To wonder if eating healthily is worth it?

[Doesitmakeadifference]

I'm late 30s, throughout my life my diet hasn't been very good but it probably hasn't been horrendous either. I've never eaten enough veg.

Several years ago dh and I were in a rut and our diet became very bad, loads of takeaways, way too much junk processed food. Both put on weight.

So a few years ago we turned our whole lifestyle around and now eat well, we exercise every day. Every so often we go on a complete health kick and eat very clean. We go to bed early, rarely drink generally I'd say we have a very healthy lifestyle.

I do wonder though sometimes how much difference it honestly makes. To be honest nearly everyone I know eats what they want. Dh often tells me while he's eating his salad or healthy sandwich or homemade whatever all his workmates are eating Greggs, pizza, sausage rolls crisps chocolate bars.

Apart from being slimmer I can't honestly say I feel massively different to when I was eating junk food all the time. Can't say I've got glowing skin or that I'm full of energy.

This.

It’s about the long game - not necessarily about you are now but how you are as a 60, 70, 80 year old.
Will you be independent? Will you enjoy your retirement, go on holiday, do gardening, socialise? Will you manage the stairs? Will you reduce your risk of falls?
Being old and of poor health is miserable.

I love processed sugar - cakes, chocs etc - and I am trying to focus on the future to help curb my vices.

My skin goes to shit when I eat lots of crap, and I always have a sense of feeling a little bit sick. Doesn't stop me from eating crap sometimes but I regret it when I do

@Doesitmakeadifference- just look around you....... check out people 20, 30 years older than you... Mostly it's not a pretty sight.

There's a woman in my street, same age as me. Cannot walk to the nearby busstop without leaning on her shopping trolley or hanging on to her daughter's arm. Running for the bus....... forget it.

But it doesn't need to be this way. I'm nearly 70, slim, strong, fit. I eat a healthy diet and exercise most days. I go to the theatre, meet with friends, keep my mind active, challenge myself.

On a typical day, I do a 5minute warmup, 20 push-ups, a 10-minute plank, and a 30-40 minute workout with Caroline Girvan or Growingannanas. Typically I eat 2 meals a day: omelette or big salad for brunch, and loads of vegetables plus protein for dinner. Plus fruit, nuts, berries, yoghurt, cottage cheese etc - in moderation - in betweisn't.

Is there a guarantee I'll live longer - no there isnt. But I do not feel deprived. In fact I feel great. I cannot imagine why I'd want to be a couch potato and eat crap instead

I think you just have to balance the risks and benefits which apply to you.

For example if you are spending a lot of time and money and energy on preparing meals from scratch, is that something that works for you, or is it a significant cause of stress in which case is it worth going back to using some shortcut items?

I know that some people are very concerned about UPFs. Personally I just do not have the brain space to worry about it. I will stop consuming stuff when it is banned. Until that point, I will eat whatever is available, affordable and I feel like preparing.

For me ditching guilt about using processed or "cheat" foods is way more beneficial to my mental health than eating perfectly all of the time. But everyone has different goals, priorities, challenges. I don't think there will be an easy answer that works for everyone.

Both my grandmothers ate well (as in, unprocessed meat, fish and veg) and moved around, and enjoyed great health, both physical and mental, until their mid-80s.

I generally eat whole foods, cooked from scratch. And I feel good pretty much all the time. I don't want to eat processed foods. I love treats from my local indie bakery, but I know they're using plain, simple ingredients.

I will say, it's not always cheap to eat well. But there are other things I'm happy to sacrifice in order to afford good food. I go without a lot of stuff that other people have. For most of human history, nothing mattered more to us than dinner time. I think what I put in my body each day matters more than pretty much any other choice I make.

6 months ago at the age of 47, I had a heart attack. If I hadn’t been a regular runner, walker and healthy eater I would have died. My cholesterol was low, my BP was normal, I’m a non-smoker and I have always been a size 8-10 and relatively careful with what I eat. I have since cut out white carbs, sugar, saturated fats and red meat, upped my fruit and veg intake and run every single day instead of a few times a week.

Ive lost a stone - have never been this slim since my early 20’s - and feel great. I also feel so lucky that my heart survived with no damage. It was nothing within my control that caused my heart attack but now it has happened, I’m doing everything in my power to ensure nothing like it ever happens again. If I’d regularly been packing away saturated fats and sugar I wonder if I would have survived this long. It was a massive wake-up call and one I feel fortunate to have had.

So yes - I think healthy eating is completely worth it! Even if it doesn’t prevent health events from happening it can lessen the effects if they do.

If I eat shit, a pizza, Chinese or any other junk. It's what your body gets used to.

We are veggie and pretty much don't eat anything unhealthy bar the odd ice cream and for our ages look younger and are far more fit and healthy than lots of people in late 40s early 50s. It's future proofing your body not just on the outside but the inside too.

I rarely comment on these types of threads but there are some of us with chronic health conditions who struggle with mobility just because we were lucky enough to be the chosen ones. The ones that did the healthy eating etc and still got unlucky in the health lottery. Of course having a healthy diet is important but I wish people would think before making throwaway remarks about how having limited mobility makes life not worth living, or words to that effect.

Those of you who are fit and active into old age are extremely lucky. Yes you may have made healthy choices throughout your life but you have also been lucky. I cannot and will never be able to run for a bus, no matter how many whole foods I eat!

This implies that you think 'healthy' food is something to be endured, and not pleasant.

