What is Healthy Eating

I’m amazed at the people I come across that really don’t know what’s healthy and what’s not. Last weekend, I sat with a friend who ate a cherry crunch dessert and thought it was healthy. Instant oatmeal was sprinkled in with nuts and butter that served as a crumbly crust for the cherry pie filling. When I explained that there really wasn’t anything healthy about it, other than the nuts, he just shook his head. He thinks I’m crazy.

Unfortunately, understanding nutrition has become a bit challenging. We read low fat…good, right? Oh wait, it’s loaded with sugar, so it’s bad. Many people don’t have the time nor the inclination to do much research, and now we have legislators trying to make laws regarding fast foods. Here are a few I’ve heard about:

*Law to ban fast food commercials targeting kids
*Law that requires nutritional labeling of fast foods
*Banning of fast food restaurants in areas with obesity problems
*Banning further law suits against fast food companies

You get the idea. Is this the answer? I agree, we should have labeling. It helps consumers better understand what they’re putting in their bodies, IF they read it. But isn’t there a better way to help people understand what’s good and what’s not?

Donna

Wait, aren’t cherries good for you?  I don’t understand why oatmeal and cherries wouldn’t be healthy for you after all it is fruit.

Yes fresh cherries are good for you. However, cherry pie filling is loaded with sugar. Just an 1/8 of a can holds 85 calories! And while rolled oats are a whole food that’s good for you, quick oats have been processed. They’re thin, pre-cooked and less nutritious and often have added sodium. They are better than sugar laden cereals, but overall the dessert definitely could not be considered healthy.

Good question though. That’s why it pays to talk about it.

Donna

Also, the oats in crisp or crumble topping are accompanied by large amounts of butter, brown sugar and other “less healthy” things. So, you can’t just go substituting the non-quick oats and calling it health food. :D

You’re right, Ann.

The instant oats are combined with flour, butter, sugar, seasonings and in this case chopped nuts. Add that to the sugary pie filling and just changing out the instant oats for rolled oats won’t make this a healthy dessert. It would take other changes like:

*substitute fresh or frozen fruit for pie filling
*use a sweetener like raisins, dates or a small amount of maple syrup rather than sugar
*rolled oats rather than instant
*whole wheat pastry flour or brown rice flour instead of white processed flour

However, making such changes completely the outcome. It takes experimentation and persistence to come up with recipes that are not only tasty but also good for you.

Donna

Well, first off the bat let me say that I am against these “ban all trans fat” laws.  If people want to eat trans fat, they should be allowed to do so. After all, people can smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol…in other words, I think it’s up to the individual to decide what he or she puts in the body.

That said, my idea of healthy eating is to eat as close to nature as you can.  Therefore, eating lots of fruits, vegetables, and nuts is okay…they’re in nature. Our bodies were meant to consume them.  Packaged meals, frozen dinners, and “processed cheese food” (just what IS in processed cheese food? I don’t think I want to know…) are probably not good for us.

I so totally agree with that. Just think how long it would take us to shop if we didn’t buy any processed foods. Pretty much all we’d have to do is shop around the outskirts of the store. Shopping would take less time and we’d be a lot healthier. And as for laws to regulate our eating…can you see a future where people smuggle chips made with trans fats? We can regulate people’s eating behavior with laws. Look what happened with prohibition.

I agree about not banning certain things just because they’re “bad” for you. If people want to eat them, they should be able to eat them. However, I do think there should be more education on what is healthy and what is not, or perhaps a more understandable rating system for food? I have no idea how to easily break it down for the average consumer, though…

It is frustrating to look at a label and think, “Well, this is good for me…but no, wait, I think it’s bad…”

The best piece of advice I’ve ever heard, which someone mentioned earlier, is just to shop around the outskirts of the store. But then you get into the things they sneak in there, like fruit juice loaded with sugar and yogurt that’s got a ton more (they’re on the outskirts of my grocery store anyway). Some people may just think those things are always good for you and never bother to read or try to comprehend the labels.

