Encouragement to eat more fruit and veg?

[Mrs Dobby]

We all know that we should eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, and the government has been running its '5 a day' campaign for a while now, but how much success is it all having?

For those of us who are members here 5 a day is probably something we acchieve (or exceed) regularly, but what about those who dont GYO?

From taking a look online it appears that 30% of folks dont manage to eat at least 3 a day, so how can we as a soceity get those who arent eating healthily to do so and reap all the benefits of fresh fruit and veg?

If you were in charge of the campaign to encourage folks to eat 5 a day, how would you go about it? Has the current campaign made all that much difference at all, or would you try other methods, such as giving those on benefits a free plot and access to seeds and tools (with a reduced benefit perhaps to pay for it?)

Has all thr hullabaloo about School Dinners actualy acchieved anything more than highlight that most kids prefer burgers, chips and chocolate to healthier foods? I know Miss D doesnt like the changes, but when she's here with us she eats far more healthily than she realises, and enjoys it all too!

Does the powers that be need to try another approach to the ad campaign? (perhaps the link below may be an answer)

Riske Veg Vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nATTXmI5U6U

Come on folks, whats your viewpoint and how could the gvt / nhs / whoever make a real difference!

[jools]

Oh dear, Suzanne, I'm going to sound like a complete prude here but, to be honest, I'm more worried about the over sexualisation of society as witnessed by young kids than I am about whether they are eating too many chips and cakes. Using sex to sell healthy eating?? This ad isn't something I'd like to be watching with my kids.

Anyway, I can't see it working. You can take a horse to water.....

I don't get my three to eat as much fruit and veg as I would like and I'm hoping that growing our own will inspire them to try different things. I am already winning the battle with DH but I have no quick answers with the kids - I just keep trying. But I do think society is running the risk of losing all sense of proportion with this healthy eating thing. People are living longer and longer so we must be doing something right. And I really don't know where all these vastly overweight kids are. There doesn't appear to be many at all in our neck of the wooods.

Honestly I'm more worried that my daughter, when she gets older, will stop eating altogether once it dawns on her that she is expected to be a size 8!
Jools

[Alice]

Gee whiz! I think i'm with you on all counts there Jools. I don't think i would present that video to children to encourage them to eat their veg.
I'm not sure what all this problem is about. Do children not eat fruit anymore. I always found if fruit was prepared and presented to them they would eat just about anything.
A portion can be
one glass of fruit juce
six grapes
3 dried apricots
a banana
a tablespoon of raisins
Is it really impossible to get people to eat these things.
Jools is right. You can take the horse to the well but you can't make it drink. I think you can only present people with information and let them decide what to do with it. I know I would be highly resentful if someone was telling me what I must eat, or feed my children.

[Snadger]

We all know that we should eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, and the government has been running its '5 a day' campaign for a while now, but how much success is it all having?

For those of us who are members here 5 a day is probably something we acchieve (or exceed) regularly, but what about those who dont GYO?

From taking a look online it appears that 30% of folks dont manage to eat at least 3 a day, so how can we as a soceity get those who arent eating healthily to do so and reap all the benefits of fresh fruit and veg?

If you were in charge of the campaign to encourage folks to eat 5 a day, how would you go about it? Has the current campaign made all that much difference at all, or would you try other methods, such as giving those on benefits a free plot and access to seeds and tools (with a reduced benefit perhaps to pay for it?

Has all thr hullabaloo about School Dinners actualy acchieved anything more than highlight that most kids prefer burgers, chips and chocolate to healthier foods? I know Miss D doesnt like the changes, but when she's here with us she eats far more healthily than she realises, and enjoys it all too!

Does the powers that be need to try another approach to the ad campaign? (perhaps the link below may be an answer)

Riske Veg Vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nATTXmI5U6U

Come on folks, whats your viewpoint and how could the gvt / nhs / whoever make a real difference!

Cor!!! Don't let nick see this as he'll get all excited! You know what he's like about his veg!!

[Mrs Dobby]

Hi all!

