<p>So, I’m trying to eat healthily and all that. I do a bunch of research, looking up studies and databases and all that, and I’ve come to the conclusiom that pretty much everything you can eat is bad for you in one way or another.</p>
<p>For example:</p>
<p>Nuts can have good effects on HDL/LDL cholestrol levels… but they are high in fat and even a diet high in “good” fats can raise one’s risk of breast cancer.</p>
<p>Wheat bread is supposed to be good for you… but not only is whole whet bread as hard as hell to find on a college campus, high carb diets have been linked to higher rates of certain cancers.</p>
<p>Dairy is supposed to be a good source of calcium, etc… or it is just a way to up the fat in your diet and/or introduce harmful chemicals… Same thing with meat, replacing “calcium” with “protein” (not that I eat meat anyway, but…)</p>
<p>Sigh… It’s enough to make someone just not want to eat (and then we can explore the debate over rather or not heavily calorie restriction is good for you or not ). And then, of course, ther’s always the possibility that you could live the perfect lifestyle and still get sick…</p>
<p>Whole grain carbs are healthy carbs–they’re processed differently by the body (more slowly for one thing) so they affect the system differently. Whole grains, fruits and veggies and lean proteins are, for most people, safe and healthy guidelines. And the “good fats”–nuts, avocadoes, etc., in moderation–are good for the heart and the rest of the body. “Organic”, low or reduced fat dairy products are healthy foods for most people.</p>
<p>But I know what you mean–it can seem confusing and frustrating. And whole grain products ARE harder to find in restaurants and on college campuses. Good for you for doing the research though–it is interesting, isn’t it?.</p>
<p>And what’s bad for you constantly changes. I got the last laugh when it turned out butter is better for you than margarine. I’d always refused to eat the latter as it tastes yucky. Honestly I think your best bet is to eat a mix of foods, whole grains when possible, fresh fruits and vegetables, as little pre-processed food as you can, go easy on fat and carbs and drink a little, but not too much.</p>
<p>I have come to quite the opposite conclusion. As long as you eliminate highly processed foods and stick to fresh/frozen veggies, fresh fruits, whole grain breads/cereals, and eat meats, butter, eggs, etc in moderation, you will do fine. Oh, and keep those protions small too. I went to a restaurant Sat and ordered a very good pasta Pomodors, however the portion was enough for me and a second dinner for me and my wife! Yikes.</p>
<p>yes, eating out can be toxic. Large portions are part of the story…but restaurants also load on butter and salt to make their dishes taste better.
Also convenience foods like “Hamburger Helper” and those frozen meat/veggie combos are filled with additives, fat and salt.
We try to eat real foods - veggies, fruit, whole grains, organic meats, fish. It can be hard though - since it takes more time to prepare - and can be more expensive (especially organic items). Trader Joes is one of my favorite stores - it offers good options at low prices (unlike Whole Foods which is very pricey).<br>
Don’t know how we can avoid the risk of food poisioning. I used to love baby spinach leaves and now I’m scared to eat them!</p>
<p>Very few things in life, if any, are all good. Everything has pros and cons, including foods. The trick is not chasing after things that are 100% good but finding a healthy balance.</p>
<p>I have my mother’s cookbooks from the early 60s. Yes, a good deal of the health advice changes from decade to decade (eggs are poison vs. eggs are OK), but in fact, the core of the message has stayed the same. In other words, yes, the recommended 1963 weight-loss diet includes more saturated fats, more dairy, and fewer whole grains than you’d find in a diet book today. But if you followed the 1963 guidelines across the board, you’d be eating very healthy meals by today’s standards. The central tenets of moderation, balance, lean protein, fruits and vegetables, and minimizing empty calories like sugars and rich desserts really haven’t changed.</p>
<p>IMHO, the solution is to look at the big picture, rather than, as we typically do in America, isolating one villain, eliminating that food entirely, and going hog wild on the non-forbidden foods. Just chasing the boogeyman away (whether the boogeyman of the moment is egg yolks, simple carbs, corn syrup, or what have you) is never the answer.</p>
<p>Hanna, gotta laugh at those cookbooks from the 60s…“brown ground beef in lard.” I have a fabulous carrot cake receipe from a 60s church cookbook. It starts out with 2 cups of oil!</p>
<p>My neighbor has an aggressive form of breast cancer and she has read all of these books about fighting cancer with nutrition. She is following an “eat according to your blood type” diet in combination with another one that I can’t remember. She is mostly eating organic produce and, I think, beef. According to the blood type diet, almost no one should consume wheat products. (It’s frustrating for me, because my midwestern church lady roots tell me to bring casseroles and layer cakes over to her house…last night I brought her a bowl of organic apples and pears.)</p>
<p>wolfpiper: Welcome to the real world, where there’s no such thing as an absolute. That means no absolutely healthy diet.</p>
<p>Everything is bad for you if taken to excess. The only truly healthy thing you can do is to moderate what you eat, and try to include an array of healthy foods in moderate amounts, while minimizing the foods that have no health benefits and lots of health risks. Do that, and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>Mini is right. Try to find a cereal, sauce, frozen food, etc. without high fructose corn syrup and you will be looking a long time. Add no trans fats to the ingredients list, and you really are left with all “whole” foods.</p>
