Turbohot

A light headed question for the roast dinner day- Sunday.

Not that I've only just noticed, but a recent visit to a restaurant brought this up for me again. I noticed that almost everything to everyone was served with some greens; starters on a colourful leafy bed and lasagne, meats etc. with spiral shaped cucumber shavings, whole vine tomatoes, shredded beetroot, carrots etc, but nearly all the done dishes the waitresses was collecting had the salads leftover- either untouched or hardly eaten.

I personally eat every bit of green on my plate quite happily; raw or cooked. The waitress only gets to take the discarded bones or discarded whole spices back in my plate. I don't know what she thinks of me. Perhaps a very greedy customer who could eat a whole table if required. I don't know.

Anyway, what's your salad eating like? Do you eat it or your diet doesn't involve much raw greens? Do you prefer cooked greens or that's a no-no as well?

peter zippy reid

iTrader: (25)

I am on a diet just now went from 16st 1lb to 13st so far i dont eat enough greens and never eat salad

Peedee

iTrader: (4)

I eat it, however, I will smash down the salad before anything else, almost like its a chore. That way, I've eaten the 'healthy' part and now it's just steak and chips on my plate and my mind sub-consciously thinks I'm a winner lol.

Turbohot

WOW! Is it Atkin's sort of diet you're on, Peter?

LOL.

I think most of us leave the best part/s of the food till the end. In my case, it's conscious. I remember the days when my sister and I were little. Sitting in front of each other, we used to leave the best part of the food on our plates till the end and eat it quite slowly; in order to make ea h other enviously salivating over the remaining best part of our food.

Although in my last dish, I left the last butter-fried sweet n' sour prawn till the end, I must admit that I'm equally very fond of the salads. I think the reason I saved the prawn till the end was that the salad was in abundance whereas the prawns you could count on your finger tips. Rarity causes insecurity.

peter zippy reid

iTrader: (25)

No just doing it myself i am a butcher that ate takeaway 7 days a week now just make homemade dinners now

dpb

I always eat salad starter me

Blue by You

iTrader: (23)

I own a Subaru.
I can't afford to eat out

Turbohot

I understand that, but this thread isn't about showing off that one eats out in Ritz or anything like that, trust me. Frankly, too much eating out is a sheer waste of money in my eyes; specially when one can cook really well at home. What I mean is that even at home, do you like your broccoli, lettuce etc., or do you waste it to in your food recycling bin?

In other words, are you a greens eater or a greens hater?

Turbohot

Cool. Lifestyle changes such as stopping to live on the take-away food is a great step towards the overall better health, not just for reducing weight. Good on you.

Blue by You

iTrader: (23)

I was only kidding, but I like home cooked food. My wife and I both cook and we eat fresh and cooked green foods. When we do go out to eat I have no issues with salads or other decorative vegetable garnishes. If they're edible, they usually get eaten.
I'm no 'veggie' though, I do like meat or fish on the plate as the main part of the meal.

Turbohot

Cool.

I don't want to patronise anyone here, but people should eat their greens, really. It's a shame how much of the edible greens we waste in Britain, or just not eat them at all or not enough. I say it because I've noticed it.

People that don't like greens can always make smoothies with the greens and consume them. They're good for you.

dpb

I doubt they'll get their full green requiremnent if its bit of ornamental plastic sat on the edge the plate !

Turbohot

I don't get it. What do you mean, Dunc?

dpb

https://travelpenandpalate.files.wor...1/dsc08794.jpg
its intresting really- beyond the western world the Meat is the relish !

Blue by You

iTrader: (23)

I haven't read the article, but is that due to cultural, secular, or financial (availability) reasons?

dpb

Culture And availbilty probably ,

Turbohot

It's not an article our Duncan posted the link to, BBY. He posted a healthy food plate pic:




This was my salad yesterday; half of it is in my lunch box today:



So delicious that I'd rather have it over a burger or a steak. This would make a larger portion than the meat and potatoes on my dinner plate.

Turbohot

Historically, I hear from my mother-in-law that she didn't even see a banana until she was 8. She was a WW2 child; born in 1939. She connects the scarcity of fruit to the WW2 situation when fruit imports were very difficult. I don't know why people couldn't eat home grown fruit and vegetables in right proportions, then. Perhaps farming fruits and vegetables became secondary and other industries became more important around that time. MIL still buys fresh fruit for decoration and never eats them. I eat them when I visit her, because I don't like them going to waste. I hear some historical facts about the baked beans and their prevalence during the wars. My late father in-law drove a tanker during the WW2 and survived on the bean and Spam cans. Soldiers must have brought these green-free eating habits back home which became engrained in the generations to come.


As it is now, a 2014 article:

https://www.rt.com/uk/204855-britons...getables-diet/


Extract from the article:

The study found people in Northern Ireland ate the most vegetables, with 2.9 portions every day. Meanwhile, people in the north west of England scored lowest, with 12 percent admitting they had not eaten a single vegetable in the past month.
In March this year, a study by University College London showed that the official five-a-day advice, recommended by the WHO in 1990 and backed by the UK government and the NHS, should actually be doubled to 10 portions a day.
The research also found that vegetables were four times healthier than fruit, and that eating large quantities of fruit and vegetables significantly lowered the risk of premature death. However, only 30 percent of people manage to eat even the recommended five portions.
The study’s lead author, Dr Oyinlola Oyebode, said: “The clear message here is that the more fruit and vegetables you eat, the less likely you are to die at any age. My advice would be however much you are eating now, eat more.”

urban

iTrader: (1)

What I'd like to know is when a plate comes back to the kitchen, and the side garnish looks untouched, does it then get moved onto a different plate and sent back out again as another garnish

Turbohot

Very good question. Also, the word 'garnish' used for greens indicates that for many they may be considered for show/to enhance the look of the food, but not for eating.