Eating is so confusing sometimes.

The fact that it is confusing makes me stop and ponder. Why is it confusing? Because manufacturers want to make it hard and confusing so that people give up and buy according to their cravings and whims rather than base their decision on what is good for them. That’s just a guess, but why else would they make it so complicated. If they had a rating system of 1-5 and 1 is the best and 5 is not good for you, people could just go through and buy based on an easy to understand scale.

Donna

It’s so hard to get a lot of people to eat healthy because they think it’s difficult to make a meal with fresh ingredients—stopping at a fast food joint is more convenient. Plus, the majority of commercials advertise fatty foods, not whole wheats and grains.

I do believe that a lot of food manufacturers are invested in keeping people ignorant about what’s healthy and what’s not. They’re about making money, after all. 

There are people out there willing to educate themselves about how to eat right, but you also have people who emotionally eat and it’s much harder for them to stop their habits despite any information they receive.

That is so true. The healthy eating dilemma is multi-faceted. We have so many choices now and most of them are not good for us. Convenience plays a big role in today’s busy society. That’s why it a good idea to find a core group of easy, healthy recipes for your weekly menu and build from there. It’s like preparing for battle. If you don’t walk into the battle equipped to fight the fight, you’re doomed to fall prey to the easy, tasty and unhealthy.

Yes, the convenience foods get me! I hate to cook. I hate to shop for food. LOL I feel like there’s never enough time, and then I pass Chic-fil-a. I often fall victim to the “Well, I can get fruit instead of fries and unsweet instead of sweet tea” mentality.

Hi Crystal,

Yes, healthy eating is a time investment. But in the long term, it is time well spent. I saw a news blurb yesterday talking about smoking as the number one cause of cancer and diet was number two. It’s so easy to point the finger at smoking and still want to super size our fries. The link between chronic disease and diet is another can of worms!

With that said, if we learn to use our time wisely and prepare healthy options all at once for the week, or plan ahead to have a whole grain granola bar in our purse so we can make it past the fast food on the way home—it all adds up to better health in the long run.

It’s pretty sad when society has us so rushed that we don’t have time to take for ourselves and our health, isn’t it?

However, your choice of fruit and unsweetened tea is marvelous! The trick is to actually follow through with that plan once you walk in and smell the burgers and fries.

Donna

Since I homeschool, the kids and I are often on the road, running from activity to activity. It’s so tempting to go through a drive thru when everyone is hungry and I’m too tired to cook! For me, a way around that is to keep healthier convenience options around. Carrots, celery, apples, bananas… those all travel well and are quick and easy to prepare. We keep a small cooler in the van w/ all sorts of quick and easy snack options. Sometimes, we even throw in strips of cooked chicken breasts and string cheese to make more of a meal. It hasn’t entirely broken me of Chick-fil-a, but it has made me cut down drastically. It really is about the preparation.

And, at home, you can take advantage of convenience items to make cooking faster. I like to use bagged salad, precut fresh veggies, and frozen out-of-season vegetables to cut down on cooking time. Yes, convenience items cost more, but it saves time.

Misty, you are so right. It’s all in the planning. In fact, when we don’t prepare to eat healthy, it is most often an invitation to eat unhealthy. It become the plan by default. And the more often we eat unhealthy, the more we affect our immune systems. How much time do we really save when we’ve got to run sick kids to the doctor, or we’re down with a cold? Many people don’t begin to realize the link between diet and health, but we are what we eat. Sometimes it helps to ask what building blocks you’re giving your childrens’ bodies to work with—are their cells made from healthy enzymes, vitamins, fats, etc. or are they made from things best not consumed?

Donna

You’re right about the planning! I’ve found that if my husband and I cook a lot on Sunday, it makes it so easy not to hit up a drive-thru on the way home from random nightly errands after he gets home from work. Even if we’re starving, we only have to wait for the microwave—about the same as waiting in line at the window. But man, it’s so hard to go to Chic-fil-a and order unsweetened tea!