For years I must have discounted the calories I consumed in liquid form, particularly juice. By that I mean Hawaiian Punch or Hi-C or Kool-Aid. Sure, there might be some vitamins in there ... but a lot of sugar as well. Better to eat oranges!
I don't think anything edible is inherently unhealthy (barring, obviously, things that are poisonous or that you have an individual allergy to). You need some salt in your diet, you need some fat, you need carbs. Cutting down on a food, or a food group, only makes sense if you're overdoing it to begin with. Anything you eat or drink to excess can be bad for you, so cutting back on things that you're over-consuming makes sense. But you can over-do in that direction, too, to the point where you've also eliminated things you need -- vitamins, minerals, trace elements. The keys, for me, are moderation and variety. Eat a little of everything, not too much of any one thing, and eat a wide variety of foods, and chances are that you'll get enough of the things you need without overdoing anything.
As far as what I used to think was heathy or unhealthy -- I guess I never considered it in terms of heath, but more in terms of calories, so I used to drink diet sodas. Blech.
But I've always been amused and quite skeptical of the food fads and the food scares that have people madly making changes to their diets. When fats were evil people stopped frying and sauteeing and started grilling their food, but then grill smoke was bad for you...But now olive oil is good for you. Liver used to be good for you, but now it's not. Chocolate was a treat, but now it's good. Eggs are good. Or are they bad? Breakfast cereal started as a heath food, but then it got loaded with sugar, so now it's bad, but some of it has fiber which is good.
There's no way to guess what will be the next evil food or what will be found to have magical nutrients, so I figure that if I eat most of it, I'll be covered.
Not really food-related, but I have to add that I have had many, many people tell me that hookah, cloves, and American Spirits are safe – even healthy – to smoke.
Ummm, I used to think top ramen was a complete and balanced meal. And I was a mac-and-cheeze vegetarian.
@czken: Totally with you. As long as everything is in moderation, it's all good. Depending upon what "experts" you are reading about is the answer you are going to get. Some think you should watch carbs, others fat, others sodium, others sugar, now trans-fats. I mean, seriously. At this point I think a lot of people are confused about what they should/shouldn't eat.
Perfect example: I was in the elevator at work and two people were talking about food. Both of them (man and a woman) had the same views. Bananas were the discussion. She was saying how people didn't understand food. Continued to say that if there was choice between a doughnut or banana you may as well go after the doughnut because there's the same amount of sugars-and the doughnut will taste better. HUH?? I don't know how I was able to keep my mouth shut. I think it's because I was too baffled by what I was hearing.
Good one, Beth1! I had forgotten about the whole margarine thing. To this day there are folks from my parent's generation who still think margarine is good for you and butter is evil. I haven't eaten margarine since I lived with my parents, but as I recall, it had very little flavor at all. I think in my parent's day price was also a consideration. I think margarine was a lot cheaper than butter. Right? (Which still makes no sense in my case because my grandfather made butter on his farm and GAVE it to us, but my mom still preferred to buy margarine.) At any rate, I'm with you. Butter, but in moderation.
I'm going to have to recluse myself from this thread. For years I've searched for healthy and all I've found is that the "experts" continue to contradict themselves. Is sugar bad or substitutes worse? Are eggs harmful or healthy? Butter, yes or no? Carbs? Protein? Grapefruit, white wine, red wine,...? It seems all too contraversial so now I eat what pleases me and try to do it with moderation (obvious omissions practiced)....
When I was in high school and college, I used to eat "healthy" vegetarian proteins like boca burgers, morningstar farms sausages, and fake chicken nuggets.
And they're all full of the over-processed soy protein, wheat gluten, and preservatives that I avoid now that I'm so much older and wiser.
I'm sure I'll look back in a few more years and shudder at my current whole milk regime, but for now I'm happy.
My favorite "healthy" alternative food story is that of margerine. Throughout my childhood, I remember my mom (as well as the media) telling me that margerine was healthier than butter because it had no saturated fat. While that may have been true, there was that nasty trans-fat issue. Now, I just use less, but use butter instead. Wonder what we eat today that people will say the same thing about in 10 years?
Wow this is good stuff. Having grown up too thin I never had to think about what I put in my body, now that I'm chronically ill, it's not the fat and calories, but the additives that I watch out for. I'm the girl in the cardiologist's office who has no idea what she's doing amongst all the overweight smokers, but wonky DNA trumps all I suppose.
However, I had no idea that I was also on the White Wine Diet elizabethw! I was also on the cheap beer and liquor diet during my college years as well.
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