Share your views on healthy and balanced diets – you could win a £200 Love2Shop voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

We all know that there is a lot of advice out there on how to go about having a 'healthy' and 'balanced' diet, but at times it can feel like a bit of a mine field. So, we'd love to hear about your thoughts and experiences on knowing what the right foods are to feed you and your family.

Below are a few points to get you started, but feel free to add any other comments you have:

• When it comes to 'healthy eating' are there any things that you feel particularly confused about? If so, what are they? Why are they confusing?
  
• Is providing your family with a healthy and balanced diet something that you feel confident about? If so why, if not, why not?
  
• Please share your experiences on how you go about sourcing the right nutritional advice on providing a healthy diet for you and your family.
  

Everyone who adds a comment will be entered into a prize draw to win a £200 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks, and good luck!
MNHQ

[lottietiger]

When it comes to 'healthy eating' are there any things that you feel particularly confused about? If so, what are they? Why are they confusing?
Yes, anything pre-packaged is confusing. Thats why we buy meat and vegetables etc and make up all own meals 99% of the time. I am always worried about salt content in any of the pre-made stuff.

• Is providing your family with a healthy and balanced diet something that you feel confident about? If so why, if not, why not? Yes i feel confident as long as i know whats in the products i am supplying to the family. Its stuff like yoghurts for instance that write low fat but that are really full of sugar that can make me unsure whats good and whats not.
  
• Please share your experiences on how you go about sourcing the right nutritional advice on providing a healthy diet for you and your family. I try really hard to make snacks for me and my son fruit or raisins, and im lucky as we both like them. Hubby prefers crisps so thats up to him. Neither of us have great teeth so i worry about sugar intake for my son, i dont let him drink juices etc he sticks to water. He is too young to complain at the moment, so i worry how strict i will be when he wants coke, as every one else is having it.

[GrasshopperNchipmunk]

• When it comes to 'healthy eating' are there any things that you feel particularly confused about? If so, what are they? Why are they confusing?
  

Not really, there is a lot of information out there now about healthy eating and I think that food in supermarkets are generally marked more clearly now. I'm pretty good at reading labels for food and we always cook from scratch so I more or less know what is in the meals I make.

• Is providing your family with a healthy and balanced diet something that you feel confident about? If so why, if not, why not?
  

I absolutely feel confident about knowing what constitutes a healthy diet and we try and stick to healthy most of the time. I am guilty of 'treating' the children probably too much at times, although this is usually alongside either a sporting activity, or something like a day out.

• Please share your experiences on how you go about sourcing the right nutritional advice on providing a healthy diet for you and your family.
  

I search online for healthy recipes. I like cooking anyway and have always cooked from scratch. I am always on the look out for new meals to try, or any kind of inspiration really. I use some cook books and also watch some cooking programs. I will often adapt meals or substitute ingredients to make a dish more healthy. My mum has always been a pretty good cook so we swap and share ideas also.

[ColdFeetWarmHeart]

• When it comes to 'healthy eating' are there any things that you feel particularly confused about? If so, what are they? Why are they confusing?
  

I think healthy eating is such a broad term, loosely used by many health professionals. other than getting as much fruit and veg into your diet, I don't think much is accurately or consistently put across to us from NHS/government. There is always conflicting information regarding carbs, protein and fat, and most information out there is aimed at an adult of a healthy weight. There is little info for people needing to lose weight, or for children.

• Is providing your family with a healthy and balanced diet something that you feel confident about? If so why, if not, why not?
  

No. I do struggle to eat right myself (it is one thing to know how I SHOULD be eating, its quite another to undo years of bad habits etc), but I really do try to give my DD a good diet. At 18 months I am trying to encourage her to have 3 good meals a day, with not much more than fruit in between. She drinks milk and water on a daily basis, with the odd sip of our tea/squash/milkshake as a treat. She wolfs down "junk food" like crisps and cake far too quickly for my liking, so these are limited (at toddler groups/birthday parties etc I will give her the healthy foods like banana, cheese sandwiches, yogurts first, allowing a small cake/biscuit afterwards). She loves chocolate, but again this is really limited. I make sure that when she does have any, its a small portion (e.g. 6 little buttons) often sharing a treat size bag between the 2 of us. This is probably about once a month - we still have christmas chocolate left, and I have asked family members to buy colouring books etc instead of Easter Eggs. She is not allowed any sweets, such as hairbo.

