<p>It’s really all about your personal preference. Vegetarianism and veganism CAN be healthy if done correctly, but many people don’t. Likewise, eating meat CAN be healthy but many people eat the wrong types or overeat. </p>
<p>IMO, people overthink the healthy eating thing. Make sure you get variety and follow mo3b’s advice. Whole grains, fruits, veggies, protein, less processed/“junk” food etc. It’s really just a whole lot of common sense.</p>
<p>I like Michael Pollan’s “Seven Words and Seven Rules for Eating” [Michael</a> Pollan’s 7 Rules for Eating](<a href=“http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20090323/7-rules-for-eating]Michael”>Food and Recipes Center: Easy, Healthy Recipe Ideas for Your Health Needs and Preferences) </p>
<p>By the way, a dietitian taught me Pollan’s third rule, “Shop the Perimeter of the Store”, years ago.</p>
<p>Just back from watching Ds run this weekend. The times were crazy! The 5K winner finished in 19:00 minutes/6:08 pace! The top 2 finishers in the women’s half marathon finished with a 5:48 pace!!! The men’s was a 4:56!! (and yes they were from Kenya) It was a beautiful day and perfect conditions. D1 hadn’t run since May and set a PR and finished 4th in her division of the 5K. D2’s goal was trying to keep her time steady in the half marathon as she trained for her upcoming full marathon. Her pace ended up a minute and a half faster per mile than she had expected but thought she felt strong. Her heel pain and hip were ok and she wasn’t winded at all. She said it was hard not to run faster and try to finish higher. H and I walked part of the course and enjoyed it until we saw the runners coming back so quickly!</p>
<p>MOWC…Congrats to WildChild!!! Yay! Just catching up on thread. Sounds like a phenomenal time! You must be so proud!</p>
<p>26 mph on the bike for 2 hours is insane!</p>
<p>I agree with eastcoascrazy, we evolved to eat a variety of food. You can be a healthy vegetarian, but you don’t have to be a vegetarian to be healthy. I also like Pollan’s rules. I don’t eat much processed food - virtually no canned food. Not too much in the way of convenience food - some Chinese and Indian sauces, pickles and the like. I think that our lifestyle doesn’t allow us to eat as many carbs as we might like, so I have picked the carbs I can’t live without (toast or English muffin at breakfast, pancakes one a week) and have eliminated most of the rest. I hardly ever eat pasta, rice or bread at other meals with a few exceptions. (Dining out in particular.) For me a serving of meat is a deck of cards - I never eat more. I never thought organic food is more nutritious, but do think it’s likely I’ll be better off if I don’t down more pesticides than I need to. Moderation is key. I put milk in my coffee. I like tofu and miso on occasion, but never drink soy milk. I avoid corn syrup and soft drinks, but use sugar when the recipe calls for it. I don’t think fruit drinks are better for you than soft drinks and don’t drink them either. The food pyramid is a compromise between well meant ideas about nutrition and agribusiness and has generally been less than helpful.</p>
<p>What I eat seems to work for me. I have low blood pressure, low cholesterol, I am not overweight, and I can’t remember the last time I even had a cold.</p>
<p>Low sugar, no gluten, no grease, all natural things seem to have done my body well.</p>
<p>Though i still get my pasta fix with quinova and corn based organic mix. I also use bisquick (gf of course) on occasion.</p>
<p>Also, if you’ve got the time, money, and are willing to put in the effort, look in to local food especially. Shop at farmer’s markets or join a local food co-op. Eating locally is healthier for both you and the planet. This really only works though if you’re a region where you like native food. Otherwise it can backfire as people use chemicals and such to make non-native food grow in their non-native environment. (This is called locavore if you’re interested. It’s something my parents have gotten into with their unexpectedly early temporary “retirement”.)</p>
<p>I tried no oil, no meat and fish, all nuts, fruits, veggies, beans, rice etc. for 8 months. My BP went too low. It really works if you have high BP. I don’t. So I added a little bit of everything I had gotten rid of and I am fine, good. My weight is so easy to keep under this plan. Just eat things that aren’t packaged as much as possible.</p>
<p>for me, my motto is ‘everything in moderation’.</p>
<p>I also try to eat lots of fruits and veggies. I would always tell people that the more colorful your plate, the better it is for you. Therefore I avoid a plate that is all one color, and especially dislike a plate that is all brown and white.</p>
<p>Other than that, I eat pretty much everything. I also keep an online diary of what I eat every day and know how many calories, fat, carbs, etc. And I always have dessert!</p>
<p>Fresh vegetables (and legumes), fruits and meats, whole grains, minimal dairy.
Organic when possible.
