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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Aibu to think that serving potatoes at all with salmon en croute is just unnecessary carbohydrates

817 replies

halvedfees · 23/02/2021 09:27

Further to the thread on boiled potatoes, from what I could glean not one person pointed out that you are serving carbohydrates with what should be already an ample portion of carbohydrates in the pastry. We have salmon en croute with extra green veg to fill everyone up. Is it just me or do people not get what a healthy portion (especially carbohydrates) actually is? Don't get me started on garlic bread being served with pasta.......🤬

OP posts:
Thread gallery
10
SionnachRua · 24/02/2021 21:53

@Blankiefan

I haven't RTFT but just this evening we were discussing macaroni cheese, chips and garlic bread...
I had deep fried mac n cheese a few years ago. OP might be weeping into her spinach at the thought of it but it was divine Grin
KatherineJaneway · 25/02/2021 05:23

No offence meant to anyone, no pretentious sneering, no nothing.

Don't believe a word OP.

Caramelwhispers · 25/02/2021 05:33

It does my head in when curry is served with rice and naan bread on the same plate. Traditionally, curry would be served with a veg side dish, dhaal, rice OR naan / chapati. Never together as it's double carbs and my granny would have a fit if you gave her naan & rice. It's just in the UK that people do this & pile the plate with a big mound of rice.

Graciebobcat · 25/02/2021 05:50

No Naan for Nan.

Caramelwhispers · 25/02/2021 05:57
Grin
Gubanc · 25/02/2021 06:17

Totally agree with you OP, on both pasta and garlic bread, and the salmon encroute and potatoes.
Side dishes are mostly carbs around here and vegetables are hard to find in restaurant menus.
Vegetarian choices: veggie burger, risotto or pasta. Nope, I want actual vegetables or protein.

BonnieDundee · 25/02/2021 07:29

The rest of the time we have one green bean between four

Isnt that a bit unnecessary? Cant you save half a green bean for the following day?Grin

halvedfees · 25/02/2021 07:44

Thought I'd peek at how badly I'd been flamed on here - quite severely. However 200 or so people agree with me.

For those of you who read pretentious sneering and thought I was joyless, you are so wrong - bad phrasing in my OP perhaps.

Obviously the occasional double-carbing is OK. Who doesn't have burger and chips occasionally. But what happens if you eat that every day? Exactly. My point was that this seemed a routine mid-week dinner, a regular, and I was surprised that no-one asked "do you really need the spuds"?

My DP is half-Indian and she struggles with the concept of rice and chapati. It is one or the other.

As I said, there was no offence meant and those of you who thought that can just f off 😀. However, there is another thread on here about training children in poor food choices, and with obesity and diabetes going to swamp the NHS if nothing is done about it, questions like this need to be asked, and debate provoked ( which it obviously has!!!!)

Putting on my flame-retardent gear in 3...2...1...

OP posts:
MrBullinaChinaShop · 25/02/2021 07:52

It’s irrelevant that it was a normal midweek meal. You have no idea what they ate the rest of the day. It’s too many calories that make people fat, not arbitrary rules around how many types or carbs you eat.
I had a fairly huge dinner last night (pork and butter bean stew with potato wedges), but I only had a bowl of chicken broth for lunch (no carbs). I’d be pissed off if someone started a thread slagging off my eating habits based on one solitary meal with no context.

praecantator · 25/02/2021 08:03

OP, you are making valid points; a heavily carb-loaded diet for a non-manual labourer tends to make the eater, ahem, chubby.
The big problem here is that families who glorify and defend their 'triple-carbing' diets, entrench such habits in their children.
A generation of potentially overweight youngsters who haven't had a say in their health.

Kintsugi16 · 25/02/2021 08:09

I agree there is an obesity problem halvedfees and carbs are definitely a comfort food, especially when people are getting little joy elsewhere.

Personally, I rarely double carb but my family do. They’re young men who exercise loads (as do I) and they need it. You can’t really judge if you don’t know the circumstances.

Regarding serving bread to children at meal times. I always did this when they were growing up. I never pandered to food preferences so we all had the same and they knew there was still bread if they were hungry.
4 kids, not one fussy eater. Don’t knock it

halvedfees · 25/02/2021 08:09

@praecantator

OP, you are making valid points; a heavily carb-loaded diet for a non-manual labourer tends to make the eater, ahem, chubby. The big problem here is that families who glorify and defend their 'triple-carbing' diets, entrench such habits in their children. A generation of potentially overweight youngsters who haven't had a say in their health.
Exactly my point. I have a friend who is a dentist and she says you can even see children's diets getting worse over the last 30 years in terms of sugar intake. What you are trained to eat as a child has a life-long effect.
OP posts:
Ninkanink · 25/02/2021 08:10

I may have reacted rather vehemently but that’s because of the ridiculous lengths some people will go to on here to dress up their sanctimony/judginess/hangups about food as ‘concern’ for others.

And tbh your premise as it stood in the op was quite ridiculous anyway because if you were truly concerned about eating ‘good foods’ you should really have swerved the pastry and gone for the potatoes instead. So it very much did come across like being strangely self righteous and weird about perfectly normal food in moderation, like so many people unfortunately are. However I can accept that you’re not joyless and you were actually just asking the question because it had come to you.

