To think there is a poor understanding of a healthy diet?

[LivelyLemonQuoter]

I think most people think they know what a healthy diet looks like, but in reality they do not. I see so many comments on MN that demonstrate this.

The most common one is that fruit should be limited because of its sugar content. This is very bad advice. Sugar in fruit has little impact on our blood sugar levels. And most people in the UK do not eat enough fruit.

The other is concern over eating any carbs. Wholemeal bread and pasta is fine, carbs in pastry and doughnuts is not great though.

And most people need to eat more nuts. Nuts are very good for you and should be part of your regular diet.

Yes please 😋

Mine has never been great but got worse when I had my gallbladder removed. As well as that fruit gives me mouth ulcers and cracked lips so I think I'll be sticking to my unhealthy diet!

I just had cinnamon buns for breakfast and I don't care who knows it

It's not complicated to lose weight. Calories in v calories out.

That's ALL that matters in the vast majority of cases when the sole intention is to lose weight.

Went to a female health clinic to start bHRT this week and was asked about diet. I’ve just lost 6.5 stones but have maintained it quite easily for the last 12m, so feel I’ve finally ‘got’ healthy eating - as far as my personal metabolism is concerned.

I basically eat a whole food diet 90% of the time. Fruit, veg, protein. I try to prep meals from scratch (or get my DH to do it for me as he loves to cook!). I have removed all processed carbs (even ‘wholewheat’ pasta and bread is not brilliant). The 10% wriggle room is for eating out - so I can eat rice (I love it, plus Thai and asian food), the odd pastry over coffee with a friend. I ‘knew’ what healthy eating was but it was really hard to reset the diet when it is so much easier to cook/eat UPFs - especially with faddy/SEN kids.

Cutting processed foods/carbs out is core to pretty much every so-called healthy eating programme we’ve been touted for decades and gets lost in the media hype of each new repackaged fad promoted by some celeb or other. Fasting, calorie controlled, high protein, low carb diets all have the same objective: cutting calories by encouraging you to eat more fruit, veg, and protein as it fills you up; and cutting out UPFs.

I follow the KISS diet now … Keep It Simple and Sensible!

Also snacking in between meals, which has increased in the modern era, perhaps connected to our 24/7 pressured way of living. Often the snacks are UPF, which wreaks havoc with insulin regulation.

Anyone who has read or followed some of the Zoe studies will know that humans oddly are not a homegenous mass with a one size fits all approach to food and nutrition. I rarely to never eat fruit because I have a very adverse blood sugar reaction. I used to try and eat fruit always with protein (so grapes with oatcakes and a hard cheese or boiled egg etc) and I am still very quickly shaky and feel faint. I am not diabetic, but have diabetes in my family and carry my weight around my middle so most certainly have insulin issues. I eat an awful lot of vegetables though.

My best friend has a number of digestive issues and she cannot tolerate grains or pulses. I can eat pulses all day long and really love chickpeas and baked beans in particular.

I personally try and follow a fairly Mediterranean-inspired diet and I load up HARD on spices - particularly turmeric, paprika, cinnamon and black pepper. I have problems digesting bread so eat it very sparingly. I have just worked out how my body reacts to things.

And l think this is where there is a lot of misunderstanding. There’s no reason for anyone to be constantly checking their blood sugar unless they are diabetic or pre diabetic. Blood sugar rises and falls with natural insulin levels in preparation for eating. If you are healthy and not diabetic blood sugar spikes will be minimal and nowhere near the dangerous, organ damaging levels which can occur in someone unable to regulate because of diabetes.

Your blood sugar's supposed to spike a bit after a meal and the app shows it's in the green zone?

What nutritional expert is recommending eating doughnuts instead of wholemeal bread?

Ah, I wondered how long it would be before the Tattlers came along! So predictable ...

But to answer your question - no I’m not a dietician. Which I state in a disclaimer at the start of every Bootcamp

And yes, the Bootcamp topic is endorsed - indeed was started - by MNHQ, as we wanted to keep a specific low carb approach separate from general low carbing.

Anyhoo - this thread isn’t about low carbing, it's about what does or doesn’t constitute a healthy diet.

This thread just goes to show that it’s not a simple black-and-white matter, despite what the OP might claim.

For those of you talking about cgms and blood sugar.....it's perfectly normal for certain healthy foods (like oats and fruit) to spike your blood sugar. Unless you're type 1 diabetic, you have a functioning pancreas that produces insulin EXACTLY for that very reason - to deal with different types of carbohydrates.
If you choose not to eat fruit and oats etc that's obviously fine and it's your choice, but don't pretend a small and short and reversible spike in your blood sugar is some terrible thing. Its not. It's normal.

If you have a functioning pancreas be grateful you don't have to worry about insulin, carb counting, blood sugar spikes, food combining, when you eat, what you eat, hypos, hypers. Your wonderful, fully functioning body will do all that for you. Treat it well - exercise, eat lots of veg, some fruit, complex rather than refined carbs, lean protein and full fat dairy, limit processed crap and don't overeat.

