Dear lentil-weavers......

[SauerKraut]

Can I just ask- what kind of meals do you give your kids? And how often do you give them whole grains? And what about red meat? And how much milk? I think I may be weaving a little too assiduously and possibly depriving mine of the right balance of nutrients.

eh?

ok, you don't need either red meat or milk to be healthy. IMO the healthiest diet is vegan stuff + fish + possibly grass fed hens eggs.

Giving them a love of decent food is also, IMO, as, if not more important than a healthy early diet. So its not a bad idea to cook with them. And not just chocolate crispies, though these are, of course, good.

It all depends on the ages of your kids.

if you want, post what they eat and their ages and we will all pile in and comment.

ack the "eh" should not have been there, sorry

nor the popcorn really

I hope this doesn't kick off, actually. I hope this ends up as a decent debate.

I wonder how long before someone (aside from me) comes up with "muesli / brown rice malnutrition"

hi, im wouldnt class myself as a full on weaver but i do try to feed ds a healthy diet. i will watch this thread with interest as i would also like to know abit about feeding children health foods. my ds is 14 months old and dh and i are trying to follow healthy eating gillian mckeith style and i do wonder if this type of diet is suitable for my ds.
i dont want to feed him crap and processed foods if i can help it.

he does have milk and egg allergies so we decided to use that as a prompt to try vegan cooking although we do eat abit of meat and fish occasionally.

i did get a good book called feeding your vegan infant with confidence. its really good and covers all the nutritional needs and how to get a balanced diet for various ages of children. it may be worth a read as it put my mind at rest as i know now what to feed for calcium etc
hth

Hoped you would reply, Fillyjonk, thanks, and believe you me, the last thing I want is a kick-off. I am seriously concerned about the quality of the food my children eat, and am on the verge of checking ewith the doctor that I'm not going overboard.
Breakfast- always either porridge with semi-skimmed milk, raisins and banana or muesli, the latter consisting of oats, spelt, millet flakes with dried and fresh fruit and yogurt.
Other meals are usually some sort of whole grain (pasta, rice, bulgar wheat,) or potatoes with other veg and fish or eggs, red meat once a week in various forms, and chicken.
I also do plenty of soups.
Afters are always fruit, puddings appear from time to time.
Snacks are always fruit or veg with bread or rice cakes.

and thanks too, vnmum!

In fact, I avoid all procssed foods.

I forgot cheese, I use a decent bit of that

ages- 10, 9, 8 and 5

how old is your DC?
i am wanting to introduce more grains, i tried with quinoa but hes abit fussy on textures at the moment. i also do alot of homemade soups, for example in the freezer at the moment i have sweet potato and butternut squash soup and creamy broccoli and cauliflower.

after reading the gillian mckeith books for my self it has made me so much more aware of the crap that goes into foods which is why i want to try and follow her ideas for all of us,im even going to grow my own sprouted seeds.

from what i am aware, the wholegrain issue is that all the vits and minerals etc are in the wholegrain and get removed when processed into white rice, pasta etc. the only thing that you need to be worried about is that the wholegrains can fill the kids up with fibre before theyve had enough nutrients, or thats what i was led to beleive by HV, although with alot of goodness in wholegrains im not sure how it works. the book i mentioned reccommends feeding carbs in wholegrain form only and maybe peeling fruit and veg to ensure the goodness without the bulk

I suppose it's the too much insoluble fibre issue I'm worried about,vnmum. They get a lot of beans and lentils too, which I forgot to mention, and maybe not quite enough protein. I have tried quinoa too but they all hated it! I'm a bit wary of Gillian McKeith- aren't her credentials dodgy or something? I plan from the Harvard medical school pyramid.

i hadnt heard about her dodgy credentials, if you can find more out i would be very grateful. i have to say though that her approach does make sense and is vertually vegan anyway. with DS's allergies i use soya milk and cheese. apparently beans etc are protein rich. the vegan book i use has the american food pyramid and the english version too which is helpful. it also mentions any supplements yopu may need like iodine and vit b12 which are sometimes lacking in a vegan diet.

