What do you consider to be a healthy diet? How much crap?

[GreyishDays]

I know what healthy foods are, so less processed, more fruit and veg, maybe fewer carbs, some good fats etc etc. The details seem to vary. But when people talk about a benefit that they see from eating healthily I’m really curious as to how healthily they mean.

So, one end of the spectrum would be eating biscuits all day, then you move to freezer food, then it gets a bit better by adding some veg, making the food from scratch etc.

But I’m wondering if you eat generally healthily, how many biscuits would you eat before it’s not classified as healthy any more? None? One a day?

I never know where I am

I think it’s more attitude to biscuits that can be healthy.

E.g. my mum has 3 biscuits with every cup of tea, just because. She’s not hungry, she’s just in a routine (possibly bored?).

I can’t buy them at all, because I have monumental food issues. If I do buy a packet of biscuits, I eat 1 and then bin the rest in case I’m tempted to binge.

I’d love to be able to have a packet of biscuits in my cupboard and just eat 1, when I liked, maybe as a little treat. Along the lines of intuitive eating.

Really want a biscuit now

no food is unhealthy. What is unhealthy is too much food in the wrong proportions.

commercial smoothies, diet foods, cereal bars, meal replacements, fizzy pop are unhealthy but are not food.

Yes I probably worded that badly.

What I mean is what is that balance?

Im curious. Theres lots of people that say no food is bad etc. But livinf off freezer food would be bad ao what is it im supposed to be doing. And if we dont divide into healthy/unhealthy how do I know what the mor eofnthe good stuff is and how much...

Interested to see the responses as I’ve always wondered this. I don’t buy biscuits or chocolate etc as part of my regular shop but will occasionally pop to the shop in a evening and get a bar of chocolate or dessert for us to share (maybe every 10 days or so pre lockdown!) if I have biscuits or nice crisps I’ll just eat them all over a day or two so try to avoid buying. Our meals are pretty much all cooked from scratch with plenty of veg - maybe one oven food meal a week. Takeaway maybe once a month (again pre lockdown - much more regular since then 😬)

I think the best phrase for this would be 'a little bit of what you fancy.' So today I've had a banana for breakfast, a lovely huge salad for lunch with lettuce, cold herby salmon, beetroot, cucumber, celery and tomatoes, and then someone at work baked brownies.. I had one and really enjoyed it,.went back for a second and felt slightly like I'd ruined my day of healthy eating, but to be honest it was so tasty it was worth it but tonight I will just not have dessert after dinner in lieu of the brownie. I try to be balanced and not scoff. Wine was my downfall but I'm six days alc free now!

Not all freezer food is the same. It’s possible to eat frozen food which is healthier than food made from scratch.

The general approach I've seen (and tend to follow but very unscientifically) is 80/20

So at least 10 out of 14 meals would be fully cooked from scratch with a tonne of veg somewhere in the meal. The other 4 are 'freezer' dinners or takeaway.

My lunch is more like 14 out of 14 healthy as I'm in a good routine. I rarely snack during the day - which buys me some leeway for...

Then I have 1 or 2 nights a week where I binge on chocolate but the other days I have 2 small shortbread biscuits and that's it.

Isn't it 80/20? Eat well most of the time and have a little treat on the weekend sort of thing?

I would class healthy food as unprocessed food i.e fresh fruit and veg, lean meat, small amount of dairy (which is all processed 😂) you can take it to extremes. My whole life Ive been told that sugar is bad so I've never added sugar to tea, never had extra sugar on cereal etc. Limited sweet treats and no fizzy drinks or fruit juice. But since having kids I like to treat them and they are definitely eating too much bad stuff, especially over lockdown when they've been bored.

I can buy biscuits or chocolate and not touch it but my kids are different!

I generally go by the 80/20 rule I guess. I love cake, biscuits, chocolate but I have good quality stuff in smaller quantities, and offset by lots of vegetables though.

MN is a bit of a mine field for what constitutes as healthy eating though. An apple is akin to a Mars Bar and eating a potato is more or less considered as devil worship I love all kinds of carbs and eat them for every meal. I'm a healthy weight btw.

I never buy cake, biscuits chocolate. Just don't like them much. And would rather use calories towards gin.

All fruits, all veg, lean meat, grains (buckwheat, spelt, barley), beans of all sort, dairy. All healthy in moderation. Buy from as close to home as possible. Sugars (raw honey and maple syrup) in moderation.
No alcohol. Nuts are calorie dense so moderate consumption.
No clue what is “freezer food”?? My freezer holds my beef/pork/harvested fruit and veg and my organic grains. Can’t imagine much healthier than that.

Freezer food in this case would be shorthand for pizza/fish fingers/chicken dippers/chips.

