Is there anyone who just eats normally?

[Peanutss]

I can't believe the amount of threads where the OP claims to eat only a boiled spinach shake for breakfast, plain cous cous for dinner and a salmon fillet with veg for tea. With of course, only an apple as a snack in between.

Is there anyone like me who just has a bowl of cornflakes for breakfast, a meal deal for lunch and then whatever I can be arsed putting in the oven for tea? I'm beginning to wonder if I'm massively unhealthy in comparison to most or whether people are just making this up.

The only eatery where I've had pizza served with chips is a school canteen.

Morrisons serve Pizza and chips for kids in their cafes.

Pizza express serve chips with their pizzas.

And, if they weren't enough, my.mum used to feed us pizza and chips as kids..

Chips are cheap, filling and seems popular with UK customers. That is why restaurants serve them. It is the ultimate beige food.

you cannot ward off disease or improve (physical) wellbeing by eating a certain diet.

Nonsense. Following a healthy eating plan and exercising is far better for you than eating junk and not exercising. I'm not talking about any particular diet, I'm talking about scientific nutrition.

Our bodies are incredibe; they work to synathise energy at the cell level which requires specific proteins.

If diet didn't matter, why on earth would the NHS promote a healthy, balanced lifestyle?

OP your diet is normal, as far as the convenient Western diet goes. It could be a lot worse and I'm sure on good days you're getting lots of nutrients!

I'm an annoying Chia-seed, maca powder, spirulina-eater, but I'm in the minority and I wouldn't be so hypocritical sitting here with my G&T to judge anyone for what they choose to eat. If you want to live off takeaways and chocolate, that's your look out. Just don't expect to be the picture of health.

I've been at the other end - I used to be obese and I was very unwell (M.E.) and my lifestyle as far as diet and exercise has been a huge catalyst for changing my life completely. I'm now a size 10 marathon runner and my health issues have disappeared.

There are so many reasons why people eat what they eat - psychologically as well as practically. But if individuals considered the base nurtients of food and their needs, they may choose differently. Or they may not - such is free choice. :)

Diet helps, but I honestly think unless your diet is extremely unhealthy, alcohol, smoking, weight, exercise and genetics have a much bigger impact.

Yet again...you cannot ward off disease or improve (physical) wellbeing by eating a certain diet.

???

”Diet can also directly affect cancer risk. Some foods, such as processed and red meat and salt-preserved foods, can increase the risk of developing cancer. While others, such as fruits, vegetables and foods high in fibre, can reduce the risk of cancer”.

Diet has been linked with several different types of cancer:

Mouth cancer
Upper throat cancer
Larynx cancer
Lung cancer
Stomach cancer
Bowel cancer

How healthy eating prevents cancer - cancer research.org

...

Should clarify this:

Yet again...you cannot ward off disease or improve (physical) wellbeing by eating a certain diet.

Is a quote from KissingInTheRain ^^

@TatianaLarina

Just not true, all that research and fact and science and stuff, according to @KissingInTheRain

Diet helps, but I honestly think unless your diet is extremely unhealthy, alcohol, smoking, weight, exercise and genetics have a much bigger impact.

If you don't want to focus your diet on being nutrient rich and balanced, that's your choice. Totally. Just own it instead of making out you're perfectly healthy only because you could be unhealthier.

Just own it

Which is what everyone on this thread has done...

Interesting study out today about genetics and skinny people just being genetically blessed with not putting on weight.

Great, and others should realise that by owning my own healthy diet, that doesn't mean I judge yours. It's not personal dig to you if I choose to eat quinoa rather than a sausage roll.

Interesting study out today about genetics and skinny people just being genetically blessed with not putting on weight
I thought of this thread as I read it!
I've always believed there was a strong genetic link with weight. I come from a thin family, as does DH. My children were huge babies but grew into skinny toddlers and are now very slim adults. DS is desperate to gain weight and he has, to steal a great quote from a poster on this thread, the appetite of a small army.

AllSuits

Not you in particular perhaps, but a lot do on these sorts of threads and we've seen it a few times on this one too.

Started we are all super skinny too, I'm in my 50s and have tried all my life to put on weight but to no avail. It makes a huge amount of sense. Isn't it daft that no-one ever thought to study skinny genes before, concentrating all the time on the overweight ones!

Have you read the original study?

It concludes:

these results suggest that the observed differences in ORs and p-values could have arisen because our severe obese cases are much more extreme (i.e. deviate more from the mean) than the healthy thin individuals, and that our obese and thin sample sizes gave us limited power to detect significant differences compared to the additive model.

Not you in particular perhaps, but a lot do on these sorts of threads and we've seen it a few times on this one too

I tend to see posters getting jumped on for daring to mention that they eat hummus and wheatgrass.

I'm studying to be a nutritionist (early days!) and I adore food and its power to heal, genuinely I'd love to help anyone and everyone that wanted to take more interest in their diet, my readiness to post about the benefits of food come from a good place, not a judgmental one. Been there, with my head in the sand, making excuses, blaming genes etc, but taking the responsibility to eat better has huge benefits, radiating far further than being weight related.

Tatiana

Leaving aside the major doubts that many scientists and researchers have about the reliability of claims made about links between diet and disease (here's a good article, but there are plenty more) what is clear is that even if there are links, any disease-causing and prophylactic effects of food are very weak indeed.

You do not get cancer because you eat red meat. You might increase the risk if your diet is very, very heavy in red meat. That is not a NORMAL diet. Likewise a crank diet will not protect you from cancer any more than a NORMAL one.

What I said wasn't true is that you can ward off disease by diet. You can't. But you can promote disease with a poor diet of an extreme sort. That is not a NORMAL diet.

AllSuits has just given the game away by talking about food's "power to heal". If food could heal it would be medicinal, would have side effects and would require a licence. It's a lovely thought that we could treat disease just with food but it is, sadly, a delusion.

Tell you what does negatively impact health is chronic unmanaged stress, being miserable uptight and controlling will increase your susceptibility to illness.

Being unhappy and unkind to others are indicators of chronic stress.

Today I had cake and coffee for brunch and a wonderful long overdue catch up with a friend. Dinner was haggis neeps n tatties obviously and I have toasted Burns with the rest of last night's wine and more cake.

I haven't seen anyone post on this thread that they have eaten nothing but chips and mars bars their whole lives. I have seen many varied diets with a relaxed attitude to all foods and a refusal to label anything bad, together with sympathy shown to those who struggle daily with the debilitating horror of eating disorders.

I have also seen a massive helping of extremely generalised and often ignorant judgemental nastiness towards anyone who has a relaxed attitude about food. Some stress is good, short term stress is essential for survival. Chronic stress is different and will cause damage over time. If anyone's health is being endangered by their attitude in life it is these vitriolic posters. Stress of this calibre is bad, chill the fuck out.

Breakfast- chocolate buttons
Lunch - nothing
Tea - fish finger sandwich.

That's awful isn't it?

No. Unless it’ll be your diet for the next 30 years.

Sounds tasty countrybunny, hope you had ketchup on the fishy dangerwich!

So much good health is luck I truly believe that.. I'm sure a half decent diet helps but so many variables as many have said. Sure not smoking, drinking and exercising help but all marginal gains as the Sky cycling bods would have you believe.

I agree with that WunderBlah, and another factor is poor sleep (sometimes related to stress).

DD4 made a lovely cake from a box mix yesterday, with icing that she made herself from scratch - it turned out wonderful, and I have had a couple of slices over yesterday and today. She put a frozen pizza in the oven for herself today as I was working 14 hours so I had a quarter of the pizza for dinner, but I had a slice of the cake first