healthy eating

[auntieannie]

What constitutes a healthy diet? and do we care about it?

I think I am not eating as healthily as I used to.
Shall I go back to my eating habits pronto or shall I just go with the inspiration in the kitchen?

[onlymark]

Healthy eating is like healthy sex.
Everything in moderation except odd weekends when you try something different to see if you get the taste for it.

[Deleted]

In our "modern" countries, I don't think we have to worry about healthy diets all that much since already just what is available to us has been made more or less "healthy" whether we like it or not.

So even though I have healthy leanings (as I'm sure you do also, from what I have read), I really don't worry at all about what I eat since I don't have any condition that my doctor has told me to be concerned about. And I have noticed that I am sort of like our domestic animals -- whenever I have engaged in any sort of excess, it is my body that tells me to correct things. When I find myself craving salad or avoiding oil or salt, it is often due to a completely biological need for correction.

[auntieannie]

Jan 14, 2012 20:52:30 GMT kerouac2 said:

In our "modern" countries, I don't think we have to worry about healthy diets all that much since already just what is available to us has been made more or less "healthy" whether we like it or not.

Can you explain this Mr K? Interesting concept?

[lagatta]

One thing I do worry about, when it is very cold, is a craving for carbohydrates and fat - and I'm not working outside in the cold. It is a mild seasonal depression (I know someone with a severe case, who has had to seek help and have recourse to light therapy). I'm not a "carbs are the enemy" person - I think that is silly and obsessive - but I don't want to pack on winter weight.

I do always eat vegetables, and I don't eat huge amounts of food.

What is healthy also varies from person to person. I have friends who thrive on a vegetarian or even vegan diet, while I do feel better with a modicum of animal protein.

Kerouac, of course there is far more control about food safety, whether in terms of hygiene, control over food-borne pathogens or of toxic chemicals, but there is a lot of crap out there. I still remember emerging from Château-Rouge métro (friends near there) one evening in Paris and there were lots of teens from immigrant families eating Colonel Sanders of all things - hilarously, it was in rue Poulet and there was also a van-load of CRS (super-poulets). As you know, there is a public market there with a lot of African but also French victuals. A friend here has observed the same phenomenon - integration through junk food!

Hopefully it is just a phase. KFC is more breading and grease than actual chicken.

[rikita]

i'd like explanation too, k2... especially since it always seems the opposite... maybe ot when it comes to hygiene and things, those might be more controlled, but isn't it particularly the "modern" countries where people eat too much meat (for example) and additionally meat enriched with antibiotics etc. (and come to think of it, from what i read, the hygiene on meat farms is questionable too), and where a lot of people eat food that consists mainly of sugar, etc.?

[Deleted]

To get back to the question, I was talking about food hygiene and the fact that truly dangerous items are not available to us, unlike places where people will eat fish from sewers or carrots that have been grown on contaminated land, just to think of two examples. The fact that we generally don't worry abut dysentery or intestinal worms in the developed part of the world would seem to indicate that we have complete access to a "healthy" diet.

Now we all know there is no cure for stupidity, and people will not always choose the healthiest options. Every single food ad in France comes with a health warning notice, even if it is a healthy product, taken from (I think) 5 possible slogans. One of them is the usual "Eat 5 different fruits or vegetables every day." Another one says "Avoid eating too much sugar, salt or fat." Other slogans are about exercise and portion control. Fine, but how do you get people to actually do that?

[htmb]

Aug 18, 2016 15:33:18 GMT kerouac2 said:

. One of them is the usual "Eat 5 different fruits or vegetables every day." Another one says "Avoid eating too much sugar, salt or fat." Other slogans are about exercise and portion control. Fine, but how do you get people to actually do that?

You can't make them do it. It's a personal choice.

[Deleted]

In that case, I don't understand why people are worrying about it.

[htmb]

What people? The government people?

[htmb]

If it's the government you're talking about, one explanation might be that it costs more to take care of people who are overweight and out of shape. They tend to have higher incidences of illness and disease, particularly as they age.

