To think it is so difficult to eat healthy?

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I have been trying to eat healthy since leaving home 7 years ago, but I am finding it impossible.

For example when living at home I used to eat for breakfast coco pops with full fat milk, white toast with butter and a cup of hot Blackcurrant squash. That was my breaskast from a toddler up until the age of 25!! when left home I started to eat 2 slices of wholemeal toast with sunflower spread and a glass of pure apple juice. About a year ago I discovered bread was "bad" and the same with juice. So I changed to porridge with raisins and a herbal tea. Now apparently raisins have bad sugar and cows milk is not great. So am now eating porridge with soya milk and fresh berries. Now hsve seen porridge is not great as it is not natural for humans. Dame with soya milk it's not a natural product. Do I have to eat veg for breakfast to be healthy????

Facebook is the worst place for people evangelising about whatever their own personal interests or obsessions are. Whether it's politics, pets, food etc, it's the reason I came off it.

12 slices of bread a day isn't a great idea, sounds like you have lived one extreme to the other food wise hence your confusion.

Back: "I was most bought up on bread! Toast for breakfast with coco pops, marmite sandwich crisps and a penguin for lunch, toast after school, meat and two veg and a chocolate mousse for dinner, toast for supper. And if I was ever hungry I'm between bread and butter!!"

Me too! But this was normal in the 80s! We all survived, I'm a healthy weight (and always have been) etc.

Don't get too hung up on the raw food thing - humans are only human because we learned to cook! (It makes the nutrients much moe accessible and facilitated the brain growth that allowed us to become, us).

Any diet with a stupid name represents an unhealthy attitude to food. Palaeo: unsubstantiated bollocks, "clean eating": inconsistent and also bollocks!

"Sweetener" is too broad a term. Most sweeteners are naturally derived (not that anything labelled "natural" is necessarily any better than synthetic). Aspartame is one of the most tested food additives and has been shown to be safe (unless you have PKU, which you'd know about by now!). Again, it depends on your priorities (though personally I'm happy with good old sugar!).

AnUtterIdiot (despite the name!) is right! Eat what you fancy when you are hungry, stop when you're full. Aim for variety and moderation.

I fancy some bacon...

(eat healthily, not eat healthy. We say "healthy food" - (healthy being an adjective) or I eat healthily).

Ignore all the crap news reports everyday about crap that causes cancer and don't worry so much.
Just use the common sense of
If it's NATURAL (not gone through a process other than fertiliser and washing) it's great! And try to stay away from carbs. Then eat whatever you like. And like people say - balance. today I'm having whatever I fancy. Tomorrow I'll be having healthy stuff. That the body coach man is great. Does great recipes.

no food is bad per se. Eat a balanced diet in the right portion sizes, get the right nutrients, job done. No need to cut out anything unless on medical advice.

cola is bad, but it isn't food. It is toilet cleaner.

"And try to stay away from carbs" NO!

Just No! There is nothing wrong with carbohydrates! They're an important part of a healthy, balanced diet.

Cutting food groups out for no good medical reason is not a healthy attitude to food.

a lot of the anti-carb nonsense is because people cannot differentiate between sweets, cakes and cereal bars (simple carbs, i.e. sugar) and porridge, bread, rice, pasta, spuds (complex slow-release carbs).

the serial dieters see it as all carbs. Hence the starve-guzzle merry go round.

What I find amusing, special, is that those people are often happy to keep drinking wine/whatever - the only difference between sugars and ethanol is a few oxygen atoms! And ethanol is a fuel! (Just to equate it with your cola argument there!). But again, not outrageous in moderation*

*though our ideas about what moderation constitutes may well vary dramatically!

Everything in moderation. Lots of variety. Lots of vegetables. Exercise.

That's all you need to do.

Oh, and drink lots of water.

In terms of carbohydrates, generally, the more refined it is, the worse it is for you. So whole wheat or oat grains are better than porridge, which is better than wholemeal bread, which is better than white bread, which is better than sweets. The more refined a carbohydrate, the more easily & quickly your body can access the sugars in it. So the less energy you use to digest it, & the more likely you are to get the sugar high & crash after. Hence, you should go for more complex (less refined) carbohydrates.

A diet that doesn't solely rely on "traditional" carbs for energy is better. There's lots of carbs in vegetables. Only they also contain vitamins, minerals, soluble fibre etc as well. Most natural food will contain a range of nutrients.

The 2l of water thing is a myth too. Drink when you're thirsty. That includes tea, coffee, juice and the water content of your food.

There's a New Scientist article debunking it from earlier this year. Drinking water won't "flush out toxins" or any of that bollocks. You're not already dehydrated when you feel thirsty. Just drink water-based liquid when you get the urge!

(There's nothing magic about pure water, or hot water with lemon juice, or ice water with cucumber, or any of that shit either!)

Most of those "clean eating" pages on facebook are full of spurious pseudo-science and if you look into them, you'll find that they also carry loads of paranoia about "big pharma" which is mostly bullshit.

Another important thing to remember when you read these things is that most of them originate in America, where there ARE harmful things added to food, harmful processes involved in farming, and junk food prevails and is much easier to find than "real" food. In Europe, this just isn't as much of an issue, because there are bans on most of the harmful additives, on dangerous farming programs, and generally, our food is very safe.

In the US, the difference between eating organic and non organic is very pronounced and might be beneficial. Here it's not as much of an issue. There isn't so much of a need to eat organic to avoid the processes and ingredients they have in the US. Organic is probably still good for you, but non-organic food isn't going to make you ill.

Don't overthink food. The first priority is getting enough. If you are struggling to meet that one then concentrate on it and don't worry about the content. If you're getting enough easily, then it's okay to decide that you want to look at your diet as a whole and make some general changes. Don't get sucked into overthinking everything to the point that you can't eat anything. That's a symptom of anxiety and if it happens a lot (I get it) you should ask your GP for help.

Eat healthy what?

Sorry, healthily to be grammatically correct!

I'm another person who was raised on 'carbs' - bread and potatoes every single day. 2 bowls of cereal with added sugar (breakfast and supper), minute amounts of meat, fruit and veg in moderate amounts.
Guess what - I'm 55, never had a serious days illness in my life, all my siblings are ok as well.
Just have a variety, try and eat 5 a day, and limit the crap like sweeties, cakes, crisps, etc . Think of them as an occassional treat. Same as takeaways and ready meals - maybe once a week.
As for ham, well yes it is processed, but I believe you can get a naturally cured version from delis. That's something you'd have to google, because I'm not an expert on meat.

Here is the best healthy eating advice, and the only one you'll ever need

"Eat food (ie: not chemicals) in moderation. Mostly plants"

Is it necessary for three different posters to correct the OP's grammar? Gold star to each of you, but FFS it's boring.

Some great advice above OP :) As everyone is saying moderation is key. Natural foods (so butter etc tend to be better for you than processed stuff). Carbs are fine but stick to whole wheat, Brown rice etc.

I follow the 80/20 rule, if I am eating healthily 80% of the time then I can get away with the other 20%

Everything in moderation, as unprocessed as possible.

The healthiest people I knew were my grandparents. They were very physically active until their late eighties then dropped down dead pretty much instantly, (no horrid lingering). They ate meat and two veg, (mostly from the garden,) bread and cheese and salad and cold meat. The occasional bacon and eggs for breakfast, homemade cakes and fruit pies a couple of times a week.

Can I ask why you have to eat the same thing for breakfast everyday? This might make you feel better about what you are having if you know it's not the only breakfast food you at having?

Because I'm in a rush in the morning and don't have time to think! I eat the same thing for lunch most days too, I must be strange lol. Either a sandwich or soup.

tinklylittlelaugh your grandparents sound lovely. That actually sounds like my grandparents diet as I remember it. And always 2 weatabix for breakfast! I wonder what went wrong in the 80s???? Surely our parents didn't think bread, penguins, club bars, crispy pancakes, pop tarts, Ribena and sunny delight etc were healthy????

back but are you in a rush when you buy the food, as if you bought a selection of items you wouldn't need to think you'd just pick the one you wanted each day.

Yes I'm in a rush in the supermarket too. I have a two year old who needs a wee if I take to long (despite going on the potty in the car before we go in!) so I can't take too long in there!