Healthy food, I dont understand?

[Crawling]

Hi I am a young mum I was 17 pg with my first and unable to cook. I have taught myself as much as I can and growing up we had a lot of crap food E.G Pie and chips.

I do my best make sure the kids get at least 5 portions but other than that I dont know what makes something healthy or unhealthy. I obviously try not to fry and use olive oil if I do, wholeweat pasta and bread, (white rice but I add some veg to it) but other than that I dont know what to avoid.

Please dont judge me I am not stupid but no one has ever tried to teach me the difference between healthy and unhealthy food. Can someone give me some basic guidelines please and why it is important?

TIA

Hi there - you sound like you're doing loads of good stuff. Fruit and veg can be fresh or frozen. You're avoiding too much fried food and the wholewheat thing is great - mine don't like wholewheat pasta!

Experts say to cut down on fat, sugar and salt. The traffic light labels in shops are a guide. Cakes, choc biscuits, cream etc should be luxuries.

Children shouldn't have a low-fat diet anyway. Red meat (which costs £££) should be moderated.

A lot of readymade foods are high in some or all of these, so if you keep up the cooking you'll be avoiding a lot of this. But we have chips on Fridays and roast spuds on Sundays so don't be too hard on yourself.

Get a cookery book that you like and that doesn't scare you - Delia Smith does all the basics, Jamie Oliver is a lot more fun and he's got 3 little kids. I'm sure there are lots of books out there for feeding families well without busting the budget.

it sounds like you are doing it very well already.

I'd echo the others. Sounds like you're doing a great job and your kids have a good diet (thinks back the largely cheese based weekend that DD2 enjoyed...)

Thanks all of you I will get a cookbook because while the meals I do cook are healthy, I dont know many, so it would be nice to have more variety. I do limit salt and sugar and we dont have readymeals much.

the Jamie ones I would recommend would be Ministry of Food or Jamie's Dinners; the new 30 min meals one isn't as user-friendly IMO.

You can't go wrong with a copy of Delia Smiths complete cookery course. It will teach you how to make everything and the recipes work.
You sound as if you are doing brilliantly. Healthy is really about everything in moderation. Frozen fruit and veg or tinned fit the bill as well as fresh.
And a slow cooker is a good buy too.

You don't have to exclude anything, and there is nothing wrong with white rice. It is what most of the world subsists on!

Just remember, all fats have the same calorie per gram, it is just saturated fat content that is higher in animal fats (butter, cream etc). You need both its just the western world eats too much saturated generally.

Kids need carbs and fats as well as protein to grow.

Also, frozen veg often has more vitamins than 'fresh', which is often quite old!

Thank you can I ask a second question what is wrong with processed cheese?

processed cheese is full of yukky things. E numbers and additives. Just get normal cheese, cheddar, or whatever it is that you and your family likes.

It sounds to me as if you are doing very well. What sort of meals would you like to cook? There is a recipe board on here and there are lots of fantastic meal ideas on it, and also cooking on a budget.

I always keep frozen veg in the freezer for my lot, and lots of fresh for crudites although I have started to cut down on so much fruit and juice as it is full of sugar. Also noticed that my DC eat lots of raw veg as crudites with a tiny bit of houmus or other dip.

My children are 4, 18 months and 2 months pg on a third . They both have good weights, and they have things like milk, youghurt and cheese as snacks. Sometimes the older has crisps or chocolate in his pack lunch. I also make things like pizza and cakes on the weekend.

As for meals I mostly use Chicken because I find other meats more expensive. I do use fish, and sometimes pork. Beef is rare. As or meals I have nothing in mind the more variety the better really. We use half frozen, half fresh veg.

processed cheese also often has water, thickeners and low-quality fats in it.
but again, as part of a mostly healthy diet, the odd Dairylea won't kill them....

I can't get on with Jamie Oliver cookbooks, Op I would recommend Ainsley Harriott's 'Meals in Minutes' and 'All New Meals in Minutes'.

If you cook from scratch you won't be going far wrong.

In addition to the other advice you have been given, I would suggest watching your intake of red meat (don't use too much red meat in the diet, even lean cuts, as there is a link with colorectal cancer...once or twice a week is fine though). I see you don't buy much red meat in any case, which is good...

Also don't re fish - uber healthy. Ainsley Harriott has a handful of very easy family friendly fish recipes in the books I have suggested

Sorry a rogue 'don't' re fish, I meant do...absolutely do!

Agree that it sounds like you are doing a great job and that you are aware of good food for your children being important. Some sugar, fat, treats, junk is fine, just as long as you don't live on it. I have a weakness for a McD's sausage & egg McMuffin, but am a total homecook nut (oh the shame). Good thing to remember is that any kind of tinned beans (baked, kidney, butter, chick peas etc) count as one of you five a day too. As does a glass of juice. Everything in moderation, as little processed as you can manage and as much fresh as you can manage.

could you also contact your local sure start and ask if they have a visiting health trainer? those guys can give practical advice on eating healthy and provide you with leaflets etc. IME they are not over bearing or bossy and are realistic where budget and time are concerned!

I'd recommend Delia's Complete Cookery course too, but it sounds like you're doing brilliantly.

IMO if you're cooking real food and not buying much processed stuff, then that's fine.

Hi
The BBC good food site has some really excellent ideas and they're doing a feature on eating www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/healthy/healthily at the moment.

Thanks all I feel much better it took many failures before I was able to cook a decent meal I remember my first attempt at a cooked dinner it failed badly and was not edible and you have all made me feel better Lots of helpful ideas here and I will try them all and see which suits me

This is ideal for basic cookery advice.

You could have a look in the library for cookery books and copy the ones that you like best?

oh, I tell a lie; this is the one I have.

Really simple way to judge if food is healthy is to think how close it is to its original state. Think 'orange', 'orange juice' and 'Fanta'... The orange is the complete food, orange juice is pretty good and Fanta is just orange-flavoured fizz! :) Basic good foods are fresh fruit, veg, meat, fish, grains, oils, pulses, nuts, eggs...

Next up from basic natural foods are ready-made staples. Good quality bread, cheese and butter are also healthy in moderate amounts. And simple convenience foods such as canned tomatoes or frozen vegetables are great. It's when foods have had a lot done to them in a factory or a lot of extras added that they start to lose their goodness.

So if most of what you eat is made with basic ingredients and you treat processed/packaged/ready-made food as an occasional treat or convenience then you're getting a healthy diet.

Brilliant summation there Chili!
I think the OP sounds like she's doing a great job, and is obviously giving it lots of thought.
Only thing I'd say is I think the advice is to not give young kids 100% wholewheat all the time as it fills them up and they don't have the same needs for fibre as adults do. So the white rice is actually fine in balance with a bit of the brown stuff in other meals.

milk or water v squash as the milk will have goodness
fresh fruit and dried fruit v sweets and crisps, as the crisps have a wholes days allowence of slat in one packet

Make it - make your food, a little red meat, plenty of fish and three vegtables with each eve meal.

Think brown most of the time - like others have said white rice is ok but if you can use brown do.

Pulses to add a bit of extra goodness

cereals with no sugar, porridge, weetbix, shredded wheat are good starts to the say with a glass or OJ or apple juice and some mashed banana on wholemeal toast.

You are doing a great job

sorry that is Salt in crisps equals a whole days allowence of slat