[Deleted]

I was thinking more about auntiannie, Lagatta and rikita.

[chexbres]

I'm glad you brought this up.
I have never figured out if it's:
"eat 5 fruits and 5 vegetables every day"
- or -
"eat a total of 5 fruits and vegetables every day"
- and -
does the size of each item matter?

This is really what keeps me from eating a balanced diet

[htmb]

I look forward to hearing their thoughts.

In the meantime, I thought it was interesting you brought up this old thread today because I've been thinking about health and nutrition a lot lately. Is this the proper place for a discussion?

[rikita]

i didn't say i am worrying about it, i just said that my impression is a lot of people in "western" countries eat unhealthy food, and was surprised that you said our food has already been made more or less healthy, in part due to the different definitions of healthy (contaminated food vs. food that just isn't that healthy). but as for worrying about other people's choices, of course the choice for an unhealthy diet does also affect those around. if a large portion of the population has health problems due to their diet, this effects the healthcare system and health insurance system, and thus also those that chose a healthier diet (like, if costs of health care go up, the cost of health insurance goes up, doctors might be less available because there are too many patients etc.). it also makes it harder to convince your own children to stick to a healthy diet, if they know that a lot of their friends can have however many sweets and junk food they want - it even makes it harder for oneself (at least for me, as i am now back to trying to eat low calorie, i get cravings each time i walk home and pass all those people sitting in front of hamburger or kebab or other places and eating). so there is an effect. and also, it seems kind of human to worry about what others are doing, even acknowledging it is their business, you can still worry that it is not a good choice.

[rikita]

and i suppose what surprised me was that your post sounded like we can just eat whatever we want, because there is only healthy food available to us ... while it's true that it is unlikely to get killed by a single meal (i.e. one that is contaminated in some way and thus causes a disease) if i just ate whatever i wanted, the results would definitely not be pretty ...

[htmb]

Perhaps a distinction needs to be made here regarding food that is safe to consume, versus food that is healthy for our bodies.

[Deleted]

Since healthy choices are available and the items are generally not contaminated, the only real solution is education. If they try banning some of the really bad things, it will make them more desirable. And as long as salt, sugar and oil are available for purchase, if you take those items out of prepared food, people will just add it back in if that's what they want.

Then there are all of those problems due to incomplete education. Lots of people think they can eat all of the fruit or drink all of the juice they want because those are healthy products. Well, they can't! They're full of sugar, and even natural sugar can be bad for you if there is too much of it.

[htmb]

When stressed, one of my family members tends to consume more calories than he should and then will rapidly put on extra weight. While he eats mostly what we would consider healthy foods, under duress he will consume more food than his body really needs. In addition, he tends to add extra calories by drinking lots of juice and sugary sodas. He's been educated as to what's good and what's not, but he tends to handle stressful life events by overindulging.

However, once he's been able to come to grips with whatever has been causing him emotional dissatisfaction, and has made some life changes, he quickly loses the extra weight and is able to return his body to better health. As he gets older, it seems to get a bit more difficult, but by just cutting out snack foods and liquid calories, and by drinking only water, he can work wonders.

[bixaorellana]

I suppose most food that comes out of supermarkets can be considered "uncontaminated", at least to whatever standards are imposed by individual governments.

But Rikita makes an important point about western developed countries and bad diet. Of course the occasional industrially-produced cupcake or whatever is not going to damage your health, but many people almost exclusively eat processed foods and that's how they teach their children to eat. Probably canned green beans are better than no green beans, but hardly tempting to little kids. Children can never learn what fresh vegetables or even fruit tastes like if all their treats come in bright packaging that's advertised on tv. And if their parents make every meal seem like a chore that must be gotten out of the way, those children are likely to grow up less open-minded about trying things and indeed, ignorant that there are things to try which are both delicious and healthful.

[Deleted]

That's important point. I think that eating meals together as a family is absolutely the most important path to healthy eating.

