Fruit Salad/Cocktail from a tin?

[BarbieCan]

Is it healthy and acceptable?
Do you give it to your kids? How often?

I don't really know what you mean by healthy and unacceptable. There are no unhealthy foods, just unhealthy diets. It would make a difference to the nutrition if it's canned in fruit juice or just in syrup but both will be quite sweet. We had it a lot when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, very rarely since, but I quite like it. I'm not sure my own children (in their 20s now) have ever had it except at my parents' house. I think fresh fruit is probably better because it's a bit less sweet and it has more fibre because you eat the skin in most cases.

I buy it in juice, and my ds (and I) love it. Once every 2 weeks or so it comes out

I meant comparing to fresh food. I know fresh food is better, but dooes the tinned fruit still retain any goodness? Is it unhealthy since it is processed?

No, still there are still lots of vitamins and minerals in canned food. It's often processed while still very fresh, isn't it? Some get lost during heat treatment, I suppose. More comparable to cooked fruit than raw fresh fruit, I'd say.

Unhealthy because it's processed? It's just fresh fruit in fruit juice sealed in a can. It's absolutely fine.

It's definitely healthy and if you serve it with ice cream you get calcium too

The problem is not the loss of vitamins, it's the addition of sugar. And there's very little difference between syrup and concentrated fruit juice. Even in fruit juice tinned fruit is sticky and sickly so the amount of sugar must be quite considerate...

And of course there are unhealthy foods! What is a sausage roll for example??
I never understood the advice of everything in moderation. Chips only once a week, pizza with a side of garlic bread only once a week, sausage rolls only once a week, etc, etc. It all adds up to a really unhealthy diet.

When my two girls were little they sometimes had tinned fruit with icecream and they loved it. Nothing wrong with having it every now and again. I think parents who are too militant about their children's diets do more harm than good in the long run

I don't agree, tugamommy. How much each of us can eat depends on how active we are and how easily we put on weight. I couldn't eat sausage rolls, garlic bread and so on every week and not put on weight but that's because I have a sedentary job and don't take enough exercise at other times. Somebody else could get away with it. It's not the food itself that's the problem, it's the portion size and the activity levels.

The amount of sugar in many fruits or fruit juices is considerable - but that doesn't mean you should stop eating it or drinking juice.

tinned pineapple, I use all the time. as a snack. with gammon.
haven't used fruit cocktail for ages.
don't agree with the poster who questioned the 'moderation' idea.

A very high calories / low nutritional value diet is unhealthy regardless of whether you put weight on or not. There's a strong association of diet and cancers, high blood pressure, etc. not necessarily associated with excess weight. For some reason we're recommended to eat 7 or whatever many portions of fruit and veg a day. On the days you have an innocent sandwich for lunch and some pizza with garlic bread for tea, you'll probably be a bit below.

I should add that my diet is far from perfect and we only sometimes will eat 7 or more fruit and veg and the children will have ice cream for desert, which is probably worse than tinned fruit, but o know it's not exactly healthy.

Oooh! Mix it in with whipped cream, bung it in a choux bun and ice with coffee icing! Coffee Renoir (or as mum always called them, coffee doo dahs). Delish.

Misses point of thread together.

No Crikey - that is exactly the point of the thread

I had this at my Nan's the other week. she'd won it in a raffle (it was nice)

Tinned fruit and veg still count as your seven a day (or is it five?) but avoid foods canned in syrup.

Fruit cocktail - Ah! that brings back memories.

I tend to bulk it out with banana and a chopped up apple. Maybe some satsuma segments if I'm feeling really energetic. It's a nice, simple pudding.