Quick meals (beans on toast, jacket potatoes)

Fusspot

Can someone please clarify, are meals like beans on toast and jacket potatoes not good for you? I'm not talking about eating it every day but say twice a week.

I have heard that some people eat this on well known diets, yet I've also heard where tinned stuff is full of rubbish and potatoes are full of carbs and fat.

Some nights I could just eat something like this as a break from meat, fish and veg and for quickness.

pollyanna_26

Both Jacket potatoes and beans on toast are a healthy option in a balanced diet . Poached eggs on toast also . It's all about having a good mixed diet . I eat jacket potatoes at least once a week with some type of protein and lots of veg . I do mine the old fashioned way in the oven and always have baked tomatoes - put in oven 20 minutes before the end , spinach or other veg . They are a good meal and you can add so many fillings and if you wish bake a batch and freeze the extras for a quick meal . If microwaving you can just cook your chosen veg on the hob . Tomatoes can be microwaved but keep an eye on them as they cook very quickly .
polly

ariarnia

I think part of it is that it's all relative - that's to say, people are snobsish about the amount of salt/sugar in a tin of beans, or demonise flour as worse than anthrax!

It's all relative.

Is a lasagne (carbs, protein, veggies, dairy, fats - all things your body needs) bad for you?

Maybe if you eat it every day.

Comparatively, is beans on toast? - honestly, same response.

We need salt to maintain blood pressure. We need fat to think. We need protein to repair our body. We needs carbs to move our body around.

No demons. Just balance.

ripplyuk

Beans on toast is a very balanced meal. Especially if you use wholemeal bread. I usually add some broccoli too. A jacket potato is also good but it depends what you load onto it. For me it's usually baked beans (more beans :rotfl:)

I eat all sorts of things as quick meals. Porridge a lot, at any time of day. Tins of mackeral in tomato sauce. Waffles aren't too bad for you occasionally. Eggs are fine. A roasted pepper stuffed with spicy quinoa is nice, and quick. There are some healthy ready meals available too.

I guess it depends on how you define 'healthy'. Ideally, we'd all live on a whole food diet consisting mostly of vegetables but it's not often realistic. Things like tinned soups are often full of salt/sugar but not everything that's in a tin/packet is bad. And you do have to eat something!

jadziad

Not all fats are bad. You need fats to survive. Saturated fats are also fine, but in moderation.

A little salt is also fine. If you ate *zero* salt, you will eventually have seizures and later die from hyponatremia.

If you slide down hundreds of grams of saturated fats every day, you stand a good chance of getting heart disease and getting fat because you're eating several thousand calories worth of energy per day. Your own particular genetics is also probably a factor in deciding whether or not you get really fat because of sat fats.

There's also nothing wrong with carbohydrates, but eating a massive amount of sugar will probably significantly increase your risk of developing diabetes. Complex carbs are fine, but without protein will lead to issues. Eating *only* proten and no carbs will also be rather unhealthy.

You can live perfectly well on just beans & toast - containing fibre, protein, carbs etc - as long as you get your daily required calories (BMR + activity). Some students probably do it for years. Supplement with cheap vitamins if you're really bothered, or occasionally have a banana for the potassium.

Unless you have a pre-existing medical condition, then any diet where you consume less energy than you expend - BMR+activity - will result in losing weight. It's as simple as that. Anything else is just dealing with the psychological aspects.

Beans are fine, bread is fine, potatoes are fine, a bit of fish, even a chocolate bar a day won't do you any harm at all. When I was restricting calorie intake to lose a bit of flab last year, I could only usually have a single 100cal Blue Ribband bar per day, and I could still have a pizza occasionally, but I always ate less energy than my body's total energy usage and still lost weight as expected. It's all about the maths.

suki1964

Nothing wrong with a jacket spud, as long as you don't add a huge knob of butter and a pound of cheese to it

Add something like tuna and sweet corn mayo and it's a very healthy meal

Beans on toast is an all round meal. Yes you can obsess about the sugar and salt in both bread and baked beans but what you should be doing is looking at your overall diet

If your diet is a round of high salt/sugar processed meals then baked beans can be seen as adding to the problem. If your diet is mainly home cooked fresh produce, then the extra salt and sugar in beans isn't.

Nutrition is all about a balance, and in this day and age with so many diets and self proclaimed health gurus around it's easy to get lost in it all

The NHS give guidelines about portion sizes and how many portions of each food type you need. It's worth reading up on so you can work out for yourself if you can eat baked beans without worrying

trailingspouse

Don't confuse 'quick' meals with junk food. A cheese and tomato sandwich is a quick meal - but not junk, especially if you make it with wholemeal bread, a small amount of real butter, and decent cheese.

Avoid -

Carbonated drinks (basically anything fizzy)
Refined carbohydrates (go for wholemeal flour, unrefined sugar, brown rice)
Anything calling itself 'low-fat' - contains a lot of added sugar
Processed food

[Deleted User]

One of my favourite go-to meals when I am stuck for time is a jacket spud with tuna and sweetcorn , or beans I don't eat bread so can't comment on toast with beans on top, but as far as I know baked beans are pretty good for you as their have lots of protein I grew up with rationing until I was 12 so I will eat virtually anything and I have never stressed about protein,carbs ,fats or sugars By the way I haven't got a sweet tooth and have never taken sugar in tea or coffee as growing up it was considered far to precious to waste in tea:).I take porridge made with water and a sprinkle of salt on top as my Mum made it and a dash of milk round the edge I couldn't imagine putting sugar on it or even syrup. If I am baking I use honey instead of sugar to sweeten an apple pie
In fact apart from a canister of tiny freebie packets of sugar I don't actually buy or keep sugar indoors I have a small jar of caster sugar that's sometimes used in biscuits but a cuppa in my house would mean using one of my freebie packets of sugar.

I can happily do without salt on my dinner but pepper is an essential
I think like most things moderation is the key

elsien

suki1964 wrote: »

Nothing wrong with a jacket spud, as long as you don't add a huge knob of butter and a pound of cheese to it.

Spoilsport. :rotfl:

Jackieboy

Fusspot wrote: »

Can someone please clarify, are meals like beans on toast and jacket potatoes not good for you? I'm not talking about eating it every day but say twice a week.

I have heard that some people eat this on well known diets, yet I've also heard where tinned stuff is full of rubbish and potatoes are full of carbs and fat.

Some nights I could just eat something like this as a break from meat, fish and veg and for quickness.

Potatoes are virtually fat free.

suki1964

elsien wrote: »

Spoilsport. :rotfl:

Now I didn't say don't do it :rotfl: