So confused about what even counts as healthy...

[barbidou]

I am trying to change my diet for the better. I am slim (not sure if I am a healthy weight but still) but have had a poor diet for a very long time - I eat healthy main meals usually, but I eat a lot of sugary stuff, particularly as I work a lot on the laptop when at home and I like having something nibbly.

So I am trying to cut things out - obvious things like biscuits, cakes, sugary cereals. But I am stuck on what to replace it with and feel like every website I read has different advice!

I want to find things that are nutritious and filling - not things that I can keep shovelling in my gob but which have relatively few calories. For example I bought a load of snack-a-jacks, because they were low calorie, but then I thought I am not really needing low calorie, I don't mind calories so long as it is nutritious.

So where do I get information on food - bare bones nutritional information about what is good / bad / ugly? Every website I read seems to say something different depending on what diet it is trying to promote - paleo, clean eating, low carb, low calorie...

Might be a stupid question but really I have very little knowledge about food so any books / websites that you have found useful would be great.

i would say go as natural as possible; avoid any processed foods (even if they say they are low calorie etc they are not necessarily healthy) and eat lots of fruit, veg etc, nuts, beans, pulses. Avoid any refined flours and grains eg. white bread, white rice. Even things like fruit juice are processed and high in sugar so you're better with eating whole fruits and drinking water.

The more natural, the more nutritious. The less processed the better. Even when it comes to cooking, try not to cook veg to death as it removes all the nutrients. Eat raw fruit / veg where poss.

Have you seen the deliciouslyella website? (Google it) - very good for nutritious whole foods recipes.

Thank you - I am definitely eating more fruit (in the form of berries, very expensive thought) but it doesn't fill me up very much.

Some things I don't know if they are natural / healthy or not:

• Cheese? Or dairy in general - have just switched to full fat milk after drinking semi-skimmed for ages, in the hope that it might be more nutritious?

• Oats and wheat...

• Other things like nuts - read that almonds were a good filling snack, but then read something about them having a lot of fat so to not eat too many...but is it good fat? What is good fat?

Will have a look at that website, thank you! Am really keen to learn more about food because at the moment I just have empty cupboards where I would usually have unhealthy things, so am getting quite hungry

There's a website called Greatist.com which is great for 'healthy' snack ideas. I spend far too much time reading it and not enough time actually making some of the recipes!

a lot of the natural things that have high fat levels (nuts, avocados, etc) have all the right kinds of fats and can actually help you with dieting as they help you to break down bad fats apparently I think (monounsaturated I think is really good for you and I think they have those in them). So eat away (in moderation of course like anything!).

I'm mostly dairy free as I've heard it's not good for you (full of hormones and other nasties) but also for ethical reasons. Things like almond milk (you can buy in supermarket) are good and soya yogurt are good subs and I think are low fat. I'm not sure about them from a dietary perspective but it's my instinct they are better for you and lower in fat. Making your own nut milks (there's recipes on the website I linked to) is healthy and I can recommend them for taste too! Tofu is nice and quite filling in various dishes.

If you're cutting out dairy make sure you take in adequate vitamins through other foods and / or supplements e.g. Vitamin D, Vitamin B are important.

Oats are very nutritious I think.

I read all sorts of stuff about wheat and whether it is or isn't good for you but I think in moderation and in its whole grain format (e.g. brown bread, wholewheat flour) it's ok and much better than processed white flour products; but again should be eaten in moderation.

Good things to fill you up you can make raw food bars from nuts, dates, oats etc easily and they are yummy. Bananas are good for you and filling (again, in moderation).

I bought a Nutriblast smoothie maker and have a couple of those a week with whatever fruit etc I have knocking about and you can add greens to it as well (you can't taste them) e.g. spinach etc for nutrition - and you can add seeds for the nutrition too (e.g. hemp seeds, sesame seeds etc). That's a good way of getting filling yet healthy stuff inside you.

If you don't want or need to lose weight, but want to eat more healthily, it's probably best to try foods that release carbs slowly, so you don't get sugar highs and lows, and food which gives you protein. So avoid the white puffed rice snacks as they are faster release carbs.

healthy snacks:

fruit including bananas if you want to fill up
oatcakes or seeded Ryvitas with cream cheese or humous
sliced cheese, ham, chicken
vegetable sticks (peppers, cucumber, carrots, celery)
almonds or other nuts
full fat yoghurts
olives

OP I think that the confusion comes because we need to eat a balanced diet. It's not "healthy" to cut out all fats. It's not healthy to eat only "high GI carbs" etc.

