Need help knowing what good foods to eat

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  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
    edited April 2016
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    Whole grains, reduced fat dairy (if you use dairy), lean meats, fresh or frozen veggies, fresh or frozen fruits. Learn how to read and interpret labels. Enjoy your treats but don't make them the center of your diet.

    Regarding food cooked at home, my grandma kept a can of bacon grease on her stove next to her can of lard, and was fond of lard and sugar sandwiches. She also made delicacies like her mock apple pie, made with Ritz crackers, shortening, spices, and sugar -- no fruit involved. Home cooking doesn't mean healthful cooking. And prepared doesn't mean its unhealthful.

    Grammatical point: people can be healthy or unhealthy, the things you eat can be healthful or unhealthful. :*
  • perkymommy
    perkymommy Posts: 1,642 Member
    edited April 2016
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    ashleybennett210191ab wrote: »
    Need some good advice on eating more healthy

    vegetables (green ones especially)
    fruits
    nuts
    fish
    chicken
    healthy oils (EVOO, avocado, sunflower)

    Try to keep your food choices as close to one ingredient as possible and try to limit processed or boxed foods.

    Measure and weigh your foods if possible. I have to do that with everything I eat or I'd go overboard real quick.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    asyroyez wrote: »
    diannethegeek wrote: »
    asyroyez wrote: »
    To simplify: Everything you cook at home is going to be okay.

    Personally I think this is an oversimplification. There are lots of things I'm not equipped to make at home that are fine to include as part of a balanced diet.

    I agree, it's an oversimplification. However it seems even the oversimplification may have been misunderstood in this case. Dianne, note that I did not say that foods not cooked at home are all bad. I just said food cooked at home is going to be okay. As for food processed elsewhere, I never gave my opinion. For those foods, I'd say it's a matter of effort vs reward vs availability. For example, I buy Chobani Full Fat Greek Yogurt. I know that with some effort I can make that yogurt at home, and it may be superior in quality and nutrition. But I buy since I don't have the time/effort to make it, I've compared the product to others and thought it to be the best, and I can afford it in this case.

    Hope that clarified some things.

    I guess it's a difference in the way we each give advice on the forums. I try not to boil complex ideas down to simple answers (which is why I gave the answer I did up above). I've seen too many people take off-the-cuff advice like this and run with it as a hard and fast rule, to the detriment of their sustainability. Seriously, there was a guy here yesterday with a diet of only chicken, tuna, broccoli, eggs, and Quest bars because those were the foods he'd identified as "healthy."
  • asyroyez
    asyroyez Posts: 50 Member
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    diannethegeek wrote: »
    I guess it's a difference in the way we each give advice on the forums. I try not to boil complex ideas down to simple answers (which is why I gave the answer I did up above). I've seen too many people take off-the-cuff advice like this and run with it as a hard and fast rule, to the detriment of their sustainability. Seriously, there was a guy here yesterday with a diet of only chicken, tuna, broccoli, eggs, and Quest bars because those were the foods he'd identified as "healthy."

    There is not much to go off of in this case, so specific advice can be just as harmful as simple advice, really. And I tend to be in line with that guy you mentioned. Seems like he is also doing low carb / high fat possibly. Well, minus the Quest bars obviously because why.

    @vingogly I actually keep my bacon grease too, it makes for a good cooking fat. Ritz crackers are not made at home though, shortening probably wasn't either, and adding sugar I think we can all agree is not good. So the homemade meal that you describe is actually just a combination of already processed foods.

    It IS possible to make an unhealthy meal at home, of course. It's just significantly more likely that those foods will come processed from the store. For example take ice cream or bread. Making it at home can be as simple as 3 maybe 4 ingredients? Hard to find that on a store shelf. Plus if you crave ice cream but knew you could only have it if you made it (aka effort!) then most people would just not bother. That's a win in my book lol.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    asyroyez wrote: »
    diannethegeek wrote: »
    I guess it's a difference in the way we each give advice on the forums. I try not to boil complex ideas down to simple answers (which is why I gave the answer I did up above). I've seen too many people take off-the-cuff advice like this and run with it as a hard and fast rule, to the detriment of their sustainability. Seriously, there was a guy here yesterday with a diet of only chicken, tuna, broccoli, eggs, and Quest bars because those were the foods he'd identified as "healthy."

    There is not much to go off of in this case, so specific advice can be just as harmful as simple advice, really. And I tend to be in line with that guy you mentioned. Seems like he is also doing low carb / high fat possibly. Well, minus the Quest bars obviously because why.

    @vingogly I actually keep my bacon grease too, it makes for a good cooking fat. Ritz crackers are not made at home though, shortening probably wasn't either, and adding sugar I think we can all agree is not good. So the homemade meal that you describe is actually just a combination of already processed foods.

    It IS possible to make an unhealthy meal at home, of course. It's just significantly more likely that those foods will come processed from the store. For example take ice cream or bread. Making it at home can be as simple as 3 maybe 4 ingredients? Hard to find that on a store shelf. Plus if you crave ice cream but knew you could only have it if you made it (aka effort!) then most people would just not bother. That's a win in my book lol.

    You eat only the same 5 foods every day? I could never stick with a diet like that.

    I don't know why you think my advice given was harmful. It wasn't all that specific either. I'm always looking for feedback on my advice, though. If you'd like to drop some comments on that thread it would be appreciated.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    Why do more ingredients mean something is bad? Why can I eat tomatoes and green beans and carrots and zucchini and onions individually but if I combine them into vegetable soup it is bad?

    I buy Talenti gelato and it has the same ingredients I would use at home to make ice cream. Why is it bad?
  • asyroyez
    asyroyez Posts: 50 Member
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    @diannethegeek No I don't think your or anyone's advice has been harmful. To clarify, I just said that specific advice, given that we don't know any info about the person asking for it, can also be harmful - in that it can steer them away from their goals rather than get them closer. For example, if you provide specific weight loss advice for someone who is looking to bulk up (but doesn't say it) would not help them. Since I have no idea what the person's goals are, I couldn't give any specific advice and opted for a very general one. Probably should have just passed on the whole thread tbh.

    And nah my diet is more varied than just those 5 foods. I think my diary is open so feel free to peek. But yeah it's basically vegetables + meat + good fats. :smile:
  • asyroyez
    asyroyez Posts: 50 Member
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    @WinoGelato It's not bad at all. Nowadays the market seems to trend toward fresh/organic/natural products, so you may very well find gelato that has very few ingredients. Most processed foods though have ingredients that you would never use simply to make them shelf stable. Also, keep in mind that the company who produces the food wants repeat business, and adding sugar is one way to make food more addictive. Heck even bread is way different when bought from stores. This isn't new science by the way, this info is widely available and has been featured in many-a-documentary. "Cooked" on Netflix (I think the last episode) talks about homemade food vs store bought. I believe "Fed Up" is another one that talks about added sugar in the processed food. :smile:
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    asyroyez wrote: »
    @WinoGelato It's not bad at all. Nowadays the market seems to trend toward fresh/organic/natural products, so you may very well find gelato that has very few ingredients. Most processed foods though have ingredients that you would never use simply to make them shelf stable. Also, keep in mind that the company who produces the food wants repeat business, and adding sugar is one way to make food more addictive. Heck even bread is way different when bought from stores. This isn't new science by the way, this info is widely available and has been featured in many-a-documentary. "Cooked" on Netflix (I think the last episode) talks about homemade food vs store bought. I believe "Fed Up" is another one that talks about added sugar in the processed food. :smile:

    https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/does-the-movie-fed-up-make-sense/

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