Do your children know their vegetables?

[Liz CA]

 

He'd also likely tell you that a tomato is a "fruit" not a vegetable, because the apple (also a fruit) doesn't fall far from the tree :D

 

Bill

 

Yup, I know (but didn't learn it until my twenties), however the facts remain - sad if you cannot tell a tomato from a peach but at least nutritionally you cannot go wrong with either. :001_smile:

[Laura Corin]

This is a rural area with no very large towns (the largest has a population of 48,000). I was talking to a country park ranger last year and she says that when she has groups of school children coming to the park, most of them have never even heard of the idea of gathering blackberries from the hedgerows.

 

Laura

[Jen in PA]

The entire concept makes me sad, but I did see this sort of thing when I taught in a low-income urban setting. We actually had a small budget for nutrition education and tried to bring in new foods, and they didn't have to be the least bit exotic to be new to most of the students.

[gingersmom]

My kids know because they love to cook (but not to eat vegetables!).

 

They have also learned about different vegetables from some cooking shows and then we go see what they look like in person.

[Sahamamama]

And I think this is because (1) We go to the Garden Farm Market with the girls, and ask them to help pick out the 10 lemons, the 2 pounds of green beans, or the nicest bunch of bananas. They might be a bit confused with the difference between scallions and leeks, but we're at the produce market, so it's easy to clarify and explain.

 

(2) They help me cook! I'll say, "Can you please get 5 carrots out of the refrigerator?" "Can you please get out the celery and get 6 stalks for me?" "Can you please go get 3 onions and 4 potatoes and 2 sweet potatoes?" They love doing this!

 

And (3), they play "Kitchen." They have all this girlie kitchen stuff -- pretend food, little pots and pans, an oven and a sink that I made out of cardboard boxes -- and they pretend to "cook" and "bake" and "clean up." Yesterday, one of the twins came to me with a pan of "cupcakes" and when I reached for one to "eat" it, she said, "Oh, no, Mommy! They're HOT! They just came out of the oven! They have to cool off first!"

 

Oh. I'm so glad you told me. ;)

[abbeyej]

I wonder where in England-London and the outskirts? Might things play out differently in the countryside?

When I saw Jamie Oliver do the same thing in America, it was in pretty rural West Virginia.

[SheilaZ]

 

 

It is entirely possible to define something as both a vegetable (usage) and a fruit (botanical). It's not either/or.

 

Sorry, that old false dichotomy's a bit of a pet peeve... ;)

 

I thought I was the only one. I have however let the whole "berry" discussion drop and my Dh is quite thankful.

[TCoppock]

My boys do know their fruits and vegetables. They may not know kale from swiss chard, but in general they are familiar the foods we eat before they are chopped and/or cooked.

 

I would not be surprised that many kids can't recognize fruits and veggies in their fresh state given the number of people I personally know who don't shop and cook with their kids. A fair number of those people also buy frozen or processed foods far more often than they shop the fresh produce aisle.

:iagree:

[kalanamak]

most of them have never even heard of the idea of gathering blackberries from the hedgerows.

 

Laura

 

 

I remember walking along a long row of cherry trees at the back of an airstrip. The 8 year old I was with nearly had a panic attack that I was eating fruit off the tree. How did I know it wasn't a poisonous berry, he wanted to know.

[KAR120C]

Veggies, fruits, where they come from, and in the case of anything grown locally he's probably been to a u-pick farm (because I'm just a geek for that sort of thing! LOL)

 

The one that shocked me was when I was at the grocery store buying flour and sugar. Just plain flour and sugar!! And I was getting two bags of each because we go through quite a bit and I have a large canister for each... and the cashier a) had no idea what one does with such oddities and b) thought I was filling the canisters so they'd look nice on the counter.

 

Even her coworkers were making fun of her for that one!

[Lovedtodeath]

It's going to cost a lot more to feed your kids pears for dinner than it is a package of ramen. I've had both a good diet and a poor one, and I'm telling you, a box of mac and cheese is more filling than a side of vegetables. I think you can make the argument that people should at least give their kids SOME fruit or vegetables, even if they are going to split a pear four ways so everyone can have some. It's SOMETHING. But seriously, MIL has four adults, a 14 yo boy, and a 9 yo skinny girl to feed. Their diet is exclusively boxed products and meat. She spends $200 a month on groceries. You could spend that much JUST on fresh fruits and veggies for TWO PEOPLE. She does not get food stamps or any other subsidy programs. It is a suburban legend that healthy food doesn't cost more than boxed crap, and that "everyone" can afford it.

 

For the record, my child has never eaten ramen, and I don't give her Kraft anything for meals. ;)

 

Thank you! Thank you! Though I do believe that potato chips and soda are a complete waste... things like hamburger helper, macaroni and cheese, hot dogs and generic bread are much less expensive than cooking from scratch. Even a frozen pizza is much less than cooking from scratch.

 

But, to be fair, people will live longer on fewer calories. Calorie restriction is actually the only proven method to prolong life. So getting used to eating less food and feeling full on an apple is probably not a bad thing.

[LibraryLover]

Not everyone can afford good food. People are living on ramen becuase they can't afford anything else. I get that. In some of my past work, I knew people who didn't even have a way to heat water for ramen, so they did live off the dollar menu. But nobody is going to feel full with mouthain dew. There is nothing sustaining to fuel the body, the HFCS will make you hungry. Hamburger helper will help bulk up a meal. That's not the same. I agree that a frozen Celeste $1 pizza will fill a child, and it's not even a terrible food. It will cost more than $1 to make a pizza, unless one was able to afford bulk foods like flour (but where would you store it) or canned tomatoes on sale at some point. Maybe some people get WIC and are able to get cheese. Some people might be able to get food 'stamps', although many working poor do not qualify. Many folks to not have the resources to make cheap pizza.

Edited February 17, 2010 by LibraryLover