#19 Healthy eating

This is not going to be one of those preachy blogs that tells you that you should only eat chips on a leap year or that you have emotional problems if you fancy a glass of wine on a Wednesday. However, I do firmly believe that eating healthily for the majority of the time is good for our bodies and our general health. Having been very aware of what I eat for many years and tried out too many eating plans to mention, I thought I would share some facts and tips that have helped me.

• If you eat way more calories than you burn off in energy you will gain weight.  It’s a scientific fact.  Any food can make you put on weight if you eat too much of it.  1000 calories of vegetables is the same as 1000 calories of chocolate!  You can even eat too much fruit if you choose high calorific options like bananas or tropical fruit like mango or drink a lot of fruit juice

• Although there are guidelines on healthy weight ranges for your height, gender, age, we don’t all react to the same foods in the same way.  Everyone knows somebody that annoyingly seems to be able to eat whatever they like and never put on weight. However, a person can be thin on the outside but fat on the inside which can actually be more unhealthy as their organs can be surrounded by too much fat. Our genes also contribute to the metabolic rate at which we burn calories and our food intolerances so we are all different

• Unprocessed foods are better for you that processed foods.  There are so many ready meals available nowadays and they can fool you with their seemingly ‘healthy’ labels such as low fat, vegan etc.  However when you look at the ingredients, they are usually packed with unhealthy flavourings.  One of the reasons that historically there wasn’t such an obesity epidemic was because our ancestors prepared their food from scratch

• Unless you are a top athlete (who usually eat relatively healthily anyway), you would have to do an awful lot of exercise to justify ‘eating what you want’. A healthy lifestyle should ideally involve both eating healthily and regular physical activity not one without the other

• Carbs are not evil, they are an important source of energy. But it’s a fact that some carbs are better for you than others.  There are complex carbs and simple carbs.  Complex carbs like brown rice, brown bread, pulses, starchy vegetables are better for you than simple carbs like white bread, pastries, many breakfast cereals and even fizzy drinks (which can be described as ‘empty calories’)

• Fats are also not evil but as with carbs, some fats are also better for you than others.  Monounsaturated fat found in foods such as nuts, avocado and olive oil is better for you than trans fat found in doughnuts, processed crackers and deep-friend fast foods

The 3 main rules that help me to maintain healthy eating habits are:

1]. It’s all about moderation

You shouldn’t deprive yourself of treats but just don’t have them every day – My approach is ‘angel during the week, devil at the weekend’. So it balances out and the overall week is more healthy than unhealthy. I don’t agree with any ‘diet’ that restricts certain types of foods or food groups but we ALL know which ones we should not eat as frequently as others.

2]. Know your own body

I hardly ever weigh myself but I can tell if I am eating too much regularly if my jeans get too tight! It’s normal to eat and drink slightly more unhealthily on holiday or at Christmas but the rest of the time I do have to be quite disciplined as I am a foodie. I know what foods my body reacts to and what amounts I can get away with but that won’t be the same for other people. You just need to find what’s right for you.

3]. Portion control

One of the main reasons why we are generally fatter and more unhealthy than people were historically is the size of our meals has increased significantly. Giant drinks in coffee shops, huge helpings in restaurants and ‘family-size’ ready-meals have all increased our perception of what a standard portion looks like. Although I don’t weigh all of my food, I do weigh the foods that tend to be deceptive when it comes to piling on the calories (for me foods such as rice or muesli). It does also work for me to use a smaller plate to limit the amount of food I can fit on it!

There is so much contradictory advice when it comes to specific foods that are good or bad for us. Really though, if you follow a balanced diet of unprocessed foods 80% of the time then you can enjoy the naughty, tasty treats the remaining 20% of the time. Otherwise life would be very dull.