This weird obsession with "biohacking" your diet very much tips over into orthorexia and mental health problems imo. Enjoy your food, your body, your life.

Eating healthy isn't actually complicated at all, but the diet and wellness industry would like you to think it is, for obvious reasons.

You'd be surprised. My son thought a burger would be a healthy balanced meal based on what he was taught at school because it had carbs (bread), protein (burger) and vegetables (slice of tomato and lettuce). The nuances are lost. Lots of people think things like potatoes and olives count towards their 5 a day, or drink a smoothie and think that's all sorted.

I'm not particularly trying to lose weight .

I was looking at some of the weight loss threads because my adult son has recently been diagnosed type 1 diabetic and is now counting carbs so I was just being nosy about low carb diets. It's not something I've ever taken much notice of before.

There have been more changes to what is considered "healthy" than I care to count. Eat eggs, dont eat eggs. Butter is bad for you, trans fats are worse. Dont feed nut spreads to young children, start them at 4 months. Carbs should be a big part of your diet, low carb diets will help you lose weight. Red wine is good for your heart, any alcohol is bad.

Yes a few things stay more or less the same - eat more fruit, veg and fibre, including pulses, olive oil is good.. But some IBS sufferers are not not to eat much fibre so even that can vary.

Over the years I have discovered what works for me and fortunately for me I can afford to buy whatever variety of food I want. I'm not a poor person living in an area where it costs to much to get to the nearest place selling healthy food and my budget doesnt stretch to the minimal supermarket delivery order.

A burger can certainly be a healthy balanced meal. My homemade burgers certainly are. Potatoes are a great source of vitamin c, and why wouldn't olives (in moderation due to salt) count?

125% tariffs on all processed food immediately. 😊

I’m often quite surprised at how poorly people eat. Since I was a teenager in 1980s, I stopped eating meat and have since cooked from scratch with whole foods: wholemeal bread, pasta and rice, pulses, nuts, hummus. Brought my kids up same way. We eat some sustainable fish: prawns, sardines etc.

My grandparents ate very healthily, as they grew most of their own fruit and veg, so really appreciated it and taught us to. I remember when I stopped eating meat my grandad said he was virtually brought up vegetarian as they couldn’t afford meat (family of 11) so ate lots of vegetable stews with pearl barley and ‘scrag end of lamb’ chucked in the pot.

Since menopause, I’ve reduced my food intake. I now intermittent fast, so only eat lunch and dinner and eat lots of salads, with chia and other seeds. Cut down on bread and pasta. Snack on nuts like almonds. Lots of green tea. Lost 10kg and it helps keep the weight off as my family have a history of joint problems.

Lentils, chicken peas, beans etc are so cheap if you buy them dried and in bulk. As are canned sardines and frozen coley, hake etc. But I think the problem is people don’t know how to cook or can’t be bothered. That’s why those rip off food/recipe boxes are so popular. It’s like anything. The more you do it the easier and more enjoyable it becomes.

It doesn’t really though, it just seems that way. The advice given by WHO for example doesn’t change weekly. It’s the ‘advice’ given by those trying to make money out of diet fads that make it seem like the advice is changing all the time. Once a particular fad has all the money-making potential squeezed out of it, it’s on to the next one.
It used to be more the newspaper headlines using a ‘scientific’ study (usually based on a sample size of about 6 people) to tell us what we want to hear - wine is good for you, butter is good for you, chocolate is good for you etc.
Now its more often influencers pushing the agendas of the pharmaceutical companies - so telling us it’s our blood glucose spikes and insulin resistance making us fat, conveniently when they have a load of real-time glucose monitors to sell.
The fruit-is-bad brigade I have no time for. This is a really annoying one for me.

It had only become a thing lately because the pharmaceutical companies are trying to sell glucose monitors to non-diabetics to maximise profits.
They have created a health problem that isn’t there. Blood glucose spikes are natural and normal within certain ranges.
pharmaceutical companies do this. They have done it before and they will keep doing it. If they can create a whole new health problem to sell a drug or product they will.

There is so many different school of thoughts about what is a healthy diet. We all have different bodies and lifestyles and what works for each individual is... individual.

Why on earth Hba1c is being scrutinised, I don't know. As a T1 diabetic it matters to me, not to most. All those wearing substitutes libre2's , cgm, are doing it for different health interests.

Fruit can be part of a healthy diet. Diabetics cannot regulate their blood glucose levels so have to be careful with fruit. They can have one or 2 pieces. If you are not diabetic this doesn’t apply to you.
In the vast majority of cases, fruit is not the problem. People bang on about fruit, but ignore the large portions of processed carbs, foods with added sugar, alcoholic drinks etc. yeah, fruit is very rarely the problem in anyone’s diet.

You don’t digest it well in all likelihood, because you don’t eat it enough. The more you make these a regular part of your diet the more your gut biome produces beneficial bacteria and short chain fatty acids making them easier to digest.

basically eat a whole food diet 90% of the time. ... Cutting (ultra) processed foods/carbs out is core to pretty much every so-called healthy eating programme ... eat more fruit, veg, and protein as it fills you up...

This.

KISS (keep it simple, stupid)