Persuade me eating healthily is worth it

[Gwenhwyfar]

Already posted in Health, but I thought I'd try and get additional answers.

I know I should eat healthily and have my 5 a day (currently struggling to get just 1 despite being 90% vegetarian), but even though I know it, I struggle to really understand it if you see what I mean. I know scientists say you should eat fruit and veg and that ideally it should be way more than 5 and I presume that's based on studies of people who've developed certain illnesses, but it's not something I can SEE or FEEL like I can with other things. When I've made an effort myself, I haven't seen any improvement.
I can see that overeating makes you overweight. That's clear.
I can feel that too much sugar rots your teeth. I can feel that happening, but I just can't see the damage I'm doing by eating cheese sandwiches and the like.

I hear people saying things like 'I haven't been eating healthily, I'm craving fruit/veg now' and I'm quite confused by that or 'you may not be overweight, but you'll be really unhealthy inside'. I don't really know what they mean by that.

Can anyone help make it more 'real' for me rather than just something people say.

Thanks in advance.

I could very easily be you, OP.
I'm veggie, a healthy weight and might turn into a block of cheese I eat so much of it. Also love sugary crap. I don't particularly enjoy cooking - partner does most of it.

I think the thing that makes me eat vegetables is the huge incidence of cancer in my family despite all of us being fairly thin, active, and non-smokers. I have a complete dread of getting it, and know that fruit and veg are meant to protect against it, to some extent.

I have to batch bake my weekly lunch on a Sunday so I can just bung a portion in the microwave through the week. Usually it's vegetables with a load of cheese on top. Otherwise I'd end up eating cheese and crisp sandwiches.

Type 2 diabetes is not just caused by sugar; all kinds of carbs - and the way you eat them, and what you eat them with and indeed when you eat them- can be implicated. And you know about Glycaemic Index, surely? High fibre brown/seeded bread, oatmeal/porridge, oatcakes etc are much healthier than white bread.

Also - is opening a packet of salad, sloshing on sone dressing and making an omelette or scrambled eggs really quicker than assembling a cheese sandwich?

I'm working from from home at the moment and am making veg soup this minute. But it doesn't need much thought or care and attention. It took 5 mins at most to scrub and chop some veg and put them in a pan with a bit of olive oil and herbs and garlic, then to add some water. It will take another minute to whizz them up in a blender then perhaps 10 seconds to add a spoonful or two of plain yoghurt when it's supper time.

Please excuse me if this is impolite, but I think you perhaps have to ask yourself why you are deliberately subverting - or at least taking chances with - your future health. Are you depressed? Anxious? Fearful? Don't you want to stay fit and healthy for as long as possible?

Of course, other factors (genetics, environment etc etc) do contribute to health and longevity, but - as you know - diet is a really important.
This is perhaps the most famous study concerning fruit and veg:

www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/diet-and-lifespan/

This is what that study found:

"The researchers concluded that the Mediterranean diet lowers the risk of death and that the principal components of the diet that cause this decreased risk are moderate alcohol consumption, low meat consumption and high consumption of vegetables, fruits and nuts, olive oil and legumes. Minimal effects were found for cereals, dairy and fish, and seafood."

should be:

Also - isn't opening a packet of salad, sloshing on sone dressing and making an omelette or scrambled eggs really as quick as assembling a cheese sandwich?

" High fibre brown/seeded bread, oatmeal/porridge, oatcakes etc are much healthier than white bread."

I can't tolerate very high fibre stuff. I'll buy seeded bread if I can find one I like. I can't at the moment, but that's what I was eating in the spring and early summer.

"is opening a packet of salad, sloshing on sone dressing and making an omelette or scrambled eggs really quicker than assembling a cheese sandwich?"

No, as you say (before your second post), it's not quicker, which is why I don't do them. Definitely not at lunchtime, occasionally at dinner time, but I've had to throw away so many bags of leaves that have gone to a mush in my fridge that I'm more realistic in my purchases now.

" It took 5 mins at most to scrub and chop some veg and put them in a pan with a bit of olive oil and herbs and garlic, then to add some water. It will take another minute to whizz them up in a blender then perhaps 10 seconds to add a spoonful or two of plain yoghurt when it's supper time."

It would take me longer than that. I have some packets of soup in the cupboard, but I have to add bread as I can't find thick ones at the moment so it's bread again, then I'm tempted to just add some cheese and I'm back to my cheese sandwiches.

""Please excuse me if this is impolite, but I think you perhaps have to ask yourself why you are deliberately subverting - or at least taking chances with - your future health. Are you depressed? Anxious? Fearful? Don't you want to stay fit and healthy for as long as possible?"

Not impolite at all. I don't think I'm sabotaging myself. I'm trying to get more exercise, for example and I don't drink too much. I want to be healthy, but it depends how much of a sacrifice it is and eating things I don't like 80% of the time is just going a bit far for me, as would be standing up cooking for 20 minutes every day even though other people think that's easy.

Lol I think it's an epic fail from all posters to persuade OP to change eating habits. Anything else you'd like help with OP?

OP do you think you are depressed? It was your comment about not being tired because all you do is sit at the kitchen table that made me ask. If you are depressed (which can be the case without necessarily feeling sad or down) then it might explain your lack of motivation.