• Please share your experiences on how you go about sourcing the right nutritional advice on providing a healthy diet for you and your family.
  

I have a large family, and have seen parents feed their children at opposite ends of the spectrum; some children eat nothing but sweets, chicken nuggets and chips. Others have been lectured so much about "healthy eating" that they are scared to eat the odd hot cross bun or crumpet, until they reach secondary school where they start to rebel and eat all the banned foods. We use our common sense in terms of treats (i.e. don't ban them completely, but don't have them too often or at set times, like when she sees grandparents). Again I try to use common sense with as many meals as possible, putting at least 1-2 vegetables with dinner for example. We do have a range of cookbooks for meal ideas, and I find I have to rely on the internet a lot for information about portion sizes etc for my DD (my HV gave me a leaflet before she was born, but it was a vague leaflet that gave you portion sizes for an active 2 year old). I have yet to find a book that provides me with all the information that I need.

[custardcream1000]

• When it comes to a 'healthy eating' are there any things that you feel particularly confused about? If so, what are they? Why are they confusing?
  

I don't feel confused about healthy eating at all. I think I am quite fortunate that I grew up in a family that had a healthy diet so I have never had to educate myself on the issue.

• Is providing your family with a healthy and balanced diet something that you feel confident about? If so why, if not, why not?
  

Yes, as stated above - I have never known anything other than healthy eating so it is the 'norm' to me.

• Please share your experiences on how you go about sourcing the right nutritional advice on providing a healthy diet for you and your family
  

I don't go out of my way to find nutritional advice, but if I see an article online about new research (such as the butter vs margarine debate) I will read it and take on board any information relevant to my family.

[GrasshopperNchipmunk]

You think that it would help that my husband is a chef - but it doesn't, typical chef he cooks very rich food when he has the chance, which is lovely but usually really unhealthy. Either that or he will go for convenience as he will be sick of cooking all day at work. I do 99% of the cooking at home though so I make sure the kids and us eat healthy meals the majority of the time!

[ColdFeetWarmHeart]

Should elaborate slightly - I am confident that I am providing my daughter with a healthy and balanced diet 99% of the time, myself about 50% of the time, and my husband about 1% of the time! I am worried how this will affect her as she grows older, so am trying to improve our eating habits too.

[MotherOfDragon]

I try and treat myself, so for every 'good' day I have, I can have a small treat; like little bar of chocolate. Every time I get to a week of good I get a meal out and when it's a month I go and buy myself a new outfit.

But I must say I don't diet, I try and eat healthy and keep everything in moderation, not just because it's the best way but because I don't want my daughters to pick up an unhealthy body image.

[janekirk]

So many confusing food labels and health advice that I tend to loose heart when trying to eat healthily. I make sure I eat plenty of veg/fruit in the hope it will counteract all those take-aways.

[daisybrown]

Just use common sense, if you don't have that then you're not likely to be able to follow advice anyway. A bit more clarity and honesty with food labelling wouldn't go amiss though.

[Maiyakat]

Feel DD's diet is more balanced than mine, put more thought into what she eats. I am more likely to snack on junk food after she has gone to bed! Don't find the traffic light labelling particularly helpful. Find sensible nutritional advice hard to find, all seems to be quite extreme (must have or not have something, no common sense or moderation).

[BlackeyedSusan]

When it comes to 'healthy eating' are there any things that you feel particularly confused about? If so, what are they? Why are they confusing?
not confused as such, just that I have not yet read research. preferably peer reviewed stuff.

• Is providing your family with a healthy and balanced diet something that you feel confident about? If so why, if not, why not?
  

i do my best according to the the advice and research I have read/heard. the children eat a wide variety of fruits and veg. (lots of aldi super6) they eat seeds, beans of various types and pulses. they eat a little meat. I try and give ds omega three regularly in the form of fish, linseeds or to some extent in rapeseed oil. there is not adequate information about diets for children of different ages. sometimes it is difficult not to worry that you have go the balance wrong when faces with an onslaught of advice and opinions on the internet. it would be lovely to have a one stop place to go to to find out about how much of what is needed at what age, and where it can be got from. references to proper research would be helpful too.

• Please share your experiences on how you go about sourcing the right nutritional advice on providing a healthy diet for you and your family.
  

google. look at the source and see whether it something I can trust. radio four do some good programmes looking at the latest research.


common sense comes into it as well. enough protein for growth, plenty of wholgrain, and lots of variety. the more variety the more likely they are to be getting all their nutrients.

