To think there's a growing amount of people who think food can fix everything?

You have something called a low locus of control and the opposite have a high locus of control. It’s just a differing viewpoint on health behaviour.

Diet interacts with every single part of your system from the destruction of cancer cells to the quick work of the brains neurotransmitters. Your entire body is made from food and every second of thought or action is run by food. Can it fix everything? No. Over time does it have one of the biggest impacts on health of any known human action? Yes.

I do somewhat agree - there's always some new fad (usually fuelled by someone hoping to make a profit). However, it does seem sensible to eat whole and natural foods rather than something industrially processed and designed to make us eat more than we would otherwise. As with most things, moderation is the key and some people take it to ridiculous extremes.

My point is entirely in response to this (smug)
comment:

“It's not money, it's knowledge and being motivated that is the issue.”

I have the money and the knowledge and I am motivated. I eat healthily due to genetic increased risk of bowel cancer which I have already had one symptoms of.

I chose to do that in a convenient way because I know the impact of my tin of heinz vs your pan of lentils and carrots is negligible.

Totally agree.
Give it ten years and the current protein obsession will be out of fashion.
Everything goes in cycles.

I completely agree with you! One thing worth thinking about is that, in middle income families, young girls are far, far more likely to die of an eating disorder than of type 2 diabetes! The obsession with eating healthily can often spill over into anorexia - I’ve seen it happen in my own family.

What is tested? Inflammation of the gut? The heart? The blood stream? My DC have non-ige allergies which presumably cause inflammation but there is no test for them.

"IBS, brain fog, joint aches and other issues immediately cease when they start eating fresh fruit and veg, or low histamine, or low inflammatory diets...... What puzzles me, as someone who has always enjoyed high fibre and fresh foods, is how nebulous those symptoms are, and not very well understood by GP's"

How is it puzzling? Do you mean patronising and dismissive of life wrecking symptoms?
I got rid of some of them by cutting out a lot of processed food and sugar. Eat crap, feel crap.

Inflammation is easily tested. Any detailed blood tests shows it.
It's the cause of numerous illnesses from rheumatics, to heart disease and worse.

There’s no such thing as ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy’ food.

People go on about food in a quasi-religious way: ‘nasties’, ‘meanies’ in food; eating ‘rubbish’ or ‘crap’; conversely, ‘eating healthily’, It’s all nonsense.

Food is more plentiful and better kept than it ever has been. Preservatives and additives have improved the range and quality of what we can eat. We really can’t improve our health by ‘cooking from scratch’ or obsessively reading labels in shops.

If you prefer the taste and texture of dishes you make yourself, great. I do. But there’s no health benefit to it.

Again, people just need varied diets. That’s all. Food should be enjoyed, not feared.

You've missed the point they are all blended and seasoned sometimes with freshly made chicken stock.

But fresher and with possibly more nutrition than tinned as I use the freshest veg not just left over stuff which companies throw in soup.

I don't know what you're hoping to gain with your posts. You're coming over as bit goady.

You don't have to eat soup .

"inflammation" is what I see mentioned everywhere. It's very convenient way of peddling product. Inflammation of what? How do you test it? Answer: oh it's 'general inflammation' and 'you just feel better'

nm

Bad diet to good diet is very less certain.

How do you know that?

or is just an opinion?

I think the opposite.

I think many people, generally, still don't understand how important it is to fuel yourself with nutrient dense foods, free from additives and preservatives.

The food around the edges of the supermarket is where this can be found. Every aisle in the middle of the supermarket - ie, most of the space - is taken up by processed crap, because it's what the nation lives on. And it IS making people sick.

Sure, you can eat like a saint and die of cancer - luck still plays a huge part. But you can manage yourself into having statistically better health outcomes through how you eat.

That’s not really true though is it? Chances are good that if you stop smoking, or drug taking, or heavy drinking the last 40 years of your life that you could have a longer halathy life. Bad diet to good diet is very less certain.

Just saw a vid with Tim Spector claiming that eating the ZOE way will certainly add 10 extra healthy years to your life.

I mean, it depends how you were eating before. If someone who was previously eating a very high UPF diet with no fresh fruit/ vegetables, completely overhauls their diet and starts eating in a Zoe way, I could well imagine that might add years to their life.

If you're taking yourself as an example, someone who has always eaten well, then making minor adjustments is unlikely to do much, and of course it's not some kind of magical cure for all ailments, potential genetic diseases etc.

To be fair the anecdotal ‘evidence’ I have is my Gran. French family, her siblings were all chain smokers and drinkers with the typical high fat French diet. I think she has 3 out of 4 sisters left but 2 are at least a decade younger, her 4 brothers and parents died young.

My Gran had never smoked or drank and eats pretty well- pescatarian with lots of fruit and veg. She’s 81 this year and in good health so unsure whether genetics have played a part there. She’s beat cancer twice- once in her 50s, once 6 years ago whereas her brothers died from it.

So tired of reading the acronym UPF on here… It’s just the latest fad. I get fed up with it and find it disordered and they’re also completely western/global north issues. Over the years meat has been terrible, then it’s been great. As have eggs, butter, margarine, low fat products, high fat products, protein, fish. Hard to keep up tbh. It’s usually linked to some sort of influencer.

Carrots lentils onion and gingers boiled up with litres of water? Yum. Sounds flavourful and satisfying 😂😭

Agree wholeheartedly with this post. Again anecdotal but my DF could have been the poster boy for discouraging dementia. He ended up leaving this planet late 70's having suffered Parkinsons, then dementia and lastly pancreatic cancer. He was an intelligent, fit, slim healthy gentleman eating home cooked food daily and fruit and veg coming out of his ears. Only vice was biscuits. Genes have a huge role to play in lifespan, IMHO.

Not sure how when you like the Heinz version!

Carrots, red lentils, onion and ginger- do you not like any of those?

You can't outrun your genes.
More and more discoveries are being made about how genes affect health outcomes.
We're all products of our parents and previous generations' genes.
There is now increasing evidence that parents' lifestyles and health pre-conception affects their children- fat people pass on 'fat gene DNA 'and ill health.

All we can do is maximise our chances of staving off chronic diseases and those related to lifestyle with our behaviour.

I said it sounds so horrible

Yes and I weirdly empathise with the mindset as I have coeliac so I am very hyper aware of how much of a difference food makes.

I obviously eat no gluten - and was diagnosed years ago. And for the last five (ish) years eat absolutely no ultra processed foods, lots of fibre, nuts, fruit, veg, incredibly healthily and exercise and socialise and sleep perfectly and do all the “right” things. But I was just diagnosed with another chronic illness. I did have an unreasonable moment where I thought “but I do everything right! That’s not fair!”

Eating well has changed my energy levels, my skin is great, my brain fog doesn’t exist anymore, etc, but it didn’t stop this new chronic autoimmune disease from happening. Food isn’t everything - but for a moment, without giving it conscious thought, I suppose I also (deep down) believed it was.

@NautilusLionfish 10 more healthy years doesn't mean adding 10 years to life expectancy. It means that you'd be healthy for 10 more years of your life instead of unhealthy with heart trouble or diabetes etc. So you'd be less likely to be a drag on the NHS rather than more.