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.

That's fine with me, no need to be sorry. You can eat and promote sausages as much as you want.
You are a partisan, I am cautious. This warning is not even a year old. It took decades to understand the impact of tobacco, collect datas and epidemiology statistics.

Eat your sausages, bacon, ham, and .... I will eat something different and at the end of the day we are both happy of our choices, even if they differ.

The WHO is hardly a newspaper headline. I have never mentioned any newspaper but always and only the WHO.

Studies have indeed appeared for years in the Lancet and other medical and scientific journals (again not your typical media) but to upgrade to the Group 1 carcinogenic gives a whole new perspective.

You are going completely off topic now by mentioning other well now risk factor such as alcohol. This is not about all the crap contributing to poor health, this thread is about considering healthy or not a meal of sausage (processed meat), beans (canned food) and mash.

My answer is no. Not healthy. Yours less is clear and definitive (yes if .... and no if ....) as depending on other factors. A bit like saying one cigarette won't kill you if you have a very balanced diet. I agree. But why smoke that cigarette and why eat that sausage as there are 10.000 alternatives that you could eat.

why eat that sausage as there are 10.000 alternatives that you could eat.

Because they're delicious.

Why won't this thread die! I've had this meal 4 times since posting it

That's just stirring madhurjazz

OMG. Flapjacks? Poisonous sugar and fat bombs!

I think it's a fascinating subject.

I eat processed meat but fairly sparingly I suppose. I actually eat pretty healthy food but too much of it. I cook but not nearly as much as I used to but I'm hoping as DS gets bigger I'll cook more again. I used to get in from work and then spend an hour making dinner but now I have about 15 mins if we want to eat as a family.

I am definitely a bit neurotic about DS' food (he's nearly 2) but try really hard not to show it.

The advice from WHO is very clear.

Limit consumption of red meat and AVOID consuming PROCESSED MEAT.

www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/Monographs-Q&A_Vol114.pdf

Are sausages healthy?

NO.

Me too...fascinating. We know so much more than our parents' generation about nutrition and we are much more aware of the dangers of obesity and the links between lifestyle and illness. I'm genuinely interested in the reasons why so many people who know better (and would be horrified if their teenagers started smoking for example) still go down the road of giving their children unnecessarily processed and sugary food, and way too much of it.
I'm interested in food anyway and I'm greedy so no orthorexia from me - we have the odd sausage or bacon sandwich but I see it in the same way as I see ice cream and cake. Not good for us and not something we routinely chuck in the trolley for day to day eating.
The most valuable lesson my Mum ever taught me about food is that if you are a natural piggy like she and I and DS2, the safest thing is to just never go down the biscuit aisle!

It is difficult to get it all right though, or at least I find it hard.

I don't know if I'm meant to limit fruit for example. I don't think DS is capable of lying about being hungry and he'll be happy with a bowl of blueberries - is that OK? What if he wants another bowl? Am I meant to limit milk?

If I put a balanced meal in front of him and he just eats the peas do i trust him to know if he needs more protein or not?

I don't think I'm normally a stupid person but I seem to have zero instinct for this stuff. Doesn't help that he ended up under consultant care for failure to thrive as a newborn.

If you make your own sausages and bacon are they still 'processed' and considered as unhealthy as shop bought? Is it anything tampered with?

I think it depends MrsK. The "point" of processed food is/ was to make meat last longer and its those preservatives (nitrates and salt) that are unhealthy. You can make sausages that are just meat (and herbs, bread whatever) in casings and they'll be no worse for you than the meat is anyway. If you make "proper" sausages that you can hang up in the outhouse and use all winter then you'll need to use nitrates to prevent mould and they're linked to cancer.

Sorry I think I mean prevent bacteria.

Thanks splendide. I will look at my sausage attachment on my mincer. As ds1 lives on sausages I think I may need to try to reduce his processed consumption. What a bloody faff tho. Sigh.