[htmb]

Children will often eat healthy foods if they are involved in gardening and/or in food preparation. Parents of my younger students were always surprised they were eating broccoli, lettuce, green beans, etc in my classroom when they often refused to eat those foods at home. The fact that the students were sowing the seeds, nurturing their growth, harvesting the mature veggies, and helping to prepare them to eat made a big difference in their attitude.

[Deleted]

Yup. The key to healthy eating is vegetables. I wouldn't know what to do with a kid who hated vegetables.

[Deleted]

Most kids will never garden in the urban world, and it's not just vegetables anyway. It is accepting to try new items, too. And some kids will only eat one or two vegetables.

I also remember trusting my mother as to what was good. Since she liked spinach, so did my brother and I, whereas most kids (as everybody knows) hated it. If parents try to get their children to eat things that they do not appreciate themselves, it is usually a lost cause.

And when you've never been exposed to something before in your life, you just don't trust it. I will never forget the classic family meal when my brother brought his future bride to dinner for the first time. She must have been about 20 years old then, and the look of horror on her face when she was exposed to cauliflower for the first time remains engraved in my mind, even though she was raised to be polite and said "I'm just not very hungry." After that first meal, my brother made further investigations and found out some incredible things about her diet but stupidly married her anyway. Well, for a few years.

[rikita]

Aug 24, 2016 14:06:07 GMT kerouac2 said:

Since healthy choices are available and the items are generally not contaminated, the only real solution is education. If they try banning some of the really bad things, it will make them more desirable. And as long as salt, sugar and oil are available for purchase, if you take those items out of prepared food, people will just add it back in if that's what they want.

Then there are all of those problems due to incomplete education. Lots of people think they can eat all of the fruit or drink all of the juice they want because those are healthy products. Well, they can't! They're full of sugar, and even natural sugar can be bad for you if there is too much of it.

i don't think anyone said to ban them. i agree that banning food items/ingredients other than those that are really dangerous, is counter productive and education is in need. i would think in some cases it would help though if unhealthy things are made to be a bit more expensive to fund the healthier things ... like, when processed food costs less (or appears to cost less) than fresh produce, that can be a problem ...

as with eating too much fruit though ... i don't know that much about it, but the recommendation of not eating more than two portions of fruit per day seems a bit exaggerated too - sure, it contains sugar, and if you want a perfect diet maybe you should stick to the two portions, but if i am hungry for a snack, and have the choice of a bag of chips or an apple, even if i already had lots of fruit that day, i can't really imagine the sugar in the apple will be that bad for me ...

[rikita]

Aug 24, 2016 21:53:50 GMT @lizzyfaire said:

Yup. The key to healthy eating is vegetables. I wouldn't know what to do with a kid who hated vegetables.

my kid does not eat vegetables. she eats broccoli though, and cauliflower, and spinach, and peas, and corn, and carrots, and bell peppers (those preferably raw, though), and cucumber ...

[Deleted]

[Deleted]

I don't eat much fruit because most of it here has been bred for shelf stability and uniformity of shape, size and colour so that it has absolutely no flavour whatsoever. I never seem to get to bananas befor they turn black (I like them greenish) and I'm guilty about the carb blast anyway. Most apples taste wooden, oranges are dessicated and juiceless, and I can't seem to get through a whole pineapple or melon on my own. Berries are outrageously expensive so I only eat the ones I pick on our property. I do love stone fruits (cherries, peaches, plums) but they are only good a couple months of the year. So I eat bushels and bushels of vegetables. I've always preferred them to fruit.

I'm becoming more and more entranced with vegetable main courses, even though I love meat. I'm fond of vegetable soufflés; last night was a zucchini (courgette) and ricotta pie. I'll be making more vegetable curries when the weather cools.

[kerouac2]

I had an amazingly good vegan bean salad yesterday which I will try to reproduce as soon as I return home. However, I do wonder a bit about the health benefits at least in terms of fat, because it had more olive oil in it than I would have dared to use.

[bixaorellana]

Don't worry about that. You can drink olive oil if you want to, it's that healthful. Also, it tastes fantastic.