My mom always insisted that I order one white and one green side dish anytime we ate out.
mashed potatoes and green beans, mac & cheese and turnip greens, corn and broccoli. Carrots counted as a green veg because they were so nutritious. So I could have sweet potatoes and carrots.
It was a simple rule that helped us kids to eat a balanced diet. We often went to buffets or cafeterias. I was allowed to pick what I wanted, but was expected to follow the white and green rule.
We did the same with our daughters when they were growing up. I still even approaching fifty, make an effort to pick a white and green side at my local cafeteria.
It’s not always easy. There’s not that many green sides at the cafeteria, usually its green beans or turnip greens. But I follow the rule most of the time.
Did you do this with your kids? Do you usually et a white an green side dish?
As a child, I would be surprised if we ate out more than once a year at a restaurant without a drive through. The few times we did, it was probably a Chinese buffet because we’d never go to a restaurant that served the kinds of things we could make at home. At *Disneyworld *we hiked out into the parking lot to eat lunch and dinner out of the cooler in the van.
These days, we don’t really do cafeterias. If we are eating someplace where you pick sides, it is probably fairly nice, and it’s a rare thing. So I am likely to order two things I want to try because they aren’t often available.
I’m not sure how to vote. We don’t follow the rule per se, but mostly because we don’t usual have the “white” or starchy side dish at home and we rarely eat at buffets. When we go to restaurants, meals often come with both a starch and a veg and my kid is good at eating both.
It sounds like a really good rule. If you’re going to have the starchy one, you should have the nutritious one as well. We’ve just never applied it that way.
That’s a good point that restaurants make it easier for parents. There’s always a white and green side on whatever combination dinners they sell. I haven’t really noticed at places like Applebees but I think their plate dinners are pretty balanced. Steak houses aren’t, unless you get a salad.
KFC was a treat for us as kids, but even they offer the coleslaw and mashed potatoes.
We rarely ate at burger places as kids. I think they tasted even better because we didn’t get them that often. I still enjoy a good burger once in awhile.
I’ve never followed this rule because I’ve never heard of it. The only colour related food rule that I know is “eat a rainbow” - fill your diet with diversely coloured fruits and vegetables to get a broad range of nutrients.
The rule in our house is at least one fruit or veggie with meals. My son has no problem with this, my issue with him is getting him to eat his protein. He doesn’t like most meats, eggs are hit and miss with him, and I can’t let him eat string cheese all the time. He wouldn’t eat his hamburger tonight so I let him have two yogurts instead. My daughter is thankfully a much less picky eater.
Never heard of this rule but I like it, except we don’t eat many white starches with our meals. Our family rule is you have to eat something with dinner that is still in the same form it came out of the ground. Usually this means at the very least a big salad.
Also the “eat a rainbow” thing but more spread over the day than one particular meal.
If you follow your rule and get carrots and mashed potatoes, that’s two starches. For eating out that’s not going to kill you but it’s probably not the best habit to get into. Same thing with sweet potatoes,
White just seems to overlap uncomfortably with the beige foods we’re always warned to eat in moderation. White has a place on the food rainbow, but with my kids I’d rather it was not an especially prominent one because it encompasses so many “sometimes” foods (mac and cheese, mashed potato, chips/fries, pasta).
I’ve never heard of the “white” rule, but yeah, our Mom did have the “you have to eat something green” rule for us when we ate at a buffet or potluck dinner or some such place where we got to pick out our own food. (And yes, green Jello doesn’t count—we tried that.)
And yeah, even nowadays when I eat someplace like that, I habitually usually make myself at least some green vegetable (whether it’s what I’d really like to eat or not), for the sake of health and balance.
I’ve formulated my own rules, though. For ordinary meals, no more than one starch serving. This means that I can have the potatoes OR the rolls, but not both in one meal. And at any one meal, the fruits and vegetables must be different colors. So, I wouldn’t eat carrots and an orange at the same meal. I do try to eat a fruit/vegetable rainbow each day. I generally eat some sort of cereal in the morning, and I put a quarter cup of frozen blueberries on it. They defrost in no time at all, especially if it’s a hot cereal. They count as a blue/purple serving, and that’s generally the hardest color to find. Grape juice also counts as a purple serving. I will allow two green servings per meal, though, especially if one serving is a salad. For special meals, such as Thanksgiving or birthday meals, I suspend the rules.
My doctor highly approves of this, by the way.
Eating Skittles/Jolly Ranchers/Starburst candies does not fulfill rainbow requirements!
I would have voted that I’ve never heard of this rule, if there had been such an option. The OP seems to assume that everyone knows of this rule and has made a choice to either follow it or to not follow it. But for me, none of the above.
Never heard of the rule and have often not eaten anything white but usually more than one color. Nowadays I always have a container of salad greens in the fridge and I add them to just about every meal. But I have stopped being so rigid about having several different vegetables at every meal and sometimes just have one. Particularly things like baby squash, brussels sprouts, mushrooms or baby eggplants; just buy a bag if they look good and have them that night.
