GLASGOW kids don't know how lucky they are when it comes to school dinners. They might turn their noses up at the greens on offer - but their dinners are a lot better than the bleak horrors that were once served to their parents.

School meals are back in the headlines amid reports that, despite widespread efforts to introduce healthier menus to the city's primary schools, large numbers of pupils are resistant to the notion of eating vegetables.

New research by the Glasgow Centre for Population Research says: "Vegetables remain an unpopular food choice with children.

"The provision of vegetables by stealth' as part of meals needs to continue to promote uptake."

Many parents and grandparents would have given their left arm for stealth vegetables when they were at school.

To this day, people of a certain vintage shudder to recall such culinary delights as soggy chips, mashed yet hauntingly lumpy potatoes, and vegetables stewed to death before being resuscitated and stewed to death once more.

Also on the menu was largely inedible stew, and dubious custards with thick skin on top.

Stodge seemed to be the order of the day, and, if memory serves, it was all washed down with a half-pint of unappealingly warm milk.

No disrespect to the hard-working dinner-ladies of that era, but you half-expected such dinners to be one reason why so many pupils wanted to leave school the first moment they could.

It's all a long way away from the Executive's recent suggestions for healthy packed lunches that parents can make at home for their children. Its ideas include pitta bread with cucumber, egg and couscous salad, and pasta salad with sweetcorn.

We asked you: what was the worst school meal you ever had? Semolina and macaroni cheese top your list of school meal horrors Lynne Hepburn, 19, student, Alexandria My school dinners were not that bad, although there were a couple of things that I didn't enjoy. Kenny Penper, 23, chef, Barrhead We used to get soggy chips but most meals were quite good. My favourite was macaroni and cheese. Gail McNicholas, 31, army, City Centre Our school dinners were horrible. Semolina was the worst school dinner that I had. Mark Cuthbert, 38, market researcher, City Centre The hot dogs at my school were used more as weapons than food. Laura Mullen, 19, student, Alexandria There were quite a few school dinners that I didn't like but the worst would have to be semolina. Steve Lucas, 28, army, City Centre At my school, ravioli was always the worst dinner that we got. Ashley Paterson, 21, student, Barrhead They started giving us healthy school dinners, but macaroni and cheese was the worst meal we had. Ronnie Houston, 50, sales, Wemyss Bay I remember having terrible school dinners like a bridie on a roll, and watery mince with doughballs. Rhona Munro, 19, student, Glasgow Macaroni and cheese was the worst school dinner at my school, but some of them were not that bad. William Carroll, 21, bar worker, City Centre The worst school dinner that I can remember was the macaroni and cheese that we used to be served.