Eating Healthy

[KaylaP]

I think most people would agree that eating healthy is hard.  For me, I don't have trouble eating healthy foods, I just have trouble figuring out what a healthy food is.  I mean, who do you trust to tell  you what healthy food is? your doctor? where does your doctor get his information on healthy food from?

I watched a documentary that changed how I thought about nutrition.  I could no longer look at something and be sure if it was good or bad for me because I lost faith in the diet that politicians(I don't trust politicians, yet I trusted them with my health??) put forth as healthy.  Which is the diet I learned in health class, most likely the diet your doctor learned as well.

I think everyone should examine what they think of as healthy, and find a diet researcher they feel is authentic and follow there advice.

I say researcher because it needs to be someone who has dug through the raw study data and come up with there own ideas on nutrition, not just someone who read "blabla is bad, blabla is good" and took it on faith because then you are just trusting whoever they just trusted...

[Nicolette]

Start by cutting out all processed food and eat only fresh produce.  The decision as to what to eat then suddenly becomes much more intuitive.

[Oriah]

What I have found to be a healthier diet is as follows


Eat less grain products.  Eat more nuts, seeds, beans, potatoes (with skins still on)....small amounts of meat...more seafood and freshwater fish and poultry than red meat.  If you consume dairy, avoid reduced fat varieties.  Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Lower refined sugars, heavily processed foods.....stay away from things containing high fructose corn syrup especially sodas.

but my biggest tip is to indulge sometimes, to throw caution to the wind for a few hours once a month and eat anything you want

[Soren]

Eat the stuff you can find in nature.
Fruits? Check.
Vegetables? Check.
Water? Check.
Whole grains? Check.
Nuts, legumes, seeds? Check.
Meat, fish, birds? Check.
Twinkies, soda and mac & cheese? No.
Bread that's more chemicals than flour? No.
Cheese byproduct? No.

[Renee]

I can't stomach many vegetables, so I've been practicing the Eat Tasty diet for most of my life. I may pay for it later, who knows, but I have to eat things I actually like.

[Pia Bianca]

but my biggest tip is to indulge sometimes, to throw caution to the wind for a few hours once a month and eat anything you want

One of my doctors, who is practicing naturopathy, told me that you have kinda reservoirs for the good things like vitamins and such. That means the occasional rage eating doesn't make any difference on how healthy you are. That supports what Oriah wrote.

That said, most of the time you should eat healthy things. I'd come down to support Oriah and Soren here: it should me mostly natural products with the optimum would be having your own garden with vegetables and fruits.

I can't stomach many vegetables

I bet that's rather an issue of preparation than an inborn issue. If you try to cook the vegetables differently it might make a big difference. It took me 30 years (about my whole life so far) to learn that I like liver and certain vegetables; I just didn't like the way they were cooked... up to the point I nearly vomited the liver. I also have problems with certain ingredients: My intestinals can't work on them and I get seizures on them; but if I use different ingredients, there's no problem.

There are hundreds of sorts of tomatoes. You might just have problems with a handful of them. You might be successful in digesting the others.

Yeah, life is difficult and eating is life.

[Joelene9]

  I was raised with "All in moderation".  Today, nobody knows what "moderation" is.  There was this blogger I read not too long ago who bought a house that was built before the Great Depression of the 1930's.  He tried to put his 10" dinner plates in the cupboard.  They wouldn't fit, they were too big.  He then did some research and went to the antiques stores and found that the pre WWII dinner plates were 8" in diameter or a little smaller.  The 9" and 10" plates came several years later after WWII and with the middle class really moving up.  He purchased the 8" plates and he actually lost weight because of only the smaller portions will fit on that plate.  You can find the 8" plates new still. 
  Today we also have the problem of what's packaged with our food that the people in the 1930's didn't have.  There are a lot of fats and sugars added to a prepackaged meal.  It is best to get the ingredients raw and make it from scratch.  Fresh or frozen raw veggies, some veggies canned without salt or sugar added, dried beans, dried rice, some dried pastas without egg yolks, fresh meats, etc without added ingredients.  Read the labels and get a cookbook.  It is not hard.  It is also cheaper. 

A response on a Susan's blog i made today about sugar: https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,120438.msg1190383.html#msg1190383

  Joelene

[JessicaH]

Potatoes, and rice are not too far off from quite flour or sugar. Fruit should be in moderation since it is very high in fructose. Most places, fruit has only been available to us seasonally but modern times have given us a year-round supply of it.

But yes, we have been lied to by all the experts as to what healthy really is.

[Nicolette]

Potatoes, and rice are not too far off from quite flour or sugar. Fruit should be in moderation since it is very high in fructose. Most places, fruit has only been available to us seasonally but modern times have given us a year-round supply of it.

But yes, we have been lied to by all the experts as to what healthy really is.

I agree. I don't eat anything made from wheat flour. I exclude all pasta, bread, rice, sugar and potatoes. I eat fruit in moderation. Call my diet paleo-pescetarianism, if you will. My body loves me for it.

[JessicaH]

Your diet is just what my doc recommended to me. Actually she told me to buy Dr. gundry's book , "diet Evolution" and that is exactly what he prescribes.

[Nicolette]

Good one! If you want to look and feel younger (not that you need it), this is the diet. I had some cosmetic surgery last year and the surgeon was stunned by how quickly I healed. I put that down to the diet.

[JessicaH]

I need all the help I can get. I will be 44 in December !!

[Renee]

One of my doctors, who is practicing naturopathy, told me that you have kinda reservoirs for the good things like vitamins and such. That means the occasional rage eating doesn't make any difference on how healthy you are. That supports what Oriah wrote.

That said, most of the time you should eat healthy things. I'd come down to support Oriah and Soren here: it should me mostly natural products with the optimum would be having your own garden with vegetables and fruits.
I bet that's rather an issue of preparation than an inborn issue. If you try to cook the vegetables differently it might make a big difference. It took me 30 years (about my whole life so far) to learn that I like liver and certain vegetables; I just didn't like the way they were cooked... up to the point I nearly vomited the liver. I also have problems with certain ingredients: My intestinals can't work on them and I get seizures on them; but if I use different ingredients, there's no problem.

There are hundreds of sorts of tomatoes. You might just have problems with a handful of them. You might be successful in digesting the others.

Yeah, life is difficult and eating is life.

Certain textures gag me, as does certain smells. I can eat cooked tomatoes, but not raw ones at all, could be how the acids are in it. And I absolutely love liver, always have. I also like southern cooked greenbeans/stringbeans. And when I have a salad, I try to use other lettuces than iceberg, since it has little to no value to it.