To think most people don't believe their diet will have an impact on their health

[Notcontent]

This is just something I have been thinking about recently. There has been so much in the news about the damage sugar is doing to us, the number of people with type 2 diabetes is rising at a huge rate, more and more kids are becoming fat and having their teeth pulled out, etc.

And yet - I get the feeling most people think it's "nanny state rubbish". On mumsnet threads people always say "children need treats". I was talking to a work colleague about sugary drinks and her view was that water is too boring so she was quite happy for her kids to have juice and cordial with every meal and snack.

I am not sure what the solution is - maybe proper food and health education at schools.

*This is silly, you are talking about educating people about food and yet people are saying you should have an apple instead of a doughnut because of the sugar, you realize that apples have way more sugar in them then a doughnut, right?

Apple: 15.7g of sugar
Doughnut: 2.5g of sugar*

Whaaaaat? Are you taking the piss or are you eating ultra-mini donuts? From the KrispyKreme website, a standard chocolate glazed donut weighing 63 grams has 32 grams of carbs, of which sugars 21g and a 125 g apple (ie weighing twice as much), has 17g of carbohydrates, of which sugars 13g.

But if people genuinely think a donut has 2.5 g of sugar then no wonder there are problems.

I wonder whether people don't actually realise how badly their diet affects their well-being because they assume the way they feel or the way their body works is "normal" -- and it is not until the damage becomes very obvious (through obesity or type 2 diabetes) that the association becomes clear.

I certainly didn't realise the extent to which my diet affected my health. It wasn't until I developed a scary set of symptoms in my mid 30s (which I was told were normal for my age, ffs) and started looking into scientific research that I realised I was probably quite badly malnourished -- and I ate a conventionally very "healthy" diet at the time.

I had to change the entire way I thought about food: from the notion of conventional "healthy calories" (ie. eat healthily) to nutritional "load" (ie. why am I putting this in my mouth if it doesn't deliver a whack of vitamins and minerals and is full of nasty stuff instead?) What was noticeable was how much changing my diet had an impact on a whole range of physical aspects: my hair, my nails, my eyesight, my sleep, my skin, the way my brain works -- I even stopped getting any kind of period cramps.

Yet, prior to that, I thought I was just one of those people that had weak nails, suffered from insomnia and had very uncomfortable periods. I thought this was "normal".

The whole process really made me wonder about just what we accept as "normal" in health terms that is anything but.

Argh- that first bit was meant to be in bold from itsonlysubterfuge's post

runningincircles I was a bit about at 2.5g sugar donut too!

Werks, that is true of me. I moved from my 70s style diet ( non fattening as it was) to a more wholefood one and physically felt a lot better.
(Probably getting adequate fibre helped quickest!)
I now have middle age spread due to less mobility and too much snacking.

I was coming to post what werks just said. I do wonder if people with a crap diet just don't realise how much better they would feel eating a better diet, in much the same way as you don't know just how stinky smoking is til you quit.

I recently (on the back of the childhood obesity thread here actually) decided to stop making excuses and start making changes and within 36 hours I felt like a different person. By the time the DC were in bed at night I was actively looking for things to do that weren't watching TV because I couldn't imagine just sitting down with this massive amount of energy. A week previously I couldn't imagine doing anything except lying on the sofa.

I'm still massively overweight but the immediate difference was startling.

What changes did you make gibbous? Especially the ones that helped so quickly. I am always knackered in the evenings

I just binned the crap and increased the good stuff whilst watching portions. Biggest change was probably to lunch which I would ordinarily buy each day at a local shop (so sandwich, crisps, choc, more choc if I'd had a crap morning and I'd quite often buy extra 'treats' for evening too) and replacing it with baked potato plus last nights leftovers or beans. Veg soup is my new best friend. I have it as a snack quite a lot.

Swapped my breakfast toast for porridge/soup/fruit.

I think it's quite telling that I never used to include my lunches in the supermarket shop, like I knew buying 7xchoc bars/packs crisps was bad, but somehow it didn't count if I bought it each day.

My evening meals have always been okay (usually something slow cooked) but recipes would be for four and I'd feed two adults and two very little children out of them, so now I make sure a portion always goes straight into fridge.

