Just one more thing... how many people do you know in RL who are all homemade/organic/free-range/from scratch etc.

[emkana]

Because I don't think I know any!
In fact, I think I am the most "bothered" person about food I know around here, and as you all know by now I feed my kids chicken dippers occasionally.

And I live in a fairly affluent, middle-class kind of area - admittedly in the provinces, not London.

The most homemade person I know is a chef. So to be expected. AFAIK everyone else just muddles though. Apart from my BIL who is very, very keen on quality food (Italian) and buys half a cow direct from the farm every six months and keeps it in the freezer (obv. butchered). My neice only eats meat from this source - BIL practically knows the name of each cow!

May organic scratchers take over the world! And then it would be a nicer place!

I home-cook most things, grow a lot of me own veg, bake bread, make cakes etc etc but am just as likely to suggest the (very) odd visit to pizza hut (or whereever) - just for fun.

I can't afford organic, and cannot beat my self up about that. I do the best I can and I do not judge anyone else either. One of my friend is an ardent home-made foodie - but a really incompetent cook! (there are times when we have struggled to force down a very badly burned home-made wholemeal, hard as nails yorkshire pudding by drinking buckets of water; she said ''aren't your two good drinking so much water '')

bit of a mix here, we have an allotment so grow lots of stuff, we make all our own wines/spirts/ beers. i have just started to make bath stuff, bath bombs and soaps and will shortly be doing shampoo bubble baths and shower gels, but my son has a terrible diet, he will now eat 9 peas and three bits of carrot

I do a bit of a mix as well really. Am not a fab cook by any means but I do try and cook 99% of DD's meals (and ours). Find it better now I cook for all three of us together rather than when I had to do separate ones for us all.

I buy dairy/eggs/meat/bread organic (the staples I guess) and then the rest as and when it takes the fancy/we can afford it - rarely buy organic veg these days.

Tbh we are a bit skint at the mo so having to rethink what I buy/where etc and am wondering how I can shop and buy organic but still do it quite cheaply - it's not possible is it??? (Currently shop at Waitrose and while I like it, it's just too expensive - although the organic selection is definately the best).

Oh get thheself to your nearest Aldi, good quality at affordable prices- apparently they are doing organic veg. But most of their fruit and veg is British which I like, lees impact on the environment.

Funny you should say that Sheraz but was going to try Aldi (it's on the way to Waitrose anyway) so we can get the bulk at Aldi and the other stuff at Waitrose - seems like a compromise and hopefully a bit cheaper in all!!!

What I don't like about Waitrose is things like toiletries (i.e. direct comparables) that are 40p more expensive than say Asda or Tesco - rip off! Just because they put 'aspirational toiletries' above it does it makes it justified???

On the other hand I am a bit lazy and hate having to shop at 2 different places - I'm a kind of get it all in one shop and overwith kind of person. And I know I can get all my organic stuff under the one roof at Waitrose....

Sorry I digress....

We do a pretty healthy mixture of only buying free range/organic meat and vegetables and cooking most meals from scratch, but also have a weekly fishfingers, oven chips and baked beans meal (dss' favourite meal of the week, naturally). And the occasional fruit shoot is allowed if we're eating out! I think most of our friends are kind of similar - except one who wouldn't dream of buying evil-fruit-shoots-from-hell!!!

It's nice to have a food thread without everyone getting all judgemental! Long may it continue!!

we home cook mostly every thing from scratch but dh is hard to convince and 'treats' himself to mac d's when no one else is around.

We have a fair balance I think.

Buy organic meat, organic box veg, organic bread.

But I am more concerned about food miles than being organic all the time -- would rather buy a non-organic English cauliflower than one that's organic but flown in from somewhere.

Fishfingers, baked beans and pizzas occasionally (would like to give up fishfingers but even if I make my own kids turn their nose up at them).

Coke and crisps only in the pub, never at home.

McDonalds never ever.

India Knight writing on this topic in the ST today

A survey last month by the British Potato Council found that vast numbers of women tell ?little white lies? about their children?s diets to save face with their families and friends. Social pressure, arising from Jamie-style programmes and media comment, means that women lie most about how their children aren?t allowed chips or other fried foods.

The second most common lie is for women to tell friends that their children eat only fresh, home-cooked food. Other lies include chocolate only at weekends, the full quota of five portions of fruit and veg a day, no frozen food, and the improbable old chestnut ?they actually prefer healthy food?. They don?t: if they did, we wouldn?t be in this mess.

here

I have one rl friend who is as "bothered" as you put it as me, but most are happy to feed their children all the stuff that regularly get lambasted on here

DH and I actually really enjoy cooking and I love baking in particular. Just do.

Don't know if we save more money making most of what we eat from scratch, b/c we'd do it anyway b/c we enjoy it.

I just made some pumpkin muffins. Found it really relaxing w/my Norah Jones CD on in the background.

Our kids do get frozen foods - keep them to hand just in case - and chippies and McDonald's every now and again, but mostly we cook from scratch b/c we like it.

I don't see the point in lying - I really like to cook and bake.

