to think there's nothing wrong with hoops on buttered toast for lunch?

[OstentatiousBreastfeeder]

It's not great, wholesome nutritious food is it. But it's nice, and comforting, and the weather's shit outside and they like it! And it's hardly a bucket of KFC.

Well, DH disagrees, and has just had a huff at me on the phone because I'm 'feeding the children crap all the time'

He's been on a health kick for the past month - homemade raw muesli for breakfast, the works. This has prompted a few discussions about the family's eating habits as a whole recently and he feels we could all do better. I agreed, and we've been reigning in the sugar, adding more veg etc.

But apparently these devil-hoops and the shepherd's pie I made for dinner last night are just a couple of examples of how I'm not really listening to his concerns. I don't really understand how a plate of homemade shepherd's pie and a pile of fresh veg doesn't constitute as at the very least wholesome food, but maybe I'm dead wrong.

So AIBU in thinking a can of spaghetti hoops on some buttered toast is the food of Gods?, along with a varied and healthy diet (aside from the plainly unhealthy shepherd's pie ), is perfectly fine, and that he needs to unbunch his Y-fronts?

What a load of crap, sorry. I haven't read all the pages as I realllllly need to go to be now as it's gone 1am.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with shepherds pie. Is he barking mad?! A perfectly healthy meal for growing children.
Carbs in the potatoes, protein in meat, presumably some sort of veg in there as well somewhere, in the form of diced carrot or at least an onion.
Spaghetti hoops on toast may not be the most nutritious of meals, but it won't kill them to have it occasionally!
Your DH needs to get a grip. At that age, no food is 'bad.' A healthy, balanced diet with so called 'treats' thrown in is what they need. Coupled with exercise.
Not to be told that certain food is 'bad' for them!

From the late 70s my mum branched out into Buitoni tinned ravioli, Findus Crispy Pancakes, Findus French Bread Pizzas and M&S lasagne.

Oh Em Gee, I used to bloody LOVE Findus crispy pancakes. Got them every now and again when small.
Need to find somewhere that sells them nearby so I can introduce my two to the delights.

shizzles I really wouldn't bother finding them. They're not the same anymore

berry yes the term 'eating clean' has passed his lips more than a few times a day. Must mean I'm eating dirty.

I love hoops and cheese on toast!

I must be awful... Some days we have hoops or beans on toast for a dinner!!

Bloody hell, as someone who studied nutrition I'm amazed at the hoop hate.

Carbs are ok, fat is ok, sugar is ok, salt is ok. Just not lots of it at every meal.

YABU
TBH it's practically a human rights issue. you want grilled cheese on the toast, not butter

OH God OP I think I might have slapped him if he uttered 'clean eat' to me! yes, I've often wondered if they mean I'm eating dirty with my steamed fish and cabbage

Its just so... faddy.

It should be eat healthy, eat well. Exercise. Get some fresh air.

Mind you clean eat is as bonkers to people eating paleo.

Such a sense of superiority with people who keep going on and on about it. I bet he sneaks a cream cake at work

I wouldn't give that for breakfast, but more because it's a bit weird :P For breakfast my little one has 1 slice of wholemeal bread with cheese or something on, an egg (I have eggs for breakfast most days) and lots of fruit! Sounds like your partner needs to calm down a bit though!

Ask Heinz how many little tins of those pasta shapes they sell, and ask Warburton's how much white bread they sell compared to brown bread. The vast majority of kids have this kind of stuff all the time. All. The. Time.

Yeah, and we have a generation of kids that it is thought could.die before their parents because they are so fat.

mmmmmm, spaghetti hoops.on white toast, might have to go and buy some!

I'm practically living off spaghetti hoops and toast at the moment, but in fairness I had braces fitted a couple of days ago and soggy toast with very soft pasta is about all I'm up to at the moment even baked beans are too hard! I don't like yoghurt, or milkshakes, and shepherds pie gets mince stuck in the wires. I had jelly yesterday though and it was beautiful.

Last night I took frozen Gregg's Sausage rolls and baked them in the oven for DS1. DS2 requested jam on toast.

It's the holidays, they are picky little sods, and I am really too tired to care.

Tbh its a pretty unhealthy meal. I'm not anti carbs, but it has lots of sugar, salt and fat and not much else.

Scrambled eggs on toast would be a good substitute. (Wholemeal toast)

YANBU
I hate when DH goes on a diet and then expects me to shop and cook to meet his new fad. I drew the line when he continued to drink beer and wine refusing to see that actually this was where the bulk of his extra calories were coming from. Our everyday diet was perfectly fine, mostly home cooked normal meals including shepherds pie and the odd beans/ hoops on toast and neither me or the DCs are overweight.

Scrambled egg on wholemeal toast, a substitute for Heinz spaghetti hoops and buttery white toast? No way José!

Where is all this fat everyone is talking about? hoops are low fat. is it the little bit of butter on the toast?

They are full of tomatoes too and that's why they count towards the 5 a day

and less than 4% sugar too

and scrambled egg is horrible!

Lol at having offended the hoops pushers.

Dd(4) loves scrambled eggs on wholemeal toast. She has never eaten tinned hoops or white bread, because it is shite nutritionally

My kids haven't had tinned spaghetti either (6 and 4) and love scrambled eggs on wholemeal seeded bread.

The focus should be on balance in a diet and an active lifestyle. Any sort of food fad or exclusion of a particular food group is usually not sustainable or healthy in the long term.

Full of fat?!!!!
Theres 1g in a whole 400g tin and of that 0.2 is saturates. They are not high in fat!

Who would have though hoops were so controversial?!!!

"Tbh its a pretty unhealthy meal. I'm not anti carbs, but it has lots of sugar, salt and fat and not much else."

I'm not sure it's helpful - or healthy - to assess someone's diet based on just one meal - what matters is that, overall, the preponderance of someone's diet is healthy - the odd meal with not much in the way of nutritional content won't cause untold damage, as long as it is in the context of a diet that is mainly healthy.

As I said earlier - of course cake doesn't have a great deal of nutritional benefit, but we aren't just physical beings - we are mental and emotional ones too, and if having the occasional cake makes us happy, then that is good for our emotional well-being. Of course, if having fruit or veg or a long run makes you happy, and you don't like cake, it's not compulsory - but neither is it evil incarnate - or even in-cake-nate.

I believe it is all about common sense and balance. A bit of what you fancy does you good - as long as it's not all the time, but is in the context of a healthy diet.

I have a bit of a tendency to reward myself with food - I have a very complicated and poor relationship with food, dating back to my childhood, and I am trying to sort out my issues. But I have realised that food doesn't have to be unhealthy to be a treat - it just has to be nice. So a lunch of a hot smoked salmon fillet, with cherry tomatoes and a wholemeal seedy roll is a real treat. So is fresh pineapple, or the pea, bean and edamame bean salads that most supermarkets sell now.

sdt it is still an unhealthy meal, and the op asked for opinions on this specific meal, and not their whole diet.

Like you said, treats do not need to be unhealthy. I grew up with an extremely healthy, home cooked diet, and still feel better eating the kind of food I grew up with, rather than processed shite.