A lot of water, some coffee, tea, and wine.</p>
<p>To emphasize one point made above: cut sugar. Especially soda. And the studies are strongly suggesting that drinking diet soda leads to more weight gain and maybe worse biochemistry. Something in the way our brains process the sweetness and the lack of calories. </p>
<p>I don’t eat much meat. But when I do, I’ll eat the fat. I don’t understand ordering extra lean corned beef when the fat gives it flavor. If you eat it a lot, you’re not doing much good for yourself by cutting out that bit of fat. Maybe if you enjoy it, you can eat more. Same for me with steak: eat the fat. It’s good.</p>
<p>That leads to my main addition to the thread: try to build enjoyment into your eating as much as you can. For example, we had a dinner tonight of squid in a simple tomato sauce. The squid was bought cleaned so it only needed to be washed and cut up. The tomato sauce was no salt added whole tomatoes crushed by my hand with garlic, capers and lemon. Some fresh pasta boiled for a minute and added to the sauce. Thing is, it was delicious. That’s the aim: eat for taste.</p>
<p>I also like whole grains. It isn’t because I believe they’re great for you, though they seem to be better on the whole. It’s because the more you eat them, the more you appreciate the depth of taste.</p>
<p>^^^ I know. He came out of the water a minute behind the leader and in a few miles had a 3 minute lead.</p>
<p>NMinn- Very successful racing day. That’s great that she felt so strong in the half marathon. I think half marathon is a difficult race distance- it’s a long way, but you don’t get to be as slow as in a marathon! Great results!</p>
<p>I’ve been working with a nutritionist of late… Take your plate, divide it into quarters. One half is vegetables; one quarter is carbs (including fruits and milk products); one quarter is protein (whether vegetable or animal). If you want to lose weight, make it a very small plate (7.5 inches was her suggestion for me). Fats in very small quantities, and preferably unsaturated ones.</p>
<p>Because of an allergic reaction during surgery, I have had to remove all sulfites from my diet. I lost 20 lbs in 2 months and feel terrific. I have been amazed at all the food products containing this preservative or a by product of sulfites. (think all corn by products), any spice roasted over charcoal, bottled water filtered through charcoal/coconut, jello, and most liquor. I have learned that organic does NOT mean preservative free. Often packaged chicken sits on an absorbent paper that is loaded with sulfites. Avocados are put in a room where ethynol (corn by product) is bubbled into the room in the form of a gas through water…nothing is sacred! </p>
<p>My reading have shown it is very much linked to asthma and diabetes.</p>
<p>There is not much consensus, though what little consensus there is tends to include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Avoid added or concentrated sugar.</li>
<li>Avoid hydrogenated oils with artificial trans-fats.</li>
<li>Eat plenty of low calorie fibrous vegetables.</li>
</ul>
<p>Congrats to WildChild–great accomplishment.
Deborah T–congrats on your 5K.</p>
<p>Helped my D and son-in-law move. Carried boxes and helped load Uhaul. Didn’t feel like working out afterwards, but pushed myself to do 30 minutes on the elliptical.</p>
<p>MWOC:</p>
<p>Oh, by the way, sorry about your Titans, today… 
At least it looked like an awfully pretty day in Nashville.</p>
<hr>
<p>Ol’ (formerly) fat Patriots fan, whose ears are still ringing from loud twangy Telecasters and pedal steel guitars.</p>
<p>The “questions” I asked were more rhetorical in nature, suggesting how little consensus (pointed out by ucbalumnus) there is in what we should be eating to stay healthy. I want to know what other cc’ers decide about what they choose to eat. Just finished 2 books “Wheat Belly” and “The Paleo Diet”, both authors offer strong, convincing ideas about how to eat. My SIL, on the other hand, recently read “The China Study” and her family has decided to eat a vegetarian diet. Have another friend who refuses to eat anything other than leafy greens and lean protein in order to stay healthy - he even thinks fruit is too sugary. He is a board certified interventional cardiologist, perhaps seeing so many clogged arteries and so much diabetes has influenced his diet. I can’t be the only one who is confused here!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, US nutrition policy went badly off the rails in the 1970s with the erroneous conclusion that eating fat caused coronary artery disease. Study after study over the last 40 years has failed to support that belief, but the damage was done with the McGovern committee report which led to the USDA food pyramid recommendations that people eat massive amounts of carbohydrates. This, despite the well-established (for several hundred years) knowledge that overeating carbohydrates (bread, potatoes, pasta, etc.) is a sure-fire recipe for weight gain.</p>
<p>At this point, nutrition is not a science and nutrititionists would probably be the last people on earth you would turn to for sound eating advice. It’s a complete mess.</p>
<p>Basically, protein consumption is fixed within a fairly narrow range. People just don’t vary much. So, the only tradeoff is eating fat versus eating carbs. You have to eat something, so if you cut one, the other will increase. The war on fat in public policy and media for several decades has resulted in people consuming a much higher percentage of their total calories as carbohydrates. That has some ramifications, especially in the symptoms associated with [metabolic</a> syndrome](<a href=“http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004546/]metabolic”>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004546/)</p>
<p>Rather than think in terms of the perfect diet, I think most of us would be better off looking at what we currently eat and trying to pick one or two changes to improve it. I like UCBALUMNUS’ advise just above. Those are three improvements to a diet that are almost indisputable. Cut sugar. Lean towards good fats: olive oil instead of corn oil. Butter instead of margarine, etc. And, eating minimally processed veggies with a lot of fiber.</p>
<p>Cals 1538
Fat 100 g
Carbs 31 g
Fiber 4 g
Protein 125 g
Sugars 13 g</p>
<p>Fat 60%
Protein 33%
Fiber 8%</p>