I do most of our cooking from scratch, because a) I enjoy it and b) it's cheaper. We rarely buy organic (too expensive) but we do grow some of our own veg and soft fruit on our allotment. I think fresh home cooked food is more nutritious than organic food that's been flown halfway across the world. We do buy free range eggs and fair trade tea and coffee though. I never buy ready meals, but have ready made pie or quiche, pizza or jar of pesto say once a week, when I'm working and I always try and make sure that I include fresh vegetables or salad with it, so that at least some of the meal is home made. I think one meal of convenience food a week isn't too bad. Some foods, like baked beans, have a bad "image" and you have to be objective and consider the nutritional content. My 2 year old is addicted to baked beans, but I think they are OK nutritionally. I have compared the nutritional content of all the major brands and now stick to the one that seems to have the most beans and tomato and the least sugar, colouring and other additives. I try not to worry about the fact that she has baked beans maybe 3 times a week. Even fish fingers aren't too bad if they are 100% fish and have natural coloured breadcrumbs. You also have to consider what part that food plays in their diet as a whole - chips once a fortnight can't do anybody any harm. I think my daughter would happily live on a diet of baked beans, bananas and milk, with crisps only on special occasions, and she would probably get most of her nutritional needs met that way. In the end, it comes down to what your children will eat and you can't force them to eat foods they don't like.

I do most of our cooking from scratch, because a) I enjoy it and b) it's cheaper. We rarely buy organic (too expensive) but we do grow some of our own veg and soft fruit on our allotment. I think fresh home cooked food is more nutritious than organic food that's been flown halfway across the world. We do buy free range eggs and fair trade tea and coffee though. I never buy ready meals, but have ready made pie or quiche, pizza or jar of pesto say once a week, when I'm working and I always try and make sure that I include fresh vegetables or salad with it, so that at least some of the meal is home made. I think one meal of convenience food a week isn't too bad. Some foods, like baked beans, have a bad "image" and you have to be objective and consider the nutritional content. My 2 year old is addicted to baked beans, but I think they are OK nutritionally. I have compared the nutritional content of all the major brands and now stick to the one that seems to have the most beans and tomato and the least sugar, colouring and other additives. I try not to worry about the fact that she has baked beans maybe 3 times a week. Even fish fingers aren't too bad if they are 100% fish and have natural coloured breadcrumbs. You also have to consider what part that food plays in their diet as a whole - chips once a fortnight can't do anybody any harm. I think my daughter would happily live on a diet of baked beans, bananas and milk, with crisps only on special occasions, and she would probably get most of her nutritional needs met that way. In the end, it comes down to what your children will eat and you can't force them to eat foods they don't like.

I do most of our cooking from scratch, because a) I enjoy it and b) it's cheaper. We rarely buy organic (too expensive) but we do grow some of our own veg and soft fruit on our allotment. I think fresh home cooked food is more nutritious than organic food that's been flown halfway across the world. We do buy free range eggs and fair trade tea and coffee though. I never buy ready meals, but have ready made pie or quiche, pizza or jar of pesto say once a week, when I'm working and I always try and make sure that I include fresh vegetables or salad with it, so that at least some of the meal is home made. I think one meal of convenience food a week isn't too bad. Some foods, like baked beans, have a bad "image" and you have to be objective and consider the nutritional content. My 2 year old is addicted to baked beans, but I think they are OK nutritionally. I have compared the nutritional content of all the major brands and now stick to the one that seems to have the most beans and tomato and the least sugar, colouring and other additives. I try not to worry about the fact that she has baked beans maybe 3 times a week. Even fish fingers aren't too bad if they are 100% fish and have natural coloured breadcrumbs. You also have to consider what part that food plays in their diet as a whole - chips once a fortnight can't do anybody any harm. I think my daughter would happily live on a diet of baked beans, bananas and milk, with crisps only on special occasions, and she would probably get most of her nutritional needs met that way. In the end, it comes down to what your children will eat and you can't force them to eat foods they don't like.

Mix'n'match, like everyone else on the thread.I have never met anyone who even claims to be 100% organic.

We get an organic veg bag but supplement it with other stuff (and like other people have said, local's more important than organic, but even then, if I fancy an avocado in winter I'm not going to deprive myself).
Make most but not all of our bread in bread machine but so far I can't find an organic flour that rises quite as well as ordinary Allinsons.
Mostly home cook but occasional ready meal, pack of crisps, trip to MacDs etc.
I am thinking of getting hardline on free range broiler chicken though.

nah I hever met one neither

I cook from scratch but have the odd mac d and take away
no harm in it

I dont understand the vegans who can sit on leather couches
and wear leather shoes
just dont get it

Another mix 'n' max household here. I enjoy cooking/baking and genuinely don't like the taste of the majority of processed food. We do have baked beans and fishfingers regularly but I think they're perfectly healthy.

i've known people at either end of the spectrum. My ex sil weaned her daughter on Quavers and FruitShoot but one of my friends lives on a farm, cooks (and can afford) 100% organic and is irritatingly perfect.

I know quite a few people who AFAIK eat organic when they feel they can afford it, cook from scratch, make their own bread, use free-range eggs etc. Agree with Sophy btw re English cauli rather than organic one from Kenya.

I say AFAIK because, as others say, you don?t always know, do you?

I?m not about to kill myself over it tho a colleague does call me a ?food nazi? (because I avoid transfat and aspartame as far as is humanly possible).

I ran a chocolate fountain stall at the school fair on Saturday tho. So shoot me! The kids got fruit to dip in and I couldn?t sell it fast enough! Not organic but at least no hydrogenated veg oils in sight....

I am, as much as I possibly can, because I believe it really matters.
Overly processed food tastes like poo anyway. Non-organic farming causes havoc to the environment. Wildflowers, insect and songbirds are decreasing at an alarming rate.
I want my children to enjoy real food and grow up to cook it themselves.
This is about more than scoring points, for me anyway. I really care about this. And we're not rich, although we do live in a nice area.

And I don't believe there are that many vegans who have leather furniture and footwear, but those who do - at least they are doing something. And you never know, their shoes may be secondhand.

i've started cooking most of mine and ds meals from scratch as he has behaviour problems so im cutting out all addivives and e numbers etc. hard work but much healthier and makes me feel better for putting in the effort. Only really use organic stock cubes as oxo is full of e numbers!!