<p>Research anything and you will find a reason not to do it, life is full of dangers and if you refused to do anything that had some associated risk, you would do nothing at all. So whilst it is good to be informed about risks, and it is good to use that knowledge to avoid things that are known to be very risky or very bad for you, you shouldn’t ignore the benefits. A healthy diet is one where you maximize the benefits and minimize the risks, it isn’t one where you avoid the tiny possibility of being poisoned by a rogue carrot by refusing to ever eat any vegetables. Living your life afraid that you might get poisoned by a carrot is not a healthy way to live.</p>
<p>There was a good NY Times Magazine article on this over the summer… It had the same summary: Best diet = Mostly plants, with small amount of animal proteins, avoid crap, organic & unprocessed (whole) foods wherever possible.</p>
<p>I try to eat an “anti cancer” diet, and that is pretty much the above diet but also paying attention to alkaline vs acid, favoring alkaline foods.</p>
<p>I’m not at all a nutrition expert, but my approach is also moderation (and variety). I think there is no reason to completely eliminate any class of food except in the case of an allergy or something like that. That said, I do define food as a once-living thing–it had a mother, was created by a living creature, grew in the ground, or on another food…not a substance created in a lab. For those whose definition of food does not include animals or animal products, there are still many healthful choices. </p>
<p>The further removed a food is from its natural state, the less it should appear in one’s diet, in my opinion. I really am referring to the refining/preserving process…I’m not a big meat-eater, but I’ll take it cooked when I have it. An apple is definitely better than juice reconstituted from a concentrate that was cooked down to the point of destroying every heat-sensitve vitamin in it. But I see no reason to pass on fresh-pressed apple juice (it’s that time of year where I live). And I’ll admit to an occasional dish of ice cream with hot fudge sauce and other decadent indulgences that have little redeeming nutritional value–but not large portions and not every day.</p>
<p>My advice: set a reasonable target daily calorie intake, but don’t stress if you go over it once in a while, and just estimate rather than obsessively counting every calorie and gram of sugar/carb/fat. Include some kind of high-fiber grain product (for example, if you don’t have good whole grain breads on campus, maybe try to get some whole-wheat sesame crackers–Ak-Mak is a good brand; or if there is muesli as a breakfast choice, add a little boiling water and stir in some raisins rather than adding milk and sugar–much lower in fat and calories than most commercially-prepared granolas). Every day, try to eat some kind of dark green or yellow/orange vegetables, skip the fruit cocktail or canned peaches in syrup and pick up an apple or grapes from the breakfast/salad bar instead, try to avoid battered/fried meat/chicken/fish and instead opt for baked or broiled when available (that is, if you eat meat). If your food service includes a make-your own sandwich station, skip the mayo and use mustard instead if you like it, or simply use slices of tomato, cucumber, etc. to add some moisture to your sandwich. In the salad bar, go for lower-cal proteins such as garbanzo beans, boiled eggs, etc., and go easy on the salad dressing. A lot of the vegetarian choices offered in food service are very cheesy/fatty, so be careful with them…but small portions of any entree you like shouldn’t be a problem as long as you don’t make them the thing you fill up on. </p>
<p>I hope you find some good diet options that you like and that will meet your nutritional needs.</p>
<p>Look at the varied diets around the world…the human body has evolved to eat a lot of different things. In some countries they eat what we might think of as a “poor” diet–low in protein or certain nutrients–yet what they die from is malaria or AIDS, not the Western diseases related to obesity.</p>
<p>Bottom line, use your common sense and do your best. You wouldn’t think of living on Twinkies and soda, would you? :eek:</p>
<p>I think my mother should have been a nutritionist–she would always mention what was in the foods we were eating. “Here, have a banana, it’s full of potassium.” We had no idea what that was, but we knew we were being taken care of. And to this day my brothers, father, and I are still slim, even tho we are mostly past 50.</p>
<p>Except it’s NOT a “rogue” carrot; from a pathogen-conscious stand point, raw food is one of the most DANGEROUS things you can eat. More E. coli outbreaks have been linked to produce then to ground beef! Just a couple of weeks ago, a fruit salad was linked to a salamonella outbreak, for example, and in laboratory settings, lettuce has been shown to release a chemical that attracts salimonella bacteria. Honestly, from a statistical standpoint, one is probably putting themselves in just as much danger eating raw produce as they are other raw foods–indeed, the cattle industry has had much greater compliance with attempts to reduce E. Coli outbreaks (still, as recent events tell us, it’s by no means perfect) than the produce industry. Of course, this does not preclude eating cooked fruits or vegatables, which I which do eat and enjoy. I don’t get why everyone, including the media, insists on burying their heads in the sand about this.</p>
<p>I agree eating sugar and corn syrup free foods is a good idea, and in fact, something I did before I went to college. However, it is almost impossible to find such foods on a college campus, which is what I’m restricted to.</p>
<p>In the mean time, I find it much easier just not to eat very much of anything across the board.</p>
Wolfpiper, we’ve had this discussion before, and you heard dozens of people telling you that it is dangerous and unhealthy to severely restrict your diet. It is much more unhealthy to not eat enough than to eat some “bad” foods but get the calories, vitamins, fats, etc. that you need for your body (and mind) to function.</p>
). And then, of course, ther’s always the possibility that you could live the perfect lifestyle and still get sick…</p>