How much vegetable is actually being consumed via that 'pasta sauce full of veggies'

[Metacapulto]

On here and in real life I hear lots people offering the solution of 'I make a pasta sauce with loads of veggies blended in, voila then you know your DC are at least getting a couple of their five a day in'. Genuine question how much actual vegetable nutrient do you think is going into a child eating that sauce. IME a lot of children leave quite a lot of sauce behind and only really eat what's actually costing the pasta. Surely it can't be much?

Disclaimer: this is not a comment AT ALL on fussy eaters and how to feed them. I'm lucky and have not super fussy DC but I'm not stupid enough to think this is anything other than about 10% my doing and 90% good fortune. I'm not criticising people doing it, it's obviously still a perfectly good supper but more musing on whether it really is packing the DC full of vegetables or rather just making us all feel better.

Yes blended apparently means that the whole thing can only be one portion. I find it madness but apparently that is the case.

Can someone who does it do an experiment so we can answer the question? Meticulously weigh everything that goes into the sauce. Maybe weigh DC before and immediately after and then we can calculate...

I don't understand how blending vegetables can remove the fibre, unless you're straining it. Nor do I understand how a chunky vegetable dish can be equivalent to 2-3 servings of veg, but if it's blended, it only counts as one. Surely if you chew it properly it's pretty much a puree by the time you swallow it anyway?

I can't be sure tbh but as a parent with a child that has issuers with food texture, frankly I'll take any opportunity I can to get some veg he wouldn't normally eat into his diet - however small.

Also all nutrients don't cook out.

If they did there'd be no point eating cooked veg in any form.

It's a good thing to do imho - it does make the meat stretch (good environmentally) and increase the nutritional value whilst lowering fat per serving.

I just do it automatically now...any dish with a sauce gets a cup full of veg mush out of my nutri bullet. Onion and celery are a staple. Then depending on what I'm making, spinach, mushrooms, carrots, courgette etc can all join the veg mush party.

It's also a great way of using veg that's still fine but a little past it's prime.

The five a day thing was supposed be simple enough to get the message across to people but I think, as ever, leaving out vital bits of information has actually confused people.

People don't need an enormous amount of food in order to have enough energy and maintain a healthy weight. Therefore, the quantity of food should be fairly small. However, of that quantity a good proportion of it should be vegetables rather than carbs or protein. In terms of sheer quantity eating five portions of vegetables a day may be too much for some people - that's fine as long as across, say, a week there's plenty of variety. Most healthy people don't need massive amounts of any one nutrient - a steady supply of small-moderate amounts is absolutely fine. If anything, a lot of people could do with just not eating at all sometimes!

In short, if you're eating a moderate amount with plenty of variety then the actual quantity of what's in there isn't really a big deal. You only need to worry if there's a nutrient you're lacking due to some dietary limitation, illness or allergy (and oddly these days that nutrient can be vitamin C as people aren't drinking as much juice due to teeth concerns - so perhaps buy a bottle of orange juice if you don't normally do that).

I agree with you, not much at all.

It's like saying you are getting goodness from eggs by eating cake

I can actually get quite a bit of spinach in mine. I also chuck quite a lot of chopped carrot and celery in so I would imagine it could be anything from 1-3 portions of veg. That said DS gobbles sauce if your kid is avoiding it probably much less.

The longer you cook veg, the more nutrients you lose.
So lightly steamed veg will retain more nutrients than veg simmered for a long time in a soup/stew etc.

All veg is better than no veg though.

Its surprising how many fussy eaters (I've had to cater for a few) will happily eat raw carrots or peppers but won't touch cooked veg. Ideal really as saves on cooking!

@LionAllMessy Incorrect. In Italy, Bolognaise is made from pork & beef, plum tomatoes, onions, garlic & oregano

Joz neither do I but apparently it does

The smoother you can get it, the more that is eaten. It depends on the portion size.

...but the more of its nutrients you will be able to digest and absorb. So with raw veg, loads of nutrients but you can't digest the cellulose so can't access them. With boiled veg the amount of nutrients left is lower (most denature) but your gut flora can get at them. So it all works out about equal.

In a bolognese I use the same weight of meet, carrot, courgette and passata (and onion, garlic etc). So, 3/4 of the sauce are veg; it's not an alibi small onion hidden under the pasta.

SickofPeterRabbit

Plus celery and carrot. In almost all traditional recipes.

And onion is a veg too!

Blending doesn't Jozxyqk

Blending and juicing are 2 different things. A pp was just getting terms mixed up.

I think quite a lot. Last night I used whole pepper/onions/carrots/aubergine/mushrooms/courgettes/3 sticks of celery/ half pack of mushrooms in the pasta sauce and ds had 1/5 of whole sauce.

I don't blend the mushrooms, just chop them up small so it becomes indistinguishable from mince or quorn.

That's why I add my blended veg tomato sauce to mashed potatoes or rice instead of pasta; it all gets eaten that way.

People saying that the nutrients go once the veg is cooked for a long time - I understand that if you're boiling and discarding the water but if they are cooked into a sauce/stew surely the nutrients don't just disappear.

I don't love the idea of 'hidden veg' (But needs must) for us it's more about bulking out the meat, so I'll often grate a carrot into a chilli for example, or a bolognese (sorry food purists).

Blending and juicing are different things but I think soups and smoothies only count as a max of 1-2 portions as well, depending on how much fruit veg goes into them.

Blending to a purée would break down food much more than chewing, so I’d guess something is being lost in the process that would leave you with fewer nutrients than if you ate it whole or just cut up.

Blending to a purée would break down food much more than chewing, so I’d guess something is being lost in the process that would leave you with fewer nutrients than if you ate it whole or just cut up.

I'm not sure that is true.

If children are find of something like bolognese then they will end up eating mire sauce because it is thicker.

I would have thought only the tomato really counts as a portion in spaghetti bolognese sauce unless you are substituting quite a lot of the meat for veges. I've recently realised that I have an onion intolerance and was a bit sad about having to substitute parsnip instead (it's OK but not the same) however on testing I'v found that I can eat a tablespoon of cooked onion OK and as I use one onion for two meals for the four of us that's fine. One courgette or pepper probably has a fairly similar yield.

In her fussy years dd wouldn't have touched anything with even a spec of sauce so this approach would have led to zero portions of anything for her. And lots of screaming...

I don’t know, but it’s better than none.
DD1 loves all veg in it’s true form. DD2 won’t touch it unless it’s hidden. So I blend in as much as I can. Better than nothing.

So much angst about portions and five, seven, well why not twelve a day!

When I were a lass there was no such thing as five a day, you got what you were given and had to eat it all whether you liked it or not!

Give the kids a multivitamin. They'll be fine.