Jools and Alice, I'm not advocating that we use that vid, I just thought it a novel take on the subject that may well work with a certain part of society (Mr D, NTG and Snadger perhaps! lol!), nor that anyone is forced to do anything against their will, but merely trying to start a debate on how GYO ing and healthy eating should or could be marketed to appeal to more folks and to ensure that the message gets out there! I know that we can only lead the horse to water, not force it to drink, but is there nothing you feel that could be done to ensure folks got the message? The point to this thread was to see how you would tackle the issue if it was up to you

[Alison]

Sadly I work with a great number of adults who simply don't eat fruit and veg full stop. Personally I don't think a meal is complete without a great big pile of veg but there are plenty out there who think that green stuff is something you have to suffer. I've always enjoyed cooking and trying out different foods but there are many people who don't have those very basic skills and to whom preparing even simple foods is a total mystery - actually no, they might be interested in a mystery, it's more of an unknown land. Nutrition is vitally important as shown so well by various studies about kids attention span. To take my brothers as examples, one family cooks from scratch and grows a fair bit of fruit and veg, as a result the kids take it as normal and eat a reasonably wide range of food. My other brother and his family eat an appalling diet full of ping meals and burgers. They're not used to anything with a proper texture and are, quite frankly scared of veg. With such a bad relationship to food they are likely to pass this onto their children and the cycle continues. Kids like this eat a totally unbalanced diet and in many cases their main exercise is to their wrists and fingers when playing with game boys etc.................. Could go on forever but it is something which really worries me. Don't know the solution but would seem the sooner you get kids eating well from an early age the more chance you have of winning in the long run. People on this site have the advantage that they have access to the tools (ie fresh tasty veg) and although their children may rebel as teenagers etc, fingers crossed they see the light as adults. Harder for people without good role models but then again I think that this should be an important part of the national curriculum. Don't know how this all could work but thanks Mrs D for giving me the opportunity for one of my pet rants!!!!!

[Bex]

I do try to eat the 5 and I try to make sure the kids do too, but my one son will only eat fruit and being on a budget does make it difficult. They don't eat unhealthily but veg is sometimes lacking. Thats what prompted me to get the lottie in the first place. I'm going to try and grow everything, i'm not naive I know some things won't work but I'm hoping I can get more veg into all of us at an initial outlay of a few pounds.

My youngest son has an order of strawberry plants pending and i've bought a few raspberry canes, I also want a couple of fruit trees (plum, apple).

Jamie Oliver has done no good in my opinion with the school meals as my son now won't eat them which means he has a cold meal (packed lunch) and I would rather he have a hot meal. A lot of kids now won't eat the meals now which is surely defeating the object. My friend has been told to send her daughter with a bag of crisps so at least she has some food, she is a picky eater and won't now touch school meals.

Cooking is lacking in the curriculum as my son has had Home Ec (or whatever it is called nowadays) for two years now but he has only cooked about 4 times. Pathetic - we used to cook every week.

Something does need to be done but not too sure what will help.

[Mrs Dobby]

I used to love Home Ec, got to mess around and make some lovely stuff, mind you, I think my folks loved the fact that after I'd made something I then had no excuse not to make it again!

[jools]

Suzanne - not getting at you at all! Its a good topic to bring up.

I agree that if kids are brought up having good food put in front of them they will eventually see the light, even if they don't really appreciate it at the time. I remember that there were various veggies I hated as a kid - such as parsnips - but mum persisted and even when I went home as a young adult, she would put a couple on my plate. Now I love them. Love most veg and fruit.

I also agree about kids needing to be taught how to cook at school. I bet many young adults can't do much at all other than put ready cooked meals in the microwave. I have recently started to teach my eldest son (aged 10) a few simple dishes. He is the most fussy eater of the three and I'm hoping it will help. I guess many mums don't have the time.

I don't have any answers but I'm not sure the Jamie Oliver approach works. If the kids aren't used to salad, veg and fruit at home, they just aren't going to eat it at school and they really do need to have a meal in the middle of the day.

Jools

[Alice]

Hi Mrs D, I think the message is out there. I think the problem is a lot of people just don't like the message. And we can't make them.

