beans mash and sausages is a healthy meal

[madhurjazz]

Mother in law thinks its junk food. But the beans contain 1 of your 5 a day, mashed potatoes are just veg and a good source of carbs and the sausages are full of essential protein.

We often have ketchup, this has been shown to reduce many cancers like prostate, and a glass of juice.

Seems healthy to me and not junky.

Potatoes are vegetables...and pulses count as one of your 5 a day.

Sausages don't have to be very processed nor very fatty.

The level of ignorance about food on this thread is really shocking!

fish fingers, chips and beans

Food of the Gods. We have that a couple of times a month as an easy tea although I usually have potato waffles instead of chips. It's healthier than most takeaways.

I also like a slice of white bread and butter to go with it.

Just cut this from a potato website:
Are Potatoes Healthy and Good for you?
Yes, potatoes are healthy, good for you and full of delicious nutrition. Health benefits of potato cannot be denied. The protein in potatoes is approximately 3 grams per potato with zero cholesterol. Here are some great nutrition and health facts about potatoes.

POTASSIUM

Potatoes are a good source of potassium…more potassium than a banana.

Looking for potassium rich foods? One medium potato with skin provides 620 milligrams or 18% of the recommended daily value (DV) of potassium per serving and is considered one of the best foods with potassium. Potatoes rank highest for foods with potassium and are among the top 20 most frequently consumed raw vegetables and fruits. Potassium is a mineral that is part of every body cell. It helps regulate fluids and mineral balance in and out of cells and in doing so, helps maintain normal blood pressure. Potassium is also vital for transmitting nerve impulses or signals, and in helping muscles contract.

Potassium is a powerful dietary factor that may help lower blood pressure. Unfortunately, few Americans are getting the recommended 4700 milligrams per day of potassium they need. (Potatoes make it easier!)

VITAMIN C

Potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin C (45% of the DV), which is more vitamin C than one medium tomato (40% DV) or sweet potato (30% DV).

Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that acts as an antioxidant stabilizing free radicals, thus helping prevent cellular damage. It aids in collagen production; assists with iron absorption; and helps heal wounds and keep your gums healthy. Vitamin C may help support the body’s immune system.

FIBER

One medium potato with the skin contributes 2 grams of fiber or 8% of the daily value per serving.
Dietary fiber is a complex carbohydrate and is the part of the plant material that cannot be digested and absorbed in the bloodstream. Soluble fiber may help with weight loss as it makes you feel full longer, and research has shown it also may help lower blood cholesterol.

B6

Potatoes are a good source of vitamin B6 with one medium potato providing 10% of the recommended daily value.

Vitamin B6 is a water-soluble vitamin that plays important roles in carbohydrate and protein metabolism. It helps the body make nonessential amino acids needed to make various body proteins; it is a cofactor for several co-enzymes involved in energy metabolism; and is required for the synthesis of hemoglobin – an essential component of red blood cells.

IRON

One medium potato provides 6% of the recommended daily value of iron.

Iron is a major component of hemoglobin that carries oxygen to all parts of the body. Iron also has a critical role within cells assisting in oxygen utilization, enzymatic systems, especially for neural development, and overall cell function everywhere in the body. Thus, iron deficiency affects all body functions, not only through anemia, which appears late in the process of tissue iron deficits.

This man lived on nothing but potatoes for two months to prove they were not unhealthy (he was president of some sort of potato promotion organisation).

He lost 18 pounds and his cholesterol dropped significantly. There are loads of vitamins, minerals and fibre in potatoes.

Hear hear Ego. Half the world lives on some variation of rice, beans/pulses and maybe a bit of veg and eggs if they can afford it.

They don't flap about double carbs or needing protein. They are just grateful if they get enough to eat, which they often don't.

There are loads of vitamins, minerals and fibre in potatoes.

I'm not disputing it. You can eat them boiled. But they are better fried, roasted or mashed with butter.

It is weird to deny that and insist that food should be joyless fuel intake.

Isn't the standard diet in Cuba something like rice and beans? Day in, day out?