i was interested to find that 5 dried figs provide 250mg calcium!

ist nice to chat to someone else whos likeminded, as most people i know are from the chicken nuggets and chips brigade

If you google her, you come up with interviews in which she hasn't been able to present a believable account of her studies, that's all. But the American pyramid is the one I meant- it seems jolly sensible to me, and what I would naturally feed my kids on anyway. But I'm not sure I get the proportions of different food groups right.

yes that is a worry to me too especially as ds is still experimenting with food etc. hes eating flapjack at the moment but wont eat normal porridge.

again i would definately suggest the book, its really helpful. i got mine from amazon for about a tenner

oh well she doesn't actually have any credentials, does she? Her doctorate...its either from some pay-per-degree place or its in english literature, I can't remember.

But to be fair...what she is saying is not especially novel, so...dunno.

SauerKraut, sorry, I am feeling edgy re lentillyness atm. I think for kids that age that sounds like a good diet, actually. Protein IMO is something to worry about for under 5s really.

Right there is lots of protein in what you have mentioned. oats etc do have protein in them.

Actually that sounds like a really good diet. I'd just say keep up the good work!

A good book on vegan protein is Diet For a Small Planet. Its old but...don't think its been bettered.

It sounds as if you are doing great! I have managed to introduce a bit of grain variety - I make risotto sometimes so that became familiar, then started making similar but with quinoa/buckwheat instead of the rice. Also, try making fruity salads with bulgar wheat or couscous or other grain with chopped apples, oranges, raisins, honey - v. popular here. There are also pastas made with different grainds, just don't overcook them as they can turn to mush.
I don't give mine cow milk at all, although two of them eat cheese. Oh, and no meat.
I agree with Filly that getting them interested in food is v. good. Look at recipe books together in the library, let them choose or make up their owen recipes.
Whole grains contain protein too, and tofu is very useful.
I hope this makes sense

and sauerkraut...dunno, I think its ok to have a good enough diet

the real issue imo is too much saturated fats and sugars in this age group. Corn syrup and palm oil, that sort of thing. Which, if you are making most of your own food, you will be fine for!

oh beans have protein. They are a really good source of protein. Basically for protein-beans, rice, lentils, and of course cheese and eggs and meat and fish and milk.

Protein deficiency is REALLY rare in the west. Kidney problems related to protein overconsumption are on the increase, I think, though I can't remember why I think that.

lol at'full on weaver'
People are mean about Gillian.She might be bonkers but she does ta;lk a lot of sense.

You can't go wrong if you avoid processed food.That is the only rule I really follow.
I'm happy for them to have good meat and a small amount of arganic milk. (Would never actually pour them a glass of it though.)

at tick

oh a really really good book for this is hugh fearnley whittingstalls family cookbook

very easy to follow recipes, lots of (easy) sciency explainations, lots of little experiments

pro "kind" meat also

Oh good! Shan't bother the doctor yet, then. Know what you mean about edginess- I get a lot of crap about the crap I'm meant to be depriving my kids of, mainly from friends and family. It's pants.

at moony serving her kids arganic milk.

that sounds like the sort of milk that superman drinks...

oh I am crap on milk, my kids drink milk, they like it. I dont think its great but...

and you can't make hot chocolate without milk.

(probably best I don't start on soy milk here...)

I had a lovely lunch in a cafe in Brighton last week despite the fact it was made from Millet.

I've never managed to make anything edible with millet but this inspired me to try again. It was a kind of millett bake with a sauce.

You CAN make hot choc with soya milk. And rice milk. And probably almond/hazel/quinoa milk too. So there [sticks out tongue]

Mmmm pus-free hot chocolate is one of my favourites.

Nice one, TT, didn't think of fruity salads- I need more variety. Do you think that what I have described would have been ok for my 5 year oid before? She's only just 5.

Oh that gives me hope Spider.
Millet and I have a ...difficult relationship.

Am very into soy beans at the moment.
Frozen ones.God they are delish.I eat them by the pound as do the kids.
I can't get my head around soya milk. Processed to buggery no?