So what IS a healthy diet?

[LowLevelWhiingeing]

I've been thinking a lot about health for one reason and another and I really want to teach my kids good habits. I am quite inspired by the Jamie Oliver programmes and have found myself thinking, "Would Jamie eat this/feed his kids this?"

But I also find it quite confusing. DP is currently eating a super-healthy diet which is waaaaay to restrictive for me. I need food to be enjoyable and not a punishment and being a Susie Orbach devotee, I need to have a positive, enjoyable relationship with food which is nurturing and physically and emotionally healthy.

I want to teach my children to understand when they are hungry and when they are full - not to keep on eating because you have to clear your plate or whatever.

As a start, I'm cutting out processed foods from our cupboards and I'm getting back into cooking. I don't want to have a perfect athlete's diet and I don't want 'Dr' Gillian McKeith bollocks supplements.

I do want us to eat real foods, which can include treats.

Any thoughts, or am I just rambling now?

I like the suggestion that I once read, that you should never eat anything that your great grandmother wouldn't have recognised as food. When you think about it it cuts out a lot (most?) of the processed crap, while still leaving plenty of good things available.

I would, though, extend it to count anything that anyone's great grandmother would have recognised (since my Italian & Irish ancestors might have been a bit foxed by ginger, coriander & lots of other things that I rather like).

Takver - yes, that rules out the "yogurt in a toothpaste tube" and cheese strings type of food, doesn't it!

If you will eat mostly homemade food that has a lot of vegetables in it, you'll be fine. Think roast chicken, potatoes, broccoli, carrots and a small slice of tarte tatin for dessert, for example. Not homemade burger with lots of fake cheese and 5 strips of bacon.Same for spag bol if made with lean mince and added extra veggies it will be healthier than macaroni cheese.

And say, apple and a chunk of cheese for a snack for the kids as opposed to a Mars bar or a bag of crisps. Basically as long as you eat food that has a high nutritional value (as opposed to lots of 'empty'calories from sugar and fat) you'll be fine- well, obviously portion sizes matter as well.

I cook from scratch, but perhaps once a week the kids will have a hot dog or fish fingers. Other than that though it's usually meat or fish accompagnied by potatoes/rice/cous cous and vegetables. Sometimes it's very simple like boiled eggs, buttered toast, ham, avocado and fruit for dessert.

Oh, and no fizzy drinks-they drink water-juice is high in sugar and doesn't have the fibre-much better to eat the actual fruits.
HTH

Thank you for your thoughts. Not sure I would want to go back to my Granny's diet where 'curry' meant putting curry powder in the mince n tatties! - but I take your point about thinking about new-fangled foods.

Winny, I'm glad you mention the fish fingers, because I'm not sure I'm ready/practised enough to dispense entirely with all convenience products. And where would I be without Heinz?? No beans? No salad cream?

Guess my addiction to pepsi max will have to go too, oh and the 'emergency' super noodles ... What about cordial?

I'd say a varied diet is the best way to go.

Teach your kids to eat when they are hungry, not finish everything on their plates just because they have to, and most of all, get them involved in the cooking, planning and shopping of food.

Make things from scratch. Experiment. Go against traditional norms of eating times and what can and can't be eaten at different times of the day.

Nothing wrong with emergency 'super noodles' if you don't mix the packet powder mix in and you serve it with a quick stir fry of veg/chicken/fish etc.

My ds likes cooking for himslef, one of his staples is a packet of noodles (without the powder mix) with half a tin of tuna and lots of frozen peas and sweetcorn thrown in. Perfectly healthy meal for a 7 yr old. Carbs, protein and veggie goodness.

Nothing really wrong with fish fingers, especially if you buy 100% fillets. Similarly baked beans - lots of protein and fibre in them.

But fresh, unprocessed food is always better, aong with less red meat/more fish/chicken/vegetarian meals.

Definitely agree with eating when hungry. Try not to plate food up, as you are making the decision about quantities/portion sizes rather than your children. Put it in serving dishes, but make sure that they know that help themselves to more if they want to!

I second everything so far but as a way of implementing we have a made up rule in our house is that whatever is for dinner, there must be something green on the plate. This works on the basis that green stuff is always healthy and never processed.

So if they have pizza then they have it with salad instead of chips, stir some frozen peas through pasta, stirfried brocoli with noodles etc. If they play up then I offer them slices of apple or pear. In general though the kids stick to it well and there is enough variety for bargaining if necessary.

omdb, the sachet of salt and chemicals in super noodles is the best bit! But it must go, it's just not right.

That's a good idea BIWI about letting them serve themselves. I need to think of more veggie and fish options I think.