@itssquidstella

OP do you think you are depressed? It was your comment about not being tired because all you do is sit at the kitchen table that made me ask. If you are depressed (which can be the case without necessarily feeling sad or down) then it might explain your lack of motivation.

I hate working from home, but I'm not depressed, no. I still do things on the weekends, but every day and every evening is the same just because of wfh and lockdown. Boring. I eat the same things before lockdown when I didn't have to sit in my kitchen all day.

Snog if we take OP seriously, then I really think there is a problem. I really do hope - genuinely - that someone can help OP

Saying that a person can't spare 20 mins per day to feed themselves healthily is rather unusual.

We all probably spend around 20 mins a day cleaning teeth/having a bath/wash/shower/putting on clean clothes/brushing our hair - all equivalent and equally important acts of healthy self-care. What would be the reaction if we said we simply didn't like to do those things, or couldn't spare the time for them?

To be fair millions of people either don't take regular exercise or are overweight or drink more than is healthy (ie nothing at all) and that's probably just as bad for you as the OP's diet.

Snog probably - though diet is very important.

But the OP in their original post asked to be convinced about the desirability of healthy eating. Various posters have put forward reliable, well tested evidence, but it seems that the OP still is not likely to change their existing habits.

So yes, the OP can stay as they are. That is absolutely their choice. Or just perhaps someone can help them. I don't know ...

Is it a self esteem thing OP?
Or more of a habit eg I've got this far eating this way with no obvious bad effects type of thing
For me it's almost an identity thing

Ps I do think its quite nuts that people think having 5 fruit and veg a day will stave off cancer....it really doesnt work like that

I think it's just about trying to move the odds more in your favour by making lifestyle choices. Genetics and environment probably play a bigger part in our health outcomes but lifestyle changes including diet can shift the odds a bit.

I suggest you start easy. Have a salad or a mixture of green veg with every meal. Fill half the plate with it. Buy frozen veg so you don't have to chop much. Tomatoes can be whole in a salad if they are small ones. A good salad spinner makes an amazing difference. Chop at the sink straight inti into the colander rinse and spin. Takes all of 2 minutes. Soups can be very simple. Chop onion and celery. Put in stock, simmer for 30 mins and liquidise with a dash of cream. Season.

Just do it. Don't think excuses. Soon it becomes habit and you miss veg when you don't have as much.

You say you can't be bothered a lot! Are you depressed? You know deep down that you need to eat more healthily but basically can't be arsed. Do you not have respect for your own body? The issue really is that by the time you feel the effects of poor eating habits it will likely be too late to do much about it! My DH has a terrible diet (very restrictive) but he knows the risks and can't/doesn't want to change (it's an actual eating disorder but he is happy as he is). I don't try to change him - his body, his life.

"You say you can't be bothered a lot! Are you depressed?"

Just lazy. I've been for a jog today though, not very far and very slow, but I did it so I can motivate myself when I see the point.

"Do you not have respect for your own body?"

I don't feel I'm disrespecting my body. I'm giving it what it wants after all.

@gypsywater

Ps I do think its quite nuts that people think having 5 fruit and veg a day will stave off cancer....it really doesnt work like that

It's not nuts at all. Bad diet and obesity increase your risk of cancer. Clearly it's not the only factor, but it is a factor.

OP Little children 'want' sweets or chocolate; it doesn't mean that it's good to give those to them all the time.

Food preferences today are learned, not innate. There is indeed an evolutionary argument that says we are programmed to like high fat/energy dense foods. But - following the same logic - early hunter-gatherers spent all day searching for foods like that in order to get enough nourishment. You are - I presume - not one of those.

Your body in modern times has learned to like chocolate etc. Fast, easy calories. But it can unlearn, if you want.

My grandmother ate like you. Died of bowel cancer aged 72. Can only really put it down to diet.

I recommend "the sweetie diet" which my mum put me on as a child.

At meal times, eat as much sweets and chocolate as you like. No snacks between meals, no other foods. Keep this up for 3 days and see what your body is craving then and how your energy is.

I would love love love to be able to just decide to eat healthy. It would be a dream for me. If u can do it. Just do it.

I have so many allergies. And on top of that. I have ibs which is awful with most vegetables. Just to be able to eat a banana some potato and some veg is a dream for me.
Just do it.

@Collidascope OP has a BMI of 21 tho...

@motherf88

My grandmother ate like you. Died of bowel cancer aged 72. Can only really put it down to diet.

Did the doctor say that it was definitely eating sandwiches and not enough fruit and veg?

[quote gypsywater]@Collidascope OP has a BMI of 21 tho...[/quote]
Not sure how that counters my post.

Don't then. If you don't feel the need to change and you don't feel any benefits of eating healthily then don't. I mean you might die earlier, but then again you might not. Either way you'll never know if it was the cheese sandwiches or if batch cooking carrot soup every week could've saved you. You crack on with your sarnies there, and get yourself on a whacking great dose of antidepressants because this level of apathy over your own self care isn't normal, neither is your forensic analysis of the length of time it takes to chop and peel veg vs slapping together some bread combination