers to get the fish element you would then be consuming large quantities of the breadcrumbs, salt, whatever else fishfingers are coated in. I literally just squeeze lemonjuice on my fish and grill/ flash fry it for a few minutes.

I love the food snobbery on MN fish fingers are just chopped up fish - they aren't Satan's own testicles - and I oven bake mine as I do chicken nuggets

I also serve poached fresh fish with rice ...but I don;t feel the need to preach about it

Not feeding your kids - this is bad - feeding them less than 'perfect' food - meh - not worth getting bunchy over imho

You haven't explained why it being 'processed' makes a difference. Can you tell me why fish covered in breadcrumbs is different? You're just being condescending.
I wouldn't and haven't eaten either fish fingers or salmon myself so I'm interested to know.

Only if you need that huge quantity of fish in a meal which is debatable.
I don't know anyone that deep fries fish fingers.
Eating salt and breadcrumbs isn't bad for you. Eating too much salt is but we need some to live.

Why am I being condescending? There is a world of difference between a fillet of fresh fish and some frozen, processed fishfingers.

But I think fishfingers are fine now and then, you just can't say that they are the same nutritionally.

Orange juice is only part of the fruit. Bad example you've made there.
You are still eating all the fish it just has some breadcrumbs on it too. How is this comparable?

You haven't explained why it being 'processed' makes a difference. Can you do so?

It's hardly a huge quantity of fish 1.5 fillets of salmon, my 8 year old and 12 year twins happily eat it in one sitting.

Because as one poster mentioned up thread possibly only 58% of the fishfinger is actually fish, a salmon fillet will be 100% fish. Clearly that is better for you than the other 42% being made up of whatever else constitutes a fishfinger. You are being deliberately obtuse better if you don't mind me saying.

The orange juice example is a good one though surely? Processed juice doesn't include any of the pith or fibre. Your gut is served best if it has to work hard at digesting that fibre not letting it pass through quickly as it will with just juice. That's why smoothies can't really be counted as more than 2 of your 5 a day no matter how much you consume.

Ok, so total novice here and we eat very little fish (fingers and tuna ) what would I ask the gunslinger for and how do I go about doing my own fish finger type things?

You may not put the fish finger in the deep fryer, but prior to packaging, they are flash deep fried.

Read the ingredients on the back of a fish fingers pack. How many ingredients are there? Not just fish, breadcrumb.

Well orange juice is one example. How about a mango vs a blended mango in a smoothie. Same whole fruit - effects on insulin very different.

Fishmonger. Not gunslinger.

The other 42% isn't made of anything bad though. Just carbs that you can have instead of rice for example. As long as there is enough protein in the meal then there's no need to have loads extra.
The thing is one can bought by ordinary people and one is incredibly expensive. Yet both are going to be nutritious and are similar foods.

Monsoon FishFingers are usually cooked in the oven, so aren't fried at all. And is the salmon fillets free range? because if it is farmed it will have a hell of a lot of fat in it. A quick google shows 1 salmon fillet has around 22of fat in it! 3 fish fingers have 5gs of fat.

I'm not saying I'd prefer a fish finger to salmon, but there's a whole lot of assumptions in this thread that are batshit crazy

Plus you don't know what bits of fish go into a fishfinger esp the cheaper varieties, I would bet my hat that it's not the best quality part of the fish i.e the fillet.

So are you saying that breadcrumbs, salt, additives etc better for you than plain old brown rice which doesn't cost a fortune if you buy it in bulk. I just don't believe it.

22gs

Why fish fingers? I grew up eating loads of fish and never ate one fish finger!

Salmon in a miso glaze
Fish steamed with aromatic herbs and citrus with a sesame oil dressing
Grilled mackerel
Fish tataki style
Seared tuna steaks with guacamole
Cevice
Fish baked in parchment with aromatics
.....

You are still eating all the fish in a fish finger. You aren't not eating part of it like with juice.

Good fat in salmon though isn't it. Plus my children are growing, they need fat.

Bake - fat is good though. You get good fats and bad fats though

Salmon, avocado, walnuts - high in good fats

Chocolate bar, ready meals - high in bad fats

No I'm not saying it's better in saying it's the same. Carbs is carbs.

Just because it isn't the fillet doesn't mean it's less nutritious.