to think that peas are a vegetable

[CleverPlansAndSecretTricks]

DS (4) loves peas. So I give him them often and feel a warm glow of being a good parent because he is eating vegetables.

But....

I have detected murmurings on mumsnet said they are not a vegetable!!
Wtf are they then? And am I, in fact, a failure who is dooming my child's future health because he won't eat cabbage or Kale?

*As much as we like to blame the media, advertising, supermodels etc etc the reality is that kids get most of their negative messages about food from the adults around them which is why I absolutely despair when I hear people agonising about the calory content of a fucking pea! They're PEAS!! They're green!! They come from the earth rather than being man made in some horrible factory somewhere!!

Apologies for the sweary rant but sometimes I feel like the world has gone completely mad.*

Exactly right. 20 years ago, I listened dumbfounded as my 2 (overweight) american cousins argued earnestly about the fat content of salmon. On another occasion one of those cousins (male in his 40s) asked me why I wasn't worried about ordering french fries in a restaurant. I was slim, fit and perfectly healthy (and didn't eat out very often). His question wasn't about why I ordered them but how I managed to order them without agonising and looking for absolution and acting like I was committing some kind of food sin. Same attitude on the other side of the atlantic now.

Sometimes I think food is the new medieval religion, complete with sins, absolution, fanatics, schisms, revelations, and promises of eternal life.

I'm with Michael Pollan - Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not too Much.

The whole point about undigested fibre is that it keeps you regular. Keep eating the sweetcorn.

I have been known to eat a bowl of hot sweetcorn on its own, with a nice knob of melting butter on top. I feel like I am among my people here.

[lights lighter, sways in crowd of sweetcorn-lovers]

Ewww. I always knew I was right to hate sweetcorn. Can't get that image of poo filled kernels out of my mind!

Fascinating thread! I love mumsnet!

I give my DC (still) frozen peas & sweetcorn as a snack.

I am probably a Bad Parent by MN standards.
I'll get my (waterproof, bum-covering) coat. :(

In Lewisham shopping centre, in sunny South East London, there is a hot food stall selling something called "Magic Sweetcorn" which comes in flavours! People walk around eating it out of polystyrene cups .

I want to know what the family who eat peas "once a year as a treat" do for fun.

OOOH a magic corn stall! I've never seen it here, my kids LOVED a magic corn stall when we lived abroad. Lewisham is in luck.
(Wonders if the magic corn is actually a once a decade treat for some)

Lolling so much at peas once a year for a treat!!
Cheese and potato pasty - carb heavy.
Peas - not so much!

we eat peas once a year as a treat

Hahahahaha wtaf???

Surely peas once a year is a joke?!

The peas once a year thing was a joke...wasn't it? I am losing my ability to tell in this strange new universe of high carb peas and poo corn.

I used to get DS that magic corn stuff to keep him busy sitting in the supermarket trolley when he was a toddler. Hot sweetcorn with butter, salt and lemon juice mixed through. That's at least one of his 5 a day right?

I love peas. Grow them and they are wonderful, fresh and podded! Also eat them frozen; quick and easy and very versatile.
Agree with the comments about food as an obsession or a new religion. Mad.

Peas are ace.

They ARE very carby - I'm diabetic and peas send my blood sugars a bit batshit. But I eat them anyway.

Carbon? Carb even

It can't be long before someone, somewhere proposes a carbon-free diet. It is a major constituent of both fats and carbohydrates after all...

I'm fairly sure that pea are actually pulses, not vegetables. Sweetcorn definitely isn't a vegetable either!

Peas have lots of excellent vitamins in though and do count towards your five a day (I'm not sure if sweetcorn does though?).

Broccoli is the main veg eaten in this house - my kids love it!

Yes peas once a year was a joke!

I had half a bag of Petit pois (250g) with a handful of chopped up mint, Kanye pepper and a bit of toasted sesame oil for dinner. Great for a post bike ride meal.

I'm fairly sure that pea are actually pulses, not vegetables. Sweetcorn definitely isn't a vegetable either!

Of course they are. Vegetables are plants you can eat.

A vegetable is a plant you can eat.
A fruit is a plant with the seeds on the inside
A legume is the type of plant

So a pea is all three.

Ooh magic sweet corn, they had a stand of that in the elephant shopping centre in the 90s. Not sure if the shopping centre is even there these days.

In south america I ate so much corn. The kernals were huge - the size of a small sprout.

I hate peas, but they're definitely a vegetable. I force them down with bangers and mash.

Has anyone seen that episode of Black Books where Fran hangs out with a yoga loving tee total friend (played by Jessica Hyne) who encourages her in all things spiritual. She eventually cracks and gets hammered and has a full on rant which culminates in the line "what the fuck is wrong with PEAS?!"

Its actually very difficult to make magic corn..

www.magiccorn.com/Distributors.aspx

Of course peas are a vegetable. They may be quite 'carby' , they also are a useful source of protein, vitamins and minerals as well.
I like to eat them while they're still frozen for a little snack.