Did anyone see the OFM article - "running on empty carbs"?

[ShyTalk]

It does reinforce everything that I have always thought about child nutrition. (And adult nutrition, FWIW). But, it is just one opinion. Let's throw some other views into the mix?

If you make your own pasta using pasta flour, it's white pasta isn't it?

Will switching to organic lemons for my G and T's make any difference?

Lol at "parents who pander to their children by not feeding them oily fish". I could offer them oily fish on a daily basis. Mine are the rake-thin children whose ribs you can count, who'd rather go hungry than eat any of the vast range of foods that they deem to be yucky.

Wholemeal pasta's horrible though, don't you think?

Yep. I have enough trouble getting them to eat the white stuff.

i actually don't mind it at all, but dh hates it. i doubt dd would notice, she didn't before. and we should eat more salmon, but it makes the house stink.

Yeah-mine is a self-inflicted starvation kinda gal too-she would actually pick bread crusts out of the bin before eating fish. Or chicken! She has been known to eat ice before now as she refused dinner and there was nothing else available to her!

You know, I'd be quite pleased if they'd eat a Happy Meal. But one of them would say the chips are the wrong sort and one would refuse the bun cos its got bits on top and one would say the burger is too chewy. And one would just want broccoli, which I'd be quite pleased about if he'd eat anything else.

FAQ - hehe at the spitting out of excess
meat. Yes, probably bacon. couldn't be toast or something soggy, could it.
Paws - although the article validates everything I have always said about food, I started them very young, and now they are just used to lentils, chick peas, beans, squash, and sweet potatoes as basic carbs that go with meals. Bread is wholemeal or nothing. I am guilty in the ham department and we quite often have a dirty big roast gammon, which we all enjoy. As we eat like saints the rest of the time, I am not going to ditch the gammon.

oh I did Shy - Beef was the worst, I used to sit there chewing for what felt like and eternity but just couldn't swallow it....so I used to store it to dispose of later

I love a nice steak or roast beef now-a-days LOL

God, it's hardly rocket science.
Don't bring yer kids up on pastry and bread even if it is croissants from Waitrose and margeritas from Pizza Express.

Knobserver gets on my tits.All of it.
I regularly rant about it.
The ridiculous pictures in the Food bit make my jugular pulse.
The self indulgent diatribes infuriate. (That Asian guy last week gong on and on his spiritual voyage through the collected works of Bob Marley. The year before he was going on and on about Bruce bleeding Springsteen)

Ridiculous 'news'
A whole page on kids not getting into scvhool of choice.Half a page on return of 'Agadoo'. FFS

Mariella Titsup never missing an opportunity to revel smugly in having had kids in her 40s.

Jay sodding Rayner banging on about 'correctly seasoned' jackal entrails and his gym habit.

I'm hanging on by a thread, a thread I tell ya, because of dear old Nigel Slater and even his recipes are reappearing suspicioulsy often.

ShyTalk - how did you do that though? If DS doesn't like what I serve up he just won't eat it, and then he wakes in the middle of the night really hungry. I'm at a loss just now.

I have no idea how to cook chick peas!! Dd won't eat anything even basically carb-y so I rarely bother for me either, as up to last year I didn't have the money to buy any foods that she would most likely refuse-it was two types of fruit (apples and bananas, or pears and oranges etc), veg (carrots, broccoli, one other type), one form of meat, milk, one cereal and bread-that was the lot, no money for deviation. Now she is so stuck in the rut that she won't even attempt anything else.

read it this morning.

some of it useful, some of it obvious (I didn't really know potatoes were empty nutritionally)

however what annoys me is that it lists all that is bad but doesn't really suggest good alternatives....

can anyone recommend a good cookbook that is ultra healthy but also super delish??? we are trying to eat more vegetarian so have just ordered delias vege collection but suspect its going to have tons of cheese in everything. how about tasty bean/lentil recipes? I'm looking for an adult version of "susannah oliviers what should i feed my baby?" (but not gillian mckeith, want more evidenced based stuff than that)

can anyone help???

Shytalk am jealous. tried really hard with ds but often he refuses my wonderful vege chilli and shouts "like cheeseeeee"

That's my problem too Pawslikepaddington. If DS refuses his dinner I can't afford to just throw it out and give him something else - not on a regular basis anyway. And I get really stressed about the wasted food. So DS does have a fairly limited diet at the moment comprised of things I'm reasonably sure he'll eat. But even that is shrinking, and I'm getting quite concerned at the moment. That article doesn't help any.

Twinklemegan - I just talked to him about healthy stuff and what he should eat. He understood what I was saying, and I just put my serious/fierce head on and told him that this was the way it was going to be - eat it or go hungry until your next meal. Happily, he ate it. I am not sure how happy I would have been had he refused it and been hungry, but I hope that I would have stood my ground. Anyway - he eats anything I force on give him now.

I read this article earlier, and at first I was ashamed, as at that moment I was handing my 15-month-old half a croissant! But then I thought - "Feck it, all she'll eat is bread, pasta, yogurt and fruit. It's not a bad diet ffs, she'll survive. Much better than tinned spaghetti on potato waffles followed by angel delight that I survived on. And apparently my blood pressure and cholesterol are fine, so there!

It's just another way to make us feel guilty.

Paws - Chick Peas is basically hoummous. Yum. With veg sticks for dipping - excellent snack - also, way better than mash or chips as a dinner filler. Most children will eat this. If they will eat hoummous, it is a small jump to whole chick peas in a casserole, or similar.

Isn't humous full of calories though?

I guess your DS was older than mine then. DS is only 2 and a half and I think that would go over his head somehow.

yum, calories. everything is full of calories...

i do worry about trans fats though.

Twinkle-what I tend to do is make stuff a) I can freeze, and b) I will eat, so if dd doesn't eat it then it just means my meal for tomorrow is already made. That way I am not throwing it out (although you do have to get past the gagging reflex re eating someone else's leftovers! ). I always re-iterate that it is x or y for tea (early on, sometimes even over lunch, and will discuss lunch over breakfast, so they have time to realise that x or y food is coming.) Often dd will just say "Yuk, that is stinky/gross/horrible/whatever, to which I simply re-iterate it is x or y, until she realises it is x or y and will eventually choose something!

We went out for lunch with friends today (a massive thing as they are on quadruple our income and boy does their little boy want want want so I HATE doing anything money-involved with them!). He is picky personified, which dd picks up on. I ordered her a corn on the cob and some bread, and bits had been burnt as it had been cooked on a griddle thing . He was shouting "eurgh, look at dd's corn, that is so gross. Eurgh, look, she's eating it, eurgh" (at which point I wanted to shout at him desperately-his parents may be able to get him something else instead but I can't!!) and the little poppet ate it anyway, avoiding the burnt bits. You have to really stick to it is this or nothing, as dd was narrowing desperately, but is broadening again now. Eventually they know that really it is this or nothing, and so will make an active choice.

I only worry about fitting in my jeans to be honest!

Aah no hummous is on the banned list at the mo-however, the veg sticks are fine, so she will happily just eat the bread sticks. Cous cous is a no too, however do feel a bit better that she won't eat potatoes and pasta as apparently they aren't doing her any good anyway (bar filling her up and ensuring she isn't snacking on sweets fruit.)

veg sticks-bread on the brain!