"Seven a day"

nutritions nutritious

I doubt if it's the fruit industry that's behind this recommendation. The researcher I heard on the radio yesterday said that the emphasis should be on vegetables. Which reminds me - I have a butternut squash waiting to be made into tasty and nutritions soup.

Chill , people! Thickly iced Belgian buns are actually good for you now and then [as a treat] we all need the feel good factor of a treat now and then, but a daily diet of thickly iced Belgian buns may be pushing it.As others have said, the Nanny State is annoying, we know what to eat but will not be harried like a bunch of sheep all the time. Lots of cultures and countries actually ENJOY their food, why are we always made to feel guilty?Ignore all these diktats.

Well quite...

Changing diets is REALLY tough, but I know I must. The Mediterranean diet suggests eating red meat only one a week, I would like to know who can afford it much more often than that! But it's actually going to be less often than that in our household. DBH has managed it for a couple of years now, I have done it far more gradually because I do love old-fashioned traditional foods, but there's no denying I cannot carry on as I have been.

But oh, how I long for a thickly- iced Belgian bun... Just one a day.. make that two...

I only eat mash for the butter I can add

They say it's variety that matters, and I don't see that we have to have seven a day. we could have one a day, changing it every day for a week and still get the same results. I suspect it's just a guide.

Potatoes aren't counted because they contain so much carbohydrate. Which turns to sugar very easily so becomes a danger to people with diabetic tendencies. Also, if you like mash, people tend to eat far more of it than they should, as a boiled potato is far greater in volume than mash, so it's easy to eat three times as much as you usually would, plus butter/salt etc.

Aka, I'm sure your pasta sauce balances out, portion-wise, despite the paucity of carrots!| I hadn't noticed the weight guide.

Although how a 2" piece of cucumber can weigh the same as one large parsnip, I fail to understand! I'd have thought cucumber was mostly water anyway

I've eaten healthily for most of my life, and now I eat what I feel like. Sometimes that's a couple of Ryvitas and sometimes it's slow cooked chicken.
I love vegetables and fruit, and I eat them too.

Moderation in all things except chocolate

I'm nearly 68, still fairly fit and I'm fed up with this nanny state.

Of course potatoes count as a vegetable. If more people ate potatoes which are nutritious ( more potassium than bananas) they would be healthier.
I suspect that it is the fine fruit industry behind this. Potatoes are cheap perhaps only a quarter or less the price of blueberries etc.

Eat what you like and relax. the stress osf trying to live on fruit and veg if deep down you don't want to, must counter act the good the 7 portions are doing you

It might work, in chunks...

Yes, my body trained me out of chocolate, not my brain. It gives me dreadful heartburn. Apparently it irritates the sphincter muscle, it is horribly painful but just occasionally I think the pain is worth it!

Only the odd chocolate day Jane ? Wonder what chocolate fritters taste like?

I get the odd day when I really have to have chocolate. I just go for it and get it out of my system.

You can make them with peas, thatbags, do you mean instead of the corn? They just aren't as sweet, that's all. If you are converting from sweet breakfast cereal, or toast and marmalade, sweetcorn is a good halfway house.

I make fritters a lot. I use grated kohlrabi, cabbage, anything. But then I use just a very little water instead of milk, and no egg in the mix. Carrot and coriander fritters are delicious.

Thanks Jane

Just remembered I am trying to empty the freezer as it needs some serious attention. If I eat them all at once for how many days will I just be able to eat chocolate ?

Thanks jane - that's got lunch sorted ! Sounds delicious.

I think I'll try those, janerow. Have you ever substituted peas?

Sweetcorn and Vegetable Pancakes

3 heaped tbsps of flour (my tablespoons are quite large, I really should weigh it)

1 egg

10 fl oz milk (I use skimmed, but whatever suits you)

ground black pepper

1 tsp olive oil

Mix in the blender, or with whisk.

To the mixture add

A large tin of sweetcorn or half a pound of defrosted corn kernels

1 large or two small, finely chopped peppers

Ditto onion.

Onion can be substituted with leek or lots of chives or shallots, pepper can be substituted with just about anything. I have used vast quantities of grated carrot, elderly runner beans from the freezer, just about anything. As long as you keep the onion in some form or other, and the sweetcorn, they will always taste nice. I did try chopped fried bacon pieces once but it was a waste of time, you couldn't taste them.

So grease a griddle or frying pan with olive oil and place dollops of the mixture on it, they only take a minute or so before needing flipping.

Sometimes I make a couple of larger ones to have for lunches and we cover them with a mixed salad and salsa. It's a very flexible thing to have in the freezer, because they can be a snack or a meal at any time. For breakfast I just have two small ones with a poached egg on top, but they are also nice with a bit of grated cheese sprinkled on them.

I think there is something in what you say nananna. Hard to tease out the effects of other "lifestyle choices" - if you are eating all those veggies you probably don't have much room left for burgers and sausages for a start.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140331194030.htm

Anyone else noticed there is a sub set of what used to be called "health nuts" who smoke and then fuss about what they eat. I used to work with someone who was a vegetarian. At work she nibbled rice cakes (no wicked wheat) and sipped camomile tea (no evil caffeine) but was always fidgeting and looking at the clock, calculating when she could reasonably take another fag break.

NannaAnna

I really agree with you about the high fruit and veg intake being a marker of a healthy lifestyle and not the maker of one?"

I think this piece of "research" has not really proved any cause and effect but just highlighted a statistical correlation.

As in "Shredded Wheat's" statement that people with healthy hearts tend to eat more fibre. (It's not on the current packs though.)

I'll write the recipe out in the morning, I am reading this in bed! I hope you like them, I made them up.

life expectancy in Glasgow

I think it depends if you live in the posh end of Glasgow or the other end.

Now look what you've done Absent - now everyone is going to think potatoes are vegetables

Well, I am going to count potatoes now, thankyou absent. They are my very favourite vegetable of all, if I was asked what I would take to a desert island it would be a bag of potatoes. (Some to eat, some to plant)
I could catch fish and eat fish and potatoes (oh, and some garlic - does that count? And olive oil - if it's made from olives does it count as one of your five a day?)

Your statistics are flawed NannaAnna surely? I didn't think the life expectancy of the average Glaswegian was as high as that (talking as one who was born there).