I’m sure we’ve established now that it’s perfectly possible to be at a healthy weight and a good fitness level, have good eating habits and eat a variety of foods for maximum nutrition, and still have a few potatoes with your salmon en croute. That’s what we would do, because we wouldn’t want to eat all that much pastry since it has negligible nutrition compared to potatoes. Again, if we have a chicken or beef stew pie (I only make them with leftovers) we’d just have a pie lid over the top and that would be the ‘treat’ part of the meal, and I would do chips (homemade) or mash on the side. But not huge amounts - just a small amount for me and a smallish to medium serving for DH, because we’re both conscious of keeping healthy. Most of the time I won’t have the pastry or the potatoes anyway, because I eat low carb for the most part, so I would have it with a fuckload of green vegetables instead. So it’s not like I necessarily disagree with what you were saying, either! Maybe just the way it came across...

Anyway this is as much effort as I’m going to expend on this thread. Except to say, as I should have said on the other thread, that I love boiled potatoes if they’re done right! A bit of salt and pepper, some butter or olive oil to dress, maybe some spring onion, five minutes on a low heat to let everything soak in properly. Yum!

Ninkanink · 25/02/2021 08:10

Oh and garlic!

halvedfees · 25/02/2021 08:11

@Kintsugi16

I agree there is an obesity problem halvedfees and carbs are definitely a comfort food, especially when people are getting little joy elsewhere.

Personally, I rarely double carb but my family do. They’re young men who exercise loads (as do I) and they need it. You can’t really judge if you don’t know the circumstances.

Regarding serving bread to children at meal times. I always did this when they were growing up. I never pandered to food preferences so we all had the same and they knew there was still bread if they were hungry.
4 kids, not one fussy eater. Don’t knock it

I don't have an issue where people are genuinely really active and normal weight. Athletes have to consume an enormous number of cards.
OP posts:
ElizaLaLa · 25/02/2021 08:11

@Scarlettpixie

Potatoes do not make people fat. Pastry on the other hand...
People weren't fat when pie & mash was a staple 🤷‍♀️
Kintsugi16 · 25/02/2021 08:12

If I served just Salmon en croute and veg to my sons they would be making a sandwich an hour after dinner.

halvedfees · 25/02/2021 08:12

*carbs obviously Grin

OP posts:
Iggly · 25/02/2021 08:14

@halvedfees

Thought I'd peek at how badly I'd been flamed on here - quite severely. However 200 or so people agree with me.

For those of you who read pretentious sneering and thought I was joyless, you are so wrong - bad phrasing in my OP perhaps.

Obviously the occasional double-carbing is OK. Who doesn't have burger and chips occasionally. But what happens if you eat that every day? Exactly. My point was that this seemed a routine mid-week dinner, a regular, and I was surprised that no-one asked "do you really need the spuds"?

My DP is half-Indian and she struggles with the concept of rice and chapati. It is one or the other.

As I said, there was no offence meant and those of you who thought that can just f off 😀. However, there is another thread on here about training children in poor food choices, and with obesity and diabetes going to swamp the NHS if nothing is done about it, questions like this need to be asked, and debate provoked ( which it obviously has!!!!)

Putting on my flame-retardent gear in 3...2...1...

Diet is part of the obesity problem, but a huge part (no pun intended) is the underlying assumption that, as a society, driving is better than walking.

We do not do anywhere near enough exercise, people break out at a sweat having to walk more than ten minutes and our government continues to enable it.

Sort that out and most of our nation’s physical problems will significantly reduce.

Ninkanink · 25/02/2021 08:14

I do also just want to say that I agree with pp on thread who say it’s much easier to sneer at those who are ‘greedy’ or ‘stupid’ about food, than it would be to tackle the many underlying issues that contribute to much of the obesity the western world faces, particularly in tandem with poverty.

BrideofBideford · 25/02/2021 08:15

We double carb all the time

We are also all slim

I don’t get this fear of carbs Confused

What is it about really?!

Saying that, I’d find salmon en croute very filling do might not have too many pots with that. But a few probably yes

praecantator · 25/02/2021 08:16

@Ninkanink

I believe the conversation/bunfight has moved on from the poor little salmon-en-croute to the general eating habits of the populace.
Occasional quintuple-carbing - 1/2 of bottle of tequila-necking - whole tub of ice cream eating - etc. ad nauseam, is perfectly fine and fun, well, not necessarily next day, HOWEVER, making this a habit leads to obesity/drunk-tank. Pronto.

Kintsugi16 · 25/02/2021 08:16

ElizaLaLa

Scarlettpixie
Potatoes do not make people fat. Pastry on the other hand...

People weren't fat when pie & mash was a staple

That’s because they were more active! They walked and cycled more, carried shopping and even wash day was a physical activity,
No TV remotes Grin or central heating, being colder burns loads of calories

Ninkanink · 25/02/2021 08:19

@iggly yes that is correct - I was just thinking that too. It’s not so much food that is the problem, really; it’s more that the average person’s lifestyle isn’t compatible with the average person’s diet in this context.

I really find self-righteousness about food to be particularly distasteful, tbh. Everything in us is programmed to want it, need it and look for as much of it as we can get, so it’s not surprising that a lot of people find it hard to regulate intake.

BikerWife · 25/02/2021 08:19

I bloody love a double carb! I know it's bad, but if it's not meant to be then why must they taste so good together?! Grin

Big prawn salad baguette with chips
Lasagne or spaghetti & meatballs with garlic bread
Pie and mashed potato
Curry, rice, naan (and preferably a potato sid dish too Blush)

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