Cabbage, in all its forms, is delicious, but it's not baked beans. Cabbage on toast is really crap.

We see this Routemaster around the region at various historic vehicle events, rather a lot. Always makes us smile :)
www.nebpt.co.uk/index.asp?pg=60

I make my own beans. Haricots, tomatoes, onions, garlic and some herbs. Some while back I was thinking how my children had just about never had baked beans. Then I remembered that I basically make the same thing all the time.

basks in virtuous glow

Cabbage on toast is really crap.

That's what Jesus would have said if asked to expand upon 'Man shall not eat by bread alone'

Toad those are called Fasolia Gigantes in Greek. Big baked beans. Lovely.

They don't flap about double carbs or needing protein

They certainly do actually. What they don't do is get into a flap over technicalities about what counts towards one's 5 a day.

I agree Mrs I think pasta and yoghurt were classed the super healthy foods of the 80s/90s until everyone starting eating them regularly and you could buy them in Netto, then they became unhealthy. I imagine avocado, quinoa and coconut everything will go the same way and be replaced with something more expensive, imported or exclusive in the next decade. If mumsnet is still around in ten years I fully expect some parents to be feeding their dc bee pollen on spelt bread, yuzi fruit and heritage chard green juice and insisting other foods are junk and death on a stick :)

MrsKoala most of those points refer to potatoes eaten with skin. Potatoes are usually peeled to make mash, toasties, chips etc so you don't get all of the nutritious benefit. I appreciate some people do, but the majority of potatoes are eaten without the skin.

The argument that we don't know how lucky we are to live in the UK and be able to afford food choices can be applied to every single "what's for dinner?" thread. Yes, first world problems. But the fact is we are in the privileged position to be able to choose, and we should probably make the best choices that we are able to.

The initial question was "is this meal healthy?". The majority of posters replied that it wasn't the worst meal imaginable but that it wasn't the healthiest either. That once in a while it was fine, but you wouldn't want to eat it every day if you were in a position not to.

I had cod and chips from the chip shop last night. Deep fried and not a vegetable in sight. Lovely it was too, as a once a month treat. I wouldn't want to eat it every day though.

I agree with you Mrs about the peasant food point.

The assumption that potatoes are less nutritious than other veg is mind blowing to me. Potatoes have more or less single handedly nourished entire nations.

Handbag the trouble with a lot of yoghurt is that it is full of sugar to make it taste nicer and fillers to make the texture creamier without the fat. It doesn't actually resemble real yoghurt any more.

I had yoghurt for breakfast this morning. Plain yoghurt, made from milk and cultures and nothing else. Thickened by straining. Had it with some fresh berries. That was healthy. A Muller Light wouldn't have been as healthy.

True ego and how could one possible know if the bee pollen is organic when the bees fly freely to whichever flowers they choose? That'll be some angst for 2026, assuming there are still bees of course.

Jemima I don't like plain yoghurt with fruit so I don't eat it. I don't particularly like muller lights either so I don't eat them. There is a middle ground of yoghurt with some sugar and fruit but no random fillers or preservatives, the aisles are full of them. This insistence of polar opposites in food and nothing in between must just be an Internet thing.

I agree Ergo - as a youngster I was a bit 'foodie' and rebelled against my parents' post-war diet of potatoes to fill you up, meat plus 1-2 veg (boiled to within an inch of existence). It was all vegetarian, pasta, health food shop style meals.

Since getting ill - my intestine struggle to process fruit and veg but can deal with starchy foods and meat - I eat more like my parents did.

In all honesty, they have poor health now in the eighties but did very well on their diet for most of their lives. Food isn't central to their lives - they plan what to eat, buy it, cook it, eat it. No drama, no angst.

My parents are poor Welsh mining stock. They filled up on bread and potatoes out of necessity. And did pretty well on it as have the rest of their families. Not perfect but good enough.

The real risks to their health now is that since retiring they couldn't resist the urge to eat a lot of cake, convenience foods and fish and chips. So their diet habits changed and as soon as they did they started having problems with cholesterol. Those are the real 'junk foods'.