Classify the following foods as junk/healthy

[tortoiseshell]

1. Fish fingers (100% cod)

2. Sausages 3. Rice 4. Pasta 5. Cereal (Shreddies, Bran flakes etc, not sugar coated cereal!)

I think all are pretty healthy, possibly the sausages are least healthy. My children eat A LOT of these foods, so interested to know what people think of them.

1. Fish fingers (100% cod) OK, FISH GOOD FOR YOU BUT BETTER TO BUY COD FILLET FISHFINGERS ACCORDING TO SOMEONE HERE

2. Sausages MED, I WOULDN'T BUY NON ORGANIC MEAT THOUGH, PORK HAS NUTRITIONAL VALUE BUT RUSK AND OTHER STUFF IN CHEAP SAUSAGES DOESN'T 3. Rice OK IF BROWN, NOT GOOD GI WISE OR NUTRITIONALLY IF WHITE IMO 4. Pasta - LIKEWISE BUT MY CHILDREN EAT IT WITH PASTA SAUCE AND COOKED TOMATOES V GOOD FOR YOUI 5. Cereal (Shreddies, Bran flakes etc, not sugar coated cereal!) OK, SHREDDIES NOT BAD IMO

1. Fish fingers (100% cod) Ok if breadcrumbs taken off

2. Sausages - not really (sorry!) 3. Rice - yes if brown 4. Pasta - Yes if wholoemeal 5. Cereal (Shreddies, Bran flakes etc, not sugar coated cereal!) Yes, all children need cereals and bread

all fine IMO, the sausgaes in moderation, fish finers if birdyes or similar high quality brand is fine, rice and pasta fine IMO, not great Gi wise admittingly, but fine.

be careful with hidden sugar in cereals.

Ha ha - tomato sauce with pasta - do you remember what my ds1 was like at your house with yummy JO sauce?

Thanks though, am just starting to get a bit paranoid about ds1's diet....again...!

pah! all those things are fine. there is nothing inherently wrong with sausages - they just have a lot of fat (so eat them with mash instead of chips).

just a thing though: as an experiment I tried giving ds and dd a 2-fish finger-sized chunk of plain steamed white fish (with a bit of butter or olive oil on top) instead of fish fingers and it went down just as well. much cheaper!

I think all those are fine - so long as you're not having them to the exclusion of all else. They're all things my kids eat, anyway.

I disagree about the sausages. I would much rather give my children sausages than fish fingers. We buy our sauages from a farmers market and they are made with excellent quality meat and no rusk. They are not fatty. Nothing wrong with that at all. I think fishfingers are very junky. They are processed. We are lucky that the fishmonger at the market makes his own cod cakes from scratch and we buy those.

Ilana - cod fillet fish fingers are not really processed, just cut up and coated in breadcrumbs. and pork is inherently fatty, I'm afraid much as I agree that it's not bad for you.

I do remember Tortoiseshell. My dd is sitting under the table eating rice and peas atm.

While wholemeal pasta, whole grain rice is great for adults, you have to be careful about having too much fibre in the diet of small children, since it fills them up too much....musli malnutrition.

Would say all fine and served frequently in my house with exception of sausages which they get only sometimes and they have to be high meat content ones. Actually, my kids have just eaten merguez poultry sausages for dinner with potatoes and corn on the cob and scoffed the lot followed by (bakery not home made ) strawberry tart. But it is ds1's birthday

I also make sure I grill sausages rather than fry them

1. Fish fingers (100% cod)- fine but not every day

2. Sausages - bit funny about these as not keen myself. Again don't see the problem if quality ones but not all the time. 3. Rice - good 4. Pasta - good (no 3 and 4 - how else are they going to get carbs other than potatos!!! cous cous etc does not go down well in our house with ds. Brown rice tastes disgusting) 5. Cereal (Shreddies, Bran flakes etc, not sugar coated cereal!) Fine.

Just to answer the "how to get carbs if you don;t eat rice or pasta" question. We have rice or pasta very very rarely. The kids get potatoes once or twice a week, but most meals are meat of some kind and veggies (of the green variety). They get carbs from granary bread and also from the bran cereal they eat. Plus fruit of course. Fruit and veggies have carbs in - healthy ones - you don't need lots of grain in your diet to get carbs.

Meat and veg for a main meal would not fill my ds up, he is an eating machine.

He will often have 2 bowls of shreddies or the like for breakfask. Brown bread, cheese, meat, fruit etc for lunch. Snack in the afternoon, then heavily rice or pasta based with sauce/meat/veggies and fruit/yoghurt again for tea. He likes to eat and carbs - potatos, rice, pasta fill him up!

I don't think any of these foods are evil. My only thing would be that the protein doesn't 'look' like what it is.

From the point of view of education as much a nutrition, I think it is good to occasionally serve less processed food and involve kids in preparation, so they're not scared or repulsed by - say - raw fish and meat, and simply prepared fish and meat. Don;t want my kids to be loyal lifetime consumers for Captain Birdseye!

All fine to me, actually it sounds like an average meal chez morningpaper

We eat shedloads of white rice, it's just quick and easy and brown rice always feels TOO wholesome...

www - rice and peas go down well here too! Interesting responses - quite varied! Thanks!

Here is an interesting chart comparing the nutritional value of brown rice against various white rices

here

they're all fine, relax

[Comparison of the nutritional value between brown rice and white rice]

[Article in Portuguese]

Callegaro Mda D, Tirapegui J.

Departamento de Tecnologia e Ciencia dos Alimentos-CCR-Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, RS.

Cereals are considered an important source of nutrients both in human and animal nourishment. In this paper nutritional value of brown rice is compared to that of white rice in relation to nutrients. Results show that despite higher nutrients contents of brown rice compared to white rice, experimental datas does not provide evidence that the brown rice diet is better than the diet based on white rice. Possible antinutricional factors present in brown rice have adverse effects on bioavailability of this cereal nutrients.

AHA! So there we are. Welcome back Uncle Ben, all is forgiven!

Message withdrawn

goodness me, I do think that classifying fishfingers and sausages as 'junk' is rather odd

They are all fine imo, with hte exception of Shreddies (unless you mean shredded wheat?)

Sausages: if you buy good quality ones no problem (children, especially under 5, require more dietary fat than older children & adults afaik). Do those of you who object to sausages etc never eat them?