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.

We had meat and 2 veg for dinner every day, and potatoes wasn't one of the two veg. I am trying to being mine up the same and people look suprised at me, my sister calls me silly and over the top as i try to get my kids to eat their 5 a day.

And apparently fungus are neither meat or plant, who would have thought it...

Lots of people are saying you won't get veg in spaghetti Bolognese or curry necessarily, don't onions and garlic count or would you not get enough of them per portion?

Neither of mine would entertain any salad veg even from weaning. Cucumber, pepper, raw tomatoes or carrot, lettuce etc got tossed over the side of the high chair with utter contempt. I can easily see how I might serve up omelette with sauteed potatoes for lunch followed by an apple and consider my job done but there would be no veg that counts in that. I can see how a day could pass with no veg every now and then.

I can see how easy it can be to go without veg (not fruit as my DCs are obsessed) as sometimes if really tired/ill I'd just do sandwiches for lunch and pasta with cheese for dinner. I now try to always cut up some cucumber/carrot with lunch and stick a steamer basket over the pasta with some frozen veg to assuage my guilt.

The bit about only having 5 different meals didn't really surprise me, I think it's really easy to slip into the habit of cooking what you know is absolutely 'safe' (ie won't get refused) and before you know it you're stuck in a rut.

We have far too much pasta I think but hopefully it's usually with a decent amount of veg now (and fish too - I steam frozen salmon and flake a bit into tomato sauce). The DCs don't really have much variety but hopefully they eat enough veg to still be healthy.

I put grated carrot, courgette and red pepper in my bolognese, and some red lentils. I cook it for a long time so it's not really noticeable. There's not actually that much meat in it really (trying to be frugal).

When I make spaghetti bolognaise it has loads of carrots and mushrooms in. I do this to make the meals cheaper, as decent mince is not cheap, but it also makes it healthier. Similarly with curry, spinach in curry is gorgeous and bulks out the more expensive meat. You can buy it frozen in Iceland and just lob it in when you are cooking.
The meals people are talking about eating with no veg are in the main, pretty unhealthy meals. Fine occasionally, but not as part of your everyday diet.

Flowergirl interesting, but I think it's down to the individual child. DD1 didn't get sugar until around the same age as your DC - around 3. She loves anything sweet and sugary to distraction now, but also eats tons of fruit and veg, and any other kind of food, frankly, so I'm happy with that.

DS was allowed sugar earlier than DD1, will eat fruit and veg although with not much enthusiasm, but doesn't have a sweet tooth at all. I find party bags with sweets in stuffed into dark corners as he just doesn't want them.

DD2 is just weaning, but I agree with the breast milk comment - it tastes like pure sugar (according to DD1 who tries to get a taste when she can!).

I think we're deluding ourselves if we think that restricting certain foods at an early age does anything meaningful. Introducing and maintaining flavours, textures and variety is much more important in my view.

meglet agree with you. Allotments are actually quite an expensive way to get veg at first unless you already know what you are doing and have lots of time.

It does get cheaper as time goes on.

I have an allotment and a full time job. We eat a lot of veg from there, but frankly, it would be cheaper to buy ASDA special offer 5 veg and use that.

Vegetables are cheap to buy, much cheaper than fruit. And much cheaper than meat.

I can understand why parents on a restricted budget can despair at buying food that they know will not be eaten

A good point and an easy one to overlook.

I dont think offering 24 times is a guarantee of them eating something.
Dd wont eat potato at nearly 3, when i think she never ate it when weaning nor any time since.
But i can see often you do need to keep trying.
I wouldnt personally eat raw pepper (or onion) and cant see it being a child friendly veg.
I agree witb others previus generations wouldnt have had the availability of fruit/veg year round
I think its the carbs making people fat not the meat and dairy. So pizza, pasta, chips

Yep the 24 times sounds like nonsense. I serve a bit of everything to everyone but DS2 won't eat broccoli for example - he's probably been offered it nearer 200 times than 24! DD adored broccoli during weaning, then from about 2 til 6 years old she wouldn't eat it, though she eats it again now at 9... DS1 would shovel in a big bowl of chilli at age 2 and ask for more - he got fussy from about 2.5 years old and refused chilli and a host of other things - he's coming out of the fussy phase now at 7.5 (I always just put the food in front of him as he's never been underweight so not stressed except the fact it's soul destroying to throw away home cooked food). He still won't eat chilli though.

flowergirl - smug, much?! People like you really get on my nerves. Have you only one child? Because, you know, they're all different. My dc were weaned the same way and now I have two very very fussy children, and one who eats everything (except for most veg, funnily enough...)