[Willemdefoeismine]

Having recently completed the PruHealth Vitality challenge along with 9 fellow Mumsnetters, I feel rather as if I had a catch-up class on healthy eating. I think most of us know what constitutes a healthy diet but can either get lost in being such purists (such as Gwynnie) that we lose sight of the notion that "a little bit of what you fancy does you good" or we have had to put up with such a lot of food quirkiness from difficult children that we've effectively thrown in the towel for an easy life!

I do find the 'five a day' fruit/veggie mantra a bit confusing because I think Dentists in particular are fast coming to the conclusion that too much fruit is really bad for teeth. So a whole cohort of parents and children have been blissfully embracing such a healthy living mantra only to find that all those raisins, fresh fruits are only good in moderation and probably should never be more than 2/5 of the 'five a day'.


Yes, I do feel confident about what constitutes a healthy diet but not sure that I do always deliver it. Sometimes a treat is good for one and the children. I definitely agree that moderation is the key and the occasional bar of chocolate/bag of sweets/packet of crisps is not unacceptable in a normally balanced everyday diet. The trouble is that children will generally err on the side of the 'unhealthy' options and one has to keep an eye on unreasonable and regular demands for unhealthy foodstuffs!

I was a very clean/healthy living type as a student so haven't forgotten the basic rules of a good diet. I do keep up to date with research on diet etc...just because it interests me. I am of an age that I have lived thro' various fashions in foods (and what constitutes healthy/unhealthy) and truly do believe that moderation in everything one takes into one's body is key! I think this current thinking on cutting down on wheat and dairy is probably sensible too.....More varied grains, higher proportions of veggies to carbs/protein, snacking on nuts/seeds, the positive power of oats, coconut oil

[nerysw]

It's not all that confusing. I think these days most of us know what's good/bad for us, it's just that we don't like to stick to it. I try and eat plenty of fruit as snacks but like cakes and crisps. The trick is moderation but we'd all like to be a bit better at that!

[DoctorGilbertson]

• When it comes to 'healthy eating' are there any things that you feel particularly confused about? If so, what are they? Why are they confusing?
  

Not really.

• Is providing your family with a healthy and balanced diet something that you feel confident about? If so why, if not, why not?
  

I wish my DC ate more vegetables. I work full time and have not a lot of money. Cheap, quick food acceptable to the whole family is sometimes not very healthy.

• Please share your experiences on how you go about sourcing the right nutritional advice on providing a healthy diet for you and your family.
  

Isn't it quite obvious?

[Dolallytats]

I wish that the labels of 'healthy eating' ranges were clearer. I bought these for years thinking they were better for me. I had no idea they were packed with more sugar.

I have a very fussy DS, but he has recently started trying new foods which I think is because we didn't make him eat them when he didn't want to. I put them on the plate and let him get on with it. In the last few days he has tried mango, kiwi, melon, baked beans and curly kale-and it was all his choice.

[ClaudetteWyms]

When it comes to 'healthy eating' are there any things that you feel particularly confused about? If so, what are they? Why are they confusing?

I find the Government's "advice" confusing. We have had information from school on feeding children a healthy diet - telling us to give them low fat cheese and yoghurt, low sugar squash etc. This goes against everything I thought was correct -ti.e. to avoid processed foods as much as possible, fat isn't bad etc.

Is providing your family with a healthy and balanced diet something that you feel confident about? If so why, if not, why not?

I do feel confident about it, we cook from scratch almost every day, DD gets a packed lunch with home made bread instead of shop bought stuff full of salt/sugar. All cakes/biscuits etc. are home made. I keep us away from processed foods as much as possible. DD isn't great with veg but I serve up several portions a day and she is getting better with it.

Please share your experiences on how you go about sourcing the right nutritional advice on providing a healthy diet for you and your family.

Common sense. And taking anything in the newspaper and by the Goverment (sponsored by the processed food industry) with a big pinch of salt. I believe in two mantras: don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognise (within reason); and "Eat good food, not too much, mostly plants".

[addictedtosugar]

I'm confused by the healthy eating message sent home by the NHS post reception weight / height measurement.
Eating low fat dairy, switching to diet drinks (ie loaded with sweetener) to me sounds crazy, so I ignored it.
For me, eating healthy is about knowing whats in your food - and being able to find most of the ingredients on the shelves in the supermarket.

