Gwyneth Paltrow and avoiding carbs for kids - what do you think?

[JaneGMumsnet]

Hi,

You may have read news stories today about Gwynneth Paltrow avoiding carbs for the whole family, including her children aged eight and six:

"Sometimes when my family is not eating pasta, bread or processed grains like white rice, we're left with that specific hunger that comes with avoiding carbs."

We'd be interested to hear what you think about this story.

Does your own diet influence the way you feed your children?

Thanks,

MNHQ

[motherinferior]

Ooh yes! Apparently Murdoch and Carey had a whale of a time thinking those meals up

[Haberdashery]

I bet they did! They are very very funny.

[motherinferior]

No it wouldn't. It would taste absolutely horrible.

[Haberdashery]

www.george-orwell.org/The_Road_to_Wigan_Pier/5.html

I think this covers why a lot of people don't want to eat brown rice with carrots and sardines for dinner (and why they don't eat like Gwyneth, for that matter).

[motherinferior]

I will happily confess that there are rather nice pizzas in my freezer anyway.

[motherinferior]

Gwynnie eats naked in front of a mirror, doesn't she, in order to curb any urges to indulge? I'm not about to do that either. I pull weird faces if I'm eating in front of a mirror

[moondog]

Isn't it great Minty?
I am like a mad woman, pressing it into the hands of all and sundry.
It has really influenced me.
Gawande is such a great guy.
He writes a lot for the New Yorker.

Do you read any Malcolm Gladwell?

[snoworneahva]

Freezer meals taste beyond horrible - even before I considered healthy eating to be desirable back when I was 20, I entered into an agreement with my flatmate which involved cooking on alternative nights, I cooked, she heated up shit - frozen crap nuggets and potato products are the absolute pits, edible when only very drunk and very hungry with lots of ketchup but really it's shit food in every sense. At least sardines, brown rice and carrot would taste of what they are. Processed food may be loved by the masses but I have never understood why people who love eating so much they are obese, don't love eating enough to cook real food.

[Mintyy]

I'm afraid I can't admit to reading much Malcolm Gladwell.

What impressed me so very much about Gawande was the absolutely gripping page-turning quality of his writing, when writing isn't even his first profession! I find it v soothing to read in my many hours of 4am insomnia. So thank you for the recommendation!

[ubik]

I would eat in front of the mirror - a lettuce leaf or something. Then when i put my clothes on again i would probably think 'fuck it' and buy a twix

[Bonsoir]

Last night we had courgette soup made with round courgettes - so much tastier - fresh garlic, oignons doux, some saffron, salt, pepper, a funghi porcini stock cube, basil and, once it had all been cooked and zapped, a dash of crème fraîche. Followed by salmon (the organic kind that is almost white), broccoli spears and potatoes, peeled and sliced and cooked in the oven with the other half of the bulb of fresh garlic. And fresh oranges.

For me, that is easy food, healthy food and a proper meal.

[hattymattie]

Nice Bonsoir - I was going for cous cous tonight but may do the salmon thing instead.

I must say I don't think I could do the running I do without pasta.

Non of us are fat. I just try to cook healthily and from scratch most nights but not complicated stuff.

I would add - I loath sardines

[Haberdashery]

That sounds gorgeous, Bonsoir. And healthy and filling, too. I've never tried round courgettes - are they really nicer?

[Bonsoir]

The round courgettes have more flesh and fewer seeds so yes, they make much tastier soup! They are more expensive per kilo but you seem to get more soup out of them weight-for-weight, so I'm not sure that they end up more expensive IYSWIM.

[Bonsoir]

Menu for tonight: spinach and lentil soup, which I will make this afternoon; roast chicken with guacamole and some garden cucumbers, fruit salad (juice of three oranges, five passion fruit, a papaya and a mango).

[Haberdashery]

We will be having roast chicken, roast parsnips, carrots, leeks, gravy, roast potatoes and stuffing. Pineapple for pudding, maybe a yoghurt too.

[ubik]

We are having home made chicken curry with lentil and spinach dhal, rice and chappati.

[exoticfruits]

I wonder how and why you would have curry without the rice-surely one needs the other?

[exoticfruits]

Not said to you ubik-said to those who won't eat carbs.

[exoticfruits]

Or for that matter why you can't have potatoes with chicken.

[ubik]

Well some of the Indian folk I know actually only eat curry with chappati and complain that the emphasis on rice over here is making them fat

You need some sort of carb though otherwise the curry is too strong.

[ubik]

And we also love courgette soup / we make ours with frozen petit pois and basil and Parmesan rinds chucked in. Lovely crusty bread to do Ruth it. Yum.