I'm also irritated by my friends with pfbs who are horrified at my 15 month old eating little bits of chocolate.

These threads always go like this with smug and competitive comments and with the stupid line that middle class families eat vegetables in 'interesting' ways and
working class eat chicken nuggets. Yawn.

I was brought up poor. Ate tons of
veg.My mum never read any links and research, she just cooked lots of veg like her mum and grandma did. We had fish and veg most days, i didnt like fish so i ate bread and veg. My brother (in the same poor family) ate the fish and left the veg.
When i came to UK i went mad at Iceland for a while. Then i went back to cooked food. I still like veg and i now like fish too but i cant afford it every day. My dcs like veg. My brother became a top doctor (so that makes him middle class?). He still wont touch veg. His wife also a doctor doesnt like cooking and they eat ready meals. Their dd likes veg.

What conclusions can you make from the above paragraph? (all true btw).

My cynical mind thinks that they are going to introduce vouchers instead of money for benefit claimants. And people will say 'oh thats better for the poor children'.

base9

vegetables taste delicious

See you may think this bit lots of children and adults don't. There is no veg I like the taste or texture of. There are some I can tolerate in small doses eg raw baby spinich, raw or roasted carrot but everything else that isn't 'hidden' eg in blended lentil soup/bolognaise/lasagne etc I find an awful chore to eat. I don't want to ever eat another vegetable in my life but I force myself to do it occasionally for my health.

My DCs are much better than I am. I don't eat with them so they don't pick up my 'bad' habit. But they still only eat veg 4/5 times a week.

Lots of meals just don't naturally go with veg. Eg I think it's weird to serve cold salad with hot food.

I'm surprised that others are so surprised by these stats. We've had lots of kids over for dinner over the years. Hardly any of them will touch any veg- even 'easy/child friendly' veg like sweetcorn/carrots/peppers/cucumber.

I thought my DCs were quite good veg eaters in comparison!

flowergirl just 3? My DS believed me that raisins were sweeties until he went to school and some wee pest told him the truth!

Still doesn't eat veg everyday...

Of course there are individual variations but there are cultural variations that form the backdrop. I've lived in France and central belt Scotland and the different attitude to vegetables (especially raw / salad) was stark.

I always think vegetables are seen as extras in British meals, something to be added after the meat and potatoes, whereas in other cuisines they are more likely to be incorporated into the meal.
We were given vegetables as children ,though less variation than exists today, and we usually ate them because we were pretty hungry. It seems natural to me to have vegetables with the main meal (dinner), so I've always cooked them and put them on the plates (no helping yourself in my house).

You know there are probably lots of folk out there who go through the day eating easy cheap food like

Toast (maybe with beans or spaghetti)
Sandwich
Cereal
Pot noodle
Pizza
Microwave meals
Takeaways
Pasta with cheese or jars of sauce
Cakes, busy units and crisps

Why are folk so shocked that everyone doesn't sit down to a nicely home cooked meal every night with a varied dish of veggies with a bowl of fruit for after.

Add in some

Nuggets or fish fingers and chips for some protein.

I eat far too many microwave or ready made meals. I still eat plenty of vegetables. Food doesn't have to be home cooked to have vegetables in it.

I don't know why this is so awful. some nights we have pasta and garlic bread. don't a lot of families. no veg.
can't see this as such a horrendous catastrophe.

It's not a catastrophe but there is evidence that upping to a couple of portions of fruit and veg every day will improve life expectancy. Green leafy veg usually comes out as most beneficial.

My nan would have thought non-veg eaters very odd - vegetables are not some modern fad.

You can eat very well on meat and fish and eggs and sea food actually if you don't like veg. If you eat nose to tail and have lots of liver and kidneys and the like you get from that what you get in most veg.

I cant believe people are saying vegetables are expensive! Whenever I visit the Uk I am stunned by how cheap your food is, including a lot of fruit and veg. A few things are pricey but only fancy imported unusual stuff, you can buy a huge range of fresh veg almost anywhere cheaply. If you can access aldi, lidl, markets etc its even less. And thats before you consider cheap frozen and tinned vegetables as well.
There really is noone in the uk who cant afford vegetables unless they are spending their money elsewhere.