I'd rather have healthy salad any day than a Greggs whatever.

'Healthy and delicious' can exist in the same sentence.
Or even on a plate.

And yes, it makes a difference.
Start by reading about the gut microbiome and USPs, Prof Tim Spector, if it's all passed you by so far.

Sorry to hear that you are going through that

I really don’t think other posters are meaning to be offensive though

yes of course there is always luck - 20 year old football players have cardiac arrests on the pitch

but for those who are lucky enough to be relatively mobile there are some who would like to do what they can to maintain that to the extent they can - there are no guarantees in life obviously but why wouldn’t they want to give themselves the best chance

I like being slimmer. I look better which people comment on. I want to put less pressure on my joints. Imo it makes a big difference. I work in healthcare and obesity is bad fir the body. Many people in the uk are obese. You can still have treats but I prefer healthy food now.
i have treats but less of them.

Think I am going to go against the grain and say I’m not sure.
I’m in my 60’s and when I look at my generation and the one above me there doesn’t seem to be a huge correlation between healthy lifestyle and actually being health.
My view is that it helps a little but it’s mainly down to genes.

I suppose it all depends on your definition of ‘healthy eating’ too, along with how much exercise you do.

Lots of people think certain foods are healthy when actually they’re not particularly. Lots of people eat far less calories than they should do during the day. Many people have no idea how much they should actually be eating, how much protein they need etc. The education levels around nutrition are generally poor.

And if your diet is ok but you don’t keep fit and active then you probably won’t feel great.

@DeliciouslyDecadent you make a really interesting point.

I'm in a bit of a weird place with food at the moment I think. Once upon a time I used to live for my takeaways, ordering an enormous pizza with sides and fizzy drinks was the highlight of my week.

I can't drink fizzy drinks for example anymore, when I do have a very occasional takeaway now it's usually very mediocre, and certain things like as you say Greggs, you would probably have to pay me to eat. Of course I still do enjoy some of this stuff but I'm way more selective and generally I prefer homemade anything.

So I suppose I do enjoy eating healthy food, but my brain is still telling me that Greggs is calling me in.

It’s all about balance. I know I feel awful, tired, heavy, bloated when I’ve eaten loads of carbs and junk and little healthy stuff. I feel much better when I’ve eaten healthily. But life is also short, I enjoy wine, chocolate, crisps etc, so I’ll work them into my diet as well, amongst healthy nutritious meals.
You never know what will happen. Unfortunately you could eat very healthily, never smoke or drink alcohol and still get a life threatening illness young. You could eat awfully, smoke and drink exclusively and live to be 100. But overall, of course eating healthily is better for you, but no need to be too restrictive.

It's just odds and risk. It will increase your likelihood of good health. It's not about whether it's worth it; you're not playing off one thing against another. It's like whether it's worth taking an umbrella when it looks like rain. It's not worth it if it doesn't rain, but you can't know, from your perspective. I always think of it as 'What will I look back and kick myself for if I get a hideous diagnosis one day?'

Live fast
die young

I think the exact same op. I had a year once (6 years ago when I was 37 and for various reasons had time as finances to do so), where I ate incredibly well-clean and very balanced and nutritious, drank only water and the occasional cup of tea, trained 5 days a week. I was slimmer absolutely but I didn't feel any better in myself than I feel now eating a normal (not great, not awful diet and the only exercise is walking really). My sleep was still awful (Insomniac since late teens), my skin didn't look noticeably better, (again it was fine as it is now), my hair didn't grow loads of anything like that.
I still had a bit of arthritis in my joints, got just as many colds etc. I wasnt suddenly brimming with energy or confidence and I didn't feel much less stressed. Which leads me to believe it's all slightly bunkum tbh... though I'm sure there are going to be some scientific types that tell me it isn't!

Eating habits tend to come home to roost when you’re older. Once you start hitting the late autumn/winter years a person is likely to reap what they’ve sown from the preceding years. Risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, weight, mobility, heart etc will all come into play.

Wait till you and all your friends are old. You'll see the difference then.

My main motivation for losing weight and keeping to a healthy diet (without obsessing) is to try and keep mobile as I get older. All the older members of my family who stayed overweight suffered mobility problems in older age which led to more isolated lives and all sorts of other ailments (high blood pressure etc). I feel (well hope) that if I can be slim and mobile now I’m getting older I’ll have a more enjoyable old age than my relatives had.

It's not bunkum because it didn't make you feel great. It's bunkum if most people who do it get just as ill and die just as young as people who don't do it.

That's not 'scientific', it's basic common sense and understanding of life.

OP I completely agree with you. I eat healthily, exercise daily and only occasionally treat myself to the foods I really enjoy. The rest of the time I eat food that I don’t want, just because it’s healthy.

Unfortunately my skin and hair is no better than all my friends who have unhealthy lifestyles.

As for health, I really do not believe that eating healthy maintains a healthy body. I know people who have been extremely healthy and died young of illness and I know people with unhealthy lifestyles living into their 80’s… it’s the luck of the draw.

The only benefit I can see is that it helps maintain your weight and that’s why I do it. Apart from that - nothing at all!

it’s the luck of the draw

People who eat more healthily have more luck, though.

It's like hard work. It gets many people nowhere. So we should all just sit on our arses all day, right? Is that what you're teaching your kids, @101jobs , or are you thinking they'd better improve their chances by trying their best at things?

Yes it’s very important in fact it’s the first question that was asked after ‘coming to’ after a stroke