How bad is my diet?

[NickettyNacketty]

Food can very confusing. Half the time I have no idea if something is currently considered healthy or not. Nuts- healthy or high in fat? Should I be drinking litres of water a day or is that a myth?
I don't trust sweeteners so I prefer to use sugar or buy products that are not 'light'. I would rather eat butter as a natural product and much better tasting than a spread.
So today I ate:
One slice of toasted Warburtons wholemeal bread with jam
One tesco finest fruit scone, buttered
One cup of tea

Two slices of toast with butter and marmalade
One cup of tea

Two thirds of a tub of houmous and some crisps
One cup of tea

One glass of white wine
6 caramel shortbread 'bites'

A Sainsburys burger with onion, tomato and a cheese slice
About 5 fat oven chips
Ketchup
A vanilla yoghurt
An Aero dessert pot
A cup of tea

Am I in trouble?

'You don't burn calories when you sleep, or not significant amounts. So, the later you eat the more you store. Eating early means more opportunity to use up what goes in.'

Er, speaking as a health journalist, this is widely held to be not particularly the case at all. It's your calorie intake over the whole day that counts.

Drink water. Eat more fruit and veg. Nuts are fairly terrific but they are high in fat, so don't stuff yourself on them. Porridge is terrific (if you like it, I personally can take it or leave it) as are eggs. (Organic/free range for preference, mainly because of the living conditions of the chickens but also nutritonally. Don't ask me to look it up, I'm knackered atm.) Eggs are a rather Good Thing overall, in fact, being packed with protein and now that the idea that they raise your cholesterol levels has been exploded.

It might be widely held not to be the case, but it's a pretty convincing argument towards eating a proper breakfast and cutting down the midnight cornflakes

Well, yes. . A proper breakfast is a lovely thing. Ho yes.

Crisps, sadly, are a Bad Thing. There is very little to be said in their favour apart from their utter deliciousness, so a good idea to keep them to a minimum.

I bloody love crisps

Also try to cut to a minimum the number of times you say 'soddit' and dine on Bombay mix and a G&T.

Luckily I am not prone to midnight cornflakes. Unluckily I am prone to "soddit" and white wine with erm, crisps. I love crisps and dips.

Seventh the books look good and are all about exactly what I am concerned about. May try and order them at the library.

Pint of water, cup of coffee (x3)
Smoothie
banana
apple
twix bar
white bread (2 slices) sandwich with ham and cheese and mayo
root vegetable roast topped with egg and cottage cheese and grated cheddar
few cups of tea
lemonade
few pints of lager

I know I eat some crap and do not drink enough pure water, but do try to keep to the 5 a day thing.

"and do not drink enough pure water,"

There are some misconceptions around about drinking loads of unadulterated water. Any liquid you drink goes towards your daily fluid intake - including tea and coffee. Unless you have kidney stones or get loads of UTIs there is no scientific evidence to back up the idea that you must drink several pints of water every day.

There was a TV programme on a few years ago where identical twins were used to test this. One twin increased her daily water intake by 2 litres a day, the other one didn't. After 4 weeks the doctor revelaed that there was no difference in their hair and skin.

Thank goodness, because I work in a cold, air conditioned office and never fancy a drink of cold water during the day (brrr!), but am happy to guzzle several cups of tea.

I think your diet is rubbish tbh.

Why in earth would you have a scone and a piece of toast for breakfast? And a yoghurt then a choc pudding for dinner?

I also love grated carrot/raisins etc in salad, gives it an extra twist.

How about homemade veg soups for lunch using say butternut squash or even the odd sweet potato to give that little bit of thickness and sweetness.

Try and put good things with the not so good. For example if im having a slice of cheese on toast, i pile it high with grated carrot. For breakfast i wizz up almonds (protein) dried apricot (iron), yogurt (calcium), fresh kiwi (vit c) banana (potasium) frozen fruits (five a day) and cinnimon (yummy and regulatges sugar). Its delicious and very easy and filling, i feel then that i have made an effort to do the right thing, it helps.