It's easy in summer to eat salads and protein, but in winter I crave hot food and comfort.

ilovelucy what if you just have lots of carrots with a meal? Nothing green but still healthy. My rule is there always must be some sort of veg.

Nothing wrong with baked beans as part of a balanced diet, or fish fingers (as others have said). Nothing wrong with the occasional burger and chips either, it's more about portion sizes, balance, and at least 5 fruit and veg a day.

LowLevel you can make lots of nice 'flavourings' and sauces for noodles yourself, but ultimately, the occasional sachet of powder flavouring is not going to ruin an otherwise healthy diet

Another tip: don't buy stir fry sauces and curry sauces, make your own.

Stir fry sauces can be made with a base of garlic, ginger, cornflour, soy sauce and water. Anything else that you want to add can be added too (lemon juice for lemon flavouring, chillies, fish sauce, thai curry paste, coconut milk/cream, black beans, miso etc etc)

Curry pastes can be made at home with onions, gallic, ginger, spices, fresh herbs, yoghurt (I always thicken my curries with greek yoghurt) etc etc.

I tihnk ultimately it's really good to get kids involved in the kitchen and cooking. DS has just made us a chickpea and carrot curry with rice. Very simple. He cooked red lentils in water, added chopped carrots, a tin of chickpeas, various spices (who knows?) four cloves of garlic and at the end when most of the water had boiled away he stirred in some greek yoghurt (I don't know how much, I wasn't there). It tastes lovely, and I'm sure it is healthy. Mostly I like it because I didn't make it.

LowLevel winter hotpots full of soft slow cooked veg, pulses and beans, and tender lamb/chicken etc are all very healthy and comforting and warm!!!

Try my moroccan tagine in the recipe section. It is my stock winter comfort meal.

Obviously that's right overmydeadbody , the green thing is just something visual I can use with my very small dcs and a nudge to myself to make sure they are getting enough veggies.

I cant wait until they are old enough to cook me a very delicious sounding curry.

A little of everything is a good thing. It is a food triangle-at the base are things you can eat a lot of (fruit and veg) up to the apex where you eat very little(sugars and fats).
If you want a DC to eat healthily it is a big mistake to label things 'good' and 'bad' and it really won't do any harm if they have the occasional McDonalds or crisp as long as the basic diet is good.
Keep off processed food is a good guide and cook from scratch-but you can have days off!

I totally agree that it is not helpful to label things 'good' and 'bad' and I think rearranging what foods are um, acceptable (and with the supporting rationale IYSWIM) in my mind is changing the motivation behind what I eat and feed my kids.

OK, so we're aiming for recognisable ingredients, home cooked or 'simple' foods.

Less red meat.
More fish, particularly oily fish which I'm not keen on. This will be a struggle I think.
Loads more fruit and veg.
Water, not pepsi max.
No need for crisps - they don't tackle real hunger, so what's the point? Crisps may have to be downgraded to Hangovers on Holiday food (for us, not kids, obv!). Same for sweets and chocolate (but we don't eat much of those anyway).

Salami has to be in there occasionally as life is not worth living without charcuterie Same for poncey cheeses.

We'll think about alcohol another day.

I agree Riven and the supermktsgetevenricher- are FULL of the bad stuff. IMO Better to shop in Farmers Markets for really fresh and seasonal food.

I think that the odd treat won't do any harm at all, and that banning any particular food completely, could result in it becoming forbidden fruit and the children going bonkers when crisps, for example, are out at parties!

As long as you're having all the good stuff, cut yourself some slack when it comes to treats. The grandmother food thing comes from a book called Food Rules which you might be interested in. Its all common sense stuff and quite a good read.

LowLevel - what I would add is that you might want to be careful when buying more fish that it isn't from the 'majorly endangered' list (which an awful lot are because of persistent overfishing). The Marine Conservation Society has a website here which lists species to avoid & those which are not so bad.

Of course foods are bad but the trick is not to tell the DC! Forbidden fruits are desirable. I know so many DCs who are not allowed certain theings and stuff themselves the moment they out of sight of the mother.

Just had a quick look at the fish website, Takver, and most of the fish available to me (or even heard of) are on the red list!

cod, trout, monkfish, halibut, tuna - really bad
haddock, seabass, mackerel - bad
salmon, sardines - ok

hmmmmm...that's difficult.

Yes, re the fish I think that most of the commonly known types have been so massively overfished that stocks are pretty much at critical levels.

Were you particularly wanting to eat more fish for a reason? Sure you can get the good stuff from other places (plenty of healthy veggy people around). . . .

I don't actually really like fish, just thought we should. You know, 'recommended 2 portions of oily fish per week' blah blah.