Shame that people don't think of the teeth rotting cake icing as merely a reject-worthy garnish.


Ok. That may explain why many would discard their raw greens in some poor hygiene bearing restaurant or all for that matter. But even in people's home diet, even spring water washed greens are not generally consumed in adequate quantities. Not just the kids but even adults reject them. If they were, nutrition reports wouldn't show the lack of their consumption, nor would today's Jamie Oliver tell us to eat 5 or even 7 portions of fruit n' veg a day.

Blue by You

iTrader: (23)

We may all have a tendency to eat more of what we like rather than what is good for us perhaps, but this is very worrying.
With the current effort in public campaigns to promote nutritional education and the fact that, generally speaking, there is more awareness of what constitutes a healthy and balanced diet that figure can only be on the increase. I can't see why it would be so high other than for the fact that people just don't care (= lazy?), or maybe don't believe what they are told.

Turbohot

Oh, certainly. We do consume more of what we like, not what's better for us. It's a shame that what we like more is less healthier than what we don't like. I believe that most vegetables and fruit are delicious. Taste wise, they offer us a huge variety; as opposed to the dairy and meat/sea food with their monotonous taste. But I think the majority in the society is hooked on preferring the latter and discarding the former. This 'hooking' needs to be altered for more balanced diet.

Blue by You

iTrader: (23)

Personally I think the taste of most fruit in this country leaves much to be desired. Anyone who has eaten fresh produce in a country with a warm climate (India, Thailand, Africa, even the Med, etc) will surely say the taste of fruit is nothing like we have to endure here.

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

Fructose FTW! lol

Turbohot

UK does grow good strawberries, blackberries and apples, to be fair. But half the people are allergic to the strawberries. I agree that the imported fruit from the cold storage would differ in taste to what it tastes fresh in its sun-ripening homeland.

I actually bought a delicious mango (origin not known) from the reduced items shelf in Tesco a few weeks ago. It was way better than the ones even in Thailand. I went in again and bought some pre-packed full priced 'already ripe, ready to eat' Tesco Finest mangoes. This time, the Israeli produce turned out to be very substandard, it was hardly the finest.

I still think that there are plenty of delicious fruit and vegetables here on the shelves; home grown as well as imported ones. I don't think it's an excuse that "I'll eat watermelon only in Spain where it comes from, but not here in the UK". Mind you, Aldi have altered the 'type' of watermelon in their stock. It's more oval than round. They stock the sweetest, round watermelons in June-July, but now in September, their oval-ish watermelon is close to a sour cucumber in taste. Very annoying, not great to eat, but I still buy it to make myself watermelon smoothies.

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

I don't do salad for the taste and texture (I'm one of those "weird" eaters). So I simply ask when ordering a starter or main for it not to be added onto my plate. I get what I want and no food is wasted.

For the record as someone will ask, I juice fruit and veg into a, erm juice. Then neck that to get the necessary goodness in me.

Turbohot

Good lad for necking it down is some shape or form. Hope your your next generation is eating fruit n' veg fondly. These likings are to be formed from the childhood. I wouldn't depend on school meals that promise to develop healthy eating habits in kids, as it's just for show for them. They may put large posters of colourful apples and oranges in their dinner hall but they don't essentially involve 5/7 a day in their school meals despite all that national initiative and campaigns. It's all about money and easier mass solutions for them, although involving adequate amount of fruit n' veg in daily diet doesn't exactly break the back or bank.

Blue by You

iTrader: (23)

This is very important. I have a friend who is so anti-veg due to the way she was brought up (diet wise) that she won't even have a slice of lemon or lime in a glass of lemonade. The nearest she gets to eating vegetables is the odd portion of chips. She's a grown adult and it's her choice of course, but it is worrying for those around her. Fortunately her children don't seem to follow the trend.

urban

iTrader: (1)

Rightly or wrongly, I friend I know doesn't touch veg after working in a fresh produce vegetable prep company

Turbohot

True, BBY. For example, I know a veteran lady; again, a WW2 child, who never brushed her teeth or clean her mouth with any mouth freshener until she married a man who did. That's because she was never taught by her parents about it. Of course, as a married adult she took on that habit, but never remained regular with it. Consciously, she learnt the worth of mouth hygiene, but unconsciously, she was pulled back and possessed no motivation for cleaning her teeth, because it wasn't really important to her unconscious mind. She says that she always had a lot of teeth troubles, gum infections etc. all her life. At this age, her teeth are much worse than many 75+ aged veterans. Ok, your teeth start fall out at the old age, and you might need dentures but if your gums are so fragile that they cannot be used a base for your dentures, you are f@@ked. That's the case of this lady. She puts it down to her parents not introducing the mouth hygiene to her at her earlier age and ever; till she moved out due to her marriage.

One of my neighbours had a stroke last month. He was perfectly fine at his 55, took early retirement from his very good job, gets a lofty pension and financial come-backs from his various investments, keeps his life quite active but when his brain bled, doctors told him to alter his diet. He admits that he has never been fond of fruit and greens since his childhood because his parents weren't exactly fond of them. He also drank some wine every night; again, a habit he learnt from his parents. He has now lost about a stone, although he wasn't really an overweight guy. Both him and his missus are eating much healthily, not drinking wine every night and he's looking after himself. He's looking good.

Our intake has a lot to answer.

Edited to give a more appropriate comment: Learning from the childhood has a lot to answer in terms of many of our choices and habits. Child is the father of the man or woman he/she becomes.