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.

This morning I had Basics plain yogurt with muesli, tinned pineapple, half a banana, Basics honey and some semi skimmed milk to thin it out.

Tonight I'm going to eat devilled partridge with rice and salad and tomorrow I'll eat pork ribs simmered in chili- spiked tomato with cannellini beans.

I know this because I have a food mountain in my freezer that I have to get through. My obsession with buying reduced food and hoarding it was getting ridiculous.

I'll probably eat a few packets of Walker's plain crisps over the weekend. And a dippy-in egg with white toast soldiers.

Fish - I notice no one's mentioned fish yet. Loads of evidence we should be eating more fish - even though it might have toxins in.

I eat lots of fish ego though not salmon because it stinks the house out. I can't cure my addiction to my kedgeree/biriyani mash up made with Sainsbury's Basics mackerel fillets. That also stinks the house out but we love it.

I like to eat fish but find it expensive if you want to buy something vaguely ethical. I try to have it 1-2 times per week. Red meat or liver twice a week. Veggie meal twice a week. Proper junk - cheap pizza, takeaway - once a week.

Sadly can't handle too many nuts any more or too many veggies. Only full fat dairy. Can't process sweetners either but trying (and failing) to limit sugar.

Pretty basic. FODMAP is tricky enough without adding in too many other fads too.

That's very true MrsDV Everyone jokes about hospital food but it's really important and rarely what people on here would call 'healthy'.

Hospital food is utterly dire in my experience. Its an absolute disgrace.

Ugh nice bit of porn popping up again here. It was a very different sort of munching going on.

Jemima - I was responding to the 'potatoes are just starch' post, i know it's better if they are not peeled and from what i have read 50% of the nutrients are in the skin. But that still means that 50% are in the flesh - it doesn't just vanish, yes it's less but its still got something of value in it. More than say pasta, which, unless fresh egg pasta, is just flour and water dried. I would rather my dc ate mash and beans than pasta and pesto/tomato sauce. I think the amount of sauce that adds value to that meal would not compare favourably to what you would get with mash and beans (also my mash has butter and full fat milk in too - which despite what others think i think is good for my children, i think fat is important to them).

That's so shit MrsDV. I agree about hospital food. At this moment 2 years ago i was in hospital for 6 weeks and the food was awful. They served mash as the veg accompaniment every day for lunch and dinner (i know we have just been saying how good mash is, but really, i was worried i was going to get scurvy). The amount of fruit and veg was negligible (while being surrounded by posters about 5 a day and what a portion is and eating healthy for my baby etc).

Also dinner was at 5pm and breakfast 8.30am. The only thing in between was a vending machine which was mainly broken. I was pregnant and hungry! the staff told me most people ordered takeaways to be delivered - but how many people can afford that? You had to walk to the end of the ward to q and get it, because you know, pregnancy isn't an illness, but when you are strapped to a foetal monitor and have a canula in each arm and sometimes one in your foot it's pretty fucking hard to get up and carry a tray of food, so you missed it.

Or when i had 3rd degree tearing and couldn't sit up and they wouldn't bring my breakfast (toast) to me and i was crying because i had been trying to get my pfb to bf all night and he was starving and screaming. Someone elses husband had to get my toast otherwise that would have been it till lunch. Which was a prepacked sandwich and nothing else, no choice, just given tuna mayo and that was it. The whole system need overhauling. It certainly isn't designed to make you better.

I'm sorry MrsDeVere for your loss and the issues you had to face over something so trivial as a decent meal in a hospital.

I'm due in after Xmas. My hospitals are inadequate so I'm sure food will be the last thing on their radar. Last time dh used to bring me Costa for breakfast, M and s for lunch and go out to get me something from m and s for tea because the food was terrible. And breakfast was a walk away and post cs with various drips in I wasn't well enough to drag ds down with me to get breakfast and I wasn't going to leave him on his own whilst I went because random medical people kept taking him to various wards to do tests and administer things without asking me first.

I think most patients would be really happy with something like a macdonalds, subway and a costa in a hospital. It would probably work out cheaper than what they have now anyway and at least it might get eaten!

The food in the hospital I was in was really good - but I like school dinners-type food. I used to look forward to ordering and eating it - there's not much else to do in hospital.

The people who took the orders and served were very pleased when patients took an interest in food because so many of them can't. Food is part of your treatment and recovery and I always argue with people who say that to save the NHS money people should pay for food.

Last time I was there I actually put weight on . The first time I wobbled out at well under 7st because I'd had an operation that made me burn about 4000 calories a day to repair the damage and they couldn't shovel enough calories in me no matter how much they tried. There was a McDonalds round the corner that my husband always went to before visiting too.

limited - i blame the hospital food/mash for ds2 being 10lb. 6 weeks of mash twice a day had to go somewhere.

I think some people have very rigid thinking about 'healthy' and unhealthy. And can't see any grey areas. Fil has dementia and lives on cornflakes, so when he comes over for dinner i give him loads of fatty stodge. And as i said ds1 is so restricted that getting something with a different flavour/texture into him is the priority over pushing superfoods.

I came across this similar type of rigid thinking when ds1 was 4 months old and had severe reflux, i was breastfeeding only from one side (as i can't from the other) and he would vomit it all up immediately. So i topped up with FF. But people were adamant i should persevere with EBF and pump constantly with the side which wasn't yielding. I spent the first 4 months of his life feeding, on a medela pump or cleaning up vomit.

Then at 4mo he was losing weight, so i was advised to wean. People were horrified. 'The recommendations are 6mo etc etc'. Yes, but if your baby is losing weight and can't hold milk down what are you meant to do? 'Give more milk' We weaned him and he loved his food, kept it down, his weight shot up and was very happy. But some were still rigidly telling me i was damaging him and should wait till 6mo.

I think it's the same with the healthy food above all else and common sense. Some food is more important than no food. To those who have said to me 'sausages/fish fingers wouldn't even be in my trolley' I always say, if that was all your dc would eat, you bet your arse they fucking would be!

Yes my DS has SEN and only eats a plethora of beige freezer food although I sneak in an awful lot of hidden veg and he loves fruit. He's now thriving and hopefully his repertoire will expand in time.

Oh and just bought sausages...from the farm shop :wink:

MrsK, I think the explanation is that some people aren't very bright and are incapable of doing anything other than rigidly clinging to what they've been told.

Food and nutrition are complex subjects. We're being fed conflicting information by experts all the time. Today's accepted facts are refuted tomorrow.

Which is why we need to keep a grip of simple common sense.

I'm currently in hospital and the food here is fine. Was admitted at an odd time (in a&e over lunchtime) and the first thing they did on the ward was offer me a sandwich. I had a choice of several, picked a turkey and stuffing with an orange juice.

I do get though that it would probably not be an ideal place to eat long term. Hoping my stay is too short to be bothered by it!

My Dad's 89, and loves sausages, mash and beans - always has! I suppose it could be bad for him, but probably not as bad as the cigars and wine which are the staples of his lifestyle!

ooooh do come back and update on the sausages - my mincer (never been out of the box) has apparently got a sausage attachment too.

Don't get me started on weaning guidelines Mrs K I've met people who earnestly insisted you can't wean even thhe day before six months as something awful will happen.

I read all the evidence (I'm a medicine-allied scientist, like Ego) and decided to wean both my two at 5 months. My god, the judging!

Egosum what would you say the things are that you don't want in your diet at all? Is it stuff like trans fats?