[rustylady]

Maybe the Government should ban ready meals! Seriously though, Society seems to have got into ready meals and takeaways, and it's sad. Many young parents today have never been taught to cook so don't know where to start. Rather than buy (or grow) fresh fruit and veg they go to the supermarket and buy burgers, sausages, baked beans, or even worse the ready prepared "meals in a box" that just need zapping in the micro.
Schools are doing their best, our local ones provide fresh fruit at breaktimes, and good lunches, but children tend to stick with what they've been given at home and if they've never seen an apple, orange or banana at home, they're going to be suspicious.
I'm lucky, my mum taught me to cook, and I taught my daughters (and son) and they've carried it on. My granddaughter loves coming to the lottie to pick what we're going to have for dinner and always tells me MacDonalds makes you fat and spotty, my eldest daughter is a "vegetablearian" and has her own allotment, and the grandchildren have been brought up knowing where food comes from.
I feel so sorry for the children who do not know anything else except supermarkets and takeaways (some do not even know where milk, potatoes or eggs come from)

[Alice]

Hello Rusytlady, if the situation is as bad as you describe, then maybe the answer to Mrs D's question is - it should be compulsary for primary schools to teach where food comes from and what we need to eat to be healthy, and for secondary schools to teach basic cooking to all pupils.
In an ideal world it is parents who should do this. But if the parents don't know ...... well...... I guess it comes down to the schools and teachers have to take it on along with everything else.

[OverWyreGrower]

I was appalled to find out that my F-I-L and my pregnant S-I-L (17 yrs old) don't eat anything fresh... in fact, they class "fresh food" as something out of the chiller cabinet rather than the freezer section

When gently quizzed (Mr OWG wouldn't let me go for the hard questioning approach) they said that it is too expensive to buy veg, local meat etc and they don't have time to prepare it. Apparantly it is cheaper to go to Tesco/Somerfield/wherever and buy a load of prepared meals/pizza's/pies from the freezer section where they are all on BOGOF, or 2 for £5 or whatever.

I was horrifed by this. SIL is due to give birth in March and plans on feeding the baby what? She has no knowledge of how to prepare even the simplest meal from fresh foods (maybe beans on toast) and so will feed the baby on purely jars/tins, and won't be eating anything fresh herself. I worry more about my nephew-to-be and how he'll get all the vitamins etc that he needs, as he won't get them from his mum!

I understand that they are on a very tight budget and I offered to help them with their shopping for a week and show them how to make stuff that they can make and then have over a couple of days/freeze.

I think part of the problem is that people perceive that making fresh stuff means spending hours in the kitchen and loads of money in the shops. When you have a screaming child/baby, its much easier to pop something in the oven/microwave. And as Jools said, if kids get crap food at home, why would they eat "healthy" food at school? How would they know what it was?

I always remember the original series of Jamie's School Dinners, where they were asking kids what vegetables he had on a table, and so many of the kids couldn't name a leek; but knew what all the logo's were for McD's, Domino's etc

I often make huge batches of lasagne/casseroles etc and freeze them. Both myself and Mr OWG work 40hr + weeks, but still manage to shop and eat on a fairly strict budget, buying as much local produce as we can. OK, so I don't always have my 5 portions (especially in winter), but I'm not eating ping meals and frozen pizza every day.

OK, rant over!

[Alison]

Don't worry about ranting, your point is spot on. I find it very difficult to understand why people would choose to live like that but unfortunately your in laws are not remotely unique. I personally love cooking so don't mind spending the weekend in the kitchen now and then to get the freezer filled up with nice fresh food which we can then heat up quickly when needed. Made enough chicken curry for 8 to 10 meals on Sunday at about £1 per portion and that was purely from fresh ingredients with fresh veg and organic meat. It's much tastier than the bizarely coloured stuff in the chiller cabinet and cheaper too.

Personally I try not to shop at supermarkets anyway as I don't like them but you can still buy a balanced diet there if you need to. One of the problems as I see it is that they have such a huge range of produce from all over the world that it can be hard to find the cheaper seasonal stuff hidden away in the corner which gives the illusion that everything's expensive. Doesn't help that the stuff on prominant display in bright "buy me" packaging is the prepared type ie chopped beans, ready mashed / baked potato (I ask you!) which has a higher profit margin. If you've never chopped a cabbage / carrot or peeled a spud then perhaps it's not obvious.

As far as you nephew is concerned, OWG, suppose you've just got to try and encourage him to try things when he comes to visit and make a game out of it. Oh yes, as with most things in life, cross your fingers and hope!

[Lesley Jay]

Baby food in jars and packets should have the vitamins required in it. But they are damned expensive. I would show your S-I-L just how simple it is to do stewed, pureed apples or pears and mashed parsnips to begin with. Point out just how much cheaper it is. I would also buy her a tiny blender (Kenwood do one) to whizz up pureed vegetables.