To be staggered that only 1 in 5 children eats vegetables every day

[Beloved72]

Are there really families where children get no vegetables with their evening meal or packed lunch/school lunch?

Quite shocked actually. I can get my head around children and adults not having 5 a day, but NONE?

And 1 child in 10 refusing to eat ANY vegetables ever?

Yikes. I worry for our future health.

Tonight we had veg but no veg over the weekend as we had a takeaway Sat and homemade pizza yesterday.

I can't get one of mine to eat veg. He has sensory issues and gags on most foods. Right now I am just trying to keep him thriving. We make a lot of pizza with veg hidden in the pizza sauce and multi victims.

I don't love veg either but can and do eat some but not every day. I see nothing wrong with not having veg every single day.

Multi vitamins, not victims.

the next day
pizzas have tomato and usually a tiny slice of pepper. Sleep well.

OP i guess the people whp answered the survey have forgotten what they ate! And some people count only salad or fresh veg as 'veg'. Most people i know eat plenty veg. Don't worry.

I'm with you, OP. Pretty staggered!

I don't think any of my children have ever had a day where they've not had a single vegetable or piece of fruit! What on earth would they have eaten?

The only one of mine that's ever been a problem is DS. He spent his first 18mths (minus non-solids months of course) eating any veg he could lay his hands on but refusing all fruit. One day - literally overnight - he refused all veg and would only eat fruit. He's 3 now and will only eat a few veggies (broccoli, carrots and salad) but he always has at least 4 portions of fruit and veg a day despite that.

It's no wonder so many kids (and adults) are overweight/obese given that apparently no-one eats fruit or veg any more. A sad state of affairs indeed!

Everyone should be eating at least 3 portions of vegetables a day. And that is a minimum.

My DD eats veg every day BUT she's a picky eater so it tends to be the same kinds of veg, she will however eat fruit until it comes out of her ears.

I find that very surprising too. If it was only 1/5 getting their 5 a day I could understand it a bit more but such a high percentage not eating any vegetables?

I agree OP, unless the 1 in 5 are Inuit. (How do they get their fibre?)

But lonny the majority of children in the country ? I would have guessed maybe 20% didn't, not 80%

Oh, the 1 in 5 are the ones eating veg!

Mind you are they excluding potatoes? - That's always a bit arbitrary imo.

I have a dd who never eats veg, she has ASD and sensory issues, her diet is very limited but she will eat fruit, she has fruit in her lunch box and after her evening meal.

They might be doing OK as children but no one can do well if they are ,malnourished over many years.

I don't believe that 4 out of 5 children in the UK don't eat any vegetables everyday though, sorry.

We all know there are kids with food issues. But this is the vast majority of children not eating veg every day.

I'm surprised it's that high a proportion.

Thanks for that link, lonny.

Loved the bit when she realises she has no gas and can't do tea-smoked sardines

"When I go to Iceland it's for Greggs frozen food and interesting chicken shapes"

In the Mail article its actually quite a small sample (

You live a charmed life First
Sadly, many don't.
Not sure why the fact that there are families who are not on board with having fruit and veg every day is news to you. I would have thought it would be fairly obvious.
And yes, fruit and veg CAN be expensive if you are on a low income Likewise, not everyone has had an upbringing where fruit and veg was a normal part of their diet.

"Sadly, many don't."

I live in a poor community. But it's a poor immigrant community and their kids seem to eat bloody loads of veg. They buy stuff from the ethnic shops on the very scuzzy high street, shops which are HEAVING with cheap veg.

It's poor English people who tend not to eat vegetables.

My DCs will have the odd day where they don't happen to have any veg.

They eat fruit every day.

I would say overall they have a good diet as eat little junk and lots of fish/good proteins and a fair bit of veg- it just isn't necessarily spread evenly iykwim?

Ie their breakfast never has veg- what child's (or adults) does?

Lunch- both get school dinners- one has a sandwich & juice, the other usually has school dinners- sometimes there is no veg option or it is a veg they don't like- the school doesn't provide much variety! When they have a packed lunch they'll have fruit in it but not veg.

For dinner we have a lot of 'meat & 2 veg' meals but some dinners will be a pizza or something small like a baked potato/sandwich/eggs. So maybe no veg. I can't imagine that's that unusual.

YABU to be 'staggered' by this.

This wouldn't shock me at all.

As a kid we lived off frozen food because it was cheap, lasted a while and was easy to cook.

doesnt shock me at all.

but then i dont ever remember eating 'veggies' every day when i grew up either.

we had them with sunday dinner and a midweek roast, other days there was fruit available like apples or bananas.

What's the definition of veg? If you count tomato based sauces, baked beans and salad I struggle to see how it can be true. If it's traditional cooked veg I can see how it might be. I am really struggling to think of an ordinary evening meal we have that doesn't have any veg at all in it.