I'd agree with the 80/20 ratio as per pp. I'm not sure what you consider "freezer food" though? All the stuff in my freezer is batch cooking, chicken/fish and frozen veg. I don't have space in my freezer for pizzas etc.
I find keeping a food diary, even for a short time, really helpful. You note absolutely everything you eat and drink and quantities if you can. It makes you aware of what you're putting in your mouth.

pinapple not purchased or eaten that stuff in over 30 years. Once you know how to make your own pizza dough, it’s easy and cheaper to do your own and it freezes just as well.

@Lockdownseperation

Not all freezer food is the same. It’s possible to eat frozen food which is healthier than food made from scratch.

I was presuming the worst, but it was just an example. My question really is how much of the less healthy stuff can you eat and still class yourself at eating healthily.

@GiveMyHeadPeaceffs

I'd agree with the 80/20 ratio as per pp. I'm not sure what you consider "freezer food" though? All the stuff in my freezer is batch cooking, chicken/fish and frozen veg. I don't have space in my freezer for pizzas etc. I find keeping a food diary, even for a short time, really helpful. You note absolutely everything you eat and drink and quantities if you can. It makes you aware of what you're putting in your mouth.

Again, I meant heavily processed as freezer food. We eat lots of home cooked food that I’ve frozen. That’s not what people generally mean by ‘freezer food’. But really my question is the second bit, but I’m getting repetitive now

No clue what is “freezer food"

I absolutely refuse to believe you have never heard of frozen chips, nuggets, fish fingers etc even if you don't eat it

We always have biscuits in the house. I may have 3 biscuits one day then none for 10 days. The same goes for things like cake, crisps etc. They are not generally a daily thing. We don't tend to eat puddings either but might have some natural yogurt with frozen berries as a snack.

We don't do freezer food really in the way that you mean. I take it in this context it means frozen breaded chicken /fish type things or prepared pies, pasties etc.
I keep a well stocked freezer but it would be things like fish fillets, so salmon, cod, haddock and seabass which would them be used in fishcakes, fish pie, traybake with roast veg etc. I order meat in bulk every 6 to 8 weeks and freeze. If having sausages get high meat content and have less of them. If I do fancy some breaded fish or fishfinger type food then I make my own using the frozen fish fillets.

Things like pizza are probably once every three weeks when I would do 2 standard 10 inch pizzas with salad, coleslaw and home made wedges for the 4 of us.

If you can cook from scratch most of the time and make your own , wedges, chips etc in the oven with a spray of frylite it is much better for you than the ones from the freezer, most frozen chips have coating and lots of salt added.

I always try and make sure that plates are 1/2 veg that way there is less room to fit other stuff on. It helps that everyone here eats all veg.

@fallfallfall

pinapple not purchased or eaten that stuff in over 30 years. Once you know how to make your own pizza dough, it’s easy and cheaper to do your own and it freezes just as well.

So you have heard of it then.

Crap okay I get it; here it’s ice cream 2 times a week in the summer. Cake birthdays or celebrations only. Cookies 2 times a week in winter months. No alcohol. Candy occasionally (wine gums/jube jubes/haribo)
Not seen crisps or popcorn on any sort of regular bases in a few years. May purchase if guests coming over.

I really don’t think I’ve been clear.

I know what a healthy diet would look like.

My question is:

How far do you think you can push it before it becomes not healthy any more?

How many biscuits, slices of cakes or packets of crisps would you think you can add before it becomes not ‘a healthy diet’?

I eat healthily but def have some of these foods so, for example on a thread where someone’s skin is so much better when they are eating healthy, should I prick up my ears and try and make improvements or am I already there?

greyish yup I’ve heard of that stuff just not what springs to mind when I think of freezer food. First brain flash was green giant peaches and cream frozen niblet corn. Then my overstocked chest freezer and 100 bags of rhubarb.

IMO it’s about meals vs treats.

If on the whole you eat fish/chicken/veg with added carbs/sauces etc and drink milk/water/fruit juice you on the whole have a healthy diet, and then you slot treats in as part of that diet.

if however you eat a packet of biscuits for breakfast, a couple of packets of crisps for lunch and a ready meal for dinner then you do not have a healthy diet.

Anything that is processed needs to be eaten minimally not moderately, There is nothing good about ready meals, but the middle ground is possibly the fish fingers/nuggets etc but even those should be limited.

Processed food should be for when you don’t have the time to cook something IMO.

I don’t buy chocolate and biscuits because I don’t like them. But I used to, I also used to drink coke, but I have always cooked from scratch.

Now I only drink milk, water, and very dilute orange squash and I still cook everything from scratch.

Carbs aren’t bad for you, it’s just that they digest more quickly which means you’re likely to be hungrier for other foods. Iyswim.