What does *Healthy Eating* mean to you?

[Subtle_badger]

We have very different ideas on what foods and drinks are healthy, but I am more interested in thinking about what we are trying to achieve by eating healthily. My diet has change mightily in the last 2 years, but the aims have not.

What I want want from my diet, so why I try to eat healthily:

Immediate, and short term benefits

*Happiness

*Pleasure

*Energy and a feeling of wellness, with nothing stopping me doing the things I want to do and nothing stopping me wanting to do things I enjoy.

*Digestive health

*little or no acute illness.

*little environmental impact

*not poison myself

Long term

*no chronic illnesses and to put existing illnesses into remission

*if the first is not possible, then to alleviate any symptoms as far as I can

*to have a long health span (time of being an active, happy, contributing member of society)

*to minimise my impact on the planet, and perhaps contribute

*not poison myself

That's off the top of my head, I may come back and edit it. I deliberately left out lifespan, because I don't want to spend much time beyond my healthy time.

What do you think about when you think about Healthy Eating?

Edited:

Rewrote the last sentence

[Hidden]

I'm not saying I practice healthy eating I prefer to say I'm trying to be healthy eater , why because its just makes me feel happy and makes me feel safe satisfied about what I'm giving to my body , lately I have been doing my own recipes and give them names so its something I enjoy .

[Subtle_badger in reply to Hidden]

Thanks rralme. I see you have just joined, but when you feel ready, you should share your recipes. I've thrown things into a put creatively, but I have never named a recipe (unless "chicken and mushrooms" counts as a name 🤭)

[Hidden]

Hi Subtle_badger this is a really good question as you’re so right a healthy balanced diet depends on our needs.

I was brought up on real food and freshly cooked veg and I adopted a whole food diet when I left home. I guess I’ve always liked having energy so realised the importance of my food choices and.

After being diagnosed with coeliac I just went on a gluten free whole food diet and that works really well for me.

Here’s why I eat a healthy diet,

Strength, fitness, energy and pleasure as I’m a foodie who really enjoys baking and cooking as well as eating it, so it’s a life style choice.

I’m 5’ 10 and weigh in at 145 to 147lbs so my BMI is around 21 I have lots of energy and have a badge for being a blood donor.

So my diet keeps me happy and hopefully healthy but like you say we cannot predict our fate however well we eat.

[Subtle_badger in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Jerry.

Nothing like an undiagnosed autoimmune disease to focus the mind!

It's good you have found a healthy path. I am interested in your baking. You seem to be enjoying a standard diet, just without the gluten. I used to be a keen baker (mostly sour dough), but since I have given up grains, I have little interest in baked goods; there are bags of coconut and almond flour in my cupboard, virtually untouched.

[Hidden in reply to Subtle_badger]

Thank you and you’re right as I had to look at what I can eat and replace wheat flour and eat the foods that appealed to me before diagnosis.

There is a range of gluten free free flour which’s grain free like gram flour and buckwheat flour.

What most people who bake gluten free find a mix of alternative gluten free flours gives much nicer results.

Buckwheat pancakes are a grain free alternative and have been around for a long time.

Here’s one I made earlier:

healthunlocked.com/healthye...

I bet you could cook up something special so I’d think about what you miss that’s wheat based.

[Cooper27 Administrator]

I know when I eat healthily, I have more energy, focus and more stable moods. It also helps me keep my autoimmune issues in check.

I do think there is discrepancy though, as what is healthy can be different for everyone, e.g. you may be quite well eating quite a lot of dairy, where I'd be left run down.

I also think that some balance is very important for mental health - when I was following an autoimmune protocol, it was quite difficult having to navigate social settings. Some of the most vocal voices in the "food for health" sphere, do say they relax their rules occasionally, because they get a mental health boost though e.g. by allowing themselves some nachos and a margarita on holiday, so I'm trying to figure out where my balance is

[Subtle_badger in reply to Cooper27]

Thanks Cooper.

I think diet is really important with autoimmune diseases. I googled it, and apparently they are rising by 9% a year, and even T1 diabetes is rising by 4%. That means there is something in our environment that is harming us, and surely a big factor has to be food.

I haven't travelled further than the Isle of Wight (see picture) since I changed my diet, so going to Italy without eating grains will be hard, but so far I haven't been tempted to change. But I am relaxed, my tastes have generally changed, so I don't actually want nachos - I would happily snack on the cheese and chillies, and leave the chips behind.

But willpower is not infinite, it needs to be recharged. If you are applying will to stick to your way of eating, yeah, you should take your foot off the accelerator every now and then.

[Cooper27 Administrator in reply to Subtle_badger]

I think you'll be fine in Italy - their food culture is well set up for carb-free meals it wasn't uncommon for my Italian housemates to just eat an entire 4 pack of burgers or a couple of steaks for dinner, followed by a salad, it's just their culture.

I've had some of the most delicious meals of my life, by ordering from the Secondi Piatti part of the menu!

[Subtle_badger in reply to Cooper27]

I am sure I could eat fine. But skipping pizza, and ciabbata and limoncello would be hard.

[Blueruth in reply to Subtle_badger]

Skipping pizza and wine was not an option! I did take a cooking class and the dish I remember the most were little eggplants layered with some mozzarellaand smothered with tomato sauce. Second was gnocchi. Do not go home without green olive oil! Green means it was recently bottled. It will last a year.

[Monroe3]

For me, healthy food is what my body needs. Of course, it must contain a lot of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. However, I like meat and I would not be able to live without it. I like playing games and I need to recover quickly. But the truth is, I'm not feeding myself the way I should. I play the most in Trove - it's an MMO game similar and modeled on Minecraft - but Trove trades using Flux as currency and the game is much more extensive. Trove is a game where you spend whole afternoons buying flux pakgamers.com/index.php?thr... so be good gamer and buy trove flux

[Subtle_badger in reply to Monroe3]

Thanks MonroeI am confused about your "however". I think you should eat meat, so don't feel guilty, it's good for you. It's got more b group vitamins, complete amino acids, haem iron etc etc. Enjoy it.

