To ask wtf is a healthy diet?

[JazzAnnNonMouse]

I think we eat well, lots of fruit and veg not as much meat as we used to as we prefer to get organic.
We make our own bread, make meals from scratch etc
Eat/drink whole fat things ie milk

I am worried though that somewhere we're doing it wrong as everything I read has conflicting views:
Lower sugar
Lower fat
Lower calories
Lower carbs
Lower fruit

You can't do all of them because you wouldn't end up being able to eat a fat lot.

Aibu to ask what is the definitive good diet and for some examples of a weeks food?

MN winds me up on diet drinks.

On the one hand, we know that there are a lot of negative health outcomes associated with consuming too many calories and being overweight. On the other hand, the negative health outcomes supposedly associated with consuming artificial sweeteners are highly speculative and currently have limited (if any) scientific backing.

Switching from full sugar to diet versions of drinks can make a big difference in reducing calorie intake, and is likely to be a lot more achievable for people whose palate have adjusted to sweet-tasting drinks than trying to get them to switch to tap water.

Sadly, BustiKate, such smug bastards have made a lot of money out of such platitudes.

Maybe we could pm each other and come up with our own - I'll happily go 50 : 50 with the sort of money such 'gurus' can earn

I love baking and have friends who believe home made is healthy. I don't think that as it's sugar but do wonder if it's healthier than shop bought? (The fact the supermarket birthday cakes taste so disguising to me tells me they are worse but may not be the case)

Having diet drinks makes you more hungry. its a vicious cycle.

why not just get rid of them altogether.
job done!

Won't be telling dd about the eat how gps eat -her gps (my mil and fil) only eat processed food and drink Cola.

That's another thing my gps did - eat (home made) cake every day. And it wasn't made of plants either, it was made of sugar and Stork SB margarine...

I'd go a step further and ban all fizzy drinks. And 'juice drink' drinks.

'Eating like our GPs did' should also include 'Work physically as hard as our GPs did'

I don't get too hung up about what we eat apart from DS4 who is a total nightmare to feed but that's another story and I'll stick to my 'something of everything'.

Yy re nutritionist vs dieticians btw

The fact that supermarket birthday cake Does Not Go Mouldy Ever makes me highly suspicious of its ingredients. Spooky.

Since you are cooking from scratch, with limited meat/animal fats, you are probably doing fine. Is everyone getting those 5 servings of fruit and veg a day? More whole grain breads and pastas than not? Some fatty fish every week?

despite what the popular media try to sell you, you only need to worry in the extreme about carbs and sugar if someone in the family has a diagnosed condition, or family history indicates someone likely will. An awful lot of advice is also written to appeal to the sort of people who are forever dieting and chasing the least calories possible: if you are feeding children, this is NOT your goal. If you arent making and serving cakes and pastries 3X daily, or buying them, their sugar intake is probably reasonable. Few people need to worry about the sugars in whole fruit, though avoid adding more than the minimum needed to adjust the flavor of a cooked fruit dish. No matter what the recipe says, you can often manage with 'to taste'.

If anyone has read the Little house on the Prairie books they are useful. Once a year they might get sugar at Christmas. Most of the time they were eating the crops they grew and the rabbits the father shot and fish he caught in the winter.

The series of programmes from BBC Scotland about "addicted to" in the addicted to sugar episode on you tube are good. the sugar episode looks at how we used hardly to have sugar at all - it was reserved for kings in the 1500s but gradually we set up the sugar plantations, all those slaves moved out there by our ancestors and huge load of imports to the UK in the 1800s of sugar and people started to have sugar in their tea to keep them going to dinner etc. Then in the last 40 years sugar consumption has got even higher as the country moved from a healthy balanced diet with lots of good fats to a high carb diet when we demonised fat and made the nation sick and fat by so doing. Only now is the proper science showing what it used to 60 years ago - that good fats in good whole foods are good for you. it will take a generation before the NHS is prepared to accept good fats are good for you.

When DD was talking about health eating we added in some simple 'rules'

1. if it has more than 10 ingredients it's a treat, if it has more than 20, don't bother
2. if you can't pronounce all the ingredients (think 6-8 years old) - you should probably limit it (eg chemicals)
3. if most of the ingredients are in my kitchen, it's probably OK
4. if you really really want it - have a bit, but not too much

This is working for her

fatlazymummy - I have been wondering if I give them too much fruit and veg because they always seem to be hungry in the evening so they aren't being kept full for long on F&V. DD has started asking for more food and said today she did feel hungrier when I asked. She doesn't eat a huge amount so I am pleased.

All my kids are very tall and slim. I think DS2 is a bit too thin but have been told he is fine. I come from a family of fat women and DH is slim as is his father. They don't have fizzy drinks, refused to go to McD when it would have saved me a long drive and have a huge variety of foods. I am just not sure sometimes I am giving them everything they need.

mother0fdragons - I put half or less of the sugar listed in recipes when I bake and the kids don't seem to notice or care.

My kids definitely get their five a day but dh and I aren't so good.

Not sure on the advice at eat like your grandparents. It depends on their example and how long they lived. My nana dropped dead of a heart attack at 60, my grandma had a stroke at 59 and my granddad died of malnutrition. Only other granddad lived to a ripe old age.

I think the main issue is bulking up with cheap non-ingredients in our processed foods.

hormonalandneedingcheese Is that the Stanford University one? The one with Maya Adam? That's the first course I did on Coursera. It's interesting and there are some nice recipes on it.

The conflicting advise on this thread (and in real life) is really scary to me!

How is anybody to know who's right?! Arghhh!

*advice

YY to "Dietitians unite"

On what GPs ate: My Grandmother used to eat a LOT of battered food...fritters and suchlike. The family also ate tinned meat...and had tinned milk...errghh.

Onc a week, the family had "pastry night" which was basically anything rolled ine pastry as they had run out of food by then. Kind of like "leftover night" I imagine.
Pastry night also included jam roley poleys ....pastry with sugar and jam, sprikled in sugar.

The "eat what your Grandparents ate" theory pretty much dies at the next generation. I'd be mortified if my kids ate what my parents ate.

We eat lots of in season fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, legumes, and seeds. We don't eat wheat, or most grains as DD2 has coeliacs. Brown rice, quinoa, oats (she's ok with them), and I don't buy any processed food. I make my own yoghurt and skyr. I cook with butter or olive oil, and we don't have margarine. I grow some fruit and vegetables, and we like to forage when we're out walking.

We don't drink alcohol except the odd bottle of prosecco, just herb teas, tea, coffee, and water.

And we walk. A lot. I clock up about 8-10 miles a day, walking the dogs.

My definition of healthy food is - high in good fats, organic food, quality vegetarian and non vegetarian protein, low in refined sugar, a mix of wholemeal grains, lots of veg, some fruit especially low sugar fruit, no processed rubbish, no fast food, water/herbal teas drinking wise.