And of course, everyone wants to tell you about what works for them without understanding your tastes, lifestyle, deficiencies etc.

I would suggest you pick one "healthy eating habit" at a time. E.g. eat some seeds, eat 3 oily fish a week, eat more leafy greens...

AFAIK, if it is general health you are looking at, you need to eat as natural as possible. So if the food looks the way it did when it came off the plant/animal, it's likely it's fairly healthy. The more refined a food is, the less you should be eating it. If a food has been preserved by freezing or drying it's still moderately unrefined. The more artificial preservatives used, the more you should avoid it.

Clean eating and the GI diet are two example of diets that broadly follow this in many respects (although not necessarily all!)

Ultimately no diet is going to make you healthy or happy if you don't enjoy it, can't afford it, or can't follow it.

Nuts are great. Full of goodness.

Veg sticks, melon,

Pop your own pop corn

Seeds

Oatcakes

Cheese

Dried apricots

Greek yogurt with berries

Re the almonds, there is some evidence that you don't absorb all the fat from whole raw almonds, something to do with the cell walls not fully breaking down in the gut & therefore not releasing all the oil. This does not mean you should scoff masses of them though. I typically eat a couple of small handfuls a day, maybe 20 nuts in total. They are a really convenient snack - fairly long-life, not messy, portable, filling. They are also pretty good when you look at the nutrients they provide

I buy mine by the kilo from a health food shop & decant them into a little pot which I keep in my drawer at work, & keep a tiny tub in my bag.

Thanks everyone, that's all really helpful!

I need to go shopping I think...cupboards pretty bare now I got rid of all of the junk and the only new 'snack' I've been having is raspberries / blueberries with oatcakes and natural yoghurt.

I think it might take my stomach / brain a while to adjust - I'm so used to having a big meal and then immediately after having some chocolate / cake / biscuits, that I still feel hungry after a big meal because my brain is expecting the something sweet that comes after.

You'll find, after you've made some some changes, you'll get used to it. Portion size, less sweeteners/sugar, increase in fibre - your palate & digestion will adapt. It just takes a little while & some determination. You do need to be more organised though - healthier food definitely takes a bit of plsnning & longer to prepare if you're used to convenience food; you can't just grab a sandwich, pizza slice, wrap, bowl of cereal or pasta salad, it's amazing how much most people rely on highly processed wheat as their main "complex" carbohydrate.

Maybe you'd feel inspired by reading a book on healthy eating, such as this one: Food Doctor

I have it and really rate it.

Agree with everyone above who says eat as natural and unprocessed as possible.

Making a few small changes - small because I don't want to go OTT all at once (think I'm more likely to be unsuccessful this way) and also because it's quite expensive to stock an empty cupboard!

Breakfast is going well - either porridge or shredded wheat with yoghurt and berries. Get quite hungry within a couple of hours though but oatcake and more berries (!) usually sorts me out.

Bought some peanut butter - I saw various websites suggesting it for protein etc and almond butter gets mentioned a lot (shop didn't have any though). I bought the 'healthiest' that I could see which is just peanuts, palm oil and salt but now thinking the palm oil can't be great. Still lots to learn!

That book looks really good - will try to get my hands on it, thank you.

the best foods are ones with no label : fresh fruit, fresh veg, cuts of meat, fish, milk, eggs

the next best foods are those with less than five ingredients : butter, cheese, plain yoghurt, bread

the foods to avoid are the ones where you look at the label and there is stuff in the list that you do not understand

and anything that advertises itself as 0% fat or 0% sugar that has more than five ingredients should be given a miss

Haven't yet found the holy grail snack that satisfies me as much as white toast and marmite but improving I think!

Just wondering if anyone has any idea about leg cramps? Yesterday had very tender crampy calves all day and still a bit this morning. Past 2 days meals:

Monday - shredded wheat with blueberries and full fat milk, 2 oatcakes with bit of butter and raspberries, tuna sweetcorn pasta with cherry tomatoes, sweet potato jacket with tuna and butter beans for dinner.

Yesterday - porridge with raspberries and dessicated coconut, cheese and 2 crackers, pasta and tomatoes again, almonds and blueberries, chicken breast with new potatoes, corn on the cob and broccoli, nakd bar

Drinking plenty but wondering if I am missing something important to cause the cramps?

Thanks again for all of your advice.

i did hear something about leg cramps and low salt levels; might be worth researching online.

I'll second a lack of salt
try munching on some salted nuts - like cashews