I'd say we don't eat a particularly healthy diet. Too much baking, so excess sugar, and salt in bread, cereals etc. Also very wheat based. BUT compared to many, its very very good. So in some cases, how healthy you think your diet is is based on what those around you are eating.

Nutritional info??? I don't source it. I was taught by my mother about not eating too much sugar, fruit and veg etc. I don't subscribe to diets - if I've put on too much weight, I need smaller portions, and to move more is whats required. Its a slow process, but seeing those around me who cambridge diet for 3 months, and then a year later are back where they started is unsuccessful. Hopefully by cooking with the kids, they too will learn about sensible eating.

[Burbee12]

In my opinion, sometimes people get too carried away with the word "diet" and dont spend enough time concentrating on healthy eating for life. I am a mum of three teenagers and have the luxury of staying home so i mainly cook home made meals from scratch. No processed food and even if children eat fast food once a week , its got to be chicken breast. Or something else which wont have an animals internal organs mashed up and processed into it and palmed off as meat. Its very important to know whats going into the food which we eat from fast food diners and other food outlets.
Obviously parents that work would find this is too time consuming and i sympathise with them but maybe they could consider making some fresh meals and putting them in freezer.
Its my first time on this so sry if ive said something to upset anyone.

[TheHoneyBadger]

i'm not confused and i don't think it is complicated however i think there is a lot of vested interest in making it complicated - whether it's food marketing, selling books, gimmicky diets etc.

i mostly avoid gimmicky 'kid' food eg: petit filous which markets itself as full of goodness for kids whilst containing all sorts of artificial crap and being made from skimmed milk powder rather than whole milk with the subsequent nutrition and energy. i go by ingredients and what i know rather than what marketing campaigns say as they flagrantly make all sorts of misleading claims.

i try to avoid the idea of 'treat' food versus 'healthy' food though by 7 ds obviously has picked up the messages anyway. if i don't think he's eating great 'meals' i'll ensure the snacks contain a handful of olives, some cucumber and a quartered apple say. some weeks we eat relatively well, some weeks less so. that's ok with me.

essentially i feel like it's just food and my generation and beyond seem to have become disturbingly neurotic about it and many people i know i have ocd like levels of fetish about it.

[MakeTeaNotWar]

Not confused no, I think tis evident that professed foods are far from nature so can't be good for you, whereas fresh veg, fish, lean meat etc are. I do find it annoying how much processed and "diet" food masquerade as being healthy when they are far from it. And I don't buy into carbohydrates being the new evil. Having said that, the insidious "treat" culture has somehow crept into our lives and DD would probably do anything for some jelly or chocolate!

[Nottheshrinkingcapgrandpa]

I think what annoys me is the constantly changing advice- eggs are bad- eggs are good; red meat is bad/ red meat is good; coffee is bad for you/ coffee is good for you etc. You read one headline which is contradicted by another a few months later. I can understand why people get confused with it all.

[TheHoneyBadger]

i enjoyed the epic rant

i also never forget that boy there was documentary about who at the age of something like ten had only ever eaten jam sandwiches. they tested him and tested him and you could see them rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of his bone density and cholesterol and everything else they tested. they couldn't find anything wrong or out of the norm with him despite the best testing money could buy.

i'm not recommending anyone lives on jam sandwiches but i am saying if you don't have allergies or specific issues with your digestive health for example the body is an incredible thing that will extract what it needs from any diet under the sun.

[EauRouge]

- When it comes to 'healthy eating' are there any things that you feel particularly confused about? If so, what are they? Why are they confusing?

Not really, but I tend to ignore all the fad diets and media hysteria reports.

- Is providing your family with a healthy and balanced diet something that you feel confident about? If so why, if not, why not?

Yes, I feel very confident about it.

- Please share your experiences on how you go about sourcing the right nutritional advice on providing a healthy diet for you and your family.

I do what my mother did for me- provide home-cooked meals with plenty of fresh veg and buy very little processed food. Nothing is banned but sweets and crisps are only available on certain days.

I find the media a very unreliable source of advice because they tend to sensationalise everything, leave out some information so that they can bias the story in the way they choose, or just rubbish a study altogether if they don't like the sound of it.

I don't like the NHS advice either, it's too simplified and patronising.

I read once (can't remember where) 'don't eat anything if you can't pronounce the ingredients'. I try to avoid things with a massive long list of ingredients.