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.

What goodness is in a cooked onion though?

one medium onion per pot of curry here - so a quarter of that really doesn't count for much...

And the fact that a lot of what we think of veg is fruit means that if they phrased the questions right, it is no surprise at all that only 20% eat veg daily

What veg did your child eat yesterday? tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, courgettes - sorry all those are fruit... nothing else? So they don't eat veg every day then?

What is a vegetable then? Carrots? Leafy ones like lettuce and arugula? Do peas count?

So what's a lettuce then... Not fruit but not exactly a vegetable is it?

CheerfulYank - Botanically, stuff without seeds inside is the general rule.

So although things like french beans are used as veg they are also technically fruits...

lettuce is a leafy vegetable (actually in the daisy family!)

Peas and sweetcorn are complicated due to them being harvested at the immature seeds stage - which does apparently make them veg.

I have two fairly fussy eaters, but I am very LUCKY that they both like veggies (especially raw) and fruit.

They get veggies everyday: cut up raw (carrots, cherry toms, peppers, celery, cucumber) to eat with lunch and then one cooked green veg (brocoli, green beans, cauliflower) (big portion) at dinner.

Fruit they usually have one piece as a snack (small orange, apple or banana) then more fruit from the fridge after dinner (strawberries, melon or grapes).

So most days they are getting at least 4 portions of fruit/veg but like I say I am lucky they like it, if they didn't eat them happily then I would try to give them a veg/fruit smoothie to make sure they got some.

What shocks me is MNers who have kids who eat a long list of foods including most veggies, but insist "My child is a very fussy eater..."

There is scientific evidence that if a child is exposed to new foods at least 24 times before they are 2 or 3, they learn to like that food....

Didn't work with DS. Ate plenty fruit at that age & has hated it for last 10+ yrs.

to be fair, I've been presented with broccoli more than 24 times in my life and I still don't like it

Actually ditto Brussels sprouts and I know exactly and precisely how many times I've been presented with them - 46 times. Maybe for super-horrible veg it needs to be 2x24 so if I give it another two Christmasses, I might suddenly find them delicious

I'm assuming this study did count tomatoes/beans/courgettes and peppers as veg.

I grew up never eating brassicas. My parents disliked them & you only get served them raw in California which I don't like.

So I never ate cooked broccoli-sprouts-cabbage-Swede until my late 20s; turns out I love them all. :)

is swede a brassica? have i learnt something new today?

Swede is a brassica? No my dc won't eat it if they find that out!!!!

"I do scrambled eggs with smoked salmon for breakfast for the kids three times a week. A big green smoothie on the side (made from coconut milk, spinach, mango, avocado, banana), and you can relax for the day."

This sounds incredibly expensive, time consuming and in all honesty disgusting. All of mine have been offered a wide range of veg repeatedly from an early age. The four have widely varied tastes. None would contemplate even tasting this breakfast.

I'm think the smoothie sounds fine - is it just the spinach putting people off?

Mine would eat that. Scrambled eggsand salmon are fairly common foods surely? Easily available and quick to prepare.
The smoothie wouldn't taste of spinach with all the fruit on top

Mine would also eat it.

What's a brassica?

think you call them cruciferous vegetables in the States

I thought that putting fruit/veg in smoothies removed some of the benefits though (fibre I mean, you get more if you eat it whole). Still better than nowt I guess.

Mine would eat it too, although I don't make smoothies because I can never be arsed to clean out the machine afterwards. But the eggs / salmon / spinach with a bit of toast and an apple juice would be popular.

mine would love it - but smoked salmon three times a week would break the bank! Coconut milk, mango and avocado aren't cheap either - some people do live in a different world... Breakfast is a cheap meal here

porridge with whatever fruit needs using up or toast soldiers from the heel end of the loaf and a dippy egg....

I thought smoothies only counted for 1 portion no matter how big they are. But maybe I'm confused.

I need a lot of food for breakfast otherwise I would be starving all morning. It is often almost the main meal of the day for me. I have smoked salmon quite a lot but disagree that it's expensive as you only need a small portion each time.

Avocados can be as little as 40/50 pence each and I would only have half of one with breakfast. Canned mangoes are good for smoothies and don't cost much.

I buy a pack of smoked salmon from Aldi that I think costs about 2.69 for 200 grammes. This will do five breakfasts so not much more than 50 pence per portion (sometimes I freeze it in small portions) .

Today I had smoked salmon (54 p) with 2 eggs (Aldi free range, about 33 p) and a lidl bagel (19 pence) with a small amount of butter, so a total of slightly over a pound for a reasonably substantial meal. OK, costs more than just toast or porridge, but that doesn't work as breakfast for me.

Ah, the smoothie thing is complicated. Explained on this NHS linky

From this it seems that a smoothie only ever counts as 2 portions max. Still, 2 is a good start. Learn something every day!