Typical day for me..I have several food intolerances, so exclude dairy mainly- can take a little - and gluten and acidic fruits. And I can't drink tea or coffee.

Breccie- 2 eggs and 1 slice toast or oat cakes. or Porridge and prunes.

Lunch- tooday was a crab salad, but it might be a tuna salad, or home made soup, or humuus with veggie sticks- carrot and celery- or a small avocado with hummus.
Apple.

Dinner- quite often fish- salmon, haddock, cod- oven roast with red pepper, aubergine, courgettes, or a stir fy, or chicken breasts with veg, or salad, or risotto. chicken roast maybe once a week.

I eat green veg almost daily- broccoli, cabbage, watercress. etc.

Basically I avoid all/most sugar and refined carbs, and try to get 5-6 fruit and veg a day.

Yum yum to the mackerel in tomato sauce!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love it and will easily eat that every lunch time if I could (too dear though).

Have you tried porridge for breakfast with some thawed out frozen fruit like raspberries or strawberries? (I buy frozen as fresh is too dear). Or buy fresh if you can afford to.

Chapped eggs in a cup in the morning are lovely too (I add a teaspoon of olive spread with some pepper and mash it all up - very tasty!).

Now fibre there's one that is confusing. Too much is bad,

why would a lot of fibre be a bad thing? Yes a lot of fibre would make you fart

Fibre is in fruit, vegetables and beans, lentils and cereals - you don't have to eat bread to get fibre

mackerel in tomato sauce is 69 p in lidl

A quick dinner when time is short -

penne pasta
tin (s) of mackerel in spicy tomato sauce
tin of chopped tomatoes
mix it all together..

grated cheese on top if desired

All my children enjoy and eat this!

and afterwards I chuck a bag of frozen blueberries in a bowl with blackcurrant jelly on top, prepared the night before - they like it lots!

"why would a lot of fibre be a bad thing?"

It depends on your digestive system. I suffer from IBS-D and too much fibre is a very bad thing for me.

OK - things can be good for you and also very calorific. Having looked at the (reduced fat) humous in our fridge, if you'd have eaten 2/3 of that you'd have had about 300 calories before you even get to the crisps. Nuts are also good for you but fatty / calorific. So the idea is you have them in small doses.

I think for you to improve your diet you'd be better off trying to eat 5 a day - with a minimum of 3/4 - and calorie counting. It's not everyone's silver bullet but in your specific case it would remove a lot of the confusion about good and bad foods. Try also to make sure carbohydrates aren't completely dominating your diet (bread / potatoes were a big part of your day yesterday). And you don't need me to tell you burgers are bad for you.

Oat cakes are gorgeous with houmous, with the added bonus of being satisfying and full of fibre.

OP, you say 'Salad gives me terrible indigestion so I avoid it.' But I suspect the indigestion comes about because you've accustomed your body to a diet that's very high in processed carbs and fats, and so fresh veg is a challenge to it. I eat loads of fruit and veg and your diet would make me feel constipated, bloated, and generally unwell in a very short time.

How do I know that? because your diet is almost exactly like my parents', and whenever I go to stay with them, I feel rubbish really quickly. My parents both have type 2 diabetes. There's a high risk that your diet will lead you there too.

Start by eating more cooked veg and fruit, which you'll find easier to digest. Work up towards salad! But if you want a healthy diet, you really do need to roll back the processed stuff, and eat more fruit and veg.

It might not be all salad ingredients that give you indigestion either. MIL finds that she can't eat lettuce without getting heartburn, but she happily eats all the other salad ingredients.

I think you need to get away from the idea that all salad consists of is a limp lettuce leaf or two, tomato and cucumber and no dressing because that is boring. A crisp salad with a zingy dressing makes a meal IMO, and is a fantastic side dish for lasagne or moussaka for example