[Eryl]

This is a long story. I hope you'll bear with me.

I came to healthy eating through realising that diet was the cause of my health issues. I had been diagnosed with hypertension about twenty years ago but after a year on ace inhibitors and realising that they were counterproductive in that they stopped me excersising as I had always done by cycling, I decided I must find an alternative. Coincidentaly I was going on a camping holiday and came across a book on controling hypertension with diet and the camping meant that my diet changed temporarily and some of the changes seemed to corelate with the ideas in the book, anyway I noticed that after the holiday my blood pressure had lowered so I did continued with most of the dietary changes and did the unthinkable and stopped taking the ace inhibitors with beneficial effects on my excersise and no apparent downsides.

All seemed good for around ten years until I sensed mental issues with mild anxiety, ADHD, OCD and later RLS. Luckily by then the internet had developed and I could do my own research and that lead me to casein intolerance which eliminate brain fog which I hadn't noticed and explained why I have never liked cheese. This confirmed my belief that diet had a powerful influence on health and I came across elimination diets and food diaries as tools and that lead me to realising that blood sugar was the primary cause of my RLS.

Then I came upon Dr Robert Lustig, Dr Georgia Ede and the whole low carb movement and also the concept of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress mainly caused by refined seed oils. I am now convinced that it would be possible to halve NHS costs if we could get the whole popultion on a healthy diet. This week I have come across the name of Dr. Thomas Seyfried and his ideas that cancer is a metabolic disease that can be controled with a ketogenic diet and timely measured pharmacological intervention.

And that's where I am now on my journey.

[Subtle_badger in reply to Eryl]

😂 that's not long! But it's interesting!

I don't think I have met Dr Seyfried yet. Something that struck me about tumours (I haven't had cancer) is how a PET scan works. They give you radioactive glucose, and then scan you, and the tumour (if present) will light up like a candle, because tumours love sugar. Of course, all oncologists know this, so reducing blood glucose should - at the least - be a source of enquiry.

I am a fan of Lustig and Eade. Everything they say makes sense.

What's your diet like? Low carb, low dairy. What else have you had to eliminate?

[Eryl in reply to Subtle_badger]

Yes, you would think that oncologists would have twigged that you could arrest cancer by denying it its fuel but most just follow the set conventions of hoping that the chemo and radiatiation therapy damages the cancer more than the rest of the body.

My diet now is no processed food, not even bread, I still eat brown rice and potatoes but keep them down. And I avoid refined grain oils as far as I can to keep oxidative stress down. It has eliminated the RLS and improved my fitness so much that I feel at least ten years younger now.

Here's a link to a video where Dr Seyfried explains his theory. youtu.be/KusaU2taxow(Not working as expected?)

[MTCee]

I was brought up on really bad food….loads of highly processed, cheap poor quality stuff. My parents couldn’t cook and never tried to learn. Their health suffered greatly as a result. I’ve seen their health and that of my siblings deteriorate and end, throughout my life mainly due to these poor dietary choices. As soon as I left home in my teens, I started teaching myself to cook and learning about good nutrition in an effort to improve my own poor health. I’d always struggled with my weight, and had bad asthma and allergies. I now finally feel as if I’m getting a handle on this….but it’s been a long journey and there have been many detours along the way due to bad information such as low fat or calorie counting type diets. Healthy eating, for me is about getting and staying as healthy as possible…..being the best I can be health wise for me. I also like good tasty food but for me, health concerns always come first because I’ve seen what bad diets do to people.

[Subtle_badger in reply to MTCee]

Thanks for sharing that MeTeeCee. It's interesting. I am glad you have been able to put your family's way of eating behind you. It's a struggle, always.

[Eryl in reply to MTCee]

One thing I noticed after six months of low carb eating was that my breathing had improved probably because of the lowering of chronic inflammation which was narrowing the airways. I think it would benefit any athsmatic to try an anti inflammatory diet for a few months.

[MTCee in reply to Eryl]

It definitely benefited me. My lifelong asthma is considered to be resolved by my doctor.

[Blueruth]

I'm 55. I am in it for the long haul. I don't want to kill my retirement savings over an outrageous US health bill. I travel a lot (in normal times) and am planning on moving . Food is one of the things that define a culture and is almost always healthier than the SAD no matter what they emphasize. So I don't exclude anything I haven't tried (Exception: I will never try rocky mountain oysters : ) I focus on whole foods, mostly plants. I rarely eat meat. Chicken is maybe twice a week. I like tofu. I hate most restaurant salads. I love my salads.Food is only one part of the picture. I have a variety of exercise and yoga routines I do. I am in the mountains so the hiking is as hard as you want. My heart is a little slow for my age due to years of depression --> inactivity and possibly genetics. I am working on that so I can keep up on hikes and hopefully lose covid weight.

Exercise + Healthy Diet + Therapy + [Medicine] = less depression and fewer medical bills.

[secrets22]

i doubt anyone would think i eat healthily as i eat roast chicken,lamb and pork,but i do eat huge amounts of green vegetables,but i never use any fats in cooking,and tend to use my air fry cooker for almost everything.Occasionally i will have a fresh cream cake,and i do mean occasionally,and i also enjoy baking cakes but rarely eat any myself,its more of a hobby to be honest.i eat lots of fruit but barely more than 4 slices of bread a week,so really ,in my case its all about moderation.

I used to drink copious amounts of alcohol,especially spirits,but now only drink a sherry when the fancy takes me,i just dont enjoy it these days.