And we cancelled Friday night take out night because I genuinely don't want to eat that much crap now.

Was on the list was that aimed at me?

People aren't starving, they just need to fill up on small quantity of food.

Birds - NICE estimated the total public expenditure on malnutrition in health & social care at £19.6 billion in 2012. It has since increased by more than 10%.
Hospital admissions due to extreme malnutrition, such as Kwashiorkor's disease, have risen more than 10% within three years.
The number of deaths registered due to malnutrition or effects of hunger rose to 375 in 2014, again just over 10% up in three years.
The NHS says three million people in the UK are suffering malnutrition.

I know that malnutrition isn't precisely the same thing as starvation, however Kwashiorkor and similar conditions are diseases of starvation. And deaths obviously qualify as starvation. You must get enough calories before worrying about the quality of those calories.

I realise this is a slight diversion but, as you know, I'm very bothered about it!

Just read Dinosaurs' post of 09:12 today. Applauding.

I wonder whether people don't actually realise how badly their diet affects their well-being because they assume the way they feel or the way their body works is "normal"

Agree with this and think it's very likely.

I can't say for food, but for me, smoking was kind of the same. I smoked for ten years from the age of 17. Always been fit and active and never had any 'symptoms' from smoking, like a cough or shortness of breath or anything. I just thought I was young enough to still be getting away with it. I stopped when I was 27 (now 29) and the difference I felt in myself after a few weeks was incredible. Things i'd thought were 'normal' - being a terrible morning waker, sluggish for an hour before i'd had a coffee and a fag - suddenly disappeared. My overall quick temper/irritability (a running joke between me and dh) improved no end after withdrawal. But I really though those things were just normal for me and I never realised the less obvious impact smoking had.

She didn't eat any sugar until her first birthday

You know breast milk is 7% sugar, right? Ever tasted it? (Like evaporated milk, if you haven't.) Orange juice is 7% sugar, for comparison.

Having foods being associated with emotional implications is really part of the problem. Why shouldn't a salad bring joy and why would the solution to stress be to eat something?

Erm, because like all animals we feel safer and less anxious when we have enough calories inside us. High-fat, high-carb foods trigger oxytocin and several other comforting hormones. Eating & feeding as primary bonding activities aren't social constructs, they're basic animal behaviours.

Sorry, orange juice is 8% sugar. Not a massive difference I'm sure you'll agree.

Am in a cafe reading this thread and have bought two pieces of fruit to eat instead of a muffin . step 1?

Agree with werk. We've normalised feeling like shit. I've always been slim, but ate a regular crappy diet until three or four years ago. Since dropping alcohol, caffeine and processed carbs and becoming a fitness freak gym bunny, I'm lean, toned and feel pretty good. I know I look and feel better than most of my same-age female friends (52) but I can't pretend it's easy. Enjoyable, yes, with big payback, but easy - no. There's no way I could have lived the way I do now when my children were small. An hour or two in the gym every night? No chance.

Some of us don't eat unhealthily out of choice. I would love to eat more healthily but, thanks to my dodgy digestive system I can't. Unless I want to spend my time running to the toilet I have to have a low fibre diet. I love granary bread, Shredded Wheat, fruit, salad etc but I can't eat it. I know I'm probably set up for problems later in life but there's not a lot I can do.

Then there's the OTC drugs. We feel like shit because we don't eat, sleep or exercise properly. We turn to OTC remedies for a quick fix, without considering that pretty much all drugs are toxic - that's why they work. I'm always amazed at how many tablets people take for this that and the other, self-diagnosed, self-prescribed, self-medicated. We're over-medicalised and malnourished.

I'm so enjoying all these pronouncements on How To Be Really Healthy by people who are fundamentally fit and well.

It's just like reading a women's magazine ... something else I try to keep to a minimum.

I was so used to being hungry I had got used to it.

God, yes, this is such a widespread experience.

:(

Drink water, cut out eating between meals, don't eat unless you're hungry and stop eating when you're full. You'll be amazed. And Garlick - just because eating sugar & fat make us feel good (for all of a millisecond) doesn't mean we can't override that urge with our conscious, thinking brain if we choose to. Try waiting for that urge to pass - again, you'll be amazed.

Thanks for the patronization